Discover: Five contemporary embroidery artists
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Limitless. That’s how so many artists describe the creative medium of textiles. Time and time again they explain that the possibilities are never-ending, and so very exciting.
Take Debbie Smyth, Lisa Kokin, Rosie James, Inge Jacobsen and Lindsey Gradolph, who have all found unique and personal ways to express their ideas.
These makers are constantly experimenting and advancing their craft. Some are well versed in traditional techniques and materials, others are new to textiles.
But what they all have in common is a curiosity to look beyond what’s expected. Each plays with the medium in order to tell a personal story, create a striking image, interpret feelings or to comment on the world around them.
We asked each of these contemporary textile artists about one of their artworks and to reveal the ideas that shaped it.
Debbie Smyth
‘Drawing is the foundation of what I do and you can draw with any materials.’ It’s a bold statement but one Debbie Smyth, who’s known for her statement thread drawings is definitely qualified to make.
Tensioned threads are stretched between precisely plotted points. Up close, you find your vision overwhelmed by a cluster of colliding, hanging threads strung amid a constellation of dressmaker’s pins, each hammered directly into the wall. Step back and suddenly the entire canvas comes into focus.
The result is a powerful, dynamic image that’s full of movement. Yet there’s not a stitch in sight.
Debbie, who’s known for her monumental, statement thread drawings, likes to blur the boundaries between the disciplines of drawing and textiles.
Using thread allows Debbie to ‘draw in space’, transforming 2D lines and planes into 3D shapes and spaces. It’s a process that results in floating, linear thread structures.
Her practice is about pushing the limits of her materials and making the ordinary, extraordinary. Take her FOLIO X FUBON series, made during a three-month residency in Taiwan.
Line of enquiry
In this expressive series of thread portraits of local people, each character represents a personal impression of Taipei City developed from sketches and photographs. These were then scaled up and the all-absorbing ‘meditative’ process of plotting each image began, along with the winding and knotting of countless lines of thread.
‘I like the idea of using the most familiar textile materials (pins and thread) in an unorthodox way. Having worked with thread for some time now, I tend to see it as an alternate drawing medium. The process is very material-led; how the thread falls or knots often dictates my next step.’
Singled out, these materials appear flimsy and delicate, however when built, layer upon layer at a monumental scale, they become a robust tapestry-like architectural surface pattern: a quality that’s difficult to achieve through stitch alone.
Debbie discovered her technique while in her final year at university, intrigued by the idea of finding a way to lift the drawn line off the page. She says it’s important to experiment.
‘Get hands-on with materials and allow yourself to be material-led. It’s very easy to follow instructions with textile techniques, as it’s seen as a craft, but try not to. Deviate and see where you end up. Enjoy the process.’
UK artist Debbie Smyth established her studio practice in 2009 in Stroud, Gloucestershire. Her family-based design studio collaborates regularly with interior designers and architects, and counts companies such as Disney, Marvel, Ellesse, Adidas, BA, BBC, Mercedes Benz, The New York Times, and Sony among its clients. The three works from the FOLIO X FUBON series are permanently installed at Folio Da’an Hotel, Taipei.
Website: www.debbie-smyth.com
Instagram: @Debbiesmyth
Facebook: www.facebook.com/debbiesmythX/
Lisa Kokin
Materials can often act as a catalyst for new ideas, and Lisa Kokin’s practice thrives on this idea of chance and spontaneity.
Lisa is no stranger to the potential of found, often random, materials – from textiles, paper, books and metal to shredded money. She brings a textile sensibility to working with them within a conceptual framework. ‘My work is often a commentary on the world around me, incorporating the age-old Jewish response to adversity – humour,’ she says.
In Shooter, part of her ‘How the West Was Sewn’ series, Lisa reimagined the natural form of a branch, inspired by a set of discarded paperback books, which she rescued from her local recycling centre.
The techniques are straightforward – she machine stitched the outline of leaf veins directly onto the paperback covers, after backing them with bookbinding material and incorporating wire for rigidity. But she used the books’ ‘campy’ imagery to tell another story.
‘The machismo and violence were so overt, and over the top, that they begged to be rearranged and recontextualised.’
The medium is the message
The series was stitched in 2008, at the end of the Bush Administration, a time when Lisa hoped the cowboy mentality would soon ‘be left in the dust’. ‘How wrong I was! I continued to use the cowboy novels to comment on guns and the violence that is prevalent in our culture, and I make them now as commissions when asked.’
Trees and the natural environment were another influence since Lisa’s move to her current base in El Sobrante, a semi-rural area in California.
