1pm, 2pm and 3pm

NOW Gallery has invited multi-disciplinary artist Daisy Tortuga to host a rug tufting demonstration in response to My Head is a Jungle, the first exhibition of work by Birmingham-based illustrator Manjit Thapp. The session will take inspiration from textile pieces developed specifically for the show by Thapp. They mark a new exploration for the artist of the intimately tactile potential of realising her illustrations in this way. 

The demonstration will begin with an introduction to the rug tufting process with an overview of tools, yarn colour matching and image transfer. Tortuga will then demonstrate how to combine all these elements by working live on a new rug piece created directly from a Manjit Thapp illustration. Each attendee will be gifted a small, tufted textile artwork at the end of the session. 

About Daisy Tortuga 

Daisy Tortuga is A multi-disciplinary artist with a body of work centred around craft and creation. Using found objects and making to communicate complex emotions and statements, while pushing the perceptions of traditional illustration. She takes an intuitive approach to making with a process both emotional and cathartic, expressing this in a range of mediums such as quilt, furniture, clothing, wax sculpture, writing and sound.  

There is a nostalgic element to the work, bringing domestic spaces into the gallery and distorting them so they can be viewed with new meaning. Using the clinical setting of the gallery space in this way, allows the work to be analysed truly objectively. Craft historically was not considered art or illustration, Daisy Tortuga uses these techniques to discuss difficult topics, while challenging the way we view craft in the artistic world.