Over the decades of my time teaching, I have met many talented individuals. Whether they prefer to be called students, artists in their own right or just simply participants, I thank them all.

I have managed to gather a few who have kindly allowed me to share their work and words with my own audience here.

Lise Petheram Howie

Having coincided over the years within our University educations, Lise and I have long since kept in touch from a distance, as she lives across seas. I love her strong style especially to be observed in her facial images. I feel like I could walk into a gallery and pick her out - stark, distinct, a silent message translated in whatever media she offers.

Years went by and then I had the opportunity to invite artists to ‘sit’ in my book Narrative Textiles with me - Lise was an obvious choice and you will find her used twice. I asked her to provide me with a few comments to use alongside her work….

‘I have long admired Ailish’s work, so when the opportunity arose to join one of her workshops at The Biscuit Factory, one of my favourite art spaces, I jumped at the chance.

Her values around family and history resonate deeply with my own practice. Creating portraits of family and loved ones with scraps of “found” or repurposed textiles aligns perfectly with the stories I want to tell. The workshop offered not only the space to create, but also the pleasure of connecting with others, of hearing a little of their life stories and inspirations. That sense of shared creativity filled a gap sometimes missing in the solitude of my home ‘studio’. This particular piece began with a blind contour drawing of my sister and brother-in-law. It incorporates a brooch from my late mother’s costume jewellery collection alongside vintage fabrics from my grandmother’s sewing boxes, weaving together fragments of family memory into something new.’

Click the image to the left to see more of her work.

Rhonda a storyteller and artist joined me for a two week stitch school. Her work has flourished from personal natural and familial resources. Using my course structure as a guide, she developed the following works. She said this of her time spent learning with myself:

‘I really enjoyed the first Stitch Club workshop you did several years ago. There was a significant breakthrough for me, as I am normally precise and particular. If you look at Blue Woman, I started being very precise with the hair but because of your encouragement I just “went for it” with the face and became really loose with the machine. While I did not initially like the results, other people responded to it, especially the bars across the mouth. Interestingly I hung it in an exhibition and an acquaintance who teaches at an art school bought it because it had emotion. That gave me a lot of confidence. I did four birds and accompanying limericks for an exhibition and three of them sold. The cassowary was a bit scary!

 I was initially lukewarm about the second workshop and queried whether it had anything new to offer. However, I have to admit that I was quite amazed at some of the work that others produced from it that was clearly meaningful to them. It touched a chord. I decided to do some pieces to accompany a story I had written about lollies. It was more related to the first workshop than the second. The first piece with the fairy floss was meant to have a child looking happy and excited. Instead she looks angry and miserable. I could not believe what a disaster it was and posted it on the SC site to encourage people to share their failures as well as successes. However, she helped people have fun. She was a child having a tantrum. So I have come to trust that free motion embroidery will produce interesting results…even if it’s not what you’re expecting.’

Rhonda Stien

‘These are some faces that I made after a previous workshop with Ailish a few years ago. I am posting them here just to encourage people to go on and try making imaginary faces as well as family portraits. Although not as meaningful as making family portraits, it does free you up from trying to get a decent likeness of a person and allows you to use other means if you don’t have many family photos. They are good fun (all done on Khadi paper). I am more than grateful to Ailish for the inspiration that took me in this direction.’

Lesley Jackson

Steph Kay

Steph joined me for a workshop on familial ties. She chose to study her father and herself as her two focus points. She made these reflective narrations during her time with myself. She has kindly allowed me to reveal them here:

I’m on a roll with this workshop and prepared this pair of self-portraits from a photo taken on a holiday in Norfolk in 2011. I stitched the portrait a few years ago, and it stayed unused in my sketchbook. I remember I’d had a stressful couple of weeks at work, covering a colleague’s job as well as my own and left home with our caravan in a rush with very few items and just the pair of shoes I was wearing at the time. I was contemplating leaving my job when I returned. My husband took the photo in black & white without my knowledge. We’d stopped at the ‘Broads’ for drinks and I’d taken photos of tree bark and cow parsley. Despite the lack of clothes and footwear, I had a lovely relaxing time away, got over the stress and continued my job, setting some boundaries for myself. I retired 2 years later, earlier than expected, but that’s another story ..

