Manchester Town Hall: Stained- Glass Collages

February 2025

I went to a school in Greater Manchester and the Children designed and created their own collages inspired by the stained-glass windows at Manchester Town Hall.

I turned these collages into a print (above) as well as trying to turn them into a woven Jacquard tapestry design.

For one of my final projects on my Undergraduate degree, I wanted to look at the future of community-centred textiles and what is happening in the near future in Manchester's community.

Through my conversations with people at networking events in Semester 1, I was made aware of the reopening of Manchester’s Town Hall, and the 'Manchester: Threads of a City’ project set to take place, in which art and textiles practitioners are going to be commissioned to produce work for the Town Hall alongside members of the community.

I decided I wanted to pitch my own ideas and create pieces of textiles inspired by historical tapestries inspired by this project, celebrating Manchester’s community and the reopening of a historical and culturally significant building in Manchester.

I aimed to involve different people in the designing of my work too, as collaboration was a key aspect of my practice last semester and community is still a key theme in my practice.

It was really difficult turning the collages into a Jacquard piece, as I was using multiple weft yarns which, when weaving, packed down different amounts.

I still feel a great sense of pride in this project, however, as I feel that I was able to do something really interesting with the children's work.