Carolina is an embroidery artist based in New Mexico. Unlike most embroidery artists who’ve learned the craft from an older family member, Carolina was introduced to it only four years ago. She might have had less time to practice than others, but it has also given her the freedom to play around with the craft and find her own style.

There are all sorts of embroidery techniques. Some follow rigid lines and rules, some are more free-form. Carolina’s style is as free as it gets. Instead of following strict traditional working methods, she creates what she wants to create. She embroiders landscapes on canvas, and her ability to think outside the box helps her to use the threads almost like paint. She can embroider flowing rivers and flowering meadow in a way traditional embroidery artist could never achieve.  And through her unique style and eye for color and texture, she makes nature feel closer and more alive than ever.

The post Carolina Torres Paints Landscapes with Threads appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Having studied fine art, she began drawing with thread to pursue both passions – of embroidery and drawing. “Embroidery became my own private refuge,” she shared with Textile Artist. “The effects of embroidery seemed otherworldly and captured my imagination as the perfect way to explore secret thoughts.”

Indeed, her work seems to explore psychological landscapes, illuminating thoughts left unspoken. Literary snippets, memories, personal mythologies, and art historical references inform the imagery. Fused together, these influences explore relationships, domesticity, and self-perception.

“Embroidery also comes with a lot of baggage,” says Kingdom. “It has often been dismissed and overlooked; perceived as decorative, a school-girl craft, fussily old-fashioned, small. And that is precisely what attracted me to it. It’s deceptively pretty, unapologetically female, traditional and naive. It speaks in tiny whispers, and only those that care to listen can hear it. My work tries to capture murky ideas brewing around in my head, and the evocative nature of figures in stitch better conveys those ideas than other mediums can.”

Take a look at some of her murky ideas come to life through the use of needle and thread:

The post Michelle Kingdom’s Embroidery Art Speaks In Tiny Whispers appeared first on PlayJunkie.

“I use thread as a tool for drawing,” she explained in an interview with Textile Artist. “This could be fine silk for stitching by hand and machine or wool, rope, wire or perhaps even plastic washing line.” It’s a process that absorbs hours on end and she admits she often finds herself at 2 AM wondering where the time went.

Her work, featuring mostly portraits and townscapes, tends to befuddle the viewer, seeming at first like a pen and ink drawing – but turning out to be something altogether different upon closer inspection.

“I love drawing, so that is the main focus of my work, says Cryer. “It has developed over time into experimenting with scale and using different media. My work ranges from small intimate drawings with lots of tiny detail and texture, to large freely stitched loose images.”

Each executed mark, however small, is a decision made. “Drawing with thread is a continuous process of decision making,” she writes on her website. “Deciding what is required, for example, to conjure up a facial feature – exactly where the needle enters and exits the fabric, the type of thread, the length of each stitch, the number of stitches needed to suggest a smile or capture an emotional nuance.”

Take a look at some of her captivating work in the gallery below:

The post Andrea Cryer Uses Thread as a Tool for Drawing appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Sorrell Chrystal Kerrison 

Sorrell Chrystal Kerrison employs traditional embroidery techniques, but puts a spin on them, creating embroidered portraits that are meant to look like Fauvist paintings. As part of her work, she was commissioned to create a portrait of the musician Andrew Hung for the cover of his debut solo album. “My techniques are a bit punk and raw,” she told Textile Artist, talking about her creative process. “I want to improvise as I go and I love it when accidental mistakes happen, rather than planning every aspect of a piece.”

Teresa Lim

Singapore-based illustrator and embroidery artist, Teresa Lim, makes embroidered portraits that are playful if a bit cartoonish. “I like being able to create new things every day,” she told Style Theory. “It’s what keeps me going.” With more than 85k followers on Instagram and collaborations with brands like Gucci and Swarovski – she might as well keep going. Here are some of her commissioned portraits:

Bisa Butler

Artist Bisa Butler creates quilt-like portraits using colorful African fabrics. Her acclaimed work explores questions of identity and tradition. “My portraits tell stories that may have been forgotten over time,” she explained. “When you see vintage lace and aged satin it tells you the story of delicacy and refinement of times gone by. When you see African printed cotton and mud cloth it tells the story of my ancestral homeland and the cradle of civilization.”