‘My other collage piece is of my father who was born 1925, died 1985 and would be 100 yrs so thought it appropriate. I never knew him, he was in my life for just over 2 yrs and I saw him around 3 times up to the time my mum remarried when I was 13. She didn’t allow me to talk about him, her divorce was bitter and I grew up with a feeling that half my history was missing until 2012 after I was reunited with my cousins, his nephews. The youngest provided me with background and I also spoke to my half sister in 2015 after her brother died. Contact has now been lost but gaps in my life have been filled. I’ve added a page from his schoolbook, his diary from 1951, the year he married my mum (no mention in his diary, it was his fishing diary). I’ve added fabrics I think he would wear at the time, I remember him always in a jacket looking smart, although we were in Bahrain where I was born and I have photos of him in patterned shirts. I’ve also added a photo of my youngest son, who I feel has shared a similar path to me, as he’s been brought up from 3 yrs by his stepdad and is also a traveller and now works in the USA in design, so a similar path to my father. I also think I can see similar facial features as my dad. My father was a draughtsman working for an American oil company and moved countries several times, sadly we weren’t to follow him.

I’ve enjoyed this collage it’s purposely styled in an ‘orderly’ way as I think that’s how my dad would have been but after I’ve stitched it I won’t be dwelling on it as after a few years of therapy, having not been allowed to mention him, I’ve finally moved on and completing this piece helps me acknowledge this - so thank you Ailish I’ve managed to remain detached whilst compiling his pieces’

Once you click on her artwork image seen left, you will be taken to a curated gallery of her work. The examples visually convey how one can work through the stages of a familial artwork.

Anat is an artist from Jerusalem. She joined me for a two week intensive club and this is what she had to say:

‘I have done a workshop with Ailish Henderson.

The idea was to make a portrait inspired by a photo of family member we don't know much about. At the beginning we were asked to do a bit of research about this family member and for me this research was very meaningful. 

This workshop was very much my kind of workshop because it was very open ended and I could interpret it in my way which was very different than her way, both in technique and style and not even really a portrait (she emphasized that we do not have to take the word "portrait" very literally).

I also appreciated Ailish's participation in the community. She posted almost every day an inspirational post. This is not required of her and most tutors don't do that.

I believe everyone can find something interesting to do in her workshops.’

Anat David-artman

‘Many thanks for the enjoyable workshop that led me into some very interesting conversations with my brother and the history of midwifery in the 1920's!

When I first watched the workshop, I honestly thought it wasn't for me! Ailish's approach was so inspirational and different. A few days later I couldn't stop thinking about it and wanting to know more about my Great Grandmother. I thoroughly enjoyed the process and had great fun creating a piece pulling together all the various aspects of her life as well as addressing why I had been so scared of her as a child! I may well do more!'

Maggie Rastall

‘I attended Ailish Henderson’s online workshop ‘Capturing the magic of character’ through Stitchclub at textileartist.org. In this workshop Ailish led us through the process of creating a piece of work of someone who is meaningful to us but who we may not know, such as a family member who we never met. She gave us tools to inform the work, encouraging us to research the person and create a mood board to bring our ideas of the person together. Portraits of the person are developed through the use of loose sketches and collages.

I thoroughly enjoyed the workshop as Ailish’s teaching encouraged me to try new skills and she gave generous feedback on my progress throughout. The workshop linked to my interest in family history and so I focused on my grandfather who I never met. I will use the skills and techniques learnt in the workshop to do further work on other ancestors.’

Trish Matthews

I met Deborah through teaching an online workshop which she joined. Her work themes surrounded personal reflections and findings when soul seeking via familial historical research, made during this time period. Her East African childhood came into this. She even began to work on fictional characters created from her own imagination. She explains in her own words: ‘As she came to life, a deeper connection to my childhood in East African was awakened…….as an artist I felt the work becoming a healing journey guided by this imaginary Healer. Ailish’s feed back and encouragement , along with that of other SC members was also a beautiful and happily nourishing part of this creative process.’

