The Art of Mending with Celia Pym
Join artist Celia Pym in this workshop exploring textile repair - how you do it, why you do it, and the tenderness and care found in the act of mending. Focusing on knitted garments, the workshop looks closely at areas of wear, thinning and damage, inviting you to consider the stories held in well-used clothing. You will practise mending techniques, learn about artists working with repair, and have time to work on your own well-loved garments.
In this workshop, you will:
Explore textile repair and reflect on the tenderness and care involved in mending
Learn about artists whose work centres on repair
Practise knitted-garment repair through woven darning and fake ‘knitted’ darning
Look closely at signs of wear in cloth and what they reveal about use and movement
Work on repairing your own well-loved garments and discuss options for any items you bring
Use provided darning materials, with no previous mending or needle-based experience required
Enjoy a light lunch of pastries and cake provided by local independent bakery Norfolk Street Bakery.
During the break, get the chance to look inside 186 Gywdir Street (optional).
Darning materials will be provided. Please bring any damaged garments you would like to repair or discuss.
After booking, you will receive an email confirmation and a pre-workshop questionnaire to fill out.
All workshop proceeds go towards paying workshop leaders, maintaining David Parr House and our artistic programme.
About Celia Pym
Celia Pym is an artist living and working in London. She has been exploring damage and repair in textiles since 2007, with extensive experience of repairing small everyday holes as well as more dramatic damage. Her interests are around the evidence of damage - and how repair forces a closer look at where garments and cloth have got worn down and thin. In clothing, this wearing is often to do with use and how the body moves. She explores the difficulties of mending other people’s clothes; mending as detective work; materials for mending; and making damage visible. All mending is made using a sharp needle, scissors and yarn.
Her work has been exhibited internationally, most recently in On Happiness: Tranquility and Joy, Wellcome Collection, London (2021); Siblings, Trading Museum, Paris (2020); Sewing Box for the Future, V&A Dundee (2020–21); Material Matters, Textilmuseum, St Gallen (2020); Don’t Feed the Monster!, Galleri F15, Moss, Norway (2019); and Kind Things, Curator’s Cube, Tokyo (2019).
In 2017, she was shortlisted for the Woman’s Hour Craft Prize and the inaugural Loewe Craft Prize. Pym is a visiting lecturer in mixed media textiles at the Royal College of Art, London.
