Like many who pick up a needle and thread, Flox den Hartog Jager was introduced to the practical side of stitch from quite a young age. However, she insists it was her mother’s intellectual pursuit of studying symbols, religion and mythology that has had the greatest influence on her work….

Bernie Leahy’s artworks combine techniques from all areas of art, bonded together with a love of life drawing. She makes use of a wide range of materials and processes including stitch, paint, bronze, plaster, gold leaf, diamonds, glass, text, silver, video and sound. Bernie explores themes of connectivity, passion and…

American textile artist Melissa Zexter combines her love of the technical aspects of photography with the more meditative process of embroidery. The results are unique, hand-crafted photographic objects that examine issues of identity, memory, personal experience and technology. Melissa began adding embroidery to her photographs after attending an artist’s residency…

Following her urge to create realistic portraits, Stacey Chapman creates images of people and animals using freehand machine embroidery and collage. Along with a running theme of portraits and fashion, she likes to collect and include found scraps of materials, each of which hold their own piece of history. After…

Until she went to college to study fine art, Ailish Henderson had never picked up a needle. No amount of encouragement from her mother who sewed quite a bit could persuade her to do so. Ailish preferred fine art techniques, especially related to drawing and painting. But after entering college,…

Anouk expresses her inner most emotions through stitch and mixed media. Finding your niche in a creative world can be fraught with challenges especially when living alone in a large and impersonal city far from family and friends. In this interview, Anouk shares with us the life-changing moments that influenced…

Isobel Currie’s love of thread and fine work was nurtured by her mother and developed in her studies at Manchester Polytechnic, now Manchester Metropolitan University. She creates breathtakingly intricate work using simple, traditional hand stitches, which she puts her own twist on by exploring their three-dimensional potential. In this article,…

Since completing her year of fine arts, Chloe Redfern has been on a creative voyage of discovery. The textile artist has tried everything from bookbinding to collage and believes that this has guided her creative practice; helping her to find her passion for hand embroidered hoop art. The daughter of…

Using needlepoint and spray paint to create abstract contemporary art. Embroidery artist, lecturer and fashion designer Zoe Gilbertson creates energy-filled abstract art using spray-painted canvas with tapestry wool stitches. Her path into textile art started with an early interest in fashion design and textiles from around the world. She develops…

You have a ‘heart and soul’ passion for textiles. You long to develop your own visual vocabulary using the stitch techniques you love. You know deep down that you have the potential to express something unique and meaningful through the medium. And yet you find yourself staring hopelessly at a…