Workshop Title: Marking Time
Workshop leader: Richard McVetis
What a FANTASTIC workshop we had with Richard – a London-based artist. He is a graduate of the Royal College of Art and was a finalist in the 2018 Loewe Craft Prize. Richard used a range of media including drawing, installation and textiles to explore space and time. Scroll down for some photos of the day.
Member Jackie Uphill kindly write the following review which summarises our experience perfectly:
Richard himself enjoyed the day – his first workshop after the pandemic. He has sent some links for members
Instagram @richardmcvetis

Richard McVetis’ talk to ERTF (please scroll down for workshop requirements)
Richard’s talk explored how the expressive properties of stitch and process can reveal a world seen from within, from a scale that can tell us much more about ourselves, and about relationships and trajectories in time and space.
This seemingly humble, inconsequential repetitive action of stitching is often overlooked and dismissed as part of the mundane. Connotations of the domestic reduce these actions to the field of the home and of the amateur. Richard says that, for him, however, it restores a sense of order. It informs a more profound comprehension and connection to the world: ‘There is intimacy in this labour-intensive way of making; the ritual and repetition create an in-depth focus and an internal space-time specific to the artist.’
Richard’s Workshop
In this workshop participants explored a combination of traditional hand embroidery techniques, how you do them, and why you do them. We explored 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.
We created textures and patterns, worked a stitch in different threads changing its scale and spacing, worked freely, and combined stitches to mark make and draw. Practical help was given by demonstrating the many ways in which this can be achieved using the simplest of hand embroidery techniques, no knowledge of particular and precise embroidery techniques are needed.