For the Love of Textiles - Sunny Bank Mills, Farsley

Grenfell Memorial Quilt - Do Caged Birds Dream of Flying?

 

For the Love of Textiles, currently showing at Sunny Bank Mills, Farsley, explores the loving connections humans have with textiles. It includes work by contemporary artists, garments and archival pieces from textile collections.

The largest and most striking single piece is a panel from the Grenfell Memorial Quilt - Do Caged Birds Dream of Flying? Tuesday Greenidge and her team from the North Kensington community created the Grenfell Memorial Quilt Project.  They hope to create a quilt as long as the tower was tall  - 220 feet, by 2027. This particular panel of the Grenfell Memorial Quilt has been led by Jane Thakoordin and draws inspiration from Maya Angelou's Caged Bird poem.  It features a bird for each of the 72 victims of the Grenfell Tower fire.  These were made by people from across the UK who responded to Jane's call out...

Grenfell Memorial Quilt - Do Caged Birds Dream of Flying?

Kate Tume's Death Masks were very striking.  We are told they are deities of grief, each representing a facet of love lost and are inspired by the death of her husband.  They are not only sculptures but ritual masks to be worn so the wearer can be transformed...

Kate Tume - Death Masks
Cotton, wire mesh, embellishments
 & Sam Winter & Kate Tume - Threshold: Ghost I, II & III
Photography on aluminium

Sarah Joy Ford had contacted Angela Maddock, textile artist & academic, to repair her childhood rabbits - John and Peter. Their restoration was documented in photographs, replaced stuffing and the water they were cleaned with, whilst Sarah Joy Ford made 2 new pieces celebrating her white rabbits...

Angela Maddock - John and Peter in the Care of Angela Maddock
Sarah Joy Ford - The White Rabbits

We are told that Julie Henry and Debbie Bragg working as Henry/Bragg highlighted the erosion of working class culture and the human longing for escapism.  For Dyed in the Wool, they invited a die hard fan from the football teams featured and got them to design a cardigan to represent their team.  Unlike mass produced merchandise these feature elements of local identity. They were knitted by the WI.  They are now part of the permanent collection of the National Football Museum in Manchester...

Henry/Bragg - Dyed in the Wool
Handknit Cardigans (from front) Leeds United, Middlesborough, Aston Villa

This lace from Nana-Essi Casely-Hayford's wedding fabric was beautiful but I was particularly taken by the poem that was displayed with it (shown below)...

Nana-Essi's Ghanaian Wedding Fabric
Loaned by Nana-Essi Casely-Hayford from her personal collection

Poem from the display of Nana-Essi's Ghanaian Wedding Fabric
Loaned by Nana-Essi Casely-Hayford from her personal collection

These wedding shoes are part of the Joseph Box collection of shoes and objects relating to shoemaking (1500 to 1920), which provides a unique insight into footwear history.  They are handmade and rather lovely...

Joseph Box Victorian Wedding Shoes
Loaned by Sarah Buckroyd from Powerhouse Collection

I was quite taken with this knitted ensemble but didn't spot any information about it...

Knitted Dress

This is just a sample of what is on display.  If you want to see more, the exhibition is on until 28 June 2026 - Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 4pm.  There are cafes at Sunny Bank Mills, various shops and a ScrapStore.  It's a great place to visit.  If you plan to visit the ScrapStore, check opening hours before you go.

Touchlines - 62 Group - Sunny Bank Mills, Farsley

Louise Baldwin - The moments that I can't recall (detail), 2026 

 

Touchlines: The Delicate Boundaries of Care and Cloth is this year's 62 Group exhibition at Sunny Bank Mills in Farsley.  In Touchlines, we are told, "artists explore the subtle thresholds where contact is felt, withheld, or transformed. Set within the historic spaces of Sunny Bank Mills, the exhibition draws connections between textile labour, sporting cultures, and human relationships, asking how boundaries shape intimacy, care, and collective identity."

Here are some of my favourites...

Using old tickets, books, cards, packaging etc., Louise Baldwin has created a new work of layered relationships...

Louise Baldwin - The moments that I can't recall, 2026
Collected paper, card, and fabric elements with wood and beads; machine-stitched modules, hand stitching and glued construction

Debbie Lyddon's The Breath of the Moon maps the contours of a day's tides. The title comes from the Venerable Bede, who noticed a connection between the moon and tides and called it the breathings of the moon.  I love the title of this piece.

