“Something that made me feel uplifted but at ease. I’d become so connected to screens, to work, to getting it all done; embroidery was able to be the antithesis of that.”

Known for her modern hoop art and one of a kind jewelry pieces, Case puts a contemporary spin on the traditional practice, passed onto her by her grandmother. Inspired by her grandmother’s hands delicately manipulating the fabric, Case taught herself how to hand embroider herself. “I needed something that I could do at home,” she explains, “that would entertain me but also was calming, relaxing and creative.”

But teaching herself the ins and outs of the trades took time and effort, and needless to say, mistakes were made. “I’d buy the books! I’d buy the fabric! I’d buy the floss! And the hoops! And the needles! PHEW… And then I’d promptly get ‘too busy’ and put them away in the cupboard,” she recalled. “Only to pick them up a couple of months later and start the process all over again. I’d get so excited to do something creative and then KAPUT I’d give up.”

Luckily for us, she pushed through. You can purchase her embroidered pieces on her Etsy shop or follow her work online, via Instagram.

The post Reilly Case Treats Embroidery as a Mindful Practice appeared first on MobiSpirit.

“I give notes for each design, including which stitches I used where,” she further explained in an interview with the Etsy blog, “so folks can replicate my example photos if they want to—or they can do their own thing.” According to Stiglets, the pattern is pre-printed on the fabric, with the floss, needle, and hoop all included in her kits. She also has a Getting Started Guide, which walks you through the process, step by step, with the aid of diagrams.

“I encourage you to slow down,” says Stiglets. “Take some time to notice the world around you. Look within and help your mind focus and calm so that you can come from a place of quiet rather than chaos. When your mind is peaceful, your life is richer.”

A self-taught embroiderer, Stiglets attitude towards her craft might just inspire you to follow her footsteps. Who knows, you might find yourself a new hobby by the end of the year.

The post Your Next Hobby? Liz Stiglets Will Teach You How to Embroider appeared first on MobiSpirit.

“Even if I don’t know where to place my work within contemporary art right now, I do think they share similar characteristics with both illustration and fiber art and I try to achieve a balance between them,” she remarked once in an interview with Textile Artist.

Based in Eskisehir, Turkey, Yazici’s love of crafts led her eventually to embroidery. “My first works were a recoil of embroidery being used for only traditional and decorative purposes,” she says. “The idea of mixing the inherent tradition of embroidery with modern ideas seemed interesting to me.”

Her work mostly features natural themes like plants, flowers, and animals, but what really makes it stand out is its relatively small size, with some of her embroideries so tiny they can fit on a pin. You’ll want to join in on the hype.

The post Irem Yazici’s Miniature Embroidery is All the Rage appeared first on MobiSpirit.

Her materials include flowers she collects and dries herself and more exotic specimens that are dried in advance. Those are threaded on tulle, arranged in pretty patterns and shapes. “A lot of my ideas come from going for walks in the countryside near where I live, or things I grow in the garden,” Prinku shared in an interview with The Italian Rêve, describing her creative process.

“I love working with the seasons,” she adds, “so whatever is in season is my favorite at that moment!” She admits she’s mostly drawn to pastel shades, though other colors are also peeking through.

“Some flowers are better than others for particular purposes,” explains Prinku. “For example, for floral embroidery hoops you want flowers with thin stalks and without particularly big heads. I’ve recently discovered you can dry small poppies and they seem to work well. Whereas for wreaths I like to use things like eucalyptus and olive, and I’ve started trying hydrangeas and peonies.”

We highly recommend you follow her original work on Instagram.

The post Olga Prinku Makes Unique Flower Embroideries appeared first on MobiSpirit.

A printmaking graduate from the Ontario College of Art and Design, Galletta realized there was a need for a brand like Kiriki Press after failing to find a good enough (cute enough) pattern to make her niece an embroidered doll.

