Today I’d like to delve into the cross stitch and how it’s being re-imagined in surprising new ways. You may recall from my post on The Ultimate Maker’s Cabinet that I recently used extra-large cross stitches to add interest to my cabinet doors. But I’m certainly not the first person to consider using the cross stitch in unconventional ways. Here are some great examples that I found in my online exploration.
Spanish artist Raquel Rodrigo and her studio Arquicostura are known for amazing large scale outdoor installations of cross stitch. On her website Raquel explains that she’s passionate about designing spaces and products that generate emotions. Below are examples of her street art and street marketing. They are created with cross stitches in colored thick string on wire mesh. Imagine strolling along the street in Valencia Spain and coming across one of these awesome works.
Canadian designer, Laura Carwardine, created a spectacular feature wall in Patria Restaurant, a Spanish tapas restaurant in Toronto Canada. The two-story wall showcases an intricate cross stitch design made with over 17,000 stitches of cotton jersey on copper-coated steel grid. I’d love to see this in person someday… hmmm, maybe I could swing by the next time I travel to Nova Scotia to visit family.
Charlotte Lancelot Design Studio, from Belgium, worked in collaboration with Gan to present a collection of over-sized felt cross stitches. The Canevas collection included rugs, poufs and cushions. On her website, Charlotte explains how she’s re-interpreted the cross-stitch by updating the support and materials. She notes that even in this transformed state the cross stitch maintains its essence and adds warmth to our homes and surroundings. That’s the perfect explanation of re-imagining the traditional cross stitch.
German artist, Miss Cross Stitch, leverages cross stitch in public spaces to jazz up benches, chairs and other mundane public furniture. She refers to this as street embroidery. These unexpected treatments delight passersby in several European cities such as Berlin and Cologne Germany, Milan Italy, and Zurich Switzerland. Here is an example of her street embroidery:
This Little Street blog, based in the US and authored by Audrey Smit, featured an unusual cross stitch project a few years ago. It’s an interesting application of the traditional flower motif done in cross stitch on an nontraditional item.
But perhaps the most unexpected application of cross stitch comes from Lithuanian artist, Severija Inčirauskaitė-Kriaunevičienė, who cross stitches domestic metal objects such as pans, watering cans, spoons and even car doors. Integrating traditional elements from her Lithuanian heritage, Severija creates beauty from the simplest of items.
In the company of such talented artists and designers, embellishing my Maker’s Cabinet with extra-large cross stitch isn’t so exceptional. But, as you can see from the below photo, this treatment does push the limits on the materials and scale of traditional cross stitch. I’m very pleased with how it turned out.
To fully appreciate to what extent these artists and designers have reimagined the traditional cross stitch, consider the below example of a conventional work of cross stitch. The cross stitches are hand sewn on cotton fabric with embroidery floss in a classic rose pattern.
More Info
You can learn more about the talented artists and designers mentioned in this post on these sites:
- Raquel Rodrigo and Arquicostura
- Laura Carwardine and Cargo Collective
- Charlotte Lancelot Design Studio
- Miss Cross Stitch
- Audrey Smit at This Little Street
- Severija Inčirauskaitė-Kriaunevičienė
In addition, I created a FanningSparks Pinterest board to showcase reimagined cross stitch works.
For the basics on cross stitch, The Cross Stitch Guild and DMC, the world-renowned thread company, both offer outstanding reference sites.
Today’s Takeaways
- Studying the groundbreakers in an art/craft form that interests you can spark lots of ideas.
- Transforming traditional craftwork in contemporary ways leads to outstanding results.
- Challenge yourself to “transcend the ordinary”.
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