The post These Artists Use Fabric and Textile to Create Original Portraits appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Olek

Agata Oleksiak (aka Olek) covers the world around her in crochet, quite literally. Among her crochet pieces are sculptures, cars, whole buildings, and even people, with her work exhibited around the world. Currently based in New York City, the Polish artist doesn’t shy from making political statements, and is in an avid supporter of women’s rights, equality, and freedom of expression.

“I think crochet, the way I create it, is a metaphor for the complexity and interconnectedness of our body and its systems and psychology,” she once stated. “The connections are stronger as one fabric as opposed to separate strands, but, if you cut one, the whole thing will fall apart.”

Windy Chien

For Chinese-American artist, Windy Chien, nothing could be more powerful than a simple knot. Relying on everyday materials, Chien creates sculptures and installations that range in size, bringing out the aesthetic side of a functional practice. “I make sculpture and installations that elevate the vernacular and inspire awe and understanding,” she writes on her website. “In the context of knots, I bring aesthetics to the intersection of function, science, and history to illuminate what’s most fascinating about knots: the journey of the line.”

Julia Mior

Julia Mior’s art is meant to be stepped on. Based in Vancouver, BC, she uses weaving to create original rugs that are inspired by artists like Matisse, Tracey Emin, and Kazimir Malevich. “The rugs are made to be put on the ground,” she stressed in an interview with MONTECRISTO Magazine. “A lot of people who buy my work want to hang them, but that isn’t necessarily how I intend it.” We wouldn’t dare…

The post 3 Textile Artists Who Aren’t Afraid of Making a Statment appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Inspired to embroider by watching her grandmother working fabric and thread, which seemed like water through her hands, Case picked up a needle and an obsession began! “Embroidery became this mindful experience for me,” she writes on her website. “Something that made me feel uplifted but at ease. I’d become so connected to screens, to work, to getting it all done; embroidery was able to be the antithesis of that.”

“There’s something so very special about fabric that has been delicately hand embroidered,” she reflects. “Especially vintage pieces. Knowing the amount of time and love that has gone into it, I think seals it with a bit of magic. I fell deeply in love with the pieces but also the process: sitting on the couch with a cup of tea, a cat on the lap and a needle and thread in hand. It became such a mindful practice for me. Something that I genuinely need to do to feel centered.”

Now, just as grandmother had done before her, Case stitches her cares away. “If you are looking for something to give you a moment’s peace; Something to focus your thoughts when they are spinning and the world seems so busy, embroidery is a lovely place to start,” she writes.

Her modern hoop art and one of a kind jewelry pieces are sold on her Etsy shop, but you can also enjoy her work from afar by following her Instagram page.

The post Reilly Case Makes Embroidered Necklaces appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Art comes in many forms. For some, it is meant to be admired from afar. Others prefer a more personal approach. Alex Steele creates art that is meant to be worn on the body. Involved in every step of the creation, from fabric dyeing to painting and printing, Steele designs fashion items that are unique as they are creative.

“I definitely consider myself a multidisciplinary artist, and I am always curious to learn more and experiment with new mediums,” said Steele in an interview with Eat, Sleep, Denim. “I am currently involved with designing and creating my eponymous brand of clothing, jewelry, and home goods.”

“I have a pretty extensive background in art, I went to multiple art schools from the 6th grade through college,” she explained. “Beyond college, I broadened my creative skills through visual merchandising, taxidermy, gallery installation, and museum diorama creation/installation.”

Her Instagram page has attracted more than 10 thousand followers, proving that her multidisciplinary approach to life as well as to fashion is gaining attention.

The post Add Some Art to Your Wardrobe with Alex Steele appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Using discarded textile materials, covered with enamel paint, this artist creates skeletal looking creatures that clash with the gentle art of crochet. Some of her creations include the reconstruction of animal or human bones, that are then encased in glass jars. Those remind of scientific specimens from a time gone by.

Working from her studio in South Philly, McCormack says that she “crochets to forget the world, in the chaos of her slovenly, nest-like studio.”