‘It adds a layer of richness because of the fragments of imagery and text, and also the unexpectedness of book parts being stitched into horticultural forms. I also like the symmetrical, conceptual element of tree to paper to book, and back to the image of tree and leaves.’
‘I love the fragments of imagery that occur, the inadvertent compositions that result from randomly cutting out the leaf shapes from the book covers. I make dozens of leaves and then start to arrange them by colour and shape until I have an arrangement that works. If I have to make more I do, until I’ve made enough to create a composition that works colour- and form-wise.
For Lisa, it’s an exciting approach that can bring huge rewards for anyone working with textiles creatively. ‘I would suggest that you regard materials that you encounter in everyday life as potential art supplies, not limiting yourself to what can traditionally be found in stores or online.’
Lisa Kokin’s work is in numerous public and private collections, including the Boise Art Museum, the Buchenwald Memorial, the di Rosa Preserve, Mills College, Kaiser Permanente San Francisco, Yale University Art Museum, and Tiffany & Co. She has received multiple awards and commissions in her four-decade long career. Lisa currently maintains a thriving teaching and mentoring practice.
Website: www.lisakokin.com
Instagram: @lisakokin
Inge Jacobsen
Centuries ago, the value of embroidery and lace lay not only in the time consuming and skilled nature of their production but in their exclusivity and signalling of status, as any portrait of Elizabeth I or Henry VIII reveals.
Today, mass-produced images infiltrate our every waking moment. They’re available for instant consumption, to be scrolled and liked, shared or forgotten, each quickly replaced by another in an instant.
So when Inge Jacobsen chooses to spend hours embroidering a magazine cover, an obsession that results in works such as Beyoncé – Dazed & Confused – Hijacked, the result is something of a conundrum.
Obscuring the cover star’s carefully selected outfit, her perfectly styled hair and make-up are thousands of meticulously hand embroidered cross-stitches, forming a pixelated yet recognisable facsimile of the singer.
And in a further twist, the cover is stitched from the back: ‘It was such a good image and outfit, I didn’t think embroidery would improve it, so I decided to disrupt it by inverting it,’ says Inge.
Beyond the surface
While the overall image is retained it is simplified. The embroidery is still an embellishment of sorts, yet it’s a playful subversion around the conventions of worth assigned to labour and materials.
‘Why would anyone in their right mind spend hours and hours carefully embroidering something that could melt if it gets wet or tear if you pull the thread too hard, right?’ It’s a question that Inge loves to consider.
‘I love working on magazines because for most people, once they’re read or looked at a few times they become disposable – more mass-produced artwork for the trash heap, so adding time consuming embroidery adds a certain uniqueness that’s lost in the mass-production process.’
‘It goes back to the idea of making something mass-produced unique, beautiful, delicate and special. I could embroider the same cover 50 times and each one would be unique.’
For Inge, the aim is to push beyond what’s expected. ‘You can do a lot with a needle and thread – physically and conceptually. I love appropriating images versus creating an image from scratch. There is nothing wrong with a bit of creative collaboration.’
Inge Jacobsen was born in Galway, Ireland where she currently resides. She attended Kingston University, London, graduating in 2011 with a BA in Fine Art Photography and has worked as a professional artist with brands such as Apple TV and WIRED magazine UK.
Website: www.ingejacobsen.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/IngeJacobsenArtist
Instagram: @ingejacobsen
Rosie James
‘I love seeing how the stitched version of a photo will turn out,’ says Rosie James. ‘I think that the sewing machine has some say on what comes out the other end; you never quite know… But mostly I think I love the possibilities: there are so many different ways of working in this way and so many ideas to explore.’
Rosie James likes to use her sewing machine as a drawing tool, and photography as her inspiration. Her machine-stitched works are usually figurative, and composition is always a key element, something she’s intuitively drawn to.
Take Rosie’s artwork Copenhagen Streetlife, a textile hanging based on a photograph snapped in Copenhagen. Three cyclists pedal away from us, while a man strolls towards us – both elements are balanced on a long diagonal axis – a road that sweeps from the foreground into the distance.
Composed of two fabric layers, contrasting coloured stitched lines differentiate between the architecture (stitched in black on the base layer) and the figures (in orange on the top sheer layer). The ‘road’, made from blue shirting fabric is sandwiched between the layers, which are stitched together in green running stitch.
But there’s something else. The original photograph pictured the scene after a recent downpour; Rosie has used loose dangling threads to give the surface ‘a rainy feel’, as if the coloured threads are actually dripping from the surface.
