There’s an otherworldly quality to Isobel Currie’s embroideries. Using traditional methods of hand stitches, her three-dimensional pieces are anything but traditional. “I am an embroiderer whose aim is to celebrate the beauty of stitch by exploring its structural and sculptural potential,” writes Currie in her personal website.
“I have been a stitcher all my life, having been taught to sew by my mother at the age of three; and have always loved to handle threads and fabrics,” she says. But it was only during her studies that she became interested in the sculptural and structural potential of embroidery stitches and techniques.
Based in Stockport, Greater Manchester, she has graduated in 1990 from Manchester Polytechnic with an embroidery degree and has since fine-tuned her craft. “My inspiration begins with the selection of an embroidery stitch or technique, which I then explore to reveal its shape and form,” she writes. “This analysis generates ideas for the theme and structure of the finished work.”
Her embroideries often reference shapes, patterns, and rhythms drawn from nature, which are used to generate bold geometric forms. She uses vibrant progressions and interactions of color to enhance these designs. Each work is closely planned before stitching starts, however as she renders the design in three-dimensions, she sometimes discover unexpected shapes emerging from the build-up of thread lines.
Some of her works also have sheer fabrics incorporated into the design with which the threads interact. “I use transparent and translucent supporting materials to allow the journey of the stitched threads to be viewed from different angles, revealing the three-dimensional shape of the stitches, and creating continually changing perspectives,” she writes.
Take a look at some of her work below.