By using a crocheting technique passed on in her family, McCormack says she “aim[s] to generate emblems of my diminishing bloodline, embodied by each organism’s skeletal remains.”

Scroll down for some of her eye-popping work.

The post These Bone-Chilling Creatures are Actually Made from Crochet appeared first on PlayJunkie.

“I think crochet, the way I create it, is a metaphor for the complexity and interconnectedness of our body and its systems and psychology,” she stated in 2009. “The connections are stronger as one fabric as opposed to separate strands, but, if you cut one, the whole thing will fall apart. Relationships are complex and greatly vary situation to situation. They are developmental journeys of growth and transformation. Time passes, great distances are surpassed and the fabric which individuals are composed of compiles and unravels simultaneously.”

Her work differs in size and includes sculptures and installations such as crocheted bicycles and inflatables. She has also covered buildings, sculptures, people, and an apartment with crochet and has exhibited in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Brazil, Turkey, France, Italy, Poland, and Costa Rica.

Currently based in New York City, the Polish artist in an avid supporter 
women’s rights, equality, and freedom of expression.

The post Artist Treats Crochet as a Metaphor for the Mind-Body Connection appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Butler studied fine art at Howard University, and lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Her intricate work raises questions about cultural identity and the importance of tradition.

“My portraits tell stories that may have been forgotten over time,” Butler writes on her gallery’s website. “When you see vintage lace and aged satin it tells you the story of delicacy and refinement of times gone by. When you see African printed cotton and mud cloth it tells the story of my ancestral homeland and the cradle of civilization.”

Her interest in portraits began while skimming through family photo albums. “I have always been drawn to portraits,” Butler explains. “I was the little girl who would sit next to my grandmother and ask her to go through her old family photo albums. I was the one who wanted to hear the story behind every picture. This inquisitiveness has stayed with me to this day. I often start my pieces with a black and white photo and allow myself to tell the story.”

Scroll down to see some of her work.

The post These Quilt-Like Portraits Raise Questions About African Identity appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Carolina is an embroidery artist based in New Mexico. Unlike most embroidery artists who’ve learned the craft from an older family member, Carolina was introduced to it only four years ago. She might have had less time to practice than others, but it has also given her the freedom to play around with the craft and find her own style.

There are all sorts of embroidery techniques. Some follow rigid lines and rules, some are more free-form. Carolina’s style is as free as it gets. Instead of following strict traditional working methods, she creates what she wants to create. She embroiders landscapes on canvas, and her ability to think outside the box helps her to use the threads almost like paint. She can embroider flowing rivers and flowering meadow in a way traditional embroidery artist could never achieve.  And through her unique style and eye for color and texture, she makes nature feel closer and more alive than ever.

The post Carolina Torres Paints Landscapes with Threads appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Having studied fine art, she began drawing with thread to pursue both passions – of embroidery and drawing. “Embroidery became my own private refuge,” she shared with Textile Artist. “The effects of embroidery seemed otherworldly and captured my imagination as the perfect way to explore secret thoughts.”

Indeed, her work seems to explore psychological landscapes, illuminating thoughts left unspoken. Literary snippets, memories, personal mythologies, and art historical references inform the imagery. Fused together, these influences explore relationships, domesticity, and self-perception.

“Embroidery also comes with a lot of baggage,” says Kingdom. “It has often been dismissed and overlooked; perceived as decorative, a school-girl craft, fussily old-fashioned, small. And that is precisely what attracted me to it. It’s deceptively pretty, unapologetically female, traditional and naive. It speaks in tiny whispers, and only those that care to listen can hear it. My work tries to capture murky ideas brewing around in my head, and the evocative nature of figures in stitch better conveys those ideas than other mediums can.”

Take a look at some of her murky ideas come to life through the use of needle and thread:

The post Michelle Kingdom’s Embroidery Art Speaks In Tiny Whispers appeared first on PlayJunkie.

“I use thread as a tool for drawing,” she explained in an interview with Textile Artist. “This could be fine silk for stitching by hand and machine or wool, rope, wire or perhaps even plastic washing line.” It’s a process that absorbs hours on end and she admits she often finds herself at 2 AM wondering where the time went.

