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OUR TUTORS
Forest Aston
Forest is a botanical potter and ceramics tutor based in Faversham. Her practice is guided by the wild plants of each season, gathered from local hedgerows, meadows, and woodlands and pressed into clay to preserve their fleeting forms. With a longstanding interest in herbal medicine, she incorporates medicinal plants into her work, celebrating their healing histories and quiet significance.
Forest delivers workshops and courses for adults and young people of all abilities. She teaches hand-building techniques with a focus on botanical imprinting and surface decoration, encouraging students to slow down, observe closely, and experiment with natural materials. Through this process, she supports them in creating pieces that are not only beautiful, but rich with personal meaning.
Erin Byrne
Erin Byrne is a painter/printmaker based in Kent. After 15 years working in architecture and urban design, she decided to leave her job as an architect and focus on her deepest passion – fine art. Erin currently works in the Visual Arts department at Canterbury College, runs freelance art workshops in London and Kent, and collaborates with community organisations to increase access to the arts.
Erin is inspired by the sensory play of light in architecture and landscape, and when making work, loves to let incidental distortion, patternation and abstraction inform the outcome. She also loves to combine painterly aspects of traditional and digital print methods in her work including mono-screenprinting, monotype, linocut and digital giclee printing.
Erin is also interested in how mark-making, mindfulness and self-expression can positively impact mental health, and her main objective in teaching is to help participants find their creative side, learn new techniques, and most importantly - have fun!
Anne Davison
Anne studied printed textiles at university and established a long running fashion textile design brand in Shoreditch in 1985, selling worldwide to the fashion industry. Recently relocated to East Kent, Anne now runs a small art business, focusing on mixed media collage, printmaking, pattern and colour, producing original artwork, limited edition prints and stationery products.
Anne is an experienced educator, tutoring and delivering a wide range of workshops to people of all abilities and experience. She is an enthusiastic and positive tutor, who encourages experimentation, creativity and the enjoyment of all types of printmaking.
Caroline Dekkers
Caroline graduated with an English degree from Kings College London and went on to study a Masters degree at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. A career in television followed, working as a freelancer for the BBC and C4.
After moving to Amsterdam she pursued her love of writing, and was published in many international magazines, covering stories from drag artists, to tulip fields. In 2017 she trained to be a counsellor and currently balances her time between family and working with clients. Caroline sees creativity, and writing in particular, as a form of self-exploration, self-care and a return to the imaginative freedom that can be so easily stunted in our ‘grown up’ lives.
Ieuan Edwards
Ieuan Edwards is a professional printmaker, specialising in the linocut medium. He has exhibited widely, including at the Royal Academy, Mall Galleries, Somerset House and Bankside Gallery and has developed a reputation for bold, detailed prints inspired by natural and man-made forms. His work combines meticulous craftsmanship with a strong sense of design and texture.
Alongside his studio practice, Ieuan runs workshops for beginners and experienced artists alike, guiding participants through the linocut process in a supportive, hands-on environment. He specialises in techniques that are accessible at home without expensive equipment, helping participants to create high-quality prints using simple, affordable tools such as barens and wooden spoons. His workshops combine practical skill-building with creative exploration, aiming for participants to leave inspired and confident to continue making prints.
Anna Falcini
Anna Falcini is a multi-disciplinary artist who lives and works in the UK. She received her PhD in Fine Art Practice from the University of Brighton (2021) and an MA in Textiles from Goldsmiths College (2002).
Her creative practice explores the sensory dialogues of the body and the hidden materials of knowledge that are dormant. She is recipient of a British Council commission to explore the life of the late Welsh artist Gwen John in Paris
Hope Fitzgerald
Hope Fitzgerald runs Bindfulness Handmade Books and is a bookbinder, artist and workshop leader based in Faversham. Hope studied Fine Art and Art History at Skidmore College (New York) and was awarded an MA in Fine Art with Distinction from the University for the Creative Arts (Canterbury) in 2009, and a PGCE from Canterbury Christchurch in 2012.
Hope discovered bookbinding in her early 50s and was drawn to its satisfying mix of structure, creativity, and hands-on problem solving. Hope’s artwork had repeatedly featured books in various guises, so discovering more about the craft was a natural progression. Largely self-taught, she has refined her skills through practice, short courses, and the support of generous bookbinding communities.
Hope is an experienced arts educator with a clear, encouraging teaching style. She is dedicated to celebrating the joy and wellbeing that creative making brings. Whether you're a complete beginner or returning maker, Hope’s workshops are thoughtful, fun, and guided by a passion for excellence and connection.