Debbie Lyddon - The Breath of the Moon, 2026
Linen, beeswax, linseed oil, wire, pulled threads, machine and hand stitch

Hannah Lamb makes the point that "duty of care" often misses out caring for the carers.  The patching and darning on this piece represents self care as the apron disintegrates. Perhaps it's time to re-evaluate who we value in society...

Hannah Lamb -  Duty of Care II, 2022
Vintage linen apron, silk organza, applique, hand stitch, machine stitch, devore

Helen Davies tells us that sometimes the only way to effect change is through disorder and nothing unites a community like a common goal.  Her work references the 1842 General Strike where workers across Lancashire & Yorkshire unplugged the boilers in mills and factories...

Helen Davies - National Union of Had Enough of This Shite, 2026
Cotton thread, synthetic thread

Helen Banzhaf's coat shows how important it is for pattern pieces to fit together to create the final form...

Helen Banzhaf - Salad Servers and the Odd Fish Slice, 2026
10 oz unprimed cotton canvas, assembled as a coat using various threads with stitched applique shapes

Hazel Bruce uses an old linen roller towel as a background for patches of colour and stitch to give it a new life...

Hazel Bruce - The beginning of something new? 2025
Huckaback linen roller towel, reclaimed fabric remnants, machine stitch

In Eszter Bornemisza's piece, her people are made of map fragments and linked by a network of streets, representing human connectedness...

Eszter Bornemisza - Icon-Maze, 2023
Organza, vintage ribbons, newsprint, tissue, threads, printing, cutting machine stitching

Helen Yardley uses the game of rugby as her inspiration with the physicality of the friction and pressure of the game echoed in her medium and representation...

 

Helen Yardley - Lineout, 2026
Cut and pieced 3mm industrial wool felt, hand stitched, screen printed, machine stitched and hand painted. Mounted onto a wooden stretcher frame.

Claire Barber's piece, part of which is shown below, made of melted shoelaces, heather and chalk represents how plastics infiltrate out environment...

Claire Barber - Sweepings (detail), 2026
Melted shoelaces, heather, chalk, stone, pins, broom, sugar palm fibres

Hannah White's work, through electroforming, transforms something soft into something rigid and she sees this as a metaphor for building human resilience over time...

Hannah White - Woven Touchlines, 2026
Woven, hand pleated and hand stitched, Trevira and stainless-steel threads, electroformed, nickel-plated

Mei Lock says her parents demonstrate their love through what they do rather than what they say.  Here, using her parents' clothes and one of her Mum's recipes, she demonstrates their actions of love and care...

 

Mei Lock - Love Languages, 2026
Cotton apron, denim jeans, wooden chair spindles and thread, hand stitch

And finally, with humour but also with a point, here is Lynn Setterington's Gary on the Touchline. The traditional twee subjects of needlepoint are subverted and we have instead, Gary Lineker, a pundit as famous for his humanitarian views on refugees and asylum seekers as his football commentary. The question is, will Lynn Setterington ever stitch it?

Lynn Setterington - Gary on the Touchline, 2026
Canvas work print with coloured threads

And because everyone wants to touch everything but can't - there is a touching table...

Samples that could be examined and touched

There were, of course, many other interesting works too. The exhibition runs until 31st May 2026, on the 3rd floor, in the 1912 Mill at Sunny Bank Mills, 83-85 Town Street, Farsley, West Yorkshire, LS28 5UJ. Open Thursday-Sunday 10am to 4pm. Go see.  

There are cafes at Sunny Bank Mills, various shops and a ScrapStore.  It's a great place to visit.  Check opening hours before visiting.

Hannah Lamb - Fragment of a Dress Performance Piece

Jenny Skinner wearing Fragment of a Dress by Hannah Lamb after the performance

 

In 2022 the Bronte Parsonage Museum commissioned textile artist Hannah Lamb to create a piece for them.  That piece was Fragment of a Dress. Inspired by the museum's collection of small fragments of cloth associated with the Bronte family, especially Charlotte, and knowing that textiles and clothing are imbued with memories of special times in our lives, Hannah collected stories from museum visitors about items of clothing that they held dear. Each story took the form of a hand written note about the item and what it meant to them. Using these personal responses, Hannah and her students and colleagues stitched a series of embroidered panels onto silk organza, which Hannah then incorporated into the finished "Fragment of a Dress" which had a mid 19th century silhouette. It was on display at the Bronte Parsonage until the end of December 2022.