“I couldn’t afford to buy her anything, but I hoped to make up for it with my time,” she explained in a short piece she posted on her website. Alas, she soon found out that it was difficult to find contemporary embroidery patterns that weren’t overly simplistic, let alone embroidered doll patterns. And so, she ended up designing her own. “As I was making Madeleine’s owls, I became fascinated with embroidery: the vibrant colors, the countless variety of stitches, the calming effect it had on me,” she writes.

A couple years later, and Kiriki Press has amassed thousands of followers on Instagram and has been featured in publications like Canadian Living, Chatelaine, Bust Magazine, and Homespun. Scrolling through the brand’s Instagram page might just get you inspired to start embroidering!

The post Michelle Galletta Will Motivate You to Take on Embroidery appeared first on MobiSpirit.

Born and raised in Cape Town, Clough completed her studies in art direction and graphic design at The Red and Yellow School. It was only after working some time in the fields of photography, graphic design, and VJing, that she decided to take her embroidery hobby to the next level. Now a professional embroiderer, her clients include brands like Gucci, Adobe, and Nike.

“I love the idea of just being a crafter,” she told Rebel Girls Boundless. “It’s like being an artisan—being a baker or being a sign painter. There’s so much freedom in being able to make something without there having to be more significance, without the critique. I think we often say, ‘I want to be seen as an artist,’ but why are we so hard on the fact that something is a craft when we can be badass crafters?”

Her process varies depending on her work, but it usually begins with a reference, which she photographs herself. She then edits the photo, enhancing the contrast between bright and dark colors, after which she traces the linework onto whatever surface she’s embroidering on. “I just think of it as, you know, tracing and coloring in,” she says. “Which is like a child’s dream.”

Enjoy some of her creative work below.

The post Danielle Clough’s Embroideries are Bright and Popping! appeared first on MobiSpirit.

“My aunt is a professional illustrator so from a very early age I learned with a lot of hard work and dedication that it is possible to make art your career. I also learned at school that I could make a living from being creative and have since pursued it!”

Based in Melbourne, Australia McKellar has since graduated with a Bachelor in Design Arts, as well as a Diploma in Printing & Graphic Art. With a passion for storytelling and functional design, her projects are approached with conceptual and strategic thinking, creating work that is both charismatic and beautiful.

Amongst her more original pieces are her unique embroideries, which incorporate printed fabrics. “I learned about sewing at a young age,” McKellar recalled. “You don’t have to be a master at it to make it look special,” she says. “I transferred my drawings onto fabrics and started embroidering small details and have continued working like this.”

Follow her original work on Instagram.

The post Enter Laura McKellar’s Creative Happy Place appeared first on MobiSpirit.

“Having gone into it with the mindset of an illustrator and having no background in traditional crafts, and yet I spend too much time playing around with fabric and sewing needles to feel I can entirely say I’m an illustrator – but I like to think that’s what people find interesting about my art, that it is in a space between embroidery and painting.”

Indeed, it was during the last year of her illustration degree that Giordano took to sewing, experimenting with freehand needle painting. Freehand means there is no prior pattern on which she bases her work, meaning she herself illustrates her pieces before going on to sew them. Using sewing thread and hand-dyed fabrics, her creations can take between one day and several weeks to complete.

“I think I fell in love with the tactile nature of sewing and working with fabric, but I don’t regret any of the hours spent drawing as it informs how I work now,” she says. “I find I get a sense of satisfaction from working with textiles that I never had with 2D mediums.”

Her initial embroidery work was based on much trial and error. “Although I’ve always loved art, I didn’t have any particular interest in textile arts when I was growing up, nor did I have any close relatives who did,” she explained. “When I started sewing near the end of my degree it was the first time I’d picked up a needle in years and I didn’t really know what I was doing with it. But I have always loved to draw and spent a lot of time drawing animals and exploring nature, and I think I’ve come back round to this in my current work.”

Take a look at some of her imaginative work in the gallery below.

