Immerse yourself in a 9-week creative journey exploring mark-making, collage, print, and textile techniques. Experiment with mixed media, screen printing, hand stitching, and punch needle as you cultivate your own visual language.
Discover how to transform materials into expressive designs and artworks that convey emotion, memory, and intuition, drawing inspiration from themes central to the textile designer’s practice or express your own visual voice through playful experimentation and hands-on creative discovery.
This 9-week workshop series invites participants to explore mark-making, collage, print, and textile processes through tactile experimentation and collaborative play. Each session supports the development of a personal visual language through guidance, creative exploration and hands-on practice.
Participants will explore a variety of mixed media including graphite, charcoal, pigment inks, threads, and found objects, working on both paper and fabric.
You will learn techniques such as polychromatic printing, block printing, stencil and screen printing, hand stitching, and punch needle.
Throughout the series, collaborative mark-making, material investigations, and printing projects encourage experimentation with layering, colour blending, gesture, and composition.
The workshops balance creative freedom with structured guidance, helping participants transform personal materials, such as photographs, drawings, or meaningful items, into layered, expressive compositions via paper, fabric, upcycled textiles, or garments.
There are opportunities to upcycle items sourced independently by participants, like tea towels, cushion covers, wall hangings, cloth journals, or clothing. Participants are encouraged to bring personal materials to enhance storytelling, while a limited selection of fabrics including cotton, calico, and canvas will be provided. Upcycling is encouraged throughout, allowing participants to creatively transform their own textiles and garments.
Over the 9-week period, participants will develop and refine personal designs, transfer them onto screens and combine techniques such as drawing, printing, collage, and stitching.
By the final sessions, multiple processes are integrated into finished textile pieces. Reflection, discussion, and peer feedback foster creative confidence, curiosity, and a playful, immersive approach to mixed-media, textile design and surface design.
This workshop is ideal for those seeking experimental, hands-on making that supports personal storytelling, artistic growth, and portfolio development.
Learning Methods
Workshops will be delivered on campus from 18:30 – 21:00 every Wednesday for 9 weeks, excluding public holidays.
The use of sketchbooks is recommended for recording ideas, experimenting with designs, and tracking progress.
Location
All sessions will take place within Gray’s School of Art. Most sessions will be held in the Textile Screen Print Workshop with the first session in one of our multi-purpose spaces and the last two sessions in the Constructed Textiles Workshop. Participants will be informed of the specific location upon arrival.
Activity Summary
- Minimum of 8 students, maximum of 10 in the group
- 22.5 hours of teaching in total over 9 evenings, 18:30 – 21:00
Timetable
- Week 1: 21 January - first workshop
- Week 2: 28 January
- Week 3: 4 February
- 11 February - no workshop due to public holiday
- Week 4: 18 February
- Week 5: 25 February
- Week 6: 4 March
- Week 7: 11 March
- Week 8: 18 March
- Week 9: 25 March - last workshop
Assessment
This workshop is not formally assessed.
Workshop facilitator
Sophie Mancellon is a recent mixed media textile graduate and currently a Graduate in Residence in Gray’s School of Art. Her practice is rooted in slow, intentional processes, working across weave, knit, print, natural dye, and mark-making to explore the emotional resonance of cloth.
Committed to responsible design, the designer places deep importance on understanding the origins, properties, and afterlives of the fibres she engages with. Her approach is grounded in care, for material, process, and community, and she seeks to cultivate sustainable practices that honour both ecological and emotional longevity.
By treating textiles as sites of story and stewardship, Mancellon invites reflection on how we make, what we use, and why it matters. Her work resists disposability, favouring rhythm, attention, and transformation through tactile intimacy and layered techniques.
Entry Requirements
There are no formal entry requirements for this workshop.
This workshop is suitable for beginner - intermediate.
Required Age
All students are required to be at least 18 years of age on the commencement of the workshop.
For Academic Year 2025/2026
Course fee: £290 per person
The fee is to be paid as part of sign up process and prior to the first session.
After completing the registration form, you will be directed to the payment page. Your place on the course is not confirmed until payment has been received. If you have any difficulties locating the payment link or if you have registered for this course but have not completed the payment form, please contact us for a direct link to pay which will bypass registration.
Additional Costs
Essential core materials are provided.
There are opportunities to upcycle items, sourced independently by participants, like tea towels, cushion covers, wall hangings, cloth journals, or clothing. Participants are encouraged to bring personal materials to enhance storytelling, while a limited selection of fabrics including cotton, calico, and canvas will be provided. Upcycling is encouraged throughout, allowing participants to creatively transform their own textiles and garments
The following course-related costs are not included in the course fees:
Workshop Cancellation & Changes
If minimum participant numbers for this 9-week workshop are not met, the workshop will be cancelled and participants will receive a full refund.
If you’ve signed up and paid for this workshop but need to cancel, please email us at engage@rgu.ac.uk at least 7 days before the first evening session begins.
If the named practitioner is unable to deliver the scheduled workshop, the session may be cancelled or delivered by an alternative facilitator.
Disclaimer
Fees are regularly reviewed and published for each series of workshops. Tuition fees are fixed for the duration of a workshop/course at the rate confirmed during the application process.
Any questions?
Get in touch with the Engage Team and we'll do our best to help.