I am fairly new to crafting and had always associated embroidery with a certain kind of fuddy-duddy Englishness, this idea obviously flowed from my total ignorance about the subject. As soon as I began researching the ‘new handmade/craft movement’ I discovered that my ingrained and untested notions about embroidery where laughable. If you read my post dedicated to the Forget Me-Not show at Gallery Hanahou last week you can only agree that there has been a marvelous re-flourishing in the art of embroidery. If you fancy adding some beautiful pieces to your home look no further than Etsy. I would also recommend a visit to Flickr where you can view work by some incredibly talented artists who work in this medium. Below you will find some of my personal favourites.
Survive (above) by Joetta Maue.
I admire Joetta Maue’s work very much, vintage linen, embroidery yarn and personal expression. These pieces spill out beyond the frame and set my imagination off along interesting paths! Scared is available from Joetta’s Etsy shop Bird & Bear.
Cathy Cullis draws, paints, writes and creates the most beautiful pieces of art with her sewing machine. I think that everyone has been astounded, although not surprised, by the artistry, symbolic power and poetic beauty of Cathy’s most recent embroidery work. Three Wishes – Embroidery Wall Panel (above) is one of my favourites. Cathy is updating her shop today, be quick and ask the Etsy gods for speedy click fingers!
I love everything that lovely Melissa of Tiny Happy makes! The Hiding Places Locket- Fern Grove is such a fresh and original way to carry some embroidered joy with you. Sigh!
Banishing the fuddy duddies! Super stylish Custom Embroidered Monogram tea/dish/hand towel from Chez Sucre Chez.
Love Birds from Lova Revolutionary would look very fancy in a child’s bedroom.
Super clean! Red Hair Black Comb Hand Embroidered Wall Plaque from Samski Art.
Working with embroidery and beading, Nea created this wonderfully framed piece: Flora Wall Wear – 18
I like the idea of Merit Badges for grown ups too, which would I get I wonder? So charming for Valentine’s Day (although a little late now, I have to confess that my gifts will be late this year!) these are very special. For Being Birds Of A Feather Merit Badges from Lee Meszaros.
Lichen For Your Walls, fabulous texture and colour from Ottoman.
Gate wrap-around Journal available from Cactus Conspiracy.
I am so in love with the work of Jessica Marquez who has an exquisite Etsy shop named Miniature Rhino. The Blue Tree Stump Embroidery (above) is a perfect combination of colour, texture and super-tight stitch work! We only saw a sneak peek of Jessica’s submissions for Forget Me- Not (incidentally you can now purchase the works included in the show here, I have bagged myself an early birthday present from the gallery, can you guess which one?) so enjoy some more work from Minature Rhino with me now.
From Flickr (above). Swoon times five!
The Friday interview will appear on Monday, Ishi and me are off to look at a Nursery this afternoon. The bean is very ready to be a little more sociable and Mummy is boring at times, especially when she “presses the keys” (writes blog posts)! My Monday interviewee is an amazing artist from Korea, no more hints! I am also hoping to post a plush round up very soon!
Kisses kittens.
x
Totally Love the embroidery! U got good taste!:)
Thank you so much for the amazing selection of embroidered goodness!
Ahh….swoon indeed! *sigh* I would just like to say that Jessica’s work, in person, is absolutely beautiful. All of these above are so wonderful….thank you for a fantastic round up darlin!
xo
Melis
I am so very happy that embroidery is getting the wonderful attention it so rightfully deserves. I think I learned to embroider before I could even walk ( just kidding) and it was how I earned my very first crafting dollars. http://resurrectionfern.typepad.com/resurrection_fern/2008/03/the-dream-never.html
Jessica’s work is super precise, gorgeous in person, I agree. I really love those birds of a feather too! There is a huge “women’s work”70’s art/craft/embroidery history that many of my art school friends and I were inspired by. This was a beautiful recent-ish show that crossed art/craft/and gender lines I totally recommend taking a peek at this article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/28/arts/design/28embr.html
oops sorry the show was Pricked: Extreme Embroidery at The Museum of Art and Design in New York
Γεια σου ψαροκόκκαλο, ανακάλυψα το blog σου από την καινούργια greek team στο flickr, μ’αρέσει πολύ!
I know a lot of people think that embroidery (and knitting and crocheting) is only for grannies. Thet truth is that in the hands of young, talented people it gives amazing, fresh, hip creations.
damnnnn! lisa thanks for the incredibly sweet shout outs! i’m honored to be featured on your beautiful blog and did you know that February is National Embroidery Month? so great timing for this post!
Actually, there are adult merit badges:
http://www.maryyaeger.com/posterdescr.html
Which are also super examples of cool, subversive embroidery that’s about as far from the fuddy-duddy british grannies cross stitching roses image of embroidering as can be.
Also if you haven’t already, do check out Subversive Stitching:
http://www.subversivecrossstitch.com/
Beautiful picks for a beautiful and inspiring blog! Thanks for sharing all this.
Thanks for featuring my Love Birds! There’s so much awesome embroidery to be found @ Etsy! Great selection!
Wow, you’ve found such an impressive amount of cool embroidery! It’s not the kind of craft I would start doing in the first place, but these are supercool examples of all the nice things you can do with such an old craft. Thanks for the elaborate post and all the work you’ve done!