Thread Drawing: from Mark to Stitch - Teens school holiday program

We would like to hear from you if you are:

• Aged 13 to 17 years
• already creating artwork in your own time
• interested to learn new creative skills
• can commit to staying for the whole day (10 am to 3 pm)
• perhaps even dream of building an art-making career in the future.

10:00 to 11:15 am: Expressive drawing warm-ups

Fast-paced, engaging exercises designed to enhance observational skills, encourage play and experimentation.  Will include some of the following:

• Blind contour drawing
• gestural stick-and-ink mark-making
• charcoal-on-stick large floor drawings
• ripped paper collage.

11:30 am to 12:30 pm: Introduction to thread drawing

An introduction to the sewing machine as a drawing tool.  This session includes:

• Demonstration of free-motion or guided machine drawing techniques
• learning to write text with stitch on the machine
• translating drawn marks to into thread
• layering fabrics/other materials.

Shorter sampler exercises will allow participants to build confidence before beginning their final artwork.

Lunch break (30 to 45 minutes)

1:15 to 2:45 pm: Create a small textile artwork

Participants will develop a resolved small-scale textile artwork incorporating:

• Observational or gestural imagery
• stitched line
• optional stitched text
• layered textile elements.

Sewing machines will be available for participants to work in shared studio pairs and rotate machine use.  This collaborative structure encourages peer learning and collaboration and reduces performance pressure.

2:45 to 3:00 pm: Informal sharing and reflection

The day concludes with a supportive group sharing session to celebrate outcomes and reflect on process and learning.

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 her recent Magnify Kingston residency, Juliet developed 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.  You can view Juliet's artworks at her upcoming exhibition at G3 in Parkdale.