Creative embroiderers pushing boundaries

No longer is the word embroidery associated with a make do and mend generation or twee fete stalls. The creative world is alive and buzzing with some amazing work, not only in retail and fashion, but in art too.

There are some really talented contemporary artists and designers doing some incredible embroidery, textile and mixed media work and they are from all sorts of backgrounds and age ranges too.

Here are a couple of our favourites.

James Merry
James is a self-taught hand embroidery artist. Hailing from Gloucestershire, he is now based in Iceland and is well known for his work with Björk. He’s also known for his custom-stitched sweaters and T-shirts where he hand embroidered flowers, fungi and vegetables around well known sports brand logos in an 'artistic protest against urban mass production'. You can check his work out at www.jtmerry.com or find him on Instagram.

Izziyana Suhaimi
Izziyana lives and works in Singapore and is known as a fiber artist, working primarily in hand embroidery. Her work combines illustration and embroidery and links the past with the present. There are lots of depictions of women in her work and the accents of embroidery to her illustrations are truly beautiful and inspiring. You can find out more about her here.

Inge Jacobson
Contemporary artist Inge Jacobsen ‘hijacks’ advertising imagery using thread to mask the original image and message. Far from being decorative, her work is powerful and thoughtful and was recently on display at the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition. You can find out more about her and her work on her website.

Severija Incirauskaite-Kriauneviciene
For something really different take a look at this Lithuanian artist! Severija overlooks fabric in favour of more unconventional objects. She basically cross-stitches floral and decorative patterns straight onto everyday objects such as metal buckets, cars and kitchen utensils. Each chosen object becomes a blank canvas and is an attempt to change the view of traditional embroidery which people often view as dainty and charming. See more of her amazing art here.

Lisa Smirnova
This Russian born designer paints using thread. Her spectacular embroideries and unmistakable style are all created by hand and are a thing of real artistic beauty. Lisa uses thread, wool or cotton and her latest work, named “Artist at Home”, has been done in collaboration with fashion designer Olya Glagoleva. Here, a collection of clothes were transformed into a series of art inspired by “painters’ dirty clothes”. You can find out more about Lisa on her behance and tumblr pages.

There are obviously many great embroiderers out there, so if you do spot any you’d like to share with us then we’d love to hear about them. We’d also love to see what our customers are producing so if you have any work you’d like to feature on a future blog, then please do get in touch.