She made there comments about my teaching itself:

‘I think there are two options when taking a mini workshop of two weeks. The first is to try to replicate the tutors example and techniques, the other is to use it as a point of inspiration and free fall using personal style and experiences.
Watching Ailish in her well explained video tutorials, her clear and easy to follow instructions made it enticing to participate. Using readily  available resources, and basic tools, scissors, glue, thread, paper etc her workshop is un intimidating. Her commitment to constant and immediate feedback , with her quirky charm and generous detail to answers questions , help with challenges , encouraging and ever smiling and enthusiastic energy she’s an example to behold as a teacher and fellow artist.


Watching the development of my own project and that of others in our group proved that her leadership and time was appreciated and added greatly to an artistic growth for us all. Thank you, we all look forward to your next workshop, and seeing your next creations as an artist. The talent oozes out of this woman!’

By clicking on the image to the left, you will be taken to a gallery of her work, which depicts a great visual narrative of research and subsequent creative progress.

Deborah Millward

Joekie Blom

Depiction of Great Grandmother in paint and collage. I loved the delicate facial detail which lies in opposition to the somewhat somber black lace. Usage of natural findings such as a leaf skeleton is a nudge to us all to look for plant based items as creative tools.

She says of the class she took with myself:

‘It was a wonderful workshop with Ailish. It was after her inspiration possible for me to go in my imagination to my anchesters who I had never met. With old photo’s I got an impression and made from deep feelings in my heart a quick image from my great grandmother with little pieces of fabric related to her sad story.’

Sue participated in my workshops on familial themes, bringing together both photographs and heritage memorabilia with embroidery.

Sue allowed me to reveal her words here explaining the body of work created:

‘It is a collection of family memories 1906. The inspiration photo is a family portrait from 1906 when my Nana the baby in the photo. Ada on the farthest side of the photo died the following year at 15 years and 8 months old. She was working at the Post Office at the time. They all went to the primary school that was on the same street as they lived in North Adelaide. I loved getting to know Ada and having her as part of our family history to share. Wonderful course with Ailish to return to with other ideas and continue the journey’

Sue Hanrahan

Claire has been a loyal supporter of my practice for years, attending many of my intensive sessions where we directed textile art techniques and the narrative. Often, she has chosen moments of matter within her own familial line, This key image is a finished work based on her own mother - she has captured the blissful qualities of ice cream eating. Another work can be observed via clicking on the image to the left.

Claire Johnson

Barbara Legener

How do we capture a moment, the essence of magic which makes a person a treasure to us personally?  

Barbara used my teaching outlines, delving into her own family history. If you click on the image to the left, you will be taken to a gallery of her work. In her own words, she tells: ‘These are the photos I work from,  My grandfather is in three of the pictures,  Grandma Deering is the Sassy young lady and the older lady in the photo with all the kids- I’m the one blowing up the balloon.  Great Grandma is the older lady surrounded by 5 kids, my Mom and other relatives.’

‘I loved this workshop, wonderful to delve deeper into my family history.  I had to let go of my fear of drawing and loose threads and just go for it.  Great fun!!’

From these familial resources, she began to create the following collection of works. I loved the nods back to her county and the sense of place found within the collage material.

As a member of a prestigious group named Textile Explorers, Judith joined one of my Narrative Textiles intensive workshops. Her work, based on herself is shown here. I love the running stitched areas and the concept of using a dress making pattern as collage fodder.

Judith Rigg

During my Narrative Arts workshop, Xinglin Sun, a Phd candidate from Tongji University, China used familial connections to spike her creative outputs. She chose to focus on her Grandmother. This is what she had to say:

‘My maternal grandmother is 90 years old and recently underwent surgery to remove a tumour. After the operation her mind was still foggy, so my mum and I brought her some old photographs to help spark her memory. This portrait is based on a photo taken when she was in her early twenties. When we showed her the photograph and asked who it was, she said it was a friend of hers. I wanted this piece to hold both age and youth at once, expressed through the textures of textiles.

When I shared the work with a very old friend of mine, he asked if it was a self-portrait. In some way, I suppose it is. I was once an egg cell inside my grandma’s body. I too have been in my early twenties, and one day I will be as old as she is, perhaps old enough not to recognise my own face.’


Xinglin Sun