Papercutting & Floral Collage Masterclass with Jessica Palmer - Tuesday 1st July

Join us for this exclusive Papercutting & Floral Collage masterclass with artist Jessica Palmer at Kelmscott Manor.

Jessica's unique practice blends papercutting, collage, ink, and watercolour, drawing on her background as an illustrator and her passion for the natural world.

This full-day workshop is inspired by the iconic designs of William Morris, with a focus on nature in design. The day will begin with a short talk by Jessica exploring the natural influences behind Morris’s work, followed by an introduction to papercutting tools and techniques. Participants will then develop their own projects under Jessica’s expert guidance, with plenty of individual tuition throughout.

The afternoon includes time to continue or begin a second piece, and a chance to view Jessica’s own response to May Morris’s Homestead quilt, created especially for our 2025 exhibition, ‘A literary man’: William Morris and the Book.

The workshop runs from 10.00am 4.00pm and costs £125, all materials included.  
(You may wish to bring some pictures or images of plants or flowers that you wish to turn into a collage).

Please note tea/coffee and cake will be provided but you will need to bring your own lunch as our tearoom will not be open and lunch will not be provided.

Artist Bio

Jessica Palmer is an artist whose work combines papercutting, collage, ink and watercolour painting. She works in mixed media, bringing together her origins as an illustrator and her paper artistry. She is often described as “the 21st Century Mary Delany” for her botanical collage work. Her extensive commissions have included Disney Pixar, English Heritage, National Trust, a range of national/international museums and festivals. Just some of her
site-specific 3D paper installations include Hampton Court, Stourhead (NT) and the Tower of London. Jessica is also the author of The Art of Papercutting (Search Press) and several other bestselling titles. In 2025, she is an Artist in Residence at the Nature in Art gallery in Gloucestershire.

Jessica has made a special papercut to celebrate the Homestead and Forest quilt, sewn by May Morris, which is part of the Morris and the Book exhibition. She has also illustrated House of Words by Robert Seatter. And she has created a 3D model of Kelmscott Manor as a physical House of Words for our 2025 Summer of Creativity at Kelmscott.

Visit jessicapalmerart.com to find out more.