THE SUBVERSIVE STITCHER

Since 2020, Holly Searle — award-winning textile artist and creator of the acclaimed Subverted Tea Towel series — has been using vintage tea towels as canvases for felt-lettered slogans that are by turns funny, provocative and deeply felt. Her work has been widely exhibited in solo and group shows across the UK, turning an everyday domestic object into a vehicle for the things we really want to say.

In this hands-on workshop, you'll choose a tea towel that speaks to you, decide on your slogan, arrange pre-cut felt lettering and sew your message into place — guided throughout by Holly herself. No sewing experience needed; just something on your mind.

Best of all, your finished piece won't go home straight away. Holly is bringing her full Subverted Tea Towel installation to the Alton Arts Festival, and every workshop tea towel will be displayed alongside it to form its own mini exhibition — a collective statement made one stitch at a time. Photos of the finished display will be shared after the festival, and of course your tea towel goes home with you at the end.

Tea and coffee provided. Places are limited to 15, so booking early is strongly advised.

About Holly Searle

Holly Searle is an award-winning textile artist whose practice centres on needle and thread as tools for social commentary. Her work was reignited by a chance encounter with a Victorian needlework sampler made by Mary Frances Heaton – an asylum inmate who stitched petitions to Queen Victoria – and Holly has carried that spirit of quiet, defiant voice-making into her own art ever since.

During the 2020 lockdown, Holly began her celebrated Subverted Vintage Tea Towel Series, transforming pre-loved domestic objects into bold platforms for the issues she believes deserve a platform. The series now runs to over 190 pieces and has been exhibited at the Saatchi Gallery, Riverside Studios, the Fashion and Textile Museum, and beyond.