BOBBY BRITNELL
TEXTILE and ART courses offering unique learning opportunities for all
In beautiful South Shropshire an area of outstanding natural beauty
NEWS FROM MOORHALL
Julia Triston has booked her flight from Denmark and IS COMING......hurray. So do book your place on her course this February and make this a worthwhile first experience for both her at Moor Hall, as well as for you.

I understand how some folk may still be reticent to attend courses, but we will make your time at Moor Hall comfortable and safe and no better way to help with one's well-being than getting creative with these fabulous tutors.

As well as featuring Julia again in this newsletter I am also featuring Matthew Harris who still has places on his course and Amanda Clayton and Margaret McQuillen who will be here in early April.
JULIA TRISTON
21/22 February
'Between the Lines'
Course Description

Effective use of ‘Line’ is one of the most important design considerations in textile art, and compositions have more impact when this element is expressed visually and intentionally. During this busy two-day course you will investigate ‘Line’ through a series of design and stitch exercises, and develop ways of working with papers, paints, fabrics and threads to explore this essential element. You will experiment with ink, collage paper and cloth backgrounds, then further embellish these with linear marks in print, hand embroidery and/or machine stitch. 
The emphasis will be placed on making lots of small samples to fill a sketchbook (some of which will be print or stitch ‘sketches’) which can be used as an aide memoire for future work, but there will also be scope to make a larger composition if preferred.
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This will be Julia's first visit to Moor Hall. Julia is a professional maker, educator and author in stitched textiles and contemporary art and design techniques, and an active member of the Textile Study Group. She has worked in the creative industries for more than three decades and exhibited and taught her bespoke workshops throughout the world. Many of her artworks have been documented and filmed, including her participation for Antony Gormley’s One and Other Project on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square. Julia relocated from the UK to Denmark in 2019 where her own practice is now based.

MATTHEW HARRIS
23/24/25 March
'Upside Down and Back to Front'
Course Description

“Nothing is a mistake. There is no win and no fail. There is only make.” John Cage

The aim of this workshop is to explore playful ways in which images and visual information can be generated and developed through drawing. By working with individual imagery gathered in sketch books, photographs etc, we will exploit the potential of sometimes the most simple and mundane scraps of image, mark and shape. Working from this personal imagery we will explore a number of exercises and processes that will allow you to generate and develop visual information from a simple starting point. The interpretation of these images into textile materials is the final stage of the project, though you may decide to stay with paper.
A course to keep you thinking and making.
Matthew Harris is a graduate of the textile course at Goldsmiths College and has been working with textiles since 2000, having for the previous ten years made and exhibited drawings and works on paper. He has shown in a number of group and solo exhibitions throughout the U.K, Ireland and Japan.
Matthew Harris makes work that employs dying, cutting and hand stitching. It is concerned primarily with abstract imagery and the translation of drawn marks into cloth. By making work that is pieced, patched and assembled, he aims to create pieces that explore repetition, pattern and the disrupted or dissonant journey of line and image across and through the surface of cloth.
AMANDA CLAYTON
1/2/3 April
'On the Edge'
Course Description

We will explore the qualities of edges using cloth and hand stitch. Using neutrals we will enjoy learning/revisiting some traditional techniques that have the potential to be functional and creative. Using a number of Amanda’s signature techniques including inlay, layering, needle darning, applique, cutwork and pleating we will respond to some primary sources to inspire us. Lace , natural forms and some man-made items will suggest directions especially using the design elements of positive and negative.

Amanda comes with a wealth of samples for students to see. She also brings an enormous amount of knowledge to the class and students never leave disappointed.


MARGARET McQUILLEN
6/7 April
'Box Making with a Foundation Pieced Patchwork Lid'
Course Description

Box making can be used to showcase your patchwork, quilting and embroidery. They can be all kinds of shapes, sizes and types of lid, but we will be concentrating on a rectangular box with a hinged lid, incorporating some foundation pieced patchwork on the lid. We will start on the first day with learning the technique of foundation piecing. You will then incorporate this into a design for your box lid.
We will then learn the technique of how to produce a fabric covered box.

Margaret is a long-standing friend and colleague who I worked with for many years at Westhope College. Some of you may remember the fantastic textile shows that she organised in Staffordshire. She currently does a great deal of Ecclesiastical work, which can be seen in churches in in Cornwall, Wolverhampton and Staffordshire.

Several students have asked for a 'Patchwork' type workshop and no one better than Margaret. This first box shows the type of work that you could be doing on this workshop.
These are samples of some of Margaret's other boxes that she has made.
DETAILS OF ALL THESE COURSES AND MANY MORE CAN BE FOUND ON MY
ON-LINE COURSES and WORKSHOPS
Of course if you really are not ready for face to face courses you could take a look at DESIGNMATTERS Art and Craft School for on-line opportunities, with new ones being added regularly. Here is a LINK to their website.

Please also look at my website for on-line courses and self-study opportunities.