Mary Sleigh

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.

There’s always a story. It’s all stories really. The sun coming up each day is a story. Everything’s got a story in it. Change the story, change the world.

Terry Pratchett A Hat Full of Sky

Walking along a beach I came upon bundles of fishermen’s nets and this one caught my eye. Look closely. All sorts of stories came into my mind and walking gives you time for ideas.

What comes into your mind?

A new start in September for Colour Sense online workshops – learn more about colour and tone in your own time at your own pace. The series of three workshops start on 6th September 2021.

To find out more and subscribe go to my website http://lizard-dance.com and you’ll see the details in the shop.

Start by finding the difference in these two images.

In these rather bleak times have enjoyed developing some online workshops. They’re all about colour, so they’ve cheered me up!

I find going back to basics and working in a structured way is very helpful, clears my mind and motivates me to get down to some work. So that’s what has been my focus in writing the Colour Sense Workshops.

Spiral bound sketchbook compiled for Colour Sense 1 and first pages of samples

They have received a grant so they can keep the doors of the quarter mile Arts Centre open. It is wonderful to be able to immerse oneself for a while in somewhere beautiful and inspiring and enjoy the cafe, shop, museum and exhibition galleries.

@Ropewalkbarton http://the-ropewalk.co.uk

I do agree with a friend’s comment on hearing that

Echoes in the water:traces in the land was open for viewing.

‘I think actual exhibitions and events, where possible – even in adapted circumstances – are very important at the moment, for morale and the human spirit.’

Looking through 1,2 &3

Soulmates – featured in Found and Bound now showing at The Ropewalk, Barton on Humber

Collecting has always been important in developing my ideas, and although my finds may not be valuable they are precious to me – the essence of a time and place.

Here are two found objects that just want to be together. They were found in Barton on Humber and are part of the Found and Bound collection.

Exhibition of new artwork by Mary Sleigh and Jan Miller at the Ropewalk Gallery in Barton on Humber will open on Saturday 12th September. Their topics resonate with the local area, the landscape, history, and industry. While exploring, they have come upon traces of past activity, uncovered the unknown and unexpected, gathered natural and man-made materials and responded to the elements at different times of the year.


There is a recurring thread that runs through Mary’s work. It’s about a sense of place and its stories. There is a different emphasis but in essence there is a common theme which reappears in recent past work; Cloth Stories, Peat Lands and It starts with a Step.

Mary, like most people love a story. There’s always a story where people have lived and worked and even when nature has taken over, people have left their mark. So, it’s that connection with places and people and unexpected discoveries that keep cropping up in her work.

River Story – concertina book partly open
Digitally printed images on linen of paintings at the edge of the Humber

I enjoyed my visits to Japanese moss gardens and especially loved those moments of tranquility, surrounded by cool green moss, so I’ve been collecting cool mossy images – just what I need occasionally especially in these strange and unsettling times.