Michelle Goggi
Michelle is a primarily a narrative painter whose work is a rich, colourful exploration of the ideas of self, life rituals, and the experiences that shape us all. Michelle studied Fine Art & Photography at Staffordshire University gaining a first class honours degree and has recently joined the Turps Margate painting programme.
Michelle is also a trained wellness practitioner who is a qualified meditation guide, hypnotherapist, sound therapist and shamanic practitioner.
Sam Halliwell
Sam has been making jewellery for many years, working primarily in silver metal clay since around 2009. Drawn to its versatility and expressive potential, she enjoys creating simple, elegant pieces designed to be worn every day.
In 2024, Sam gained a Jewellers Academy diploma, during which she explored a wide range of silver clay techniques, and advanced her technical skills. Alongside making jewellery, she now teaches silver metal clay to students, sharing both the practical knowledge and the creative confidence needed to work with this remarkable material. Her aim is to show just how exciting, accessible, and beautiful silver clay can be.
Jude Kingshott
Jude is a mixed media and textile artist, based in Kent. She teaches extensively in Europe and has exhibited internationally in both solo and group shows. She works with cloth and paper.
Her working processes include eco printing, Shibori, natural dyeing, book binding, mark making and hand stitching. Inspiration comes from many sources, including nature, the environment, poetry, song lyrics, other artists and her love of travelling. She specialises in Indigo Dye, having studied and worked extensively in both Japan and France with Indigo Masters, covering both setting up vats and shibori techniques.
Ellen Leedham
Ellen Leedham is the founder of Salthouse Design, an interior design studio based in Kent. With a degree in Interior Design from the UCA and a background in visual styling, Ellen brings a thoughtful and approachable perspective to every project.
She works across a variety of residential and development projects collaborating with private clients, homeowners and property developers to create spaces that feel considered, personal and beautifully balanced. Her work is grounded in a love of natural materials, layered textures and design that feels effortless yet lived-in.
Ilse Mikula
Ilse Mikula is a South African artist based in Faversham. After completing a degree at Chelsea College of Art and a PGCE at Goldsmiths University, she exhibited in several galleries in East London. Alongside her own artistic practice, she has extensive experience teaching drawing and painting.
Ilse’s work is inspired by capturing the light and atmosphere of a place, often working plein air across a range of media. Her portfolio spans diverse forms, from community arts projects in South Africa to installation works in London incorporating light, photography, and animation.
Nick Morley
Nick Morley is an artist, illustrator, author and educator specialising in linocut. Nick lives and works in Margate where he runs Hello Print Studio.
He has been teaching linocut workshops since 2007 and has taught all over the UK as well as in Ireland, France and Italy.
Nick is always happy to share his wealth of knowledge and has written two books: Linocut for Artists and Designers (Crowood, 2016) and Linocut: Learn in a Weekend (Skittledog, 2023).
Emily Rose Parris
Emily Rose Parris is a photographer & arts educator based in Kent. Having studied photography at Kingston University, Emily now runs a community darkroom at Beach Creative in Herne Bay. She is also a wedding, family & brand photographer, with a focus on candid photography.
Emily is an experienced tutor, delivering a wide range of workshops to people of all ages both onsite in her darkroom, and out in the wider community. She encourages her participants to be experimental and explorative, working with cyanotype, chemigrams, pinhole cameras, photogram printing, and lots more.
Garry Parsons
Garry Parsons is an artist and Illustrator living in Herne Bay on the Kent coast. He studied Fine Art at Canterbury, specialising in painting and drawing, and later completed an MA in Illustration and Sequential Design at the University of Brighton.
Garry’s career as an illustrator extends over two decades working with some of the UK’s most respected children’s book authors as well as illustrating regularly for editorial, advertising and merchandise design. His fine art practise focuses on the natural world, and considers the place of nature in our lives through the medium of charcoal. Garry is perpetually curious about the roots of drawing. Drawing forms the basis of all his creative endeavours.
Carolina Pik
Carolina is an Argentinean-Chilean ceramist living and making pots in Margate.
Her work is mostly hand-built ceramics, inspired by interior design, Brutalist architecture, maths and geometry. The use of black stoneware clay and white porcelain, often combined with vivid glazes, gives her stunning work a high contrast, dramatic and distinctive style.
She is currently working on a series of moon jars. Carolina teaches hand building using the slab method, enabling students to learn practical clay techniques while crafting beautiful black ceramics.
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