TAMBALAN: Stitching Stories of Care and Connection

Join Ophelia Dos Santos to create a small textile patch using hand embroidery that expresses an act of care, recognition, or healing.
About this Event

Inspired by the Tambalan project and its exploration of healing, identity, care, social justice, and collective action, this workshop invites participants to reflect on the stories, people, and places that have shaped them. Through hand embroidery, participants will create a small textile patch that expresses an act of care, recognition, or healing.

Drawing connections between Javanese traditions of repair and healing and Welsh textile heritage, the workshop considers stitching as both a practical and symbolic act. Across Wales, textiles have long carried stories through quilting, wool production, mending, and domestic craft traditions. Similarly, embroidery can become a way of recording memory, honouring experience, and strengthening community connections.

Participants will be encouraged to explore one of the project's central verbs (for example: Listen, Support, Respect, or Care) and translate this idea into stitched imagery, words, symbols, or patterns inspired by their own experiences.

Aims

Participants will:

• Learn basic hand embroidery techniques.
• Explore Welsh textile traditions as forms of storytelling and community memory.
• Reflect on themes of care, healing, identity, and belonging.
• Share personal stories and experiences in a supportive environment.
• Contribute to a collective textile piece that represents diverse voices and experiences.