In this lively episode of the Stitch Safari Podcast, I’m celebrating the quirky, personal, rule-breaking world of Idisyncratic Embroidery.

This is the space where individuality thrives, where traditions are bent or broken, and where embroidery becomes a deeply personal language of expression.

Rules, patterns and expectations become blurred with stitches finding themselves wandering every which way, where colour choices are meant to surprise or challenge and where compositions tend to make you want to stop and think.

This sort of work prompts us to question the maker and how they utilise elements and principles to bring their work to life.

If this is an arena normally defined by tradition and technique, then what happens when an artist throws out the rulebook to follow their instinct, mannerisms, and quirks?

Well, we’re going to find out, because I’m diving into embroidery that’s out of the ordinary, that’s raw, rebellious, playful and deeply personal.

And I love it.  Whether it’s outsider embroidery artists, those who create art outside the conventions of the mainstream embroidery world, or trained embroiderers who work with unconventional materials, or those who simply refuse to be contained by an embroidery hoop, this is embroidery that dares to differ.

So grab a coffee and your curiosity and join me as I explore the wonderfully unique, the personal and the unconventional, expressed via a needle and thread.

One thing I’m always on the lookout for is unusual, exciting, eye-catching embroidery.

And I must say, it’s not as easy to find as you might think.  But when you do, it’s a celebration of art, imagination and meaning stitched into every shape, colour and composition.  It’s uplifting.

These artists offer their viewers the unexpected and follow no rules but their own, culminating in joy-sparking art that reflects them as much as their art.

So, let’s define Idiosyncratic Embroidery before I proceed.

This is the art of the individual.  It breaks rules, uses quirky motifs, spontaneous stitches, bold decisions and the unmistakable use of personality.  It can make you pause, smile or laugh out loud, and believe me, when you come across Idiosyncratic Embroidery, you’ll know it.

It’s deeply personal, unpredictable and unmistakably original.

These artists move beyond traditional stitches, materials and formats.  They’re looking to tell their own stories in their own way.

Embroidery becomes the vehicle to showcase their personality in thread. And that’s important in a world of mass-produced, endlessly repeated kits and patterns to see work that’s fresh, exciting, experimental and completely different.

Some embroidery artists have a little stitch knowledge behind them.  Some do not, so it’s often easier for them not to conform to conventions because they don’t even know they exist.  This can lead to more authentic, emotional and truly exciting embroidery.

Stay with me as I present four artists whose embroidery is outstandingly different, quirky and utterly beguiling.

Research their work and question yourself as to how and why the following embroidery artists break logic to create work that’s so fresh, of its time and human.  It’s exciting.

I’m going to begin with an American embroidery artist, Sophia Narrett, referencing an article written in 2023 by the Irish novelist Colm Tóibín for BOMB.

Narrett is a fascinating case in point.  As a painter, she had no preconceived links with the techniques of embroidery and the possibilities of thread.

Her work is based around narrative, stories and figurative work, filled with the fantasy fed by playing with dolls as a child.

Studying and working with mixed media, including embroidery, gave Narrett the sense that all materials were possible art materials, not understanding the impact of embroidery being seen as a craft and the feminist art narrative would have on her work.

Using expansively detailed narratives combining human nature, rituals and pop culture along with images sourced from the internet and her own photographic images, Narret crafts stories of female sexuality, love and self-discovery in today’s mass media.

Interestingly, she now uses thread wholly as her medium, enabling her to transform this historically domesticated medium into a tool exploring the liberties and restrictions of modern womanhood.  The internet and its plethora of images give her the ability to tell these stories.

She begins by collaging multiple images using Photoshop to create a very detailed document, then she lays down a ground of different fabrics.  The edges and sculptural constructions appear as the work takes physical shape.

Inspired by the work of another American painter/embroiderer, Rosemarie Beck and medieval tapestries such as the Unicorn Tapestries, the collages help lay out the spatial story; a lot of decisions, however, are made in the thread choices.  Narrett states that she is often pushing the boundaries and limits that thread offers and is always surprised at the translation.

Take a look at her stitchwork and the multitude of colours used in the most ordinary elements.  It’s amazing.

There’s no mention of the stitch techniques used, but from the images I’ve seen, I suspect it’s mainly straight stitch worked in a very painterly manner, where colour and value gradations make for an outstandingly interesting embroidery.  The detail is incredible.

Irregular shapes, small pieces of wood and a great use of colour and stitch direction make for extremely original, highly imaginative and topical embroidery art.

Now, let me introduce you to the exciting world of British contemporary textile artist, Amanda Cobbett, who makes free-machine embroidered sculptures.

Inspired by nature in all forms, along with a desire to become a maker and designer, led this artist to create the most amazingly realistic, three-dimensional, papier mâché and machine-embroidered sculptures of fungi, barks and moss.

Cobbett creates work with authenticity – work that has soul, and to her, that’s immeasurable.

Inheriting the ability to turn a sketch into a 3D object, and with a love of mark making, are attributes that can be seen throughout her work.