The post Between Embroidery and Painting: Chloe Giordano’s Art Deserves a Closer Look appeared first on MobiSpirit.

“Embroidery became my own private refuge,” she explained in an interview with Textile Artist. “The effects of embroidery seemed otherworldly and captured my imagination as the perfect way to explore secret thoughts.”

Using embroidery was also a way to both honor and undermine the tradition of needlework that came before her. “Embroidery also comes with a lot of baggage,” said Kingdom. “It has often been dismissed and overlooked; perceived as decorative, a school-girl craft, fussily old-fashioned, small.”

It’s this notion precisely that drew Kingdom to it. “It’s deceptively pretty, unapologetically female, traditional and naive,” she says. “It speaks in tiny whispers, and only those that care to listen can hear it. My work tries to capture murky ideas brewing around in my head, and the evocative nature of figures in stitch better conveys those ideas than other mediums can.”

Her embroidered landscapes might be tiny, but their effect is palpable. Here are some of our favorite pieces by her.

The post The Tiny Embroidered Narratives of Michelle Kingdom appeared first on MobiSpirit.

“I am continually inspired by the natural world but in particular birds and their movement within the landscape and coastal regions,” Henley explains on her website. “I love studying how they move across the sky and interact with air currents and wave motion, or their distinctive characteristic movement as they feed along shorelines or flock to feeding grounds.”

Her pieces are made by a combination of dying, painting with pigments and screen-printing onto cotton calico, and then texturing the surface with various materials. Using machine and hand stitch, Henley applies fragments of Japanese paper, found paper (which she handprints), dyed muslin, and bits of silk.

Large, spacious areas of printed and painted surface contrast with small stitched details, representative of delicate birds in their wild natural environment and the contrast between intricate detail and the vast expanse of surrounding space.

The end result is both striking and thought-provoking. Take a look for yourself:

The post This Artist Is Inspired by Birds and Their Movement appeared first on MobiSpirit.

“Something that made me feel uplifted but at ease. I’d become so connected to screens, to work, to getting it all done; embroidery was able to be the antithesis of that.”

Known for her modern hoop art and one of a kind jewelry pieces, Case puts a contemporary spin on the traditional practice, passed onto her by her grandmother. Inspired by her grandmother’s hands delicately manipulating the fabric, Case taught herself how to hand embroider herself. “I needed something that I could do at home,” she explains, “that would entertain me but also was calming, relaxing and creative.”

But teaching herself the ins and outs of the trades took time and effort, and needless to say, mistakes were made. “I’d buy the books! I’d buy the fabric! I’d buy the floss! And the hoops! And the needles! PHEW… And then I’d promptly get ‘too busy’ and put them away in the cupboard,” she recalled. “Only to pick them up a couple of months later and start the process all over again. I’d get so excited to do something creative and then KAPUT I’d give up.”

Luckily for us, she pushed through. You can purchase her embroidered pieces on her Etsy shop or follow her work online, via Instagram.

The post Reilly Case Treats Embroidery as a Mindful Practice appeared first on MobiSpirit.

“I give notes for each design, including which stitches I used where,” she further explained in an interview with the Etsy blog, “so folks can replicate my example photos if they want to—or they can do their own thing.” According to Stiglets, the pattern is pre-printed on the fabric, with the floss, needle, and hoop all included in her kits. She also has a Getting Started Guide, which walks you through the process, step by step, with the aid of diagrams.

“I encourage you to slow down,” says Stiglets. “Take some time to notice the world around you. Look within and help your mind focus and calm so that you can come from a place of quiet rather than chaos. When your mind is peaceful, your life is richer.”

A self-taught embroiderer, Stiglets attitude towards her craft might just inspire you to follow her footsteps. Who knows, you might find yourself a new hobby by the end of the year.

The post Your Next Hobby? Liz Stiglets Will Teach You How to Embroider appeared first on MobiSpirit.

