Sunday 19 & 26 July 2026, 2 - 5pm BST: Cut-paper Collage with Marion Elliot

Online Workshop with Marion Elliot

Sunday 19 & 26 July 2026, 2 - 5pm BST (British Summer Time)

Marion Elliot is an illustrator and designer working mainly in the medium of paper. She began making cut-paper collage around ten years ago, continuing a career in illustration and publishing, where she worked as a writer of design books, art director and stylist. She started to experiment with collage as a way of freeing-up her working process and as a step away from purely commercial work. She has long been fascinated by folk art and has a great love of shop fronts, fairgrounds, hand painted signage, advertising imagery and typography, tattoos, workers guild banners, mottos, religious iconography and paper ephemera. The medium of cut paper collage allows her produce images in a spontaneous and immediate way and is the perfect vehicle for her love of pattern and decoration. She creates intricate cut-paper pictures that celebrate the process of making heritage crafts such as basketmaking, quilting and Harris Tweed weaving. In each case, the tools and materials are just as important a part of the image as the people who populate her pictures and are meticulously researched and reproduced in scraps of paper. She is interested in the innate humour of situations and this is frequently evident in her work. As well as creating one-off collages for exhibition, she also works with a wide range of clients such as French perfumier Fragonard, Tinsmiths of Ledbury, The Shop Floor Project and Archivist Gallery to produce collections for interiors, packaging and textile design.

Workshop Description
In this workshop, you will explore the enchanting world of papercutting and learn about the different folk art traditions that use this expressive medium, from the Scherenschnitte papercuts of Switzerland to the Wycinanki tradition popular in Poland and Ukraine. Through a series of guided exercises, you will learn the fundamental techniques of papercutting, such as making symmetrical elements, fold-and-cut techniques to create lengths of paper ribbon and the use of shaped scissors to make decorative edging. You will be encouraged to develop an expressive personal visual vocabulary that will allow you to create your own papercut designs for applications such as collage and decorative patternmaking. Templates will be provided as a starting point and freeform design is encouraged as confidence grows. There are no rules with papercutting and the emphasis in this workshop is on the contemplative act of selecting colours, creating repetitive shapes and constructing patterns and simple images that relate back to Folk Art. 

Included in Your Material Pack:

• Pack of 200 sheets of double-sided coloured Origami paper 
• Scissors with three separate shaped blades for decorative edging
• Pack of 50 folded greetings card blanks
• Glue stick
• Simple templates

Additional Materials to Bring:

• Embroidery scissors
• Notebook/paper
• Pencil
• Ruler

Level
No experience is necessary, all levels are welcome.

Please Note: Material packs are shipped on an insured, trackable delivery service. Any customs duties, delays, lost or undeliverable packages are the responsibility of the customer. Once a material pack leaves the workshop tutors' hands with a tracking number, the seller has no further obligation to the buyer.

If we reach capacity, we may close bookings. Be mindful that we must close bookings at least 3 weeks before the workshop, in order to ship material packs. Book now to avoid disappointment.

Location
This is an online event. A Zoom link will be sent to participants the week before the workshop.

Recording
This workshop will be recorded, and a link to the recording will be emailed to all participants. Please allow 7 working days for us to send you the recording.



Cancellation Policy

All places reserved for workshops are non-refundable. 

If you require additional information about this workshop please contact events@selvedge.org.

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