A 2-day creative art and textile retreat with Amber Lily Studio on the 4th and 5th June 2027
Cost: From £395 per person
Join artist and textile designer Amber Lily Studio for two immersive days of drawing, colour, collage and stitch, inspired by the beautiful natural surroundings of Rydal Hall.
Slow Making: Marks, Colour & Stitch is an opportunity to step away from the everyday, slow down and explore a playful, intuitive approach to creativity. No previous experience is needed — the retreat is designed to encourage experimentation, curiosity and enjoyment of the making process.
Across the two days, you’ll explore how simple marks, colours and textures found in the landscape can develop into layered artworks using drawing, collage, fabric and hand embroidery.
The retreat begins by exploring the grounds of Rydal Hall, gathering visual inspiration from the landscape, natural forms, textures and colours around you.
Using these observations as a starting point, you’ll experiment with a variety of drawing materials including pencils, pens, inks, paints and oil pastels. You’ll also create your own mark-making tools using natural and found materials, discovering how unexpected tools can create interesting and expressive marks.
Through a series of playful drawing exercises, you’ll explore intuitive and non-traditional ways of working, including continuous drawing, non-dominant hand drawing and sensory-led mark-making.
We’ll then move into colour exploration, developing palettes inspired by the landscape before experimenting with paint, collage, recycled papers and tracing paper.
These experimental studies will become the foundation for a concertina artist’s book. You’ll select and develop your favourite marks, colours and compositions, layering them across the concertina format to create rhythm, flow and visual connections between the pages.
By the end of the first day, you’ll have created a unique, completed concertina book developed entirely from your own observations and experiments.
On the second day, the creative process moves from paper into textiles.
Using your drawings, colour studies and ideas from day one as inspiration, you’ll begin developing a small embroidered hoop artwork.
You’ll explore a curated selection of recycled and reclaimed fabrics, considering colour, texture, pattern, transparency and composition before creating your own layered textile design.
You’ll be introduced to Bondaweb and appliqué techniques, learning how to cut, layer and arrange fabrics to translate your drawn marks and ideas into a new material.
Once your fabric composition is established, you’ll explore a range of hand embroidery stitches to add texture, detail and character to your piece. Techniques may include:
You’ll then have the opportunity to develop your piece further through beading and additional surface embellishment, before finishing and mounting your artwork in an embroidery hoop.
Throughout the two days, the emphasis is on exploration rather than perfection.
You’ll be encouraged to experiment, make unexpected marks, work intuitively and allow your ideas to develop naturally. There is no requirement to have previous drawing, art or embroidery experience — all techniques will be demonstrated and adapted to suit different abilities.
The retreat is as much about the process of making as the finished pieces: taking inspiration from your surroundings, working with your hands, experimenting with materials and giving yourself time to explore.
Over the two days, you’ll create:
A completed concertina artist’s book developed through drawing, colour, collage and mark-making.
A finished embroidered hoop artwork combining recycled fabric, appliqué, hand embroidery and optional beadwork.
You’ll also take away a collection of experimental marks, colour studies and creative techniques that can continue to inspire your own making beyond the retreat.
All art and textile materials are provided, including papers, paints, drawing materials, recycled fabrics, embroidery materials, beads and other creative resources.
The workshop is suitable for all experience levels, from complete beginners to experienced artists and makers.
Come and spend two days slowing down, looking closely at the landscape, experimenting with colour and materials, and discovering where marks, colour and stitch can take you.
Bio:
Amber Lily is a contemporary textile artist from Greater Manchester whose practice centres on colour, texture, and mark-making, creating abstract works rooted in everyday experience. She draws inspiration from often-overlooked details such as litter, graffiti, scuffed surfaces, and urban plant life, translating these observations into layered textile compositions.
Sustainability is central to her practice. She works primarily with recycled and repurposed materials, including discarded clothing, domestic textiles, offcuts, and salvaged materials such as car airbags. These materials carry traces of previous use that become integral to each piece, connecting material, process, and environment.
Her approach is experimental and intuitive, combining dyeing, printmaking, collage, and free-motion embroidery. Techniques such as screen printing, gelli plate printing, and quilting are layered through a process guided by colour, rhythm, and proportion.
Amber creates wall hangings, framed works, and sculptural textiles that reinterpret quilting through a contemporary lens. Alongside her practice, she runs workshops that encourage creative confidence and accessibility.
Her work invites closer attention to the everyday, offering material-led pieces that reflect place, process, and lived experience
To book email: mail@rydalhall.org or call 015394 32050