As Christmas is around the corner, it’s appropriate that this episode’s focus is on food.
Embroidered food – not a topic my mind normally ventures into, but it’s surprisingly interesting and complex nonetheless and in some cases achieves a level of realism that’s truly off the charts.
But the simple needle and thread are also used here to comment on consumerism, everyday life, and things we take for granted such as our daily bread or the simple pleasure of growing our own vegetables.
Some artists also include packaging and branding but the result is always unique and highly stylized embroidered fruit, vegetables, desserts, plated meals, tinned food, bottled drinks, packets of cookies and even bags of chips.
In some work, there’s a level of innovation and sophistication that lifts our perception of textile and fibre arts into unknown realms – and believe me, that’s a good thing.
Would I want to emulate this theme? Perhaps not, but I love the creative use of a needle and thread and the thought processes that must lie behind every tasty embroidered morsel.
Stitch Safari listeners, this episode is dedicated to the edible foodstuffs of the world that venture into the sensual world of epicurean delights tantalizing our visual senses with colour, shape, texture and form, but that may also make us stop and think about simple values.
Bon Vivants unite in a gastronomic unveiling that will leave you speechless.
Food is not something that comes to mind as inspiration for embroidery for me, but when you look at it from a different perspective, I’m in awe of the beauty of colour and form in food – so I’m left thinking, why not?
The following artists ensure that we look at this arena differently because of their skill in being able to interpret this theme making us think a little more deeply about the world we live in and being blown away by their creativity.
Let’s learn who they are.
I’m going to begin with Alicja Kozłowska an award-winning artist and designer based in Poland who seeks to redefine and elevate the perception of embroidery and textile art, transporting traditional techniques into thought-provoking artworks made from fabric and stitch.
Her inspiration comes from consumerism, daily life and mundane objects that challenge our perceptions evoking a sense of heightened awareness in the viewer.
Kozlowska uses embroidery as a format to address what she terms, ‘negative culturally constructed indifference’ – or in other words, ‘a passive disconnection from the world around us.’
How? On her website Kozlowska states that she wants viewers to pause, reflect and feel a sense of discomfort, shifting people’s perspectives to see that art exists in the unnoticed and everyday, leaving them with an emotional imprint.
Working intuitively her work emerges organically to create distinctive and stimulating embroidery that awakens the viewer’s imagination of things we take for granted using diverse materials such as newspapers, felt, labels, foils and fabric.
This vibrant pop-art aesthetic showcases an eclectic combination of textures and mediums that reflect the layered nature that is contemporary life.
This is interesting work, so if this aesthetic is your vibe, check out the embroidered textile art of Polish embroiderer Alicja Kozłowska.
When was the last time you had Pizza?
Japanese artist Ipnot – sorry I couldn’t find their name but there is a website and an Instagram account with that name, who creates images of food and beverages, both traditional Japanese and non-traditional foods, that will make you gasp.
Imagine a slice of pizza that when lifted off the surface of the embroidery hoop drips strands of ooey-gooey look-alike cheese, or a tiny doll-sized coffee pot that pours a stream of coffee onto an embroidery hoop.
Let’s not forget the noodle dish with noodle strands picked up by a real set of chopsticks or an embroidered half-tomato sitting amongst ruby-coloured real-life tomatoes.
This is not only clever embroidery but also clever staging and photography.
And that’s exactly what I love about Ipnot’s embroidery – the staging creates a sense of realism using props that are indeed real, helping to create that illusion that she works so hard to attain.
Tim Spears writing for DesignBoom in 2018 opens his article with ‘Japanese embroidery artist Ipnot fabricates dishes of food and drink that figuratively and literally look to leap off the artwork’.
The embroidery interacts with real-life inspiration and surroundings such as sushi rolls, ramen dishes and tiny accessories such as doll-sized bowls and forks to support the illusion.
Ipnot uses her favourite stitch, the French Knot to represent her style, working with 500 different-coloured embroidery options, using the needle like a paintbrush, one knot at a time.
Clever, innovative embroidery by Japanese embroidery artist Ipnot.
Onto another Japanese embroidery artist with a rather healthy-looking take on food that looks as though it’s just been picked from the vege patch.
Welcome to the very green, very precise and utterly magical world of Noriko Koike who stitches under the name ‘Kitsune the Kitten’ after being led to embroidery as freely and confidently as a kitten she encountered near a river.
