Hosted in the idyllic setting of The Design Chapel housed within Southampton’s Old Cemetery grounds, join artist Lucie Smith for a mindful and nature-focused workshop.

Discover the beauty of organic sculpture whilst learning the ancient craft technique of cordage-making to create your own multilayered piece of art.

We’ll start the workshop with a walk around the beautifully wild cemetery grounds, taking notice of the common plants and grasses that can be used to create cordage twine. We’ll collect some of these to turn the natural fibres into cordage later, as well as other organic material to be used in your sculpture.

You’ll learn about the possibilities and symbolism of working with organic matter in art and the ways that techniques of assembling can feed into themes that centre ourselves in unison with the natural world. 

When we return to The Design Chapel, a demonstration will be given on how to turn the plants we collected earlier into cordage, which you can choose to incorporate into your artwork if you’d like to. You can also have a go at making cordage using the other materials provided such as wool and flax - it can be quite experimental!

Taking inspiration from the visual examples provided alongside your intuition, you’ll choose from a selection of organic fibres and materials which will include things such as wool, moss, flax fibre, jute and organic textile fragments. We’ll look at techniques for assembling these materials including weaving, stitching, tying and wrapping.

About Lucie

Lucie is a conceptual artist and educator based in Hampshire. Through art she explores innate connections between the human condition and the landscape. She believes deeply in the healing power of nature and works with communities, organisations and individuals around Hampshire.