Needlework Workshops

Marysia Lachowicz worked with senior citizens from WCRAG (Westminster Community Reminiscence and Archive Group)  and year 4’s from St Matthew’s primary school in Victoria to create a needle work collage based on the Voyage of HMS Beagle. The 6 weekly workshops gave the pupils the opportunity to discuss and consider the experience Charles Darwin had on his exploration of the world aboard HMS Beagle.  Additionally the ladies from the WCRAG group had professional experience in dressmaking and tailoring and were able to share basic sewing skills with the pupils.

The panel created will form part of the Charles Darwin: A Genius in the Heart of London display at Westminster Abbey.

“Learning about the animals was fun … I sewed a tortoise”

Marysia Lachowicz has over 20 years experience in education.  She also works on projects with older people recording their oral histories using a varied range of media to achieve this including photography, video and creative writing. 

Pupils from St Matthews primary school and members from the WCRAG work together to sew animals and the HMS Beagle ship,which will form part of the display at Westminster Abbey A pupil from St Matthews concentrates as she sews the finer details onto the bird from the Galápagos islands Pupils from St Matthews work together to create the ship, HMS Beagle, that Darwin spent 5 years of his life on, whilst studying the natural habitat of the world A pupil from St Matthews works ona beaded armadillo A pupil from St Matthews shows off his sewing skills on this Rhinoceros!