STENCIL PRINTING ON FABRIC

From Textured Prints to Repeat Patterns

Join textile designer Pauline Greuell in Italy for an immersive exploration of layered stencil printing on fabric — a richly tactile and deeply intentional process that transforms simple shapes into textured, expressive designs. Set in the medieval village of Città della Pieve, where stone streets are lined with overflowing flower boxes and centuries-old facades, this workshop invites you to slow down and create in a setting where art, pattern, and craftsmanship have flourished for generations.

Throughout the workshop, you’ll learn to cut and build stencils for both simple and complex motifs, experiment with brush techniques to achieve varied textures, and explore the layering process that gives this method its distinctive dimensional quality. Inspiration will come directly from your surroundings — from geraniums cascading from wrought-iron balconies to the stylized floral motifs found in Renaissance frescoes and decorative church details. These natural and historic references will serve as starting points for developing layered botanical designs that reflect both place and process.

As your work evolves, so will your eye — from studying repeating fresco patterns in a local palazzo to visiting churches filled with Renaissance art, where rhythm, geometry, floral ornament, and decorative detail have long shaped visual storytelling.

Beyond the studio, you’ll experience the creative spirit of the region firsthand — strolling the Renaissance avenues of nearby Pienza, gathering around the table to make fresh pasta, and allowing the colors, textures, and beauty of the Italian countryside to inform your designs.

ABOUT Pauline Greuell

Pauline Greuell is a fabric designer, printer and teacher from the Netherlands. She is self-taught and works with a layered stencil printing technique that she has developed and thoroughly explored over the years. It is a technique that allows for many different effects and variations in texture, in depth and in movement. The slowness of this way of designing and printing forces her of designing and printing forces her to be really deliberate about what she creates.

After working in a communications career for many years she felt the need to work with her hands again about 10 years ago. Choosing textiles as a medium, something that started as a hobby soon became a full-time occupation. She designs and prints her own fabrics in small runs for individual clients and interior designers and has been teaching online and in person since 2020 in the Netherlands as well as in the UK and France.

For inspiration she often looks at nature and also at designs from bygone style periods – for example at the Wiener Werkstätte and the Arts and Crafts period when patterns were exclusively designed by hand. There is a playfulness and sense of freedom of expression in the designs and the movement in many of these patterns that she finds very inspiring.

WHAT You’ll Be Exploring

• Cutting techniques for making stencils
• Making stencils for a simple motif
• Understanding the layering of stencils to make more complex motifs
• Working with registration of stencils for printing motifs
• Using brush techniques for achieving different textures and other effects
• Mixing fabric ink and colourless paste to achieve different colours and grades of pigmentation
• Making non-repeating patterns
• Translating different kinds of inspiration into stencil designs
• Simplifying shapes to make stencil designs
• Printing fabrics for specific purposes, such as cushions, wall hangings, etc.
• Learning the basic technique for making a repeat pattern with stencils
• Working with registration for printing repeat patterns
• Working with different grids for making repeat patterns (if time allows)

WHO Should Attend

This workshop is open to all levels!

Whether you are new to stencil work or continuing your exploration, you’ll leave with a deeper understanding of fabric design and the confidence to continue exploring pattern and print long after the workshop has ended.

Plus, this is a technique you’ll be able to continue easily at home — it requires very little space and no special equipment, just the simple tools and materials you’ll be using throughout the workshop.

ITINERARY

Day 1, September 13: Arrival 

• Highlights: Welcome to Città della Pieve, workshop introduction, village stroll
• Dinner

Arrive at Rome Fiumicino Airport, where you’ll be met for your group transfer to Umbria. On the way north, there will be time to stop for lunch on your own before continuing through the rolling countryside toward Città della Pieve.

You’ll arrive at Hotel Vannucci in the early afternoon to settle into your room and take a moment to exhale after travel. Later, Pauline will gather the group for a warm introduction and overview of the days ahead, sharing her approach to layered stencil printing and the creative journey you’ll begin together.

In the early evening, your trip host Paola will lead a walking introduction to the village, helping you orient yourself to the medieval streets and daily rhythms of life here. We’ll gather for aperitivo at Bar Storico Centrale, followed by a welcome dinner at Hotel Vannucci — your first shared meal in Italy and the beginning of a creative week together.

Day 2, September 14: Floral Inspiration & Foundations

• Highlights: Studio instruction, floral inspiration, brush techniques, simple motifs
• Breakfast, lunch, dinner

After breakfast at the hotel, you’ll head to the studio to begin your hands-on work with Pauline. Today focuses on learning different brush techniques for printing and making stencils for simple motifs. Through guided demonstrations and practice, you’ll explore how brush pressure, movement, and texture influence the final printed result.

With Pauline’s direction, you’ll also begin to draw inspiration from the winding medieval alleyways of Città della Pieve — noticing the flower-filled window boxes, trailing geraniums, and botanical details tucked along stone passageways. These everyday floral moments will become starting points for developing your own printed motifs, connecting observation to design in a meaningful way.

You’ll begin printing non-repeating patterns — an intuitive and freeing way to experiment with rhythm, spacing, and surface design. This foundation allows you to build confidence with both tools and materials before moving into more complex layering in the days ahead.

Lunch will be enjoyed together at a local café before returning to the studio for continued instruction and exploration.

This evening, you’ll gather for pizza at La Fema — a relaxed and casual dinner to end your first full creative day.

Day 3, September 15: Layering & Botanical Frescoes

• Highlights: Church and palazzo art tour, layering techniques, studio instruction
• Breakfast, lunch, dinner

After breakfast at the hotel, you’ll begin the morning with a guided visit to a local church and palazzo, where floral frescoes and repeating decorative patterns offer rich visual inspiration. Observing how rhythm, geometry, and layered botanical design have been used historically will certainly spark new ideas for your own evolving designs.