Her work, featuring mostly portraits and townscapes, tends to befuddle the viewer, seeming at first like a pen and ink drawing – but turning out to be something altogether different upon closer inspection.

“I love drawing, so that is the main focus of my work, says Cryer. “It has developed over time into experimenting with scale and using different media. My work ranges from small intimate drawings with lots of tiny detail and texture, to large freely stitched loose images.”

Each executed mark, however small, is a decision made. “Drawing with thread is a continuous process of decision making,” she writes on her website. “Deciding what is required, for example, to conjure up a facial feature – exactly where the needle enters and exits the fabric, the type of thread, the length of each stitch, the number of stitches needed to suggest a smile or capture an emotional nuance.”

Take a look at some of her captivating work in the gallery below:

The post Andrea Cryer Uses Thread as a Tool for Drawing appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Sorrell Chrystal Kerrison 

Sorrell Chrystal Kerrison employs traditional embroidery techniques, but puts a spin on them, creating embroidered portraits that are meant to look like Fauvist paintings. As part of her work, she was commissioned to create a portrait of the musician Andrew Hung for the cover of his debut solo album. “My techniques are a bit punk and raw,” she told Textile Artist, talking about her creative process. “I want to improvise as I go and I love it when accidental mistakes happen, rather than planning every aspect of a piece.”

Teresa Lim

Singapore-based illustrator and embroidery artist, Teresa Lim, makes embroidered portraits that are playful if a bit cartoonish. “I like being able to create new things every day,” she told Style Theory. “It’s what keeps me going.” With more than 85k followers on Instagram and collaborations with brands like Gucci and Swarovski – she might as well keep going. Here are some of her commissioned portraits:

Bisa Butler

Artist Bisa Butler creates quilt-like portraits using colorful African fabrics. Her acclaimed work explores questions of identity and tradition. “My portraits tell stories that may have been forgotten over time,” she explained. “When you see vintage lace and aged satin it tells you the story of delicacy and refinement of times gone by. When you see African printed cotton and mud cloth it tells the story of my ancestral homeland and the cradle of civilization.”

The post These Artists Use Fabric and Textile to Create Original Portraits appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Olek

Agata Oleksiak (aka Olek) covers the world around her in crochet, quite literally. Among her crochet pieces are sculptures, cars, whole buildings, and even people, with her work exhibited around the world. Currently based in New York City, the Polish artist doesn’t shy from making political statements, and is in an avid supporter of women’s rights, equality, and freedom of expression.

“I think crochet, the way I create it, is a metaphor for the complexity and interconnectedness of our body and its systems and psychology,” she once stated. “The connections are stronger as one fabric as opposed to separate strands, but, if you cut one, the whole thing will fall apart.”

Windy Chien

For Chinese-American artist, Windy Chien, nothing could be more powerful than a simple knot. Relying on everyday materials, Chien creates sculptures and installations that range in size, bringing out the aesthetic side of a functional practice. “I make sculpture and installations that elevate the vernacular and inspire awe and understanding,” she writes on her website. “In the context of knots, I bring aesthetics to the intersection of function, science, and history to illuminate what’s most fascinating about knots: the journey of the line.”

Julia Mior

Julia Mior’s art is meant to be stepped on. Based in Vancouver, BC, she uses weaving to create original rugs that are inspired by artists like Matisse, Tracey Emin, and Kazimir Malevich. “The rugs are made to be put on the ground,” she stressed in an interview with MONTECRISTO Magazine. “A lot of people who buy my work want to hang them, but that isn’t necessarily how I intend it.” We wouldn’t dare…

The post 3 Textile Artists Who Aren’t Afraid of Making a Statment appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Inspired to embroider by watching her grandmother working fabric and thread, which seemed like water through her hands, Case picked up a needle and an obsession began! “Embroidery became this mindful experience for me,” she writes on her website. “Something that made me feel uplifted but at ease. I’d become so connected to screens, to work, to getting it all done; embroidery was able to be the antithesis of that.”

