The New Ashgate Gallery launched its Craft Your Year 2026 programme at the Farnham Wellbeing and Sustainability Festival in Gostrey Meadow on May 17.

Craft Your Year brings professional maker-led craft workshops into public spaces across Farnham, giving people of all ages the chance to try high-quality craft activities for free.

Stained glass artist Rachel Mulligan led the opening workshop, called Patterns of Farnham - Stained Glass.

Participants painted and engraved mouth-blown coloured glass, inspired by patterns found in Farnham’s buildings and landscape. The finished pieces will be kiln-fired and brought together as a collaborative window.

Craft Your Year 2026 runs from spring to winter and includes glass, textiles, clay, wood, plant fibres, print and calligraphy.

Several sessions introduce heritage and endangered crafts - as well as historic stained glass window making, these include corn dolly making, hurdle making and rush mat weaving.

Other workshops explore sprang, silk weaving, community weaving linked to Farnham’s textile history, Japanese calligraphy, sgraffito clay decoration, letter design and print, and appliqué.

The 2026 programme builds on the success of Craft Your Year 2025, which engaged around 1,200 participants in free public craft workshops across Farnham.

More than 90 per cent of participants reported learning a new craft skill, showing that the sessions offered meaningful hands-on learning as well as enjoyable public activity.

New Ashgate Gallery director Dr Outi Remes said: “Craft Your Year is about making high-quality craft open to everyone.

“Last year showed us how much people value free, welcoming creative activity in the places where the community already gathers.

“Families, older residents, volunteers and visitors all took part, and over 90 per cent of participants told us they had learned a new skill.”

Dr Remes believed this year’s programme would be even better than the 2025 one.

She said: “This year we are giving heritage skills an even stronger public presence. As Farnham continues to celebrate its fifth anniversary as a World Craft Town, it is important that people can do more than hear about craft. They can try it, handle materials, meet exceptional makers and understand why these skills matter.

“Craft Your Year also sits alongside our wider commitment to community access through projects such as Surrey Craft Legacies, which celebrates heritage and endangered skills through a summer exhibition, community workshops, oral histories, educational films and public engagement. Together these programmes help keep craft visible, relevant and shared across Farnham.”

Forthcoming workshops are corn dolly making at The Rural Life Living Museum on June 20 from 10.30am until 3pm, silk weaving at the New Ashgate Gallery on July 3 from 5pm to 7.30pm, sprang at Bourne Green on July 4 from 12.30pm until 5pm, appliqué at Gostrey Meadow on July 26 from 3pm until 5pm, letter design and print at Gostrey Meadow on August 30 from 3pm until 5pm, community weaving at the University for the Creative Arts on October 3 from 11am until 3pm, and sgraffito at the New Ashgate Gallery on October 27 from 11am until 3pm.