Make a straw sampler saturday 11th July
Address
The Oxfordshire Museum
Fletcher's House
Park Street
Woodstock
OX20 1SN
Dates
Saturday 11 Jul 2026, 10.15am-4.15pm
Price
£105 and includes lunch, coffee and tea and all materials
Audience
18+
Join straw artist Penny Maltby for a hands-on session exploring straw working techniques. Learn how straw has shaped our land, communities and customs. Penny will also share some of the history of corn dollies and the harvest during the workshop
In this workshop, you will learn how to prepare the straw ready for working, how to tie a straw workers knot and have the opportunity to create your own traditional harvest knot—a small, decorative token once made to celebrate the harvest or to give as a gesture of affection. We will then work on creating a corn dolly sampler using a variety of plaits and techniques such as the bullwhip plait and traditional 5 and 7 end plaits. There will be a selection of dried flowers and ribbons for you to use to decorate your sampler and harvest knots.
16th July -Oxford Botanic Gardens-Make A Harvest Trophy -Morning session
Thursday 16th July, 2026
Celebrate the harvest of our heritage wheat at Oxford Botanic Gardens, by creating your own harvest trophy. Traditionally, ‘harvest trophies’ or ‘corn dollies’ would be made to celebrate the harvest and displayed at the harvest home supper. At Christmas or Plough Monday it would then be burned, scattered or ploughed back into the land, fulfilling the ancient belief of ‘what comes from the land must be returned to the land’. As well as being an endangered craft, working with straw is a very mindful activity, with benefits to general wellbeing and mental health.
Price: £40 Duration: 10.15am - 12.15pm
16th July - Oxford Botanic Gardens-Make A Harvest Trophy - Afternoon Session
Thursday 16th July, 2026
Celebrate the harvest of our heritage wheat at Oxford Botanic Gardens, by creating your own harvest trophy. Traditionally, ‘harvest trophies’ or ‘corn dollies’ would be made to celebrate the harvest and displayed at the harvest home supper. At Christmas or Plough Monday it would then be burned, scattered or ploughed back into the land, fulfilling the ancient belief of ‘what comes from the land must be returned to the land’. As well as being an endangered craft, working with straw is a very mindful activity, with benefits to general wellbeing and mental health.
Price: £40 Duration: 13.15am - 15.15pm
18th July -Midsummer Crown: The Art of Straw Work
Inspired by summer rituals, celebration and folklore, design and make a midsummer crown.
The Coaching Barn, Wantage.
Cost - from £120
3rd - 5th August -Creative Bookmaking at Oxford Summer School
Monday 3rd August 2026 for 3 days
Creative Bookmaking techniques are used by many artists and hobbyists as a form of communication and artistic expression. They can be interactive, portable, challenge conventional book forms, and made from a wide variety of materials.
They range from simple folded shapes to more abstract and sculptural ones. This course will give you an introduction to this art form as well as insights into how you can incorporate it into your own creative practice or hobby. It is suitable for all, whether you are a practicing artist, a budding book artist, an avid card maker or simply someone who loves to make things with paper. It can also be a fantastic way to use printing off cuts or other left-over bits from projects.
Participants should be comfortable using a scalpel and steel ruler to cut paper and card to attend this course. Please note this is not a bookbinding course.
7th August - Introduction to corn dolly making at Oxford Summer School
Friday 7th August
Learn about the humble material of straw and how it can be used to make decorative and functional objects. Straw skills have been practiced for hundreds of years in farming and folk crafts around the world. Straw work and Corn Dolly making are both Red Listed Endangered Crafts after falling out of mainstream practice due to the mechanisation of crop harvesting.
Today, there has been a resurgence in interest as people appreciate the pleasure of working with a natural and sustainable material and the mindful aspect of working with straw. Some manual dexterity is needed for this course and it is suitable for beginners and those with some previous experience who would like to revisit or improve their skill set.
This course will introduce you to the basics of straw and corn dolly work so you can gain a good understanding of the materials and master a variety of straw working skills. Working with heritage wheat, you will learn how to prepare it and experiment with different plaiting techniques. The aim is to go home with 2 or 3 finished pieces to hang in your home or for gifts.