Here are some of the embroidered panels.  I would like to have seen what all the panels said.  I don't know if the panels were just a selection of the stories collected or all of them...

 

Hannah Lamb - Fragment of a Dress (embroidered panel detail)

Hannah Lamb - Fragment of a Dress (embroidered panel detail

Hannah Lamb - Fragment of a Dress (embroidered panel detail

On the 1 July 2023 in the Spinning Mill attic at Sunny Bank Mills in Farsley, Hannah & Jenny created a performance piece of the deconstruction of Fragment of a Dress, returning it to fragments.  The Spinning Mill attic is an empty space full of atmosphere...

Spinning Mill attic

Hannah's cyanotype prints of the embroidered skirt were on display and a soundtrack was playing in the background...

Hannah Lamb - Fragment of a Dress Cyanotype

Hannah Lamb - Fragment of a Dress Cyanotype

The dress, worn by Jenny Skinner, was cut into pieces by the audience.  This was achieved by Jenny handing a pair of scissors to each audience member, in turn, to cut a fragment after which Hannah stitched a certificate of authenticity onto each piece with her vintage hand operated sewing machine. Each fragment cutter could keep their fragment as a souvenir. The very first piece was cut by Hannah herself. She cut a sliver through several of the embroidered panels.  This seemed to give "permission" to cut a fragment however you chose.  Some cut slivers and some cut out whole embroidered panels.  These acts of deconstruction were filmed by Lucy Forrester of Proud Fox Studio.

Hannah Lamb's Vintage Sewing Machine

Hannah Lamb's Accoutrements

It was a very interesting performance - watching what people chose to cut and wondering what might become of the pieces.  I thought it was quite an act of faith on Hannah's part to see her beautiful and considered work "destroyed" in front of her (Hannah's use of the term "deconstruction" makes it seem less harsh).  I certainly found the responsibility of cutting into the piece a little unnerving.  I couldn't really concentrate on the soundtrack that was playing at the time and only caught "fragments" of what was being said.  I think it was the stories people had left her about their treasured clothing. 

Jenny Skinner & Hannah Lamb

A further performance happened later in the day.  I went to the first performance.  I particularly wanted to go to this as I hadn't been able to see the dress when it was on display at the Bronte Parsonage Museum.  I wanted to see it "whole" before it was deconstructed. I don't know if it is now completely "gone" or if there is more to fragment.  No doubt we will hear more from Hannah about its progress and I hope we will see the filmed outcome.   

I thought you might like to see the fragment I cut...

Fragment of a Dress: Fragment 3

I hope my fragment will go on to have a new life in something I make.

The 62 Group - Tailored - Sunny Bank Mills, Farsley, West Yorkshire

 

Sian Martin - Process (detail) & Hannah Lamb - Deconstructed Shirt (detail)

The 62 Group, a renowned textile art collective, are currently exhibiting at Sunny Bank Mills with an exhibition entitled - Tailored.  The work in Tailored explores multiple meanings and interpretations of the word itself and what it means to the individual artists’ practice. Some artists consider the process of making and elements of it; the design and weaving of cloth and the pattern, pinning, cutting and sewing of a garment. Other artists take a more narrative and personal approach to the meaning. The techniques used include stitch, knit, casting, drawing and film; sculpture and installation.  The exhibition is also a celebration of 10 years of culture at Sunny Bank Mills where cloth was produced that was used primarily in the making of suits.

I'm going to give you a whistlestop tour through some of my favourites...

Sian Martin - Process

Sian Martin's Process (above & detail at top) is inspired by one of the mill workers at Sunny Bank Mills and Sians's own beginnings in dressmaking.  Sian was fascinated by tailor tacks and their ability to transfer marks through layers of cloth.  This piece celebrates those traditional dressmaking skills.   Also the repetitive and rhythmic stitching of this piece celebrates that stage in the process of making a tailored garment.

