Did I mention I’m in Barcelona? I’m in Barcelona! I’m here visiting for a few days and didn’t want to miss the punch-needle embroidery workshop organised by Dudua. My nan taught my cousin and I to embroider when we were very young. Chain stitch, long stitch, cross stitch but never a mention of a punch-needle and, after reading so much about it on craft and illustration blogs, I was keen to have a go.
Perfect timing as Dudua are having an exhibition on punch-needle embroidery this month so we were surrounded by great examples and inspiration as we were getting our stitch on.
Can you think of a better location for a craft evening?
Our lovely teacher Laura Ameba had her album cover project on display. She was so nice and patient telling us all about her first encounter with punch-needle in a street market in Chile where she met the old Russian lady that taught her. The lady still makes the needles herself and sends them all the way to Barcelona specially for the workshop (we got to try shop bought ones and they are chunkier and harder to handle).
Unknown Pleasures is stunning to see in person:
Love Jenny Germer‘s type piece and Anju Lalwani’s lobster:
One of the things I like about embroidery is that it can be traditional, kawaii like Elena Menjon’s Sushi show:
Or a bit on the naughty side like Laura de Diaz‘s piece:
One of my favourites was Ana Sender‘s wolf series and Elisasmile‘s cats in love:
It’s a shame these photos don’t really make the work any justice. Lidia Tamboleo‘s braids coming out of the hoops was so rich with all the combined textures from the different stitching:
Loved the hand (couldn’t find the author, very intrigued now!)
More and better pictures on Dudua’s flickr.
And last but not least, my sampler that incidentally looks a bit like a funny face! I really enjoyed the workshop and we learned and tested all the basics can’t wait to start on a real project, have so many ideas already.