Previous events
Previous events 2025
Church Farm, Sunningwell Christmas Fair. Beautiful and Useful Craft Fair. Modern Makers Winter Market, Yattenden. Oxford Esty Christmas Market.
New Brewery Arts drop in straw workshop as part of the Cirencester History festival. Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair.
Modern Makers Collective Summer School - Make a Decorative straw folk chandelier.
Oxford Summer School - Creative bookmaking and straw work.
Drop in family events at Harcourt Arboretum, Pitt Rivers Museum
2024 Past Events
Church Farm Christmas in the Barn. Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair. Sandy Lane Farm Market. Milton Cotswold Market. Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair. Modern Makers Winter Market. Made by Hand: Heritage Crafts and Skills at the Weald and Downland Museum. Harvest Knot workshop, Kelmscott Manor.Urban Village Festival. Oxford Harcourt Arboretum Spring Fair - drop in straw workshops.
‘Remembering the Past: Creating The Future’ Studio Neath.
Edgelands, Prism Textiles
2023
Straw Skills workshops at various locations across the year including Oxford Summer School, Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxfordshire Basket Makers, private events and commissions.
2022
‘Straw Skills Workshops’ - through 2022: contact pennymaltbymaker@gmail.com for themes and dates.
‘I am a work in progress’ at The Constance Howard Gallery, Goldsmiths University, 7th February - 25th March 2022
Associate Artist on “I am a work in progress” / The art of living with(out) drugs. This is a collaboration between a researcher, two artists, Isla Miller and Penny Maltby, and seven research participants. It forms part of an early-career research project led by Dr Fay Dennis and funded by the Wellcome Trust entitled ‘Mapping bodies and care practices: Making people who use drugs matter’
2021
In Search of Possibilities’ 21st - 31st October 2021, Prism Group Textiles Exhibition, The Art Pavilion, Mile End, London E3 4QY
‘Straw Skills Workshops’ - including corn dollies, Julbock (Swedish Christmas goat) - public and corporate (June - December 2021)
2020
Contributor to ‘Out of the Blue’ by Susan Aldworth, part of the ‘Illuminating the Self' Exhibition at The Hatton Gallery, Newcastle. 18th Jan to 9th May 2020
Link to notes from some of the 100 embroiderers who contributed to the project.
2019
‘AA2A Exhibition’, End of residency exhibition at Bucks New Uni, High Wycombe. Part of the Artists Access to Art Schools residency Scheme.
2018
‘Our Place’, The Gallery, The Old Fire Station, 40 George Street, Oxford.
'The Art of Labor' Selected artist ,San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, California 95113, USA.
'In My Hands' Solo exhibition Magdalen Road Studios, Oxford.
Prism Textiles 'Transient' Hoxton Arches, Arch 402. Cremer Street, London E2 8HD
'Processions' Selected Associate Artist to work with Modern Art Oxford to create a banner commissioned by The Artichoke Trust for PROCESSION on June 10th 2018
2017
'We Made This' , Pop up Exhibition, The Haven,Church Lane, Banbury May, 2017, Graduate Exhibition
2016
'Third Space' - OVADA, Oxford July 1- 17, 2016, group exhibition.
'Artopology', The Adavo Collection, Pitt Rivers Museum ,one day pop up group exhibition in conjunction with Ovada.
2015
'Thinking/making, Does making help creative thinking?' Curious Projects Gallery, Eastbourne.Selected exhibition.
‘Milking the Dairy Industry’ Castle Quay, Banbury, group exhibition.
'Reinventing Research, The messy process' The Glass Tank, Oxford Brookes University, April 21-May 1 2015. Selected exhibition
'BABE' Arnolfini Centre for Contemporary Arts, Bristol.
2014
‘Visualising the Invisible' Castle Quay, Pop-up Exhibition, Banbury.
2012
Windsor School of Textile Arts Summer Show
PUBLICATIONS
Bookmarks Project, XIII, XIV, XV. (2015-2017) in conjunction with UWE
Artists Book Yearbook 2016-17
biennial reference publication focusing on international activity in the field of book art .
Memberships
Heritage Crafts, Oxfordshire Basketmakers, Basketmakers Association, Guild of Strawcraftsmen,
Selected Memberships
2024 - Design Nation 2017 - Prism Textiles.