“Even if I don’t know where to place my work within contemporary art right now, I do think they share similar characteristics with both illustration and fiber art and I try to achieve a balance between them,” she remarked once in an interview with Textile Artist.

Based in Eskisehir, Turkey, Yazici’s love of crafts led her eventually to embroidery. “My first works were a recoil of embroidery being used for only traditional and decorative purposes,” she says. “The idea of mixing the inherent tradition of embroidery with modern ideas seemed interesting to me.”

Her work mostly features natural themes like plants, flowers, and animals, but what really makes it stand out is its relatively small size, with some of her embroideries so tiny they can fit on a pin. You’ll want to join in on the hype.

The post Irem Yazici’s Miniature Embroidery is All the Rage appeared first on MobiSpirit.

Her materials include flowers she collects and dries herself and more exotic specimens that are dried in advance. Those are threaded on tulle, arranged in pretty patterns and shapes. “A lot of my ideas come from going for walks in the countryside near where I live, or things I grow in the garden,” Prinku shared in an interview with The Italian Rêve, describing her creative process.

“I love working with the seasons,” she adds, “so whatever is in season is my favorite at that moment!” She admits she’s mostly drawn to pastel shades, though other colors are also peeking through.

“Some flowers are better than others for particular purposes,” explains Prinku. “For example, for floral embroidery hoops you want flowers with thin stalks and without particularly big heads. I’ve recently discovered you can dry small poppies and they seem to work well. Whereas for wreaths I like to use things like eucalyptus and olive, and I’ve started trying hydrangeas and peonies.”

We highly recommend you follow her original work on Instagram.

The post Olga Prinku Makes Unique Flower Embroideries appeared first on MobiSpirit.

A printmaking graduate from the Ontario College of Art and Design, Galletta realized there was a need for a brand like Kiriki Press after failing to find a good enough (cute enough) pattern to make her niece an embroidered doll.

“I couldn’t afford to buy her anything, but I hoped to make up for it with my time,” she explained in a short piece she posted on her website. Alas, she soon found out that it was difficult to find contemporary embroidery patterns that weren’t overly simplistic, let alone embroidered doll patterns. And so, she ended up designing her own. “As I was making Madeleine’s owls, I became fascinated with embroidery: the vibrant colors, the countless variety of stitches, the calming effect it had on me,” she writes.

A couple years later, and Kiriki Press has amassed thousands of followers on Instagram and has been featured in publications like Canadian Living, Chatelaine, Bust Magazine, and Homespun. Scrolling through the brand’s Instagram page might just get you inspired to start embroidering!

The post Michelle Galletta Will Motivate You to Take on Embroidery appeared first on MobiSpirit.

Born and raised in Cape Town, Clough completed her studies in art direction and graphic design at The Red and Yellow School. It was only after working some time in the fields of photography, graphic design, and VJing, that she decided to take her embroidery hobby to the next level. Now a professional embroiderer, her clients include brands like Gucci, Adobe, and Nike.

“I love the idea of just being a crafter,” she told Rebel Girls Boundless. “It’s like being an artisan—being a baker or being a sign painter. There’s so much freedom in being able to make something without there having to be more significance, without the critique. I think we often say, ‘I want to be seen as an artist,’ but why are we so hard on the fact that something is a craft when we can be badass crafters?”

Her process varies depending on her work, but it usually begins with a reference, which she photographs herself. She then edits the photo, enhancing the contrast between bright and dark colors, after which she traces the linework onto whatever surface she’s embroidering on. “I just think of it as, you know, tracing and coloring in,” she says. “Which is like a child’s dream.”

Enjoy some of her creative work below.

The post Danielle Clough’s Embroideries are Bright and Popping! appeared first on MobiSpirit.

“My aunt is a professional illustrator so from a very early age I learned with a lot of hard work and dedication that it is possible to make art your career. I also learned at school that I could make a living from being creative and have since pursued it!”

