Sampler Diary, Land of the Sea

Sampler Land of the Sea, Mique Menheere, photo Mique Menheere Chintzes Last year in an embroidery course I learned a technique to work (embroidery) fabric. I experienced a bit and painted some cotton with red textile paint. I associated the result that arose with Chintz fabrics from Asia. In the 18th century the Dutch VOC …

Sue Stone, the woman with a fish

Self portrait 63, Sue Stone, 2015, courtesy Sue Stone, http://womanwithafish.com When I saw this image in a magazine, it immediately struck me. So clear, so “real-life”, so contemporary… Wow. It made me clear that embroidery has taken a whole new path. That prejudices of being old-fashioned and for “fossil”‘ grannies only, have gone down, down, …

Book Project Fast Work – Time Consuming landscape

Cover booklet, copyright Pauline Nijenhuis, photo is base for the project art works In 2017 mixed media artist Pauline Nijenhuis (Zutphen, The Netherlands) carried out the project ‘Fast Work, Time consuming Landscape’. In 2018 a booklet about this project was published. If you haven’t been able to see the project, this book is a perfect …

Erin Endicott’s Healing Sutras

Sutra 35, Erin Endicott, courtesy EE It’s not just beautiful. It’s not just historical awareness. I’ts not just sublime craftsmanship. It’s all this. Only last year I came upon the work Healing Sutras of Erin Endicott (USA), although she delivered it around 2010. The Sanskrit word Sutra means stitch: a thread or line that holds things …

Cultural Threads, Textile Museum

Memory Unsettled, Celio Braga, detail, 2016, photo artyembroidery.com Textile Museum commisions new works In 2018 the Textielmuseum at Tilburg (the Netherlands), asked four Dutch artists to develop new works in cooperation with their TextielLab. Leading inspiration for the museum was the book Cultural Threads by Jessica Hemmings (2014). Some artists unraveled histories and searched for …

Book about Mark Making

Embroidery is … making marks. You never looked at it that way, did you? Batsford publishing/Pavilion Books Company Ltd, https://www.pavilionbooks.com/imprints/batsford Covering the surface When embroidering, in fact you’re covering the surface of textile with different stitches. Those become marks. Helen Parrott has written a book about this, Mark-making in Textile Art (2013). In the book she shows …

Antique lace necklace

embroidered necklace, antique lace, glass beads, Mique Menheere, 2015, photo artyembroidery.com Some years ago I was shopping in the city of Nijmegen. By accident I came across an antique store. Normally that kind of shop doesn’t have my special interest. But somehow this time I decided to take a look. Quite quickly my eyes fell …