Introducing our exciting team of talented tutors, who are skilled in a wide range of contemporary and traditional craft

Alison Leese - Beginners sewing: Simple tote bag, Introduction to curtain and blind making, Master zips and buttonholes, Piping, bias binding & gathering, Sewing patterns decoded, A-line skirt in a day and cushion workshop

Alison has always had a part in the clothing industry and after several years of experience working in a variety of different roles in product development and manufacture, she is now taking her skills into the classroom. Qualified to teach Design and Technology, she spends her free time making everything from curtains and blinds to clothing and vintage inspired gifts.

Rik Sterken - Introduction to Digital Photography and Night photography: Manchester in darkness.

Actually still owning the very first photograph he took in 1975 at the tender age of three, Rik’s interest photography started at a very early age. Having been brought up with film photography, he now has fully embraced the digital era, with a passion for people and urban landscapes. After winning the award for sport photography in ‘Professional Photographer’ magazine in 2007, he is now successful semi-professional photographer, specialising in weddings and portraits.

Sam Moylan – Conquer your sewing machine, Clothing alterations and Beginners Free machine embroidery and applique.

Sam has a long history of working creatively and has developed her sewing skills by carrying out alterations for three independent retailers, as well as a large client base of individuals. Her versatility has allowed her to develop a unique range of baby clothes, design and make a range of clothes and bags. She also enjoys decoupage, felting and card making in her free time.

She has a strong interest in recycling and she feels the future is in repairing and redesigning much loved garments, saving both money and the planets resources.

Chris Webb - Beautiful bath and body products and Beginners Patchwork: Contemporary cushion.

Chris is an artsy guy who dabbles in all sorts of crafts including printing with stencils and silk-screens, knitting, carpentry, designing portraits, making home body products, and trying to come up with a creative use for his continually growing collection of wine corks.  Chris’s crafting roots are in Canada, but he feels at home whenever he is knee deep in craft supplies and surrounded by half empty cups of cold tea. For more information on Chris’s crafting shenanigans, visit his blog - http://lazycrafternoons.blogspot.com

Rachael Gwilliam - Knit 1 2 3, Knit 4 5 6, Learn to Crochet and Knitting skills - How to Knit Fair Isle.

Rachael Gwilliam is a practicing visual artist who specialises in contemporary knitting and crochet works, and experimental drawing processes. She exhibits both nationally and internationally and has a wealth of experience in teaching fibre crafts and drawing to community groups, schools and through private tuition in the North West. As the founder of the fibre art project Artyarn, Rachael crochets and knits for gallery installations, community arts projects and site specific project works, as well as knitting and crocheting garments and decorative accessories for private commissions.

Rachael Gwilliam is the founding member of the Kings Arms knitting Club and The Todmorden Knitting Club.
www.artyarn.org
www.rachaelelwell.co.uk

ArtYarn is a collaborative knitting and crochet project coordinated by visual artist Rachael Gwilliam. ArtYarn formed in 2008 and continue to collaborate with local community groups, world wide knitting and crochet networks and arts organisations to create gallery installations, public arts projects and creative craft workshops.

ArtYarn are inspired by the versatility of knitting and crochet as an artistic media, as well as the traditional technical aspects of knitting and crochet. This supports the creation of highly crafted art works with a contemporary outcome. All ArtYarn projects reflect the artistic, social and historical contexts of knitting and crochet, and focus on the tactility of hand manipulated processes.With this, ArtYarn explore individual creative expression and focus projects on devising ways to make knitting and crochet accessible through participatory making.

Nell Smith – Screen stars: Introduction to screen printing and Introduction to linocut printing

Nell is an award-winning designer producing fresh, modern prints and embroideries from her studio at the Manchester Craft and Design Centre, Northern Quarter. Since graduating from a Masters in Textiles in 2008, Nell has developed products including garments, accessories and homewares. Recently, her range of organic babywear, decorated with retro-inspired animal prints, has become a firm favourite with customers. www.nellclothing.co.uk

Anna Sullivan - Let them eat cake: Cupcake decorating

Anna currently splits her time between working full time at a local radio station and slaving over a hot oven. She has always a fascination with pretty, glittery, girly cakes so decided to try and perfect her piping skills and fulfill her dream to make “the perfect cupcake”. She sells her cupcakes all freshly made to order via her website www.littlepapercakes.com and likes to show them off via her blog littlepapercakes.blogspot.com

Sam Sterken - Conquer your sewing machine

Sam has been crafting seriously since she was a teenager but sewing has always been her real passion.  Developing her skills through numerous courses and lots of trial and error she now makes her own handmade products, which she sells at craft markets and indulges in sewing everything from dresses to blinds.

Her love for crafting lead her to set up Ministry of Craft, which she juggles while looking after her two children.

Jane Blease - Tailor made fabric lampshade

Jane Blease is an up and coming Designer-Maker who has a shop at the Manchester Craft and Design Centre selling her lighting and interior products. Jane’s work combines simple elegant form with elaborate pattern. Sustainability is at the core of her designs, as she uses recycled and vintage plastics and wood to create striking and often surprising lighting effects. To see Jane’s work visit her website www.janebleasedesign.co.uk

Anna Creighton - Creature comforts: Sew a sockee

Anna is a designer-maker based in Manchester with a wealth of experience in leading workshops, specialising particularly in Textiles. With a degree in Embroidery she now make and sell “Sockees’, a range of soft sculptures created from socks and all with a unique personality. Alongside this Anna teaches Textiles with the NHS, freelance regularly at Manchester Art Gallery and lead sessional workshops with Stockport Continuing Education Service.

Nico Dawson – Trashion: Recycled jewellery and Accessory Junkie: Mixed Craft Making.

Childhood afternoons spent playing with treasures in grandma’s workbox inspired Nico to love of hoarding and sorting. When her collection got too big for her bedroom she decided the time had come to share her playful vision of dressing up with the wider world. Nico is thoroughly committed to the old-fashioned art of lovingly making things by hand; the unique accessories she creates are made from forgotten and discarded materials and brought back to life in imaginative ways.

Genevieve Paulden – Introduction to face painting

Since Genevieve has been able to hold a pencil and paintbrush she has not stopped drawing and painting. Throughout her education she studied all aspects of Art and Design finally graduating with a BA (Hons) in Art & Design. She has always loved the Arts and Performing Arts and with her family treading the boards in show business within amateur and professional productions, she took these opportunities to gain experience and skills in Theatrical Makeup, which she is now qualified to teach. Her passion for art always leads herto visiting Art galleries, Museums as well as Arts & Crafts venues in her spare time and she keeps her artistic skills up to date by painting for herself, family, friends and commissioning work for general public. Follow her on facebook

Melissa Keith-Jopp – Mix and mould: Gorgeous resin jewellery

Melissa is a Secondary School Art and Design Teacher and learning new skills is essential to her professional development as well as personal enjoyment! Her keen eye for spotting beauty in every day bits and bobs was the start of Jopp Design Jewellery. Melissa has a strong ethos, which is simply: up-cycling. Her style tends to be influenced by the objects she finds, be it a unique piece of fabric, an old cardigan button or a handful of beads from a car boot sale. Melissa’s aim is to produce jewellery that is totally different to anything on the high street. Since leaving University Melissa have always wanted to start and run a successful and unique craft business, hoping that one day she can own her own ‘little shop around the corner’ in a quaint village somewhere beautiful. Well here goes…