It’s raining thread
‘I started out by having a go at free machine embroidery and realised the possibilities immediately as a form of drawing,’ says Rosie. ‘I think it achieves a different kind of line. It’s reliant on the machine, which creates a continual line. It’s a more flowing line and lends itself to the way I like to draw, which is a kind of contour drawing.’
Even though Rosie primarily works with two materials – thread and cloth – she’s adamant that the possibilities are endless.
‘Within those two things there are so many varieties… Thread can be anything from thick cord to very fine hair, it doesn’t have to be thread as such. What else could it be?’
And she regards her materials with the same curiosity. Any surface – ‘paper, card, plastic, whatever you have lying around’ is ripe for experimentation on her sewing machine. ‘Experiment,’ she says. ‘Also consider the loose threads: change the length, the colour of them, where they go, attach them, pull them straight. Consider all the possibilities.’
Rosie James is based near Rochester in Kent in the UK. She is the author of Stitch Draw: Design and technique for figurative stitching, and a member of Art Textiles: Made in Britain.
Website: www.rosiejames.com
Instagram: @rosiejamestextileartist
Lindzeanne
Eddies of white stitches swell into circular whirlpools, nudging up against thick, broad brushstrokes of thread and thousands of tiny stabs of cotton. Lindsey Gradolph’s stitch palette may be an economical mix of back, seed and blanket stitches, but she lets them meander over the entire surface of her cloth.
A kind of pattern emerges but it’s hard to pin down. There are hints of sashiko in the work, yet there’s none of the orderliness of the technique’s uniform lines of running stitch.
Lindsey (who goes by the online name Lindzeanne) lives and works in Japan. That’s where she developed her method of expressive hand stitching, which was actually born out of creative frustration.
‘I really was just desperate for an avenue to express myself… I’m always trying to create a visual landscape and record of my inner thoughts and ideas. I have never been adept at expressing myself with language. Abstract imagery combined with the thoughtful slowness of embroidery has been a lucky discovery for me.’
The idea of freely stitching in this way helped Lindsey to develop her own personal form of expressive, stitch vocabulary.
‘I’m an excellent over-thinker in all areas of my life, but my embroidery is the one place where I don’t feel compelled to do so. Whatever comes out, comes out. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s only ok, and sometimes it’s pretty ugly. I just keep going.’
Choosing to work with discarded or unused and unloved textiles was also a positive choice for Lindsey, as is embroidering with fine, machine weight or button thread, handy for creating detailed repetitive patterns. For this artist, it’s the perfect combination of her aesthetic tastes and personal values.
But what most excites her is that this way of working always results in the unexpected. She never draws or makes a plan before starting a piece, and never unpicks her work.
The goal is to try to capture a feeling or an idea through her freestyle stitching.
Up close and personal
‘Basically, my work has been just an exercise in throwing my hands up, thinking to myself “whaddya gonna do?”, and then just keeping going.’
And her advice to others is similarly succinct. ‘Don’t worry so much. Just show up, get started. Make what you want to see more of in the world.’
Lindsey Gradolph (Lindzeanne) is a self-taught embroidery artist and English teacher based in Tokyo, Japan. Her work is inspired by traditional Japanese textile traditions such as Sashiko and Indigo dying, and also the concept of Mottainai or ‘waste nothing’.
Website: lindzeanne.com
Instagram: @lindzeanne
Key takeaways
There has never been a better time to explore textile and stitch in all their forms.
But where to start?
- By thinking outside the box, Debbie Symth discovered a different way to work with her threads. Take something from your stash and avoid using it for its intended purpose; instead play around with some ideas of what else you might create with it.
- Think about alternative surfaces for stitching into. Inge Jacobsen was drawn to magazine covers, but what do you have lying around at home that has potential?
- As Lisa Kokin says, with imagination most items can be seen as ‘art supplies’. Consider working with a random found object, or a collection of things. What ideas or associations do they spark for you? How might you develop this idea?
- Taking Lindsey Gradoph’s lead, why not try to capture a feeling or a thought by making a sampler of hand stitched marks? Let go and indulge in some freestyle stitching – the wilder the better!
Find out more about the textile artists who have found contemporary and creative ways to express their ideas through various media, from newspapers to photographs.
Do you have a favourite contemporary embroidery artist? Tell us in the comments.
Each of these artists was well worth investigating further – thank you for introducing them to me.
Absolutely, wonderful artists and work!
The word ‘Needlepoint’ faces the same baggage as ’embroidery’ in that it most often it is never taken seriously. Probably because there are only a handful of artists around the world experimenting with this medium. Niki McDonald of Sydney, AU is one of them.
