LIBRARY OF INSPIRATION

Kseniia Guseva You learned several crafts as a child, including cross-stitch, but stepped away from them for many years. What brought you back to embroidery as an adult, and when did you begin to see yourself as an embroidery artist? I’ve always lived in two worlds: the pragmatic and the creative. As a child, it was school in the morning and ballroom dancing or music school in the evening. Then it was university in the morning and music college in the afternoon. So I alwa

Growing up in a Mexican household, I always knew that embroidery held a special place in Mexican fashion. I grew up seeing embroidery on traditional China Poblana dresses during Mexico’s Independence Day celebrations. As I shared in my last article, my Muñeca Pituka doll from Puebla, Mexico, was one of my earliest inspirations. Her China Poblana outfit, which featured machine-stitched floral patterns embroidered with thick, textured thread against black fabric, helped me real

How intuition, textiles and travel continue to shape my practice I am a stitch artist working from my home studio in Sydney, Australia, where I create artworks, teach workshops and regularly exhibit my work. Aerial view of Elizabeth Sullivan art studio Originally, I worked primarily with paint, introducing small stitched elements into works on paper and canvas to add texture and dimension. Gradually, those stitched embellishments became the medium itself, and stitch evolved i

Photo by Nagima Alamanova Please tell us about yourself. How did your journey into embroidery begin? I’m an artist working in the field of decorative and applied arts. I think it is deeply rooted in my family heritage. My great-grandmother was a craftswoman who raised my mother, and my mother, in turn, became a craftswoman herself. When did you first discover traditional Kyrgyz embroidery? Who was your first teacher or source of inspiration? From childhood, I was immersed in

Location: Dublin, Bucks County, PA For readers discovering AAOTE for the first time, how would you describe your showroom and creative space? We’re situated within my family’s former hosiery mill. A humble space hidden down a long driveway along busy state route 313. Once you pull down the driveway you'll see our entrance adjacent to the old barn. Within our history-rich walls where sewing machines and examining tables were now serves as the palette for whimsy, awe, and i

Hello! My name is Chloe Feoranzo, and I am part of the duo that is Woobie Runt Crafts, a tiny craft-based vending shop run by myself and my mom. I specialize in hand embroidery with mixed media elements and while I am nowhere near a professional, I have been incredibly grateful for any opportunities that have come my way to create hand embroidered pieces for people and art exhibits. I discovered the love of embroidery about six years ago but have really started to deep dive i

Lilian Tsang, 2026, Hong Kong Can you tell us how your journey with embroidery began, and what first drew you to the medium? Actually, I studied fashion design at university and became a fashion designer after graduation. While working as a fashion designer, I got the opportunity to create costumes for various singers and dancers, which was a completely different field from commercial fashion. When crafting stage outfits, I gained in-depth exposure to haute couture embroidery

Translated by: Marina Oks Ekaterina Lipikhina I started making dolls when I was a child. I was lucky enough to have one factory-made doll, which somehow disappeared when I was around six. I was born in the Soviet Union, in Moscow, and at that time, here and there, you could catch glimpses of images depicting representatives of the fifteen Soviet republics dressed in their national costumes. I was so mesmerized by their beauty and diversity that my first dolls, made of paper a

Photo of Katie by Kylie Rollins of @SaintRogersStreet What first drew you to embroidery, and when did it become something you felt deeply connected to rather than simply interested in? I have always had a love and interest in anything crafty and needlework is no exception. I think back to the wooden lacing toys that taught me the basics of stitching, the cross-stitch and latch-hook kits I enjoyed, and the many small projects I made as a child—from doll clothes to iPod cases t

On July 4th, 2026, the Unites States celebrates the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. In celebration of this milestone, this article explores the embroidery practiced by the women of the United Sates around the time of the American Revolution. Their work allows us a glimpse into their lived experience as they witnessed the founding of a nation. Today, the techniques and stories of the revolutionary period are carried on by modern American ar

Photo by Dordea Alexandrina Your embroidery often centers on insects and natural forms. What initially drew you to these subjects, and what continues to hold your attention over time? Photo by Dordea Alexandrina About six or seven years ago, I was helping my son with his English homework about Egypt. There was an interesting story about a beetle artefact. At that time, I was in a creative block, and that story really inspired me. That year, I created my first beetle. It was

Photo by Joyce Gill (Needle Nut) DORSET BUTTON HISTORY According to popular history, Dorset Buttons developed from seeing an urgent need. When Abraham Case witnessed his fellow soldiers replacing lost uniform buttons by twisting bits of fabric over a pebble and fastening the unit with thread, an idea formed in his head that he turned into a business. Over time, the cottage industry of button-making took off despite a law that tried to stifle it. By the end of the 1700’s, it i

Photo by Kelly Fletcher How did your journey with embroidery begin? I grew up around needlework and sewing, so it was always familiar. I didn’t start embroidering though until I was in my mid-20s. Stitching rows of different stitches on a square of fabric – to keep my hands busy one holiday – is what sticks in my mind as the moment my interest in hand embroidery was truly piqued. Photo by Kelly Fletcher How would you describe your style and creative approach to surface em

Introduction As it happened for Bricco embroidery, I discovered this technique by chance. I’ve found a very small piece of Cavandoli in a bric à brac market. It attired my attention, since I’d never seen such a work before. Once at home, I start to study it as working technique and contemporarily I tried to find some information about it on old embroidery manuals. I found that it was known as “Cavandoli” from the name of the lady who started a real production with it. The st

The evolution of Indian embroidery is no less than a fairytale. In its nascent days, Indian embroidery was a small-scale cottage industry. The craft was passed on from one generation to the next within the family. Today, Indian embroidery has found its place in the global market. The sheer brilliance of artistry, precision of threadwork, and remarkably rich aesthetic appeal of Indian embroidery caught the attention of the world. It is revered by art enthusiasts, collected by

Before the dawn of fast fashion and all the economic and environmental havoc that it has caused in the 100 plus years that followed, one of the main ways to add visual interest to clothing was through embroidery. Sure, fabric has a long history of being woven with multi-colored threads, or dyed with certain techniques to have colour changes that create patterns, but it has been embroidery that has created fine details and textures on garments. Cuffs and collars, edges of sk

Let’s start from the beginning — how did your journey with embroidery begin? Was there a moment or piece that pulled you into this medium? Though I’ve always felt fairly creative, I never really found an outlet for my art when I was younger. After my children were born, my desire to make things for them led me to learn crochet and knitting. This was my introduction to the fiber arts. I loved working with yarn (and still do!), but I mostly made practical items like clothes, to

I am grateful for the chance to share knowledge of my culture, which spans several tens of centuries. A few words about the Kyrgyz. The first recorded mention of the Kyrgyz dates back—more precisely, dated —to the 2nd century BCE in the Chinese chronicles of Sima Qian. In 2024, historians in Kyrgyzstan received a gift from the Chinese government: several hundred volumes of historical chronicles about the Kyrgyz in the Manchu language, in which the history of the people extend

“One can’t paint New York as it is, but rather as it is felt.” - Georgia O’Keefe While working in luxury fashion, I was so fortunate to spend several years living in Manhattan. The incredible sunsets outside my window gave me fabulous inspiration for colors and textures! The textural beaded choker in this article was designed and worn to a friend’s New York Fashion Week show, and was created to share my vision of the New York City skyline with all of my designer friends.

IMAGE CREDIT: Author x MidJourney Across centuries and continents, the art of Embroidery has offered far more than decorative value....