Embroidery Masterclass with Richard McVetis

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For this masterclass artist Richard McVetis has drawn on his love of stitching, paying attention to time, labour and care to develop a day of stitching. The workshop will look at a combination of traditional hand embroidery techniques, taking inspiration from the textures and patterns found in the Institute of Making materials library. Participants will explore the slowness and rhythms of hand stitching; the versatility and strengths of embroidery for drawing and mark making; and the pleasure in having time to make.

Exploring texture and pattern is all about focusing in and pushing the potential of just a few basic textile techniques to feel empowered to develop a visual vocabulary, for example, by working a stitch in different threads or changing its scale in order to mark make and draw. Richard will be giving practical help and demonstrating the many ways in which this can be achieved. By the end of the masterclass you will have started to translate your thoughts and inspiration into stitch and developed an understanding of embroidery as a rich contemporary art medium.

Richard McVetis is a British artist, known for his meticulously embroidered drawings and sculptures. His artistic practice centres on his training as an embroiderer through the use of traditional hand stitch techniques and mark making. Using laboured and meticulously worked wools and multiples of embroidered dots and crosses, he explores the similarities between pen on paper and thread on fabric, employing a limited vocabulary of mark making and deliberately subdued colour to create a binary simplicity.

Pictures courtesy of Richard McVetis.