Stitched Pamphlet Making Workshop with Christina Riley

In this hands-on pamphlet-making workshop, participants will choose one humble ingredient from the natural world and learn how to make a three-stitch pamphlet, with cover and recipe card pocket, to celebrate its role in the food we grow, cook, eat and share.

Christina Riley will guide you through the making of your book and materials will be provided to decorate your cover and inside pages with words, images and recipes inspired by your chosen ingredient.

Please note, this workshop will include the use of sharp objects such as bookbinding awls and sewing needles.

Suitable for all ages/ (young people must be with an accompanied adults due to using sewing needles) 🪡

About Christina Riley:

Christina Riley is a Florida born, Ayrshire based artist and writer whose work explores themes of place, memory, and the natural world. Author of Looking Down at the Stars: Life Beneath the Waves (Saraband, 2025) and The Beach Today (Guillemot Press, 2021), the influence of books and reading on her practice led her to start The Nature Library, exploring the role of literature in times of climate crisis through library installations, workshops, artist’s books, and various art and ecological collaborations.

For Blank Canvas Christina will bring together photography, books and food, inviting local people to share their own recipes, cooking tips and food memories to form a community cookbook. Borrowing her title from artist and enthusiastic cook Georgia O’Keeffe, the project celebrates the beauty of the recipe book, and the value of knowledge sharing in our communities during times of climate, cost of living and misinformation crises. Throughout the month she will design and bind the book, and take a series of photographs developed in Narture's darkroom to illustrate the book. The space will include an installation of The Nature Library dedicated to books on food, growing, agriculture, weather and climate.

BLANK CANVAS PROGRAMME:

Blank Canvas is a six month Artists in Residence programme from June-December 2026 in Make at 30 Newmarket Street, Ayr. Each artist will have a month-long, public-facing artist residency in Ayr, curated by Narture CIC looking at Food and Art. It invites creatives from different disciplines to develop new work in a visible street-level studio, with the process unfolding in real time from making through to final exhibition. The programme focuses on food, art, sustainability and regeneration, and includes community engagement, workshops and open studio practice as part of the work. More info-https://www.instagram.com/p/DVvgTYdjMJq/?igsh=ODFzbmkxYTQzOGxp