Daily walks offer the opportunity to scour the forest floor seeking hidden treasures, which she then ‘draws’ using her sewing machine and dissolvable fabric, building layers of thread to create a stitched fabric that can be moulded to copy her natural treasures.

In her own way, and with a sense of fun, Cobbett is educating us about the diversity and beauty that exists at our feet.

Cobbett is constantly developing new techniques, uses rayon threads for the vibrancy of colour and works with a seaweed-based dissolvable fabric that leaves a little size on the thread when washed away.  She states that there’s a fine line between over-washing and under-washing.

Always drawn to the discarded, her daily treasure hunt allows her to take in every aspect of her precious finds, and her techniques allow her to turn something flat into something 3D and naturally realistic.

Now the next artist, Pascal Monteil, began working with mixed media, photography, painting and digital collages.  He now works exclusively in textiles, developing a body of work of over 50 embroideries.

Rosie Lesso wrote about Monteil in an article for The Thread in 2014.

It’s annoying that his work is referred to as tapestries, because it’s not.  He states himself he embroiders on canvas using his needle as a brush and his threads as tubes of paint.

His work, to some, is rough and raw.  Thick yarns, childlike marks and stitching, but put together, he can tell a pretty good story on canvas and get away with it.  It’s intense and in-your-face embroidery.

Working with vibrant colours, referencing stories from around the world, including mystical, fictional, dream-like scenes and hidden symbols, Monteil strives to showcase intersections of cultures.

As a world traveller, visiting Asia, Turkey, Iran, Spain, Italy, India and Japan, Monteil utilises his experiences, including literature, poetry, art and culture, which lead to his intricately complex embroideries.

Unusually, it’s the slow and contemplative process of writing, not drawing, that begins his stitched journeys, where he describes his characters and their clothes, what they think and their desires.  He includes their anger, their sadness, what they eat and where they sleep – then he begins to stitch.

His characters collide in a chaotic symphony of stitches.  We see their moods, their customs, history, mythology and language.

Christian Lacroix says this of Monteil: ‘I met Pascal Monteil twenty years ago.  I saw him follow his initiatory path.  He then embedded images within images, characters that were a bit cartoonish or naturalistic, telling their hermetic stories in places with subtly falsified perspectives.  Already a story of sewing and stitching, of expressive sutures.  Then he moved onto miniatures and frescoes, sorts of monumentally refined illumination, clever mazes of architecture and characters defined in the most precise terms.  Already a story embroidery.’

Monteil works with hand-spun Merino wool, dyed with naturally derived materials from flowers and plant roots.  His fabric is hemp canvas, which he stitches using a mattress needle.  His connection to naturally-derived, hand-made materials is a vital part of his work, giving him a deep connection with the ancient processes that he uses to paint his stories in stitch.

Monteil’s embroideries are unique, bold and highly expressive.  They need time to observe and to admire.

The last embroidery artist I’d like to cover is Bethany Duffy, an English embroidery artist who elevates embroidery as an art form to a completely different level.

Mary Carson, writing for Textile Artist, offers a comprehensive article about Duffy and her unique embroideries.

So why is her work considered remarkable?  Because of the miniature artworks she stitches using nature’s treasures washed up on the seashore.

Yes, Duffy works with shells, but she’s unique here as she’s pursued a degree with the Royal School of Needlework, where she was able to explore a variety of different techniques, such as silk shading, raised work, goldwork, and whitework.

Looking at a collection of shells, Duffy begins by thinking about how she could use them in conjunction with embroidery and working on ideas that felt authentic and natural to her.

Soon after her initial attempts, Duffy began expanding her process and developed her own techniques.  What followed was an instinctual journey beginning with the shell, then working on colour, form and how it sits.

Just imagine these tiny, 3D works, showcasing energy in motion, such as a curling wave erupting from within the confines of the shell or sometimes splaying out onto the ground fabric.

Using only broken shells, she tries a variety of placements, noting how each will sit on the fabric, then she considers how the water will come out from it.

It takes a lot of stitches and stitching to cover the padding and to create the movement and motion of water, often using Long and Short stitch and French Knots.  Duffy uses the technique of Stumpwork or Raised Work, where designs are raised off the surface of the fabric, typically working on calico using stranded cottons.  A perfect choice for the work she’s undertaking.

This is imaginative, elegant embroidery that takes a lot of time and skill to produce.  Check out the article in Textile Artist, as the accompanying images by Chris Howarth are exquisite.

These are all idiosyncratic embroiderers in my opinion, reflecting themselves through their work.  It’s highly personal, quirky, rhythmical and resonates with their visual language.

They’re responding to what fascinates them in their world, their habits or emotional responses.  Their embroidery is their signature, revealing their unique way of seeing, feeling and interpreting the world through a needle and thread.

The commonality here is their ability to trust and follow their instincts.  They embrace the unexpected, letting their stitches tell the story.

There’s hesitation, curiosity and persistence in every stitch, resisting uniformity yet embracing the unusual, the personal and the intuitive.

Yes, they break rules or use a technique unexpectedly, but to my mind, that only enriches and enhances the world of embroidery as they explore and develop.

Let’s be inspired by their stories and their work.  I know I am.