I have been surrounded by embroidery in one way of another my whole life. My Grandma was a keen sewer, embroiderer and textile artist. She was part of the Embroiderer’s Guild in Blaby near Leicester where her and my Granddad lived. The work she produced was amazing and the older I’ve got, the greater my appreciation of it has grown. I have several pieces she made in my house now. Each one unique and they all have an interesting and wonderful texture.
When my sister and I were young we often stayed with my Grandparents during the school holidays and my Gran would have us painting, drawing, sewing, fabric dying and embroidering. They’re fond memories and influenced the rest of my life. I created embroidered pieces of work for my fine art degree show and return to it periodically throughout my life often when making gifts or embellishing items. I do find with my crafting I prefer items to have a purpose, my knitting and sewing is often to create garments and my other creative pursuits are to make a specific functional items. Which means embroidery is rarely something I set out to do especially as it can take so long to do.
When Hana and I started to discuss creating embroidery kits for the shop we decided a string of pearls plant was the perfect way to incorporate beads into the design. I set about playing with stitches and creating the kit sample. I actually found myself getting completely absorbed in the activity and it was really relaxing. Working on a small scale it is wonderful to see your progress and all the shapes evolving before your eyes. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I really enjoyed it and I could have sat for hours more. Which just makes me think my wanting to only create items with a “purpose” might be a little short sighted of me!
Updated note added 29/03/23.
Since the blog post was first written and the kit launched some of the beads used were discontinued so we decided not to make any more kits. However so that our efforts were not wasted we have now released the design as a free project which is available to view here.