Textile Holidays

Our Textile Holidays:

Our week long fully catered textile holidays offer a range of courses designed to develop your skills, confidence and expertise. Guests are taught in the relaxed and convivial atmosphere of Preniac in our spacious studio barn and on occasion, venture out on location for inspiration to the nearby historic towns and villages with their beautifully preserved medieval architecture, world heritage sites and vibrant markets.

Our textile holidays are suitable for all levels, whether you are a complete beginner or an accomplished textile artist. We offer a combination of structured teaching with demonstrations and one-to-one tuition, with both group and individual critiques. Our friendly and supportive tutors are highly qualified and experienced and will help you develop your own personal style.

We limit our group sizes to between 6-12, so our tutors always have time to give you individual attention.

What We Supply:

We supply a range of textile media which includes all necessary paints, dyes and fabrics for each course, plus non consumables such as scissors, needles, pins etc. We also supply a range of threads, both hand and machine, but recommend that guests bring a small collection of threads for personal use as a supplement.

A range of art material is also available for guests to use including watercolour and acrylic paints and cartridge paper for design work.

We recommend that guests bring their own sketchbooks and small brushes.

What's Not Included:

Cost of Flights - Bergerac Airport can be reached from a number of UK destinations, using budget airlines - see RyanAir.com and Flybe.com.

One evening or lunchtime meal taken at a local restaurant or auberge - payable locally (approximately 20 euros).

Programme for 2010:

5th-12th June - Ruth Issett: Colour, Atmosphere & Place

Ruth will be teaching an experimental paper and textiles course focusing on colour and using a variety of techniques including collage, printing, dyeing, stitched line and surface texture.

Drawing on the fabulous location of Studio Preniac, Ruth will help you develop a series of techniques and exploratory ideas which will then be used as a basis for developing personal and individual interpretations - request brochure for details.

4th-11th September - Liz Halls-Moore: Colours and Textures of the Southern Lot.

Liz will be teaching a series of experimental fabric manipulation techniques together with resist dyeing and brush dyeing to produce relief or sculptural textiles, inspired by the natural forms in and around the fabulous setting of Studio Preniac.

Students will embellish their relief textiles with hand or machine embroidery - request brochure for details.

18th-25th September - Louise Baldwin: Scratching the Surface - Colours and Marks in the Landscape

A mixed media textiles course inspired by patterns and textures in the local architecture, markets and countryside.

A stimulating week of workshop challenges and tutorial discussions designed to stretch and develop a personal approach to looking at landscape and elements of architecture and place.

The colours, textures and marks of the surroundings will form the basis of our work with a variety of starting points and stitch techniques introduced in the first three days, allowing two full days for developing work and discussing ideas.

This is a rare opportunity to work with this well known and highly talented artist and teacher - request brochure for details.

Your Tutors:

Ruth Issett
Renowned for her exuberant use of colour, Ruth Issett is acknowledged as one of the UK's best textile artists. She teaches and lectures internationally and is a member of the prestigious Practical Study Group. The author of 4 books, Ruth also writes regularly for leading embroidery magazines. She exhibits widely and is available for private commissions.

Louise Baldwin
A member of the Contemporary Applied Arts and 62 Group Textile Artists, Louise has exhibited both nationally and internationally, including both Japan and New Zealand, and examples of her work are held in both public and private collections throughout the world including the Crafts Council of Great Britain. She is the subject of numerous articles in leading embroidery publications and currently lives and works in London. Louise currently teaches adults at the City Lit.

Liz Halls-Moore
Liz has taught a broad variety of both adults and children with abilities ranging from special needs to postgraduate art students. She previously ran an "outstanding" (Ofsted) art department at a large secondary school where she taught A level Art and Textiles She has also worked in conjunction with the University of Surrey as a mentor for trainee art teachers and has delivered inservice workshops and training to other art teachers. Liz continues to enjoy her teaching at Preniac while also concentrating on developing her own work.