Saturday 20 August 2022

Mend & Make Do workshop
Led by Denise Zygadlo

2-4pm
Drop-in, no booking required
Free

Please bring along a garment that needs darning, patching or altering that you would like to fix. Some materials will be available.

Join us for this special ‘mend & make do’ workshop led by Dumfriesshire-based artist Denise Zygadlo. Over the afternoon, Denise will talk about and demonstrate a number of mending techniques, including darning, patching, turning a collar, turning a sheet, visible mending, and transforming something old into something new.

Denise will be talking about her approach to mending and to garments, as an extension of her artistic practice, and she will draw upon Orsola De Castro’s recently published book, Loved Clothes Last (2021; Penguin Life).

Please bring along a garment that needs darning, patching or altering that you would like to fix. Some materials will be available.

Please book to join us for the launch of Sarah Thomas’s book The Raven’s Nest from 4.30pm, and continue mending. Whilst Sarah is reading from her book, the audience are invited to sew or mend in keeping with the Icelandic tradition of kvöldvaka, through which households and communities would share stories and readings whilst sewing or mending items.

You can find details of the launch event here

Denise Zygadlo lives and works in Dumfriesshire in Scotland. Her work includes drawing, printing, performance and installation. Trained in printed textiles, Denise worked with several design studios, before moving from London to Dumfries in 1980. She shows her work in Arusha Gallery, Edinburgh and the Scottish Society of Artists . She has exhibited widely, mostly recently at Tidespace in Kirkcudbright.

Denise has said: ‘Having a dressing-up box as a young child, I have always treasured garments gathered along the way. I trained as a textile designer, but it is only more recently that I realised the importance fabric has played throughout my life and the emotional connections we all have with cloth – from the moment we are first wrapped or swaddled to our last windings on our final journey. So cloth is usually a focus for my work, whether through small intimate drawings or large detailed drawings exploring body shape and pattern.