“There’s something so very special about fabric that has been delicately hand embroidered,” she reflects. “Especially vintage pieces. Knowing the amount of time and love that has gone into it, I think seals it with a bit of magic. I fell deeply in love with the pieces but also the process: sitting on the couch with a cup of tea, a cat on the lap and a needle and thread in hand. It became such a mindful practice for me. Something that I genuinely need to do to feel centered.”

Now, just as grandmother had done before her, Case stitches her cares away. “If you are looking for something to give you a moment’s peace; Something to focus your thoughts when they are spinning and the world seems so busy, embroidery is a lovely place to start,” she writes.

Her modern hoop art and one of a kind jewelry pieces are sold on her Etsy shop, but you can also enjoy her work from afar by following her Instagram page.

The post Reilly Case Makes Embroidered Necklaces appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Art comes in many forms. For some, it is meant to be admired from afar. Others prefer a more personal approach. Alex Steele creates art that is meant to be worn on the body. Involved in every step of the creation, from fabric dyeing to painting and printing, Steele designs fashion items that are unique as they are creative.

“I definitely consider myself a multidisciplinary artist, and I am always curious to learn more and experiment with new mediums,” said Steele in an interview with Eat, Sleep, Denim. “I am currently involved with designing and creating my eponymous brand of clothing, jewelry, and home goods.”

“I have a pretty extensive background in art, I went to multiple art schools from the 6th grade through college,” she explained. “Beyond college, I broadened my creative skills through visual merchandising, taxidermy, gallery installation, and museum diorama creation/installation.”

Her Instagram page has attracted more than 10 thousand followers, proving that her multidisciplinary approach to life as well as to fashion is gaining attention.

The post Add Some Art to Your Wardrobe with Alex Steele appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Using discarded textile materials, covered with enamel paint, this artist creates skeletal looking creatures that clash with the gentle art of crochet. Some of her creations include the reconstruction of animal or human bones, that are then encased in glass jars. Those remind of scientific specimens from a time gone by.

Working from her studio in South Philly, McCormack says that she “crochets to forget the world, in the chaos of her slovenly, nest-like studio.”

By using a crocheting technique passed on in her family, McCormack says she “aim[s] to generate emblems of my diminishing bloodline, embodied by each organism’s skeletal remains.”

Scroll down for some of her eye-popping work.

The post These Bone-Chilling Creatures are Actually Made from Crochet appeared first on PlayJunkie.

“I think crochet, the way I create it, is a metaphor for the complexity and interconnectedness of our body and its systems and psychology,” she stated in 2009. “The connections are stronger as one fabric as opposed to separate strands, but, if you cut one, the whole thing will fall apart. Relationships are complex and greatly vary situation to situation. They are developmental journeys of growth and transformation. Time passes, great distances are surpassed and the fabric which individuals are composed of compiles and unravels simultaneously.”

Her work differs in size and includes sculptures and installations such as crocheted bicycles and inflatables. She has also covered buildings, sculptures, people, and an apartment with crochet and has exhibited in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Brazil, Turkey, France, Italy, Poland, and Costa Rica.

Currently based in New York City, the Polish artist in an avid supporter 
women’s rights, equality, and freedom of expression.

The post Artist Treats Crochet as a Metaphor for the Mind-Body Connection appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Butler studied fine art at Howard University, and lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Her intricate work raises questions about cultural identity and the importance of tradition.

“My portraits tell stories that may have been forgotten over time,” Butler writes on her gallery’s website. “When you see vintage lace and aged satin it tells you the story of delicacy and refinement of times gone by. When you see African printed cotton and mud cloth it tells the story of my ancestral homeland and the cradle of civilization.”

Her interest in portraits began while skimming through family photo albums. “I have always been drawn to portraits,” Butler explains. “I was the little girl who would sit next to my grandmother and ask her to go through her old family photo albums. I was the one who wanted to hear the story behind every picture. This inquisitiveness has stayed with me to this day. I often start my pieces with a black and white photo and allow myself to tell the story.”

Scroll down to see some of her work.

The post These Quilt-Like Portraits Raise Questions About African Identity appeared first on PlayJunkie.