FACILITY TRAINING | TUFTING WITH NIAMH COFFEY

Description

Over this two day workshop, Niamh will introduce participants to the tufting processes; teaching you everything from how to use a tufting gun, designing work suitable for this medium, tufting your own rug or wall hanging, to learning how to finish your tufted work with shaping, backing and hemming.

Participants will leave the workshop with a finished tufted work and the knowledge to make more using A4 Sounds’ tufting equipment.

Day 1 (4 hours):

• Designing rugs
• Tufting gun practice
• Create rugs 
• Glue backs

Day 2 (3 hours): 

• Cut out rugs and glue edges
• Shape the rugs with a shearing tool
• Back and hem the rugs

Max Participants: 4

Location: Dead Room/Textile Area

Cost: 60.00*

*If you can’t afford this atm, there will be one free spot for those that need it.

Facilitator Bio

Niamh Coffey is a Dublin-based artist from Laois, working through textiles and sculpture. Their work experiments and collages ideas from ecology, queer theory and Irish folklore to create imagined ecological relationships. Their debut solo exhibition was held in Cultúrlann, Belfast in March 2025. Niamh graduated from NCAD in 2016 with an honours degree in Sculpture and Expanded Practices. Niamh’s debut solo exhibition was held in Cultúrlann,Belfast in March 2025 and shown again in Pallas Projects in May 2025 as part of their Artist-Initiated Projects.

Previous exhibitions in which their work has featured include: Borders at Rua Red; Work/Force/Field/ at A4 Sounds and; Atelier Páipéar at Workhouse Union. Upcoming shows in 2026 include solo exhibitions at Custom House Gallery, Westport and GOMA, Waterford. In 2023, Niamh took part in peripheriesPOST, an experimental art school and mentorship programme in Gorey School of Art. In 2022, Niamh received an Agility Award from the Arts Council. In 2024, they were awarded Laois County Council’s Tyrone Guthrie Centre Residency Bursary and an Arts Act Grant in 2025.

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Skillsharing: If you have specific things you would like to learn we suggest practicing the basics on your own time first until you are confident, and then use online tutorials on YouTube or similar to up your skills.

We also encourage you to team up and share skills and tips. You can start a group in ‘Art Gangs’ or use this one to chat, share links and ask questions!

Please Note: Use ‘Discussions Tab’ and start a new discussion if you would like a reply.

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