Brenda saw retirement as the perfect opportunity to pursue her interest in sewing and textiles. Due to her sewing skills and hard work on her courses, she‘s now going places with a career in textiles…

Name: Brenda Parsons
Institution: Morley College
Course: Textiles

After having spent 40 years working in education, at 61 I decided it was time to retire and was really excited by an opportunity to follow my dream – to develop my interest in textiles and become a practicing professional textile artist.

Ready to learn something new, I applied for a place on the Advanced Textile Course at Morley College starting two weeks after my retirement. Armed with a few examples of work, I was delighted to be accepted and worked for a term building up a portfolio and preparing for my first exhibition of work. It was exciting and at the same time daunting. On the strength of my portfolio, I was overwhelmed to gain a place to study an HND in Stitched Textiles at Berkshire College, where I am now completing my final year.

Over the past three years I have continued to attend the Advanced Textile Workshop, a Textile Printing class and a Paper Making class at Morley College. I have used these classes to support my HND course as well as preparing new work to exhibit in the Morley Gallery. The classes have all had a really interesting mix of students from a wide range of nationalities and ages, all bringing their skills to share in a supportive family atmosphere that is engendered by the tutors. I cannot speak highly enough of the opportunities that Morley has opened up to me, and of the tutors who are continuing to support my learning and develop my confidence to step out into a new career. I am now exhibiting and starting to sell my work, and have that new career which I hope I will enjoy for many years to come. I now look forward to extending my range of classes into related areas, possibly jewellery and millinery.