You’ll then return to the studio to focus on learning how to layer stencils to create more complex motifs. Pauline will guide you through the process of building depth and dimension through thoughtful placement, overlap, and variation — discovering how layered forms begin to interact and tell a visual story.

Lunch will be enjoyed together at Matucci before returning to the studio for continued instruction and development of your work.

In the late afternoon, you’ll head to Cristian’s for a hands-on pasta-making experience, followed by dinner at his bistrot — a joyful and delicious way to gather around the table and celebrate the day’s creative progress.

Day 4, September 16: Excursion to Pienza

• Highlights: Renaissance architecture, color exploration, beginning repeat design
• Breakfast, dinner

After breakfast at the hotel, you’ll depart for the Renaissance town of Pienza. Following a brief guided introduction with our friend, and local guide, Bianca, you’ll have time to sketch, wander, shop, and enjoy lunch on your own.

Pienza’s quiet courtyards, flower-filled balconies, and avenues overlooking the Val d’Orcia offer abundant botanical inspiration — from blossoms tucked against warm stone walls to the delicate floral motifs found in the museum’s illuminated manuscripts. These layered references in nature and art provide subtle lessons in rhythm, color, and composition.

You’ll return to Città della Pieve in the afternoon and head back to the studio. Today’s focus turns to color exploration and the beginning stages of creating a repeat pattern. Pauline will guide you in refining your layered motifs and translating them into a structured repeat, helping you understand how individual elements connect to form a cohesive design.

As your work evolves, you’ll begin to see how rhythm, spacing, and color relationships shape the overall movement of a pattern.

This evening, you’ll gather for apericena at Matucci — a relaxed and flavorful way to end the day.

Day 5, September 17: Bringing the Pattern Together

• Highlights: Final studio session, repeat pattern development, celebration dinner
• Breakfast, dinner

After breakfast at the hotel, you’ll head to the studio for your final full day of instruction with Pauline. Today is devoted to making and refining your repeat pattern — bringing together the layered motifs, color exploration, and techniques you’ve developed throughout the week.

Pauline will work closely with each participant to ensure your design feels cohesive and resolved. For those who have previously taken her courses, there is flexibility to continue where you left off, deepening and advancing your work at your own pace. The workshop always adapts to meet you where you are creatively.

Following lunch on your own, the afternoon continues in the studio with time to complete projects, make final adjustments, and reflect on your creative progress. You’ll leave not only with finished designs, but with a clearer understanding of how layered stencil printing can evolve into structured, repeatable textile patterns.

In the early evening, you’ll gather with your fellow students for a celebratory aperitivo before enjoying a farewell dinner at our friends’ inviting trattoria — the ideal way to end a journey of color, pattern, and shared inspiration.

Day 6, September 18: Departure 

Early morning transport to Rome Fiumicino Airport. 

WHAT’S INCLUDED

• Daily group and individualized instruction and demonstrations with Pauline Greuell
• 5 nights at Boutique Hotel Vannucci in Città della Pieve
• Private transportation to/from Rome Fiumicino Airport on arrival and departure days
• Private transportation to/from all towns and sites in the itinerary
• Daily breakfasts
• 3 lunches
• 5 dinners, featuring regional specialties and local wines
• Excursion to Pienza
• Guided tours in Città della Pieve & Pienza
• ALL SUPPLIES! This includes the fabrics you’ll use throughout the course!
• BONUS ⭐️ Set of 8 brushes to be used in the course and taken home afterward
• BONUS ⭐️ Reader with written content of the course
• BONUS ⭐️  Zoom meeting to be planned after the course to meet up, share projects and ask questions that have come up
• BONUS ⭐️ Supply list to help you continue to print from home

Not included: Airfare, trip insurance, transportation outside of that listed in the trip itinerary, alcoholic drinks or meals ordered “on your own”, gratuities for drivers and hotel staff

The Unexpected is Part of the Journey: Sometimes unexpected things come up. If there is unscheduled closing or schedule change, we carefully pivot to include something that is equally as wonderful and interesting, so that the quality of your experience is never at risk. ☺️

ACCOMMODATIONS Boutique Hotel Vannucci

Hotel Vannucci began as a project of Vittoria Spinola, daughter of King Vittorio Emanuele II, who fled Pisa (and an arranged marriage with her elderly husband) to start a new life with her lover in Città della Pieve. Here, she and her soon-to-be new husband, Paolo, built two villas that became luxurious holiday accommodations for wealthy Romans vacationing in the countryside. In 1903 one of the villas became Hotel Vannucci, and today it maintains the elegance and refinement of its inception, with luxurious sleeping rooms, marble bathrooms and inviting gardens. A stay here is truly special, nestled just outside the medieval walls of the historic, and unspoiled, village of Città della Pieve.

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DATES & DETAILS:

• Dates: September 13-18, 2027
• Trip Price: $3,895-$4,595 USD
• Room Descriptions (Note that all rooms include A/C, free WIFI, safe & hairdryer):
  • Single Standard: Single bed, private ensuite bathroom
  • Classic Single Occupancy:  Double bed, private ensuite bathroom with walk-in shower
  • Superior Single Occupancy: Double bed, private ensuite bathroom with tub/shower combination
  • Superior Double/Twin Occupancy: Double bed or two singles, private ensuite bathroom with tub/shower combination
  • Deluxe Double/Twin Occupancy: Double bed or two singles, private ensuite bathroom with separate tub and shower
• A $700 deposit is required to reserve your space
• View our terms and cancellation policy

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