It's been a while. Since the last time I wrote, I've launched several DIY embroidery kits in my online shop, Bear&Bean! They have everything you need to stitch a stick-on wild animal patch: red panda, axolotl, sloth, and sea lion.
👇 Scroll down for an unexpected mailbox, a stained glass embroidery kit, a "doodle grid," and much more.
A lace electrical cord and doodle grid
✨ 5 creatively inspiring things
1️⃣ Maggie Hensel-Brown creates illustrative needle lace designs. This piece features a pair of sneakers and an electrical cord. I don’t know about you, but it’s not what I usually think of when I picture needle lace (complimentary).
2️⃣ The direction of your embroidery stitch has an incredible effect on the texture of a piece. That, coupled with more sculptural stitches (think stumpwork), brings an image to life. Just look at how Rachel of Blue Sun Threads pairs them with this partially buried skull.
3️⃣ This is one of those videos that gives you confidence (definitely unearned on my part) to transform a blanket into a stylish jacket. It’s super cute and a great upcycling project. And it looks like it just comes together with the blanket stitch (of course). Don’t tempt me! Is it tempting you?
4️⃣ You’ve got mail! … But probably not in the way you’re expecting. OK Soup Studio created an appliqué mailbox on a shirt that really opens and holds a stitched letter inside.
5️⃣ I love soft sculptures. It’s been a while since I checked in on the work of Hiné Mizushima, but she has a new show happening now at Boris Zakkaten in Tokyo. Called Creatures and Curiosities, she’s “brought to life an eclectic array of beings” that are crafted using embroidery, punch needle, and beadwork.
🪡 5 ways to DIY
1️⃣ This is a beautiful stained glass embroidery kit by Emily June. It uses variegated floss to recreate the look of stained glass in thread. The effect works! It reads as stained glass as soon as you see it.
2️⃣ Make a moth doll! Kiriki Press has created a kit with everything you need to embroider this adorable fuzzy creature.
3️⃣ I am a big fan of long-term projects. (I wrote all about them in my book, Threads of Treasure). Lauren Kaelin shares the same artistic ritual that she paints in 20 minutes (she sets a timer and all).
4️⃣ Here are a couple of ideas for (cute) DIY spooky season decor. One repurposes egg cartons to form tiny ghosts while the other uses air-dry clay and acrylic paint to make little ghost sculptures. Both are easily accessible—even if you’re a DIY admirer and not much of a doer.
5️⃣ I am in awe of this technique. Called doodle grid, it's a way of enlarging an image without a projector or measuring a straight-line grid. Essentially, you’re creating a bunch of random doodles and using those shapes as guidelines for when you reproduce an image.
Talk to you soon. Have a creative weekend!
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Sara Barnes
Embroidery illustrator and writer
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