It all began with an octopus. My first major embroidery commission was for an American artist living in the Honduras, who asked me to create an octopus for his partner (an ex-military doctor) as a birthday gift for her. Their favourite thing to do together was diving to see octopi, so this was a very special request.
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Left to my own devices, I don’t think I ever would have considered embroidering an octopus, but I was immediately intrigued. He gave me complete creative freedom, and I knew I wanted it to be in goldwork. However, as octopi are such dynamic creatures, I didn’t want it to be just two dimensional. I began engineering my first attempts at sculptural goldwork, so that I could lift the tentacles up off of the work. The final embroidery measured 6” by 6” and took about 200 hours, but the effect was well worth it.
This commission led to a connection with the incredible team at the Hand & Lock School, and we immediately began planning how we could turn it into a course. I designed a whole new sculptural octopus, with a few modifications so that it could be taught and stitched in a week-long workshop.
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Teaching at Hand & Lock
In April 2025, I travelled from my home in Toronto, Canada to Hand & Lock’s Margaret Street studios to teach the Sculptural Octopus Course to the loveliest group of twelve women, all octopus and goldwork enthusiasts. Together, we made it through an intense week of stitching and goldwork. (There was a good deal of homework each evening, but our fearless class was not daunted, and returned for more each day!)
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After much soft string padding, cutwork, and saying ‘tentacle’ more times than I ever believed possible, the octopi had taken incredible shape. Each unique and expertly executed, it has been so incredible to receive the final finished photos of everyone’s work.
Teaching as a guest tutor with Hand & Lock was the most magical experience and I am so looking forward to returning to teach the online version of this course, where we will be able to welcome even more people from around the world.
Student Testimonials
'The course was absolutely fantastic - Michelle is an amazing teacher and the techniques we learnt were astonishing, I can’t believe how much we covered and I can’t wait to try them on my own projects! She was so helpful and generous with her time and expertise.' - Grace
'Michelle was the nicest and kindest tutor and it was such an honour being taught by her.
I’m so incredibly grateful to Hand and Lock for putting on this unbelievably magnificent course. Thank you so much for having me for the week. I had the most incredible time' - Nicola
'This was the most challenging course I’ve done, but I knew it would be hard. Michelle was an excellent tutor, who took us through the octopus in a clear way' - Zerrin
If you have taken one of Michelle's incredible classes with us we would love to hear all about it in the comments below!
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See more classes from Michelle and all of our other amazing guest tutors here
Website: https://www.michelleagnew.ca/
Instagram: @michelleagnewart
Author: Michelle Agnew