As a contemporary artist I embrace the the traditional, simple basketweave stitch and make it sing in new ways. I have a passion to promote the idea that needlepoint has the potential to be exhibited in the contemporary fiber artist’s portfolio.
For a sample of my contemporary take on needlepoint, please click this link.
I am quite enjoyed looking at this work and I will spend much time looking at the work on the links.
Really inspiring – particularly love Kazuhito Takadoi’s work – beautiful.
This is so inspiring!!!
Fantastic! The exciting thing about textiles is it’s non-acceptance within the ‘artworld’. But there lies it’s potential – so much is unexplored and yet to be revealed!
Great art with meaning. I found Ana Teresa Barboza’s work absolutely compelling. Why is the graphite woman holding such a huge colourfully embroidered bird? Why? What does it mean? Is the bird sleeping or dead? If it is the latter, did the lack of respect we have for the environment kill it?
Inspiring work. Full of ideas to take you new areas of creativity.
Hi Sara – I absolutely take your point and I’ve amended the text in response. I have nothing but respect for our heritage and my own grandmother created beautiful embroidery art, some of which I still have today. I think I was trying to make the point that these artists are doing something new and fresh, but I can see how using the term ‘little old lady’ may be taken as derisory – it was not intended as such – more to evoke an image of old vs new (not that either is necessarily better). Thanks for the comment.
Oh my goodness! These are totally incredible! I wrote an article on embroidery recently http://theswatchbook.offsetwarehouse.com/2015/01/25/hand-embroidery-haute-couture-designs/ – just going through the basics, and inspiring others to hand embroider their work for a personalised couture touch, but this has inspired me to write a new post on really different, contemporary designs. Thank you!
I have never seen just this kind of work it’s great
2 links from my blog info images videos
– Embroidery as Contemporary Art
http://ilramodoro-katyasanna.blogspot.it/2013/03/ricamo-come-arte-contemporanea.html
– Fiber Art – Texile Art
http://ilramodoro-katyasanna.blogspot.it/2013_12_01_archive.html
Thank you Sara….I quite agree with your comments and your power with words is quite awesome. Bet you made a few folks see things in a new light. Also, you made me laugh out loud. Thanks.
Very beautiful all of them….they give me new inspirations!
Hermosos y creativos todos los trabajas. Felicitaciones
I `feel` very nuch the embroidered mags and newspapers, It is the kind of art i could make! For myself i have created one work where i included a Book cover embroidery, out of which i took a phrasse , As well as a Title page of a Dutch Handcraft magazine that my Great Uncle pblished , mirjam
i really appreciate this blog amazing embroidery 🙂
Thank you for this very inspiring article. As a University student in a contemporary art school, doing textiles as well as painting, the ideas allow me to continue doing what I love to do. I have drawn a picture, then stitched in black and white. People looked at it twice before realising that I had used cotton thread. I am now more enthusiastic to keep on using my mediums, with paints, objects to explore my own potential. MarilynJanet
Interesting artists
Really enjoying reading about the work of other textile artists. As I am in New Zealand it is important to keep up with the work other artists are creating overseas. Interesting how often similar themes evolve and the different ways people approach the same concepts.
Love these artists and their work.
I enjoyed reading about these artists very much. Thank you for sharing this information. I hope to see more of these artists’ work.
great very nice and very helpful blog,
Thank you!
I can not get enough of this website! Love it so much.
Thanks for the great comments Michael!
What an amazing work…Love It!
What a work, really liked the vogue design. Hope to see more post like this.
Awesome post.
what a visual feast and so inspiring, I’ve looked at the blog many times and still find myself mesmerized by the unique and clever way the artists express themselves using textiles as their medium x
It has taken 20 plus years to find the right formula Which I have explored the world of fabrics texture & colours in my own art works
Textileartist is a new & refreshing site full of advice.
Thank you Patric Purnell
very nice collection i appreciate thanks for sharing 🙂
I am an old lady (81) is 5’7″ little? And, I’m a granny.. also, I am an artist and I find this blog to be incredibly inspiring. Seeing this new, contemporary work stimulates my own muse. I work mostly with collage now, but have been a painter and embroider-er most of my life.. I can see a new connection between my collage imagery and fiber and thread because of your site. Thank you so much for all the work you put into creating your blog. It is wonderful.
