Scrolling through Brannon Addison’s embroideries it’s easy to guess where her inspiration comes from. The owner and artist behind Happy Cactus Designs, she creates one-of-a-kind pieces of hand-embroidered artwork and home decor items that revolve around plants and flowers.
“I find most of the inspiration for my work from nature,” she shared with Sarah K. Benning’s blog. “Whether it’s the flowers I come across while taking a hike or the pine trees right outside my door.” Based in Durango, Colorado, she admits that there’s always something outdoors that catches her eye.
“The Happy Cactus enjoys the strong mountain sun,” muses Addison in her personal website. “Just like the plant, my goal for the studio has been to take the tiny seed of an idea for a design company and grow it into a line of products that bring color and happiness to everyone.”
Her embroidery pieces have been featured on Design*Sponge, Vogue, Martha Stewart, and more, and with almost 150k followers on Instagram, it’s clear that her tiny seed has fully blossomed. “With each piece, I have a general concept in mind, but I don’t work with a template or pattern,” she admits. “All of my embroidery work is freehand, and I find beauty in the unknown of how a piece will turn out.”
“No two pieces are alike and each takes many hours of hand stitching to complete,” she assures her followers. “The hours of stitching that go into the creation of each piece, combined with the final framed presentation, gives a sense of heirloom quality.”
Follow her Instagram page for more.
