This Embroidery Artist Took to Sewing By the Age of Three

Isobel Currie’s embroideries aren’t like any we’ve ever seen. A master manipulator of fiber, she employs traditional methods of hand stitching, passed on to her by her mother. “I have been a stitcher all my life,” writes Currie, “having been taught to sew by my mother at the age of three, and have always loved to handle threads and fabrics.”

As such, embroidery is almost second nature to her. But it was only during her studies that Currie became interested in the sculptural potential of embroidery stitches. With an embroidery degree from Manchester Polytechnic, she now tends to her craft (but it’s more of an art, really) from her home in Stockport, Greater Manchester.

Currie admits to putting a lot of thought into each of her designs, with each work closely planned before the stitching starts. However, as she renders the design in three-dimensions, she sometimes discovers unexpected shapes emerging from the build-up of thread lines. With a motif of geometrical patterns present throughout her work, her embroideries often rely on organic shapes and forms found in nature, with an added pop of color.

She also likes to add sheer fabrics into her design, with which her threads interact. “I use transparent and translucent supporting materials to allow the journey of the stitched threads to be viewed from different angles,” she explains, “revealing the three-dimensional shape of the stitches, and creating continually changing perspectives.”

Take a closer look: