Spring Short Courses

4 week course starting week commencing 28th April 2025

with Melanie Missin

There is nothing quite like hand embroidery. Some people use it to ‘paint’ their canvas or fabric to create the most amazing pictures, whether they are beautiful landscapes, still life or abstract they are always pieces of textile art. Embroidery stitches and techniques are as old as time itself and you will be able to share this ancient craft to keep this artform alive and kicking! You will be making a little book of stitches, learning two or three stitches each week to cover two pages of the book, one will be an abstract page and the other will be a picture or a theme.

Tuesdays 10am-1pm

City Church, 12-16 Cheddars Lane, Cambridge, CB5 8LD

8 week course starting week commencing 28th April 2025

with Sasha DeWitt

This course aims to introduce you to the basic methods of having a sketchbook practice that focuses on nature. By the end of the course, you will be able to use the basic methods taught to keep a nature sketchbook and create a more finished piece of artwork based on observing the natural world.

Wednesdays 1pm-3pm
ONLINE

4 week course starting week commencing 28th April 2025

with Dani Penhaligan

Communicate how you see and feel the world through expressive mark making. Simplify and deconstruct subject matter to produce personal expressive artwork in charcoal and pastels.

Strip down your subject matter to its bare bones and amplify its wonder using the oldest art medium in the world - charcoal. Inspire curiosity and imagination in your work, distance objective visual references to deliver something bigger!

You will be encouraged to think about how we can connect to and communicate subject matter. To simplify and deconstruct the subject and impart emotion into drawing that communicates.

Thursdays 10am-1pm

Campkin Road Community Centre, 70 Morello Place, Campkin Road, Cambridge, CB4 2ZH

4 week course starting week commencing 28th April 2025

with Sarah Strachan

This course introduces you to a range of art-making techniques in the context of nature, and the artists working with them. It will include opportunities to explore a range of techniques including cyanotype, clay imprinting, bas relief and gelli plate printing using natural materials.  There will be the opportunity to work with a range of art materials which will all be provided. You will make work indoors but take inspiration from your own experiences in nature. Through conversations with people, nature, and materials this course will provide you with the time and resources to discover and/or rediscover your creative and making skills.

Thursdays 12.45pm-3.45pm

Brown’s Field Community Centre, 31a Green End Road, Cambridge, CB4 1RU

4 week course week commencing 28th April 2025

with Lynn Fraser and Peggy Mends

This course will bring together those interested in being writers and textile artists to learn together and from each other to create written and visual stories, each enriching and enlightening the other.

For thousands of years, humans have been weaving textiles and weaving stories, taking raw strands and bringing them together to create something useful and magical. Both activities combine structure and practical skills with imagination. Both are rich in symbolism and draw on collective, cultural knowledge. This course will bring together those interested in being writers and textile artists to learn together and from each other to create written and visual stories, each enriching and enlightening the other.

Thursdays 10.30am-12.30pm

St Martin’s Church, 127 Suez Road, Cambridge, CB1 3QD