Based in Melbourne, Australia McKellar has since graduated with a Bachelor in Design Arts, as well as a Diploma in Printing & Graphic Art. With a passion for storytelling and functional design, her projects are approached with conceptual and strategic thinking, creating work that is both charismatic and beautiful.

Amongst her more original pieces are her unique embroideries, which incorporate printed fabrics. “I learned about sewing at a young age,” McKellar recalled. “You don’t have to be a master at it to make it look special,” she says. “I transferred my drawings onto fabrics and started embroidering small details and have continued working like this.”

Follow her original work on Instagram.

The post Enter Laura McKellar’s Creative Happy Place appeared first on MobiSpirit.

“Having gone into it with the mindset of an illustrator and having no background in traditional crafts, and yet I spend too much time playing around with fabric and sewing needles to feel I can entirely say I’m an illustrator – but I like to think that’s what people find interesting about my art, that it is in a space between embroidery and painting.”

Indeed, it was during the last year of her illustration degree that Giordano took to sewing, experimenting with freehand needle painting. Freehand means there is no prior pattern on which she bases her work, meaning she herself illustrates her pieces before going on to sew them. Using sewing thread and hand-dyed fabrics, her creations can take between one day and several weeks to complete.

“I think I fell in love with the tactile nature of sewing and working with fabric, but I don’t regret any of the hours spent drawing as it informs how I work now,” she says. “I find I get a sense of satisfaction from working with textiles that I never had with 2D mediums.”

Her initial embroidery work was based on much trial and error. “Although I’ve always loved art, I didn’t have any particular interest in textile arts when I was growing up, nor did I have any close relatives who did,” she explained. “When I started sewing near the end of my degree it was the first time I’d picked up a needle in years and I didn’t really know what I was doing with it. But I have always loved to draw and spent a lot of time drawing animals and exploring nature, and I think I’ve come back round to this in my current work.”

Take a look at some of her imaginative work in the gallery below.

The post Between Embroidery and Painting: Chloe Giordano’s Art Deserves a Closer Look appeared first on MobiSpirit.

“Embroidery became my own private refuge,” she explained in an interview with Textile Artist. “The effects of embroidery seemed otherworldly and captured my imagination as the perfect way to explore secret thoughts.”

Using embroidery was also a way to both honor and undermine the tradition of needlework that came before her. “Embroidery also comes with a lot of baggage,” said Kingdom. “It has often been dismissed and overlooked; perceived as decorative, a school-girl craft, fussily old-fashioned, small.”

It’s this notion precisely that drew Kingdom to it. “It’s deceptively pretty, unapologetically female, traditional and naive,” she says. “It speaks in tiny whispers, and only those that care to listen can hear it. My work tries to capture murky ideas brewing around in my head, and the evocative nature of figures in stitch better conveys those ideas than other mediums can.”

Her embroidered landscapes might be tiny, but their effect is palpable. Here are some of our favorite pieces by her.

The post The Tiny Embroidered Narratives of Michelle Kingdom appeared first on MobiSpirit.

“I am continually inspired by the natural world but in particular birds and their movement within the landscape and coastal regions,” Henley explains on her website. “I love studying how they move across the sky and interact with air currents and wave motion, or their distinctive characteristic movement as they feed along shorelines or flock to feeding grounds.”

Her pieces are made by a combination of dying, painting with pigments and screen-printing onto cotton calico, and then texturing the surface with various materials. Using machine and hand stitch, Henley applies fragments of Japanese paper, found paper (which she handprints), dyed muslin, and bits of silk.

Large, spacious areas of printed and painted surface contrast with small stitched details, representative of delicate birds in their wild natural environment and the contrast between intricate detail and the vast expanse of surrounding space.

The end result is both striking and thought-provoking. Take a look for yourself:

The post This Artist Is Inspired by Birds and Their Movement appeared first on MobiSpirit.