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Children and Young People's Activities
Photographic Embroidery
24 Feb 2026
1:00pm
Quick summary
- Price
- Free
- Audience type
- 11-19
- Running time
- 2 hours
- Venue
-
- Arts Centre Washington
Additional information
Advanced sign-up is required.
Event description
Discover a unique way of storytelling through thread and image in this hands‑on workshop led by artist Katie Watson. Photographic embroidery blends traditional hand‑stitching with the evocative power of vintage photographs, allowing you to reimagine moments from the past and bring them to life with colour, texture, and pattern.
In this workshop, Katie will guide you through the creative possibilities of working directly onto photographs—highlighting details, tracing shapes, building decorative motifs, or even altering the narrative entirely. Using images of people, landscapes, and everyday scenes from Katie’s personal archive, you’ll explore how simple stitches can shift meaning, add emotional depth, and transform old pictures into contemporary works of art.
Participants are also warmly invited to bring their own photographs. Whether it’s a family portrait, a snapshot of a favourite place, or an old print found in a drawer, you’ll have the opportunity to reinterpret your chosen image through a combination of thread, colour, and imagination. No previous sewing experience is needed—just curiosity and a willingness to play.
By the end of the session, you’ll leave with your own embroidered photograph and a new appreciation for how needlework can connect memory, narrative, and creativity.
Come experiment with thread, image, and story—and stitch new meaning into the past.
Bright Lights Youth Arts Festival 2026
Saturday 21 February – Saturday 28 February
A celebration of creativity featuring free workshops and special events across the city for young people aged 11-19.
Bright Lights Youth Arts Festival 2026 is part of Culture Start, an exciting programme designed to help children and young people in Sunderland take part in free creative and cultural events.