Hannah Lamb - Deconstructed Shirt & Dressing Up

Hannah Lamb's work is always interesting.  Taking a vintage man's shirt, with it's overtones of  masculinity, formality and appropriateness, Hannah has used a devore technique to deconstruct it and to question whether those overtones are valid or a camouflage behind which someone is hiding.  In Dressing Up, Hannah has developed this theme further using cyanotype imagery of the Deconstructed Shirt to suggest the different layers of our private and public selves.  The mannequin between the images offers a different body image playing with ideas of size, gender and identity.  Are we dressing to fit in or express our true selves?

 

Hannah White - Fluidity & Rigidity: No 4 

Hannah White "tailors" her weaving into a customised, sculpted form using conductive threads and a process called electroforming. This creates a metal skeleton on the conductive threads around which the fabric folds. Hannah describes this as engineering with thread.  I don't pretend to know how this actually works but would like to know more about the process and even see it in action.  The results are impressive.

Teresa Whitfield - Woollen Stockings for the Mending Girl

Teresa Whitfield was inspired by a circular knitting machine at Sunny Bank Mills.  Typically they were used for knitting worsted stockings but the one here in Farsley was actually used for knitting dyed samples that would be used for the woven cloth.  Here she imagines it used for knitting some stockings for one of the female mill workers and wonders about their living and working conditions and the inequalities of the textile industry.  Her work is a drawing of knitted fabric.  Teresa sees a parallel between the repetitive and meditative act of drawing knitting and of the act of knitting itself.

Shuna Rendel - Thread in the Air (detail)

Shuna Rendel has the Asian tailorbird as her inspiration.  This small creature stitches together leaves using spiders' web or plant fibres to make a cradle for its nest.  Shuna has created a series of possible cradle variations using avocado skins, vine tendrils, gladioli sepals, vetch pods and waxed linen thread.

Ann Goddard  - Tailor-Made

Ann Goddard was also inspired by the tailorbird and by the bespoke clothing made by Master Tailors.  Both the bird and the Master Tailors create something that will blend into the environment of the user.  Here Ann used the pockets of a pinstripe suit, the fabric of which was similar to that woven at Sunny Bank Mills, as the cradle for the nest which is represented by the abaca fibre inside.  The suit used was made by Master Tailor Beno Dorn who btw made the first suits worn by the Beatles.

There are plenty of other interesting pieces in the exhibition.  This is just a small taster.  You'll have to be quick to catch this one as it closes on 2 July 2023.  Do go if you get the chance.

Sunny Bank Mills is a great place to visit.  Apart from the Gallery and shop on site, there are various cafes, a Scrap Shop, the Sunny Bank Mills Archive, artists studios, shops and more.  There's also plenty of car parking.

The Potential of Pattern - Sunny Bank Mills

 

Jenny Haynes - Modern Times Quilt

The Potential of Pattern exhibition is on in the Gallery at Sunny Bank Mills until Christmas 2020 which hopefully means you will get a chance to see it when the current lockdown ends.

Frances Priest - Gathering Place - Grammar of Ornament - India ii

Pattern: the underlying arrangement used to organise a surface or structure in a consistent, regular manner. This can be by the repetition of a shape, form, colour, rule or sequence. Exploring this theme, the artists and makers in this exhibition all uniquely reference pattern in their work, whether through process, inspiration or form.

Above and below are my top pics from the exhibition.  Here are examples of surface pattern design from Millie Rothera...

Millie Rothera - Digitally Printed Cottons

Next, ceramics from Charlotte Morrison (I'm a big fan and have a few pieces of her work)...

Charlotte Morrison - Jug

and print from Russell Hughes...

Russell Hughes - Language of Addiction 1 Series (part)

 Furniture from Nick James...

Nick James - Bespoke Furniture

Textile design from Vanessa Plews...

Vanessa Plews - Hand drawn design detail

Weave from Carol Penney...

Caron Penney - Twelve Avenues

and Jacqueline James...

Jacqueline James - Hand Woven Rug

and another quilt from Jenny Haynes...

Jenny Haynes - Paper Round

 

I think Jenny Haynes' Modern Times quilt was the star of the show!

Sunny Bank Mills has plenty of car parking, cafes and of course the Gallery which includes a shop. It's well worth a visit!