Artitude was delighted to be a part of Reuse and Repair Week 2026, hosting two engaging, hands-on textile workshops that celebrated creativity, sustainability, and the value of giving materials a second life.
Local textile designer Lisa McLaughlin led a relaxed and welcoming session focused on transforming leftover fabric into unique pieces of textile art. Participants explored a range of techniques for repurposing fabric scraps, discovering how materials that might otherwise be discarded can be reimagined into beautiful and expressive artworks.
Textile enthusiast Cathy Patton led a creative, hands-on workshop where participants transformed end-of-life fabrics into unique textile keychains. Through this enjoyable and accessible session, participants learned simple sewing skills while exploring sustainability, reuse, and the importance of giving discarded materials a new purpose through creativity and art.
Both workshops encouraged experimentation, skill-sharing, and creative expression, inspiring participants to see the potential in everyday materials and highlighting how small acts of reuse can contribute to a more sustainable future.
The two Artitude Artists - Julie Griffiths, Gemma Walker-Farren, continued their in depth work with the Triax and Faughan community groups.
Julie has been leading a series of creative 'art walks' along the Faughan River, inviting participants to explore the landscape, ecology and heritage of the Faughan Valley through a creative lens.
Working alongside local environmental experts, participants have learned about the challenges facing the river and surrounding habitats, including the impacts of climate change, biodiversity loss and environmental degradation. These walks have provided opportunities to observe, listen, reflect and engage more deeply with the natural world. They form the basis for the creation of a tapestry of walks that captures the life of the Faughan Valley in a time of climate crisis. Through shared stories, observations and creative responses, the tapestry will document the changing character of the Faughan Valley, capturing participants' experiences of the landscape and their aspirations for its future in the face of climate change.
Lastly, Attitude artists Julie, Gemma and Cat Brogan led three workshops at The Gathering. Julie used sunlight to create images of nature on light sensitive paper and cloth during her Cyanotype workshop. Gemma discussed the ‘Wood Wide Web’, a fun and informative workshop looking at the science behind how trees communicate through an underground network. Cat encouraged participants to create ‘Love Letters to the Land’, exploring our relationship with the natural world through storytelling.
Keep an eye out for more fun workshops coming up.