This somehow led Noriko to begin stitching vegetables and posting images of her work on Instagram. She felt vegetables went well with embroidery, leading her to begin cultivating a vegetable patch of her own to observe their growth processes.
Noriko’s work is highly realistic and dimensional exuding the colours and textures of real-life vegetables.
Worked on a linen ground and often incorporating raised work in some form, Noriko uses an abundance of stitches including French Knots, straight stitch and satin stitch.
Her work includes areas that are heavily stitched complimented by areas with delicate trailing roots or winding stems, often working the same vegetable from three different perspectives.
Whether a head of broccoli, a carrot or an asparagus spear, the sense of realism is well and truly captured through her clever use of colour, texture and dimension.
For an amazing display of stunning photography of Kitsune the Kitten’s work visit My Modern Met and read the article written by Marhertia Cole written in 2022.
This is sensational embroidery using exquisite technique.
Now onto the utterly stunning work of Rachel Nettles who trades under the name Cabbages and Nettles.
Rachel employs outstanding skill using hand and machine embroidery techniques to create her vegetable sculptures – these vegetables will make you take a second, third and fourth look because they look so realistic.
This classically trained artist creates these one-off pieces of art that are breathtaking in their realism. They catch and draw your eye to explore the intricacy of her creations.
This illusion of reality right down to soil on trailing roots using techniques perfected over twenty years uses several different sewing methods including different weights and colours of thread.
Rachel is well known and her work is highly saleable, and it’s no wonder. Her attention to detail is remarkable.
Visit her website and just engage in a few moments of pure pleasure viewing her gallery of beautifully shot, imaginative images.
This is work of a sublime level.
It’s fun and highly creative and well worth your time checking out Rachel Nettles from Cabbages and Nettles.
German embroidery artist Veselka Bulkan challenges us with yet another take on the humble vegetable and her ethos on simple living.
Veselka however, uses embroidery hoops as an interactive tool in her embroidery.
Three-dimensional potatoes dangle freely below their stitched above-soil leaves or dimensional berries hover to the side of their parent plant. A beautiful red-purple beetroot hangs below its red-veined leaves or orange carrot twine beneath its softly embroidered leaf tops.
One work even shows a newly de-potted plant with soil still intact, retaining the potted shape dangling freely below the stitched leaves worked in the hoop.
This is a completely different way of looking at and stitching out vegetables – and it’s very clever indeed.
Christopher Jobson writes on Veselka Bulkan’s work in his article for Colossal.
To finish, Chloe Amy Avery is a British embroidery artist who creates beautifully coloured, almost impressionistic embroidery designs – something she terms hyper-realistic impressionism.
This is embroidery based on memories, culture and nostalgia that tells stories about people.
Her work with fruit is delightful with some appearing to be stitched directly onto checked fabric grounds that emulate an old-fashioned tablecloth to me.
The stitching pops with imaginative use of colour and texture – it has a very painterly approach using textural threads, weaving through colour contrasts that make the work come alive.
Talking of her work, Chloe states: ‘As an artist, I portray food using embroidery thread to give a sense of surprise to the viewer, something often mass produced and dismissable a sense of fun and nostalgia, re-crafted and reimagined.’
A thick textural thread becomes her paint, food her inspiration.
There’s an interesting interview on Sarah K Benning’s website titled Craft With Conscience: Chloe Amy Avery.
Her series of embroidered bottle caps is pure fun.
I could go on and on because food is such a popular and topical theme for embroidery design.
What I love about each of these embroidery artists is that they have a unique take on food as inspiration for embroidery design.
Some are into making commentary on consumerism and culture, others simply want to reimagine the humble vegetable or piece of fruit.
Next time you’re out shopping or if you’re lucky enough to have a veggie garden, why not take some images from different perspectives and think about using these as inspiration for new designs?
The colour palette has been worked out already – or you could play with that palette as some of our artists have and make it unique and memorable.
Here I go again – a simple needle and thread open a world of possibilities.
Stitch Safari listeners, I wish you all a very Happy and safe Christmas. I’m looking forward to a very interesting and informative New Year as I plan new episodes of Stitch Safari for your listening pleasure while I continue to learn more about the amazing world of embroidery right at our fingertips.
Thank you all for listening and enjoying this journey of stitch with me.
Merry Christmas.