👏👍🏻Carole Free
I was fascinated by the talent of Ana Teresa Barboza
Wow this Embroidery is amazing and I want to appreciate you for sharing as this article is very helpful 🙂 Keep on updating about new things as well 🙂
So many talented & inspiring artists ….You lift my heart ! Art unites cultures
Custom Embroidery Digitizing
Thank you for a great explanation. I was looking online for a similar idea and really appreciate it
Thank you for a great explanation. I was looking online for a similar idea and really appreciate it
ONLINE EMBROIDERY DIGITIZING
The article of this quality is really hard to find. I am really glad that I found your article
Custom Embroidery Digitizing
I can’t afford any of these artists’ work, but still it’s comforting knowing it’s out there, being done, kind of like how Jesus is out there somewhere, forgiving sins. Or like the power company, making electrons shoot through wires I forget are even there,
Great work of embroidery .Embroidery Packs I truly appreciate your efforts. You did a great job
Fantastic Artwork. Being in machine embroidery business we still admit that hand embroidery is way too classy!
I love all that textileartist.org shares with us. Inspiring, interesting, intriguing and so informative. My favorite source of art information. Thanks so much!!!
Thanks for sharing.
Good article!
Autor, thanks for the interesting article! Nice information!
Thanks you for the interesting information! Good article!
Dear author of a superb post! I would like to thank you. Nice to read your quality articles. The topic is actually quite relevant. I think that each reader will appreciate your own efforts and this guide. Be sure to share this article with friends and coworkers!
Hi Joe,
Didn’t know anything about them before reading your article. Now learn a lot of those legends.
Really informative post, really they are worth considering to be studied there work is fab. Thanks for sharing.
very nice work all images are very unique and meaningful
I agree that embroidery is every bit as expressive as painting, or any other “fine art” application. Shari Wolf Boraz
http://www.sewboraz.com
Fascinating. I am a grandma, too. I started doing needlepoint and embroidery back in the day. I found knitting is my 1st love but, I always do some embroidery especially in the summer. I love to embroider on knitting projects. Recently that president ok cess was featured in a fiber art magazine.
Thank you for this post. It encourages and inspires me!! I think the time to appreciate and respect fiber arts is long overdue. Boston has a knitting guild which I plan to rejoin. About 100 active members, the education and talent offered is amazing.
The benefits of fiber arts are numerous also, lowering blood pressure, decreased anxiety, developing community, an income for some, increased self worth.
I am a grandma but not crocheting the same Afghan sitting in my rocker.
That is one type of fiber artist. The options are as varied and diverse as we are!!
Enjoyed these taster articles and learning of artists I didn’t know. Will investigate further. Thank you v
It is great to know that embroidery artists start getting their recognition in the contemporary art field. Thank you for making this list. I follow many of the artists from it already and I have found several new ones for me to follow.
Those are all so cool!
I’m using this website for a research homework and it is very good in my opinion
Wonderfull article, Great Artists !
This is a really love this pictures, and lots of information about embroidery design.
Thanks for sharing information.
nice article, it is very helpful for me. i really appreciate your efforts. this is interesting to read and very clearly explained the ideas. recently i get service from the digitizing company. it was a great experience for me. so thanks for sharing such an amazing article.
Very Very Thanks for this very inspiring article. As a student in a art school, doing textiles as well as painting, the ideas allow me to continue doing what I love to do.
It is really lovely topics, and also a lots of info about deep embroidery designs.
Thank you very much for sharing this information.
The list is still uncompleted but crafted some of the best artists that I have known for years.
Hi,
Very Very Thanks for this very inspiring article. As a student in a art school, doing textiles as well as painting,
I have recently taken up embroidery, and have tried to find some sites online to help, does anyone out there know where I can find some sites to help me, or can any of you help me? My biggest problem is trying to fill in the picture after getting it outlined, any help is greatly appreciated.
Just stunning …..but even more important inspiring ! Love the subjects especially grocery cart…..thank you for sharing
Hi, it is really great art of embroidery, loved your art. Good job, thumbs up for your work.
Thank you, Kayleigh. Christina purchased her fabric from frabric.com
Have a look at these other resources she uses for her projects as well.
This is the nice work and great work for embroidery digitizing
Thanks for the sharing information
What a lovely things and great work about embroidery stuff
I am quite enjoyed looking at this work and I will spend much time looking at the work on the links.
Good work for embroidery
Thanks for sharing
This is nice work for embroidery
This is nice work for embroidery
Thanks for sharing
Cada uno me parece muy, muy buenos y me encantaría ser una entre todas pero no llego a elegir y comenzar. Felicito a todas y a cada una por los trabajos realizados.
Felicitaciones a Joe & Sam y a cada unos de quienes se presentaron.
Nilda
Great Ideas for Embroidery, Thanks for Sharing.
Fabulous artists! Original and Inspiring! Thank you for showing us what is possible!
My favourite embroiderer isClaire Heathcote