Stitch with Sappho: Community Art Project Workshop series

Next date: Thursday, 05 February 2026 | 06:30 PM to 08:30 PM

Stitch with Sappho is a contemporary textile art workshop series inviting you to explore creative textile-making through the lens and words of Ancient Greek poet Sappho.  

Join local artist Juliet D Collins during her Kingston Arts Magnify Residency and contribute to a collaborative installation artwork to be exhibited at G3 in Parkdale later in the year. 

Inspired by Sappho’s fragmented legacy, we will explore queer and feminist themes, the subjective female voice, the natural world and everyday objects that she honours. Through making, stitching and conversation, we’ll reflect on how Sappho’s work has been reinterpreted across time, and what her fragments reveal about what survives and what is lost. 

Each themed session will guide you to create one or more small textile fragments that will become part of a large-scale suspended installation artwork. Sessions will include: guided skill-building focused on freehand machine embroidery; concept discussion; and open making time. Hand stitchers and hand embroiderers are also most welcome. All materials provided but feel free to bring your favourites. Beginners and experienced makers warmly welcomed. 

Reusing and recycling of textile materials is strongly encouraged. 

Every contributor will be fully credited in the final artwork.  

You’re invited to join a single session or book in for the full series of six workshops. 

What to expect

• a welcoming, inclusive creative space for beginners through to experienced textile makers
• a blend of guided technique, skill sharing, open making time and reflective discussion
• opportunity to learn the foundations of freehand machine embroidery
• exploration of Sappho's legacy, including queer and feminist themes
• relaxed conversation that encourages respectful sharing of everyone's ideas and points of view
• all materials and equipment provided (you may also bring your own)
• contribute what is made in the sessions to a large collaborative installation artwork
• choice to attend a single session or participate in the full series. 

Who will be teaching?

Juliet D Collins is a Melbourne-based textile and mixed media artist whose work explores memory, identity, and the embodied impact of societal power structures. Originally from Scotland, she studied Fine Art Sculpture in Edinburgh before relocating to Mordialloc, where she has lived and worked for over 20 years. Juliet has a longstanding connection to Kingston Arts, having exhibited in solo exhibitions, group shows, delivered art workshops and held market stalls through the Makers Market.

Her practice combines freehand machine embroidery, found domestic materials and other objects, and sculptural techniques to create artworks and installations that interweave feminist and queer theory with tactile storytelling. Following graduate study at the VCA, she has entered a dynamic new phase of material and conceptual experimentation.

During the Magnify Kingston residency, Juliet will develop What Grows in the Joints? — a new body of work that explores the body as archive, site of memory and resistance. This mixed media textile art project will investigate identity, memory and knowledge through suspended and wall-based installations that trace connections between softness, structure and space.

Book now

When

Location

Kingston Arts Centre, 979-985 Nepean Highway, Moorabbin, 3189, View Map

Consider walking, cycling or using public transport options, leaving your car at home.