Contemporary embroiderers make use of an ever-expanding array of influences, materials, and techniques. From thread-painting to machine embroidery, each of the artists below has their own distinct sense of style and design. Follow the embedded links to find out more!
Chloe’s needlework is astoundingly detailed. Woodland fauna—deer, rabbits, badgers, mice—are her most common fare. These naturally shy creatures are stitched on hand-dyed fabric and often delicately encircled by embroidered foliage. See Chloe in action here.
Combining a soft muted palette with an exceptionally strong sense of design, Megan creates whimsical figures embroidered with oak leaves, radishes, and toadstools. An illustrator by trade, she uses watercolour to delicately dye her figures’ folk-inspired clothing.
Eira’s creative process is beautifully documented on instagram. Her painstakingly-sequinned fish are a signature crowd-pleaser. Detailed micro embroideries (thistles, ferns, skulls) are turned into dainty, victoriana-esque pendants and brooches.
Sheena Liam / Times New Romance
Quiet, everyday moments captured with intuitive simplicity. Sheena’s pared-down style perfectly conveys a sort of neutral quotidian aloneness as figures eat, read, and dress. Collectively, works feel like a series of candid photographs – affecting in locked-down times.
Nadezhda‘s unusual pointillistic technique lends her work an almost tapestry-like quality. Her small botanical pieces are particularly painterly: discrete, expertly-placed stitches blend seamlessly to form beautifully observed renditions of spring bulbs.
Dense stitching and fluid, overlapping forms are skilfully marshalled into an undeniably charismatic style. Line and blank space combine to reveal Tudor ladies, angels, and foliage in these small, frameable pieces. Cathy also creates mixed media collages.
Quirky machine embroidery inspired by vintage materials and motifs. Visit Emma’s Shop to check out a unique assortment of embroidered dolls, lavender bags, and vintage decorations. The inspired ‘fun-fair meets children’s storybook’ vibe runs throughout.
Delicately expressive works made using natural fibres and dyes. Pieces have names like Racálach (‘cast-up seaweed’), Bláthanna Fáine (‘wild flowers’), and Sliabh (‘mountain’) – sensitive, tonally muted hymns to the landscape, wildlife, and folklore of Ireland.
Mirtle has developed a unique identity for her art, celebrating small pleasures, and cultivating a sort of quirky, joyful minimalism. Her colourful little pocket people brim with quiet, matter-of-fact charm – talismans for introverts everywhere.
Synthesising the freedom and energy of pen and ink with the compact deliberateness of stitch, Becca’s fluent use of line and shape is deployed to create a series of beautifully spare botanical ‘drawings’. A case in which less is absolutely, emphatically more.
Images used with the artists’ permission.
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Coming soon: ceramics, printmakers part 2, and places to shop small this Christmas!
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The Art Desk 