Textile workshops presented by the Naarm Textile Collective during the Bound by Thread exhibition
Booking is required for all workshops
Freeform Knitting and Crochet
With Lynn Berry and Margaret Knight
Sunday 15 March, Glen Eira City Council Gallery – 10am – 12.30pm
Come along and learn the basics of freeform, combining knitting, crochet and surface embellishment. Learn basic techniques of creating without a pattern or with many patterns and combining techniques to create a cohesive whole. Freeform can be used for many things. Beautiful bags, garments, blankets and sculptural art to name a few.
Bring along your own tools – knitting needles, crochet hooks, yarn needle, scissors and yarns although a selection of yarns for the workshop will be available.
Specialty yarns that you have been holding on to are particularly fun to work with.
Bookings essential.
Make a Pocket Sketchbook
With Gail Stiffe
Sunday 22 March, Glen Eira City Council Gallery – 2-4pm
In this class you will learn to make a simple fabric covered sketchbook to fit into a pocket. I will supply jeans, precut board, buttons, glue, thread and some sample curtain material for the covers and watercolour paper for the pages. You may wish to bring your own fabric for the book covers or you could use the excess denim.
Participants should bring sharp scissors, a ruler and a tapestry needle.
The pocket could be turned into a small shoulder bag but that would need to be done at home.
Bookings essential.
Mini Improv Quilt
With Karryn Argus
Sunday 29 March, Glen Eira City Council Gallery – 2-4pm
In this hands-on workshop, participants create a small improvisational quilt using hand stitching. Choose to appliqué an intuitive fabric design or piece together three fabrics in a simple patchwork, focusing on slow making, experimentation, and material play.Bring along your sewing kit, scissors, needles, threads, and scrap fabric, to use and share.
Bookings essential.
Craftivism Workshop
With Nicole Kemp
Sunday 12 April, Glen Eira City Council Gallery – 10am – 12.30pm
Nicole Kemp will support, guide and empower your creative practice. Get started and create a small textile panel expressing your thoughts and experiences reflecting on the political and social events of our time. This is a safe space to speak out and express yourself freely.
Bring your own, sewing kit, scissors, needles, threads, and scrap fabric, doilies, fabric table napkins, tea towels, reuse and recycle.
Maybe you are already working on a piece, just bring it along too. We encourage you to share ideas and materials on the day.
Bookings essential.
Hyperbolic Crochet Workshop
With Rebecca George
Sunday 19 April, Glen Eira City Council Gallery – 2-4pm
There is a connection between crochet, mathematics and shapes found in nature. In this workshop you will learn the mathematics behind the growth of crochet stitches in the round to make any shape. With a hook and a single loop of thread, crochet is an ideal medium to enable three-dimensional drawing in air. Flowers, leaves, coral and jellyfish tentacles have negative curvature and follow hyperbolic geometry. You will come away with the skills you need to make any sculptural shape from amigurumi (soft toys) to artwork, without the need to follow a pattern.
Materials will be supplied, but please feel free to bring your own hook and yarn to work with.
Suitable for all crochet skill levels, from complete beginner to experienced.
Bookings essential.
Slow Stitching & Sashiko: A Practice of Presence
With Joy Barrett
Sunday 26 April, Glen Eira City Council Gallery – 2-4pm
Slow down, settle in, and explore the gentle art of slow stitching and Sashiko. This workshop is perfect for beginners — no experience needed. You’ll learn simple, meditative stitches that let you layer cloth using your own rhythm and intuition, transforming small fragments into a piece that is uniquely yours.
Your finished work can become a patch for a beloved garment, an embellishment for a bag, or a tactile keepsake to hold onto.Please bring your own scissors and any fabrics you’d love to incorporate. A curated selection of additional fabrics will also be provided