Experimental Surfaces - Extraordinary Embroidery with Amanda McCavour One, Two or BOTH days!

 Saturday May 24 & Sunday May 25 2025

Join Toronto artist Amanda McCavour for an exciting workshop where you’ll learn to create dynamic, textured, mixed media surfaces using machine embroidery and water-soluble stabiliser. In this hands-on class, you’ll experiment with an array of materials, including wool roving, threads, and yarns, to explore endless possibilities for texture and color combinations.

Discover how to use your sewing machine in new and creative ways, combining machine stitching with mixed media elements to build richly textured surfaces. You'll have the freedom to play and experiment, creating a series of unique, small samples that can be expanded into larger works, incorporated into quilts, or applied to other fiber art projects.
Leave the workshop with a collection of pieces that showcase your creativity and newfound skills, ready to be transformed into stunning, one-of-a-kind works of art.

Why Take Both Workshops?  By enrolling in both classes, you'll gain a deeper, more enriching experience that builds on what you learn.

Saturday’s workshop is all about exploration!   Experimental Surfaces, is all about play—experimenting with textures, colours, and materials to discover new possibilities.

Sunday’s workshop, you'll take these techniques and apply them directly to your botanical embroidery designs, giving you the chance to refine your skills and push your creativity even further. With the extended time to develop your techniques, you'll immerse yourself in a weekend full of colour, texture, and stitching. Whether you're new to embroidery or looking to expand your repertoire, taking both workshops will give you the opportunity to fully explore and elevate your craft!

Student Equipment List:
Sewing Machine: One of the most challenging things about machine embroidery is working with the sewing machine. It can be frustrating, it can be tricky. So before the workshop starts, make sure that you are familiar with your sewing machine. Spend some time exploring the different stitches and make sure you know how to thread the machine, load the bobbin etc. This workshop will be about exploring stitching and experimenting with it so it is ideal to have a handle on the quirks and personality of your tools before coming into the workshop.

Sewing Needles for your Machine: The needles in your machine can break or get sticky with the special water soluble fabrics we will be using- so bring some extras with you. I would recommend picking up Universal, Sharp or Machine Embroidery needles that fit your machine.
Extra Bobbins: I would recommend to bring about 5 of these.

Class Kit: (Included in your workshop fees*) * If you would like to purchase more Sulky Solvy, that will be possible during the workshop
1. Sulky® Water-soluble Stabilizer (Solvy): Each person will get 1 yard Sulky® Sticky Fabri Solvy
and 1 yard Sulky® Solvy, 1 yard Fabri Solvy
2. 8” Wooden Embroidery Hoop: Used for machine and hand embroidery
3. 2 Markers
4. Small scissors
5. Embroidery Floss
6. Hand Sewing Needles
7. Rayon Seam Binding
8. Hand Sewing Needles
9. Class Handout

Available in class:
Thread: polyester machine embroidery threads. Wool Roving
Ribbons & Scrap Fabrics

About:  Amanda McCavour is a Canadian artist who uses stitch to create large-scale, intricate embroidered installations that explore themes of memory, color, and line. Through the medium of machine embroidery, McCavour creates delicate thread drawings that blur the lines between fragility and strength. By stitching into dissolvable fabric, she builds up intricate, temporary surfaces, allowing the threads to form complex, free-standing designs once the fabric is washed away. The resulting thread drawings seem to hover on the edge of unraveling, creating a visual tension that plays with the idea of impermanence and resilience.
McCavour holds a BFA from York University and an MFA in Fibers and Material Studies from Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia. She has exhibited her work in galleries across Canada, the U.S., and beyond, with recent solo shows in Ottawa (ON), Virginia Beach (VA), and Vancouver (BC). Her work has been supported by residencies at the Harbourfront Centre Textile Studio in Toronto and the Klondike Institute of Art and Culture in Dawson City, Yukon.
Recipient of numerous awards and scholarships, McCavour’s work has been recognized by the Ontario Crafts Council, The Canada Council for the Arts, The Handweavers and Spinners Guild of America, The Ontario Society of Artists, The Surface Design Association, and The Embroiderers Guild of America.

About this Workshop