the friends of platt hall x manchester day 2026!
back in may i received a DM from liz pugh, the woman behind walk the plank, asking if i was interested in being a lead artist (!!!) and partner up with the friends of platt hall to create costumes and/or parade props for and with their community members. of course i said YES!!! because it's been years since i've had a chance to take part in manchester day, but i had volunteered under artist alison duddle in 2017 and 2018, and then hired by walk the plank as a junior artist/mentee in 2019. covid happened, i fell off the radar, but by god, i was glad to be BACK on that radar. and so began a whirlwind of activity where i met new people, shared a technique i love, and got to contribute to an event that means so much to me.
first things first, i had a meeting on the 2nd june with the friends of platt hall, and their group organiser, arthur, a health and wellbeing coach at a GP that's paired up with platt hall for wellness walks - and he would be my point person for the group. we'd been told the theme of this year was "the national year of reading," so we'd been asked to connect our work in some way to a book.
so i asked for some books! platt hall actually delivers most of its information via a hands-on approach and they do a lot of word of mouth distribution of knowledge, that is, by giving tours all the time, so they didn't have any specific literature that was significant to them, but curator laura brought out this fabric printing pattern sample book (pictured above) in platt hall's collection, originally from a nearby textile factory in the manchester area, and also as an object it links in to the building's history as a textile and costume gallery. so this was the book we chose to be inspired by, and we were reading the history through the fabric.
recently i've been obsessed with block printing, so i floated the idea of us printing our own fabric samples together, and then stitching them together into costumes and flags that would represent the community of platt hall by using imagery of things they connected with in the collections.
i sent them some design sketches, they said "yeah let's do it," so the next month, we were booked in for three weekly group making sessions inside of platt hall itself with the local community members themselves.
SESSION 1 (7th july): participants began to get to know the process of lino carving to make printing blocks. it was very new to a lot of people, but we figured it out together! arthur kindly brought out a bunch of postcards of various items in the collection, so the friends were able to get some visual inspiration for their carving blocks.
i asked them to think about creating designs that related to platt hall not just in the sense of an object in the building, but also in the abstract sense, so maybe something that relates to how they feel about the space they use, so we did also get things like love hearts and butterflies and even a rowboat (relating to the big pond in platt fields) alongside the blocks based on collection objects.
in between this session, i spent the next 2 days at platt hall, using the space as a studio all to myself! very freeing to have the room to spread out, so i started printing a few large sheets of coloured fabric with a block i carved of the building itself.
and then, when platt hall wasn't available, i continued to carve extra printing blocks and print extra fabric at home over the weekend. i'd gone around taking photos of items in the collection that weren't printed on postcards, including the windows in the space we worked, some flowers growing outside in the garden, and some things i found when visiting platt hall's 100 objects webpage, and made blocks from those too. see here:
SESSION 2 (14th july): carving skills under our belts, the friends of platt hall began to PRINT!!! i'd pre-cut some fabric panels, but my mentee, grace, gave me an extra hand cutting up the rest. the friends then got to work inking up their blocks and creating repeat patterns and bespoke designs. since we were really focusing on the community themself, i loved that everyone was sharing and using each others carved printing blocks to make something really collaborative. here's just a tiny fraction of what we made: i particularly like the "gallery of costume" logo carved by one participant, harkening to platt hall's history as that very former costume gallery.
inbetween this session and the next, i had one day at platt hall for some studio time to keep printing in, (grace and arthur kindly helped me) and then another weekend of working from home, this time using fabric paint to make some "filler" fabric panels, based specifically on the patterns we looked at in the inspiring fabric pattern book. once dry, i made a couple sample flags, and a sample vest (based on my design sketches from way back in june, and modelled by my partner below) from the fabric so that i could share some finished products with the group next time i saw them!
SESSION 3 (21st july): the final group session with the friends of platt hall! on this day, we divided up the work, with some people on the sewing machines stitching fabric panels together into larger workable pieces, and the rest printing as much fabric as humanly possible.
on this day, alexis and jess from walk the plank also came along to do report writing and feedback taking. alexis and i had met many years ago when i was a volunteer under alison duddle, so it was lovely catching up! she reminded me that manchester day's ethos is "don't worry about the back," and that kimble-tying things together is valid, so emboldened by that, i knew i could manage the end stretch without a meltdown.
after that, all that was left was for me to turn all the printed fabric and sewn panels into more flags and wearables! i took everything home and began sewing that tuesday evening, and spent the next day finishing off. due to the amount of fabric we had vs the estimated parade participants (15 people!) i had to pivot from making vests to making sashes, but flags were fine too.
by the evening of wednesday, 22nd july, i'd put together 15 things to wear, and 15 things to wave. i even put together a "styling options" guide for the sashes with printed photos and tucked that into the bags i crammed everything into. my styling suggestions below right, and left are the sashes all laid out on my living room floor.
the morning of thursday 23rd july, i said goodbye to my makes, and dropped off my rather understated bag of compact, rolled up, fabric-based parade items at the great northern unit 5 workspace where all the other artists had also been hard at work making things. everything i got a little peek at looked SO good!!! below photo on the left is how is how my own makes looked the last time i saw everything in person.
i also quickly whipped up a facepaint design for the facepainting team - i was told something on the cheeks is always good, so i went with a little flower-esque design based on these glass charms in platt hall's collection, above right!
and then all i had to do was wait and see what happened next! unfortunately i was already occupied and away in another country on the day of the event, and nervous when i set off as the weather the morning of the parade was typically manchester rainy, but just look at these photos of the friends of platt hall all dressed up so beautifully! loved seeing which sash styling options they picked, some i hadn't even considered!
arthur and the friends even made it into the photo roundup in this manchester evening news article! classic manchester, with the rainy photo. love how ironic the article headline is when placed next to the friends all getting rained upon 😂
but i think everything came out really well! it looks pretty much like i was imagining when i was in the design stage, so i'm super happy with it all in the end! 🥹💖 i wish i could have been there in person to join my dear friends of platt hall but i'm so so honoured to have been able to make them some parade things! hope i get to do something this wonderful again sometime! what a joy! 🥳🤸🏼🏁
