January 2026 Newsletter
WELCOME FROM OUR CHAIRS
Welcome to 2026
To celebrate the New Year we are delighted to unveil our newly redesigned website.
The new homepage offers a vibrant introduction to who we are, with direct access to our blog and a growing archive of past exhibitions.
On the About page, you’ll discover our history, what inspires us, how we began, and our vision for the future. Our Members’ page introduces all our artists, with examples of their work and artist statements. The Blog page which will be updated monthly, shows you what members are up to and where to find them.
January is an especially exciting time for PRISM, as we prepare submissions for our upcoming exhibition at the Art Pavilion Mile End in London this April. Artists may submit either finished works or works in progress, to be reviewed later in the month by a selection panel. From this, the final works for the exhibition will be chosen.
This year’s exhibition entitled ‘Dictionary’ explores the hidden meanings embedded in words: their origins, their shifting forms across centuries, their misunderstandings, transformations, and cultural echoes. Through the magic of stitch and the limitless possibilities of textile materials, members will investigate new ways of expressing ideas, developing fresh interpretations and unexpected constructs using everything from cloth to stone, silk to steel.
To finish off here is something for your March cultural diary, ‘The Stitch Festival’ 19 – 22 March, at the Business Design Centre, London. PRISM newsletter subscribers will be eligible for a discount on tickets, using the code: PRISM26
www.thestitchfestival.co.uk T&Cs: £2 off standard adult / concession tickets only. Offer not valid on Afternoon tickets, VIP, Child or group tickets, or on Sunday 22nd March. Offer expires 11th March 2026. Booking fee applies.
Wishing you an inspiring and creative year.
Thank you very much
Wolfgang Woerner, Chair
Jane Riley, Vice Chair
MEMBERS IN THE SPOTLIGHT THIS MONTH
CATH GRIFFITHS
During Covid, Cath started walking alone and focused on her surroundings. Engaging with the present through a steady rhythm, she rooted her work in capturing the mood of wandering and examining her ‘findings’.
Her practice includes working directly with her hands manipulating commonplace fabrics which are portable, soft, and comforting. She seeks to evoke a quiet and reflective calm, making connections with the minimum of tools. Labour intensive and time-consuming, it grants space for rhythm, repetition, listening and reflection. Each new environment is a fresh encounter. Beginning with numerous rapid, small sketches to document her experiences she takes time to reflect and gather inspiration. Transforming fleeting moments into a personal story assembled from the fragments. This process brings her a sense of comfort, both physically and emotionally.
PATTI TAYLOR
Patti Taylor is a textile artist, printmaker, and bookbinder. She began her artistic studies on retirement after a career in IT, studying textiles, fine art, printmaking, and bookbinding at City Lit and the London Print Studio.
Her work is in the Printmakers’ Council collection at Scarborough Museum, and the V&A’s textile collection (collaborative artwork: Sewn Antidote 2020), and frequently exhibits in group exhibitions throughout Great Britain. Emotional attachment drives Patti’s work. She records her personal narrative and research in notebooks, often focusing on Spurn Point's landscape and history. After her daughter suffered brain injury and became blind from meningitis, Patti found poetry and stitching helpful in processing the trauma. She works across media—wall hangings, textile and mixed media books, 3D structures, always seeking a correspondence between the subject matter, its underpinning philosophy, and the form of the material.
CONSUELO SIMPSON
Consuelo approaches making as an engaged process between maker and material. She combines traditional techniques—such as netting, printmaking, bookbinding, and gilding—with materials like string, paper, twigs, bones, plaster, and found objects.
Using handmade cordage and nets, Consuelo assembles sculptures and wall-mounted works that celebrate the history and memories held by objects displaced from their original context. Alongside these, prints and works on paper, often presented in book form, reflect an ongoing fascination with human ingenuity and the ubiquitous presence of string throughout history. Artworks are always evolving. She views form as temporary and open to change, adapting concepts through hands-on engagement with each medium. Her process uncovers surprises and captures moments of enchantment, encouraging viewers to see the world anew and connect deeply with it.
AMANDA BLOOM
Texture and colour are an important part of Amanda’s textile work, and she is fascinated by the juxtaposition of opposing materials; hard versus soft, sensual versus austere. Often including visceral, disturbing arrangements alongside beautiful textures and colours, which attract the viewer in, and at the same time repel or shock. Her pieces explore vulnerability, exposure, and transformation.
Her ‘Reliquaries’ series transforms unsettling objects into delicate relics, prompting reflection on memory and what we hold sacred. The ‘Paradoxes’ book pieces, inspired by illuminated texts, reveal complexity in religious history, while ‘Spilling Her Guts’ and ‘Thinking Out Loud’ uncover internal experiences through visceral arrangements. Amanda’s organic process lets materials shape each piece, inviting viewers to consider their own lives and relationships.
IRENA WILLMOTT
Irena is interested in the possibilities of the material felt, to convey and reflect on, the nature of ‘how we feel’ through ‘how we felt’, often metaphorically.
She integrates felt with a range of materials—from iron and wood to gold, fabric, metal waste, aluminium cans, hair, and recently blister packs to explore themes of entanglement, waste, protection, comfort, and repair. Through this diverse material exchange, her work highlights transitional spaces that invite reflection on emotion and connection. She poses questions such as ‘What are the possibilities for connectivity and repair’? ‘Is this a straight line’? ‘Is there a way out’? considering how deeply we are entangled, much like felt itself.
BARBARA PHELPS
Barbara’s work is conceptual and mostly three dimensional, reflecting her background in theatre. She mainly focuses on themes of personal identity, memory, space, and loss and usually begins with an emotional response to something seen or read, an object, a quote or a written article that resonates with her in some way. More recently she has focused on the fragility of relationships and the fluctuating emotions of grief.
Her techniques depend upon the requirements of the concept and may include stitch, fabric manipulation, printing, and text, while the materials range from vintage linens and cottons to plastics, wire, and plaster, each specifically chosen to express the concept. The process can be quite physical, emotional, repetitive, and therapeutic.
SAVE THE DATES
Prism is a vibrant group of 66 textile artists dedicated to exchanging ideas, developing skills, and exhibiting work at a professional level. Membership callouts take place every two years.
Learn more about our mission and upcoming opportunities by clicking here.