The New Zealand Embroiderers' Guild invited a Tasmania-based Gary Clarke as a guest speaker for their conference in Gore a few weeks ago.
Clarke will be giving lectures to the various New Zealand embroidery guilds along with two-day workshops.
Embroiderer extraordinaire Clarke was in Ashburton last week to teach members of the Ashburton Embroiderers' Guild a few new tricks.
All participants of the Ashburton Embroidery Guild stated the workshop had been challenging that tested their skills but enjoyed the intermediate level class and has improved their skills.
Clarke became a textile designer after completing his Fine Arts degree at Launceston University in Tasmania and later he moved into window dressing and interior design.
While working as a window dresser in an embroidery store, he worked as a designer and his interest in embroidery grew.
He has now been embroidering for 20 years, making a successful living from lecturing and writing books on the subject.
While many people believe embroidery is the domain of woman, they would be proved wrong, as there were many male embroiderers.
It was originally a male-dominated field and women had taken it up largely over the past 100 years.
In the 16th century there would be a male head designer with women working under him, stated Clarke.
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