It’s the Textile Study Group’s 50th birthday this year!

It’s 50 years since the inception of the Textile study Group or The Practical Study Group as it was known in 1973.

celebrating innovative textile practice

Our anniversary exhibition, Making:50 will include previously unseen works of differing topics, scales and dimensions. The ‘common denominator’ we are working towards is the ‘theme’ of 50 in some way, however tenuously (eg 50 units/fragments/spaces/words/stitches, 50 memories, 50 pages from a journal….. ). This is not a prescriptive ‘golden’ exhibition, nor will all completed works measure 50cms by 50cms; we are individually expressing ourselves in the way we choose, having a wide interpretation of what textiles and textile art mean to us all.

Although former members will have a chance to be represented, and there will be an archive element to our proposed show, Making:50 will very much be about looking forwards, rather than being a retrospective. 24 members are taking part.

I chose to make 5 panels to illustrate my creative practice over 5 decades. Here are the first and the last of the set.

Making :50 is now on show at Peebles until August 5th and will open at The Ropewalk Gallery in Barton-on-Humber from September 16th till November26th 2023

The exhibition Making 50 will include the following Textile Study Group members: Lois Blackburn, Bobby Britnell, Jenny Bullen, Sarah Burgess, Penny Burnfield, Jean Draper, Janet Edmonds, Jan Evans, Alice Fox, Sue Green, Kay Greenlees, Gwen Hedley, Ruth Issett, Jane McKeating, Sian Martin, Jan Miller, Sheila Mortlock, Amarjeet Nandhra, Mandy Pattullo, Polly Pollock, Shelley Rhodes, Mary Sleigh, Julia Triston, Dorothy Tucker and

Here’s a little peek at what we’ve made.