WORKSHOP | Stitching with Presence | Michele Grimston
IMAGE | MICHELE GRIMSTON | UNFOLDING ENFOLDING (DETAIL 1) 2025 - 2026 | PHOTOGRAPHY BY GEOFF ROBERTS
Event | WORKSHOP | Stitching with Presence | Michele Grimston
Date + Time | Saturday 16 May 2026 | 1pm-4pm
Location | North Building, 1, 180 London Cct, Canberra ACT 2601
Cost | General Public Ticket $94 | Craft + Design Canberra Member Ticket $75.20 | Book two tickets for the price of one until Monday 11 May 2026 by selecting the Two for One ticket option at checkout
Led by artist Michele Grimston, this mindful embroidery workshop invites you to slow down and engage with the world around you through the quiet and rhythmic practice of hand stitching. Drawing on the ideas and techniques behind Michele’s work Unfolding/Enfolding currently exhibited in Rewilding and during her residency at Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve, this workshop offers a deeply personal and contemplative approach to making.
Michele will guide you through a series of short grounding exercises before settling into an afternoon of slow stitching, focusing your senses on the qualities of the environment around you. You will have the opportunity to respond to the exhibitions at Craft + Design Canberra and, weather permitting, there will also be an option to explore outside.
Embroidery requires minimal tools and equipment and can be practised almost anywhere, making it a perfect medium for daily moments of contemplation.
You will leave the workshop with a small embroidered piece and the confidence to continue using embroidery as a means of creatively responding to the world around you.
What you will be doing
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Begin with some short exercises to ground your perspective before settling into an afternoon of slow stitching
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Respond creatively to the current exhibitions at Craft + Design Canberra
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Complete a small embroidered piece to take home
What you will need to bring
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All materials are provided.
This workshop is best suited for
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Those with no embroidery experience through to more advanced stitchers
About the artist
Michele Grimston is an artist and community cultural development practitioner based on Ngunnawal Country, Canberra. She is currently pursuing a practice-led PhD at the University of Canberra.
Her work explores slow, meditative textile processes as ways of practising care and connection for earth, community and spirit. She is interested in building individual and collective rituals of creation which develop the role of those laborious textile processes in our personal, spiritual and social wellbeing.
She holds an Honours degree in textiles from the Australian National University (2009) and a Master in Community Cultural Development from the Victorian College of Arts (2014).
She has exhibited in Canberra, Melbourne, Perth and Canada and her work is held in the collection of Geoscience Australia. Michele has presented participatory, community-engaged works through Rebus and You Are Here and has facilitated large-scale collaborative projects as an artist-in-residence in multiple schools and early learning centres.
With over 10 years’ experience managing community arts and education programs at public galleries, Michele supports artists and the public to build vibrant, connected communities.
Accessibility at the Venue
- We aim to make our programs accessible to everyone. We welcome people of all ages, abilities, backgrounds and identities.
- Craft + Design Canberra is accessible via a lift at the building entrance with step free access through the exhibition and workshop spaces.
- Seating is available at all events and workshops.
- An accessible all gender bathroom is available via a heavy fire door.
- Assistance animals are welcome throughout the venue.
- Free tickets are available for Companion Card holders. You will have the option to add a companion ticket at checkout.
- Please note that our retail space is currently restricted and does not provide a full 1500mm x 1500mm turning circle.
If you have any questions about the venue or accessibility needs, please contact us on (02) 6262 9333 or email brittany.dale@craftanddesigncanberra.org. Read more about accessibility and planning your visit https://craftanddesigncanberra.org/pages/accessibility
Support Artists and Learn from the Best
Craft + Design Canberra workshops provide an opportunity for audiences to learn from the unique skillsets of our members: individuals who are highly regarded in their fields as artists, designers, and craftspeople.
Craft + Design Canberra prides itself on paying fair rates of pay to our artists as recommended by NAVA (the National Association for the Visual Artists). Our artists are the best in their fields and deserve fair remuneration. Audiences attending our activities learn from the best.
Craft + Design Canberra is a not-for-profit membership-based organisation supporting artists, craft practitioners, designers and makers at every stage of their careers. Craft + Design Canberra workshops are designed to create opportunities for our members to showcase their skills, engage with community and earn incomes.
Find our full program here.
Cancellation Policy
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Support Craft + Design Canberra to create greater opportunities for our community of craftspeople and designers, and for the growing audience who admire and appreciate the beauty, skill and excellence of their work.
Your generosity supports our organisation as an advocate for contemporary craft and design in Canberra and beyond. Help us to shape a handmade and creative future through exhibitions, events, residencies, professional development and commissions, as well as the biennial Craft + Design Canberra Festival.
Craft + Design Canberra has been endorsed by the Australian Tax Office as a Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) and is registered as a charity (as Craft + Design Canberra) with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission ABN: 33314092587. All donations of $2 or more will be tax deductible if you live in Australia.
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