Embroidery: Illustrating with Thread

Greetings! Firstly, I'd just like to show my appreciation towards those who have recently subscribed to my website. There has been a noticeable amount of new folks supporting my art and I appreciate it so much. Thank you all!

Today I want to talk about one of my newest joys, embroidery. I have always admired embroidered work but I never thought that I could do it. For some reason, it always seemed so inaccessible to me but I decided to put my apprehension aside and give it a try. I had fabric scraps and there was a lot of embroidery floss sitting unused in my house after being passed down from a family friend many years ago so there was no harm or cost in this new endeavor.

However, my first attempt at embroidery was on the back of my jeans. I wanted to have a lasting example at what my first step looked like. Well... I got what I asked for! The first fern I did on the left was alright but I got progressively worse and made the decision to stop before I could ruin my favorite pair of pants. I like that this is on them as a reminder of my novice skills but I realized that I needed to actually figure out what I was doing.

I found a great free tutorial on YouTube of how to do basic embroidery stitches. The maker created a key on a piece of cloth labeling what each stitch looked like. I replicated this on two separate cloths. This was an extremely helpful step that has guided me along the way since. By making a key myself, I learned how to do various stitches that are all useful depending on the design.

Though my technique wasn't perfect, I was ready to dive into a proper project! So I drew out my own design. You can buy embroidery patterns and kits online, but I wanted something personalized and free, so this is what I began with. Using my inspiration from nature and love for tea, I paired the two together and drew this. Cardinals and robins are very prevalent where I live and the Northern Cardinal is actually the state bird of 7 states in the USA- I have no idea why, but I found that out after checking if it was indeed the state bird where I live. I like how the two birds look like they are conversing or maybe dancing together.

When I began to embroider my design I felt filled with awe. Embroidery is like drawing but with thread! Seeing the birds come to life in a tangible manner on the cloth was so exciting for me and I absolutely fell in love with the craft.

Since then, I have made a couple of other embroidered artworks on cloth. This one depicts a red fox and some crows. It is inspired by my morning walks seeing the foxes and crows in the woods and neighborhood where I live. They often can be found together. I think the crows are either hunting with the fox or tracking it.

And this one depicts a Nexus Whelpling and a Hearthstone from one of my favorite video games, World of Warcraft.

This summer has been a challenging one for me due to various health issues over the past couple of months but I'm so glad that I pushed myself to experiment with this type of fiber art during this time because it's easy to do in bed and very calming. I have a lot to improve on but overall I am pleased with what I've accomplished so far.

I am currently working on a few other embroidery pieces including a sewing project where I am incorporating embroidery into the trim of a tunic. However, I will not be finished with that for a while. Once I do have more to show I will make another blog post about it. As an artist and expressive person I love to find more ways to be creative. I hope that you enjoyed coming on this visual journey of embroidered art with me. There are so many ways to make art and I hope that you now know that embroidery is not as inaccessible or expensive as it may seem. It is time consuming, yes, but can be done so simply with scrap fabric, thread, and a needle. Embroidery hoops are helpful but not necessary. If you have any questions about the specific supplies I use, please comment or send me an email, I'm always glad to help!

I look forward to sharing more of my art soon.

Thank you again for the wonderful support!

I hope you are safe and well.

~Nikolai Sergei Razumov