3D Hydrangeas & Monoprinted Botanical Backgrounds with Wendy Greaves

Textile mixed media art project

  • 9 videos | 2.4 hours of teaching

Special introductory price: £65 ($87 USD) until 26th March, 7pm

Regular price £80 (approx. $107*) for lifetime access

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Learn how to create beautifully sculptural embroidered hydrangea flowers, mounted on richly textured monoprinted botanical backgrounds.

In this inspiring workshop, textile artist Wendy Greaves will guide you through a creative process that combines free motion embroidery, water-soluble fabric, hand stitching, and expressive monoprinting techniques.

Using your sewing machine like a drawing tool, you’ll stitch delicate petals and leaves that capture the intricate forms of hydrangea blooms. These embroidered petals are then shaped and hand stitched into three-dimensional flower heads, creating depth and movement as the flowers lift away from the surface.

To complete your piece, you’ll explore monoprinting with acrylic paint, stencils, and natural plant materials, creating a beautifully layered textile background that complements your sculptural flower.

By the end of the workshop you’ll have created a finished framed textile artwork and gained techniques you can adapt to many other flowers and botanical subjects.

What you'll learn

In this workshop, Wendy will guide you through:
  • Creating delicate hydrangea petals using free motion embroidery on water-soluble fabric
  • Using thread colour and stitch to capture the subtle tones of real flowers
  • Building three-dimensional flower heads with hand stitching and layered petals
  • Exploring the magical qualities of water-soluble fabric, which dissolves to leave only your embroidered structure
  • Creating expressive monoprinted backgrounds using acrylic paint and a gelli or acrylic plate
  • Printing with real leaves, petals and stencils to create organic textures and botanical patterns
  • Mounting and framing your finished work to create a gallery-ready textile piece
Along the way, you’ll deepen your understanding of flower structure and botanical inspiration, learning how to translate natural forms into tactile embroidered art.

How the workshop works

This online workshop is designed to fit easily around your creative rhythm.
  • Instant access to all 9 teaching videos — start creating as soon as you sign up
  • 3.5 hours of step-by-step tuition you can follow at your own pace
  • A dedicated materials video explaining everything you’ll need, with helpful substitutions
  • Lifetime access so you can revisit the techniques anytime
  • Pause, rewind and return whenever inspiration strikes
Work through the lessons over a couple of weeks, or enjoy dipping into them gradually as part of your creative practice.

Inside the workshop

During the workshop you’ll:

  • Create a sculptural hydrangea flower head, complete with embroidered leaves and hand-stitched details
  • Experiment with monoprinting techniques to produce vibrant, textured botanical backgrounds
  • Combine paint, print and stitch to create layered mixed-media textile art
  • Explore ways of translating the beauty of real flowers into thread and fabric
The techniques Wendy shares are wonderfully adaptable, giving you ideas you can carry forward into your own textile, embroidery, and mixed-media work.

Watch our video introducing the workshop

Materials You’ll Explore

Wendy will guide you through working with:
  • Gelli plate or acrylic printing plate
  • Acrylic paints (approx. 4–5 colours)
  • Roller (brayer), palette knife, brushes, or sponge
  • Real plant materials for printing
  • Optional stencils
  • Sewing machine capable of free motion embroidery
  • Water-soluble fabric (approx. 0.5–1 m)
  • Embroidery threads

A full materials list and detailed materials video will be provided when you join the workshop.

Meet your tutor - Wendy Greaves

Wendy Greaves is a textile artist and former fine art textile teacher with over 30 years of teaching experience. After leaving teaching in 2022, she began focusing more deeply on developing her own creative practice and exploring new techniques.

Landscape and the natural world are central to her work. Using hand and machine embroidery, appliqué and expressive mark-making, Wendy creates tactile textile pieces that reflect the fragility and beauty of nature.

She often works with recycled and locally sourced materials, incorporating processes such as solar dyeing and monoprinting to create layered, atmospheric surfaces.

More recently, Wendy has become fascinated by the hydrangeas growing throughout North Devon, exploring their varied colours and forms. This led her to develop sculptural hydrangea pieces using machine-embroidered petals, appliqué and hand stitching.

In this workshop, Wendy will guide you step-by-step through creating your own 3D hydrangea mounted on a monoprinted background, with ideas for adapting the process to other flowers.

Join the Workshop Today

Discover the joy of creating sculptural embroidered flowers on beautifully monoprinted fabric.

Whether you’re new to textile art or looking to expand your mixed media techniques, this workshop will give you new skills, creative inspiration, and ideas you can return to again and again.

Special price £65 until Thursday 26th March, 7pm GMT

Regular price £80 (approx $107*)

Sign up now

*Disclaimer: at the time of publishing, the conversion of UK £ to US $ was accurate, but please check your bank for the most up-to-date rate, updated March 2026