Inspirational Links

This blogpost isn't actually about this Golden Goose I finished stitching last week (from the book I mention far too often because I really, really like it1) It's about some good stuff I came across on the internet in the past week that I want to share with you.

On the Sew Mama Sew blog there was this great video in which Karen Nicol, a multi media embroidery designer who also works in fashion, talks about what inspires her embroidery work and what she said really resonated with me. Inspiration is not just one or even a few things, it's lots of things you pick up with everything you do, everything you see. Anyway watch the video because Karen explains it better than I can.

Then I came across the online catalogue of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. With nearly 400.000 records, many of them include a photo, it's an amazing resource.

For some reason I haven't seen a single episode of Game of Thrones yet (possible because it's shown on a tv channel I don't have) but obviously I heard about it. What I didn't know is the amazing and detailed embroidery that is used in many of the costumes, created by Embroidery designer Michele Carragher. Michele shares on her website how to create a dragon scale texture with fabric and how her embroideries are created.

If you are interested in shading in embroidery and non-Western embroidery techniques you might want to see my book review of The Art of Chinese Embroidery that I wrote for the &Stitches blog.

Hope that one (or maybe) all of these links will inspire you in some way!