Embroidery stories
The vibrancy of embroidery as an art form has been one of the real discoveries in our journey.
Carol Maberly ✿ An embroidered Tao Te Ching - For Carol Maberly, embroidery is a mindful way to reflect on the Taoist wisdom of Lao Tzu.
Tenun Yang Menubuh: Embodied weaving in Sadi village - Alfred W. Djami describes a project where weavers embroider their portraits, as testimony of their fragile tradition.
The Embroiderers Guild, Victoria: A haven for stitchers - Gail Thexton recounts the history of a long-standing and friendly stitching guild.
Ciocârlia: A thread that binds generations - Diana Roșca writes about a community in Moldova that come together to keep alive their ancient embroidery tradition
Fabric for a Feast: The story of Textiles Sydney - Jane Théau writes about a tablecloth embroidery project that grew into a new organisation, Textiles Sydney.
Roksana Makieva ✿ A vyshyvanka for the spirit of peace in wartime - Our October laurel goes to a Ukrainian embroiderer who sustains tradition despite the war around her.
Zeegt naamal: A Mongolian heritage under threat - Jagdagtseren Serjkhuu writes about the exquisite Mongolian embroidery tradition of Zeert Naamal, that she is trying to rescue.
The robot embroiderer - Anying Chen explains a project to develop a robot to assist in the intricate embroidery craft.
Latifa Zafar Attaii ✿ One Thousand Individuals - Susann Wintsch writes about Latifa Zafar Attaii's embroidered photographs that reflect the fraught identity of Hazara refugees.
The Bung Yarnda Observatorium - For her FLOAT residency, Josephine Jakobi makes work about and with the estuary.
Piña: Weaving Filipino fibre into the world - Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan returned to the Philippines to work with weavers and embroiderers in recovering the world of piña, pineapple fibre. 
25 Million Stitches: Threading the misplaced multitude - Doug Kim presents a global collaborative project by Jennifer Kim Sohn that seeks to measure the massive human displacement around the world with a collective tapestry.
Pesh boro: Epic weaving from Afghanistan - Australian-based artist Khadim Ali introduces us to his weavers in Kabul, who demonstrate a fortitude characteristic of Hazara culture.
Phayao a Porter: A jacket from Jakkai to Vipoo - Thai artist Jakkai Siributr is using lockdown to take commissions for artfully embroidered jackets. One of these is for the venerable Vipoo Srivilasa.
Tareq Qaddumi ✿ Muqla’a slingshot - A giant slingshot is adorned with Palestinian embroidery as a monument to a culture that survives despite the odds.
Zahra Mosheni ✿ The needle is my fellow worker - We share a film that documents the life of a master embroiderer, Zahra Mohseni, inspired by the nature of Khorasan, Iran
The Red Dress in Chiapas - Kirstie Macleod shares a particular moment in the journey of the Red Dress, which was embroidered and then proudly worn by women in southern Mexico.
Make the Qanats flow: Women revive a patriarchal tradition - Nina Aminzadeh Goharrizi heralds an inspiring project from the Takab district of Kerman province, Iran, in which local women take tradition into their own hands.
“I treat her like a queen”: Chilean embroidery with attitude - Daniela Lara Espinoza turns the craft of her maternal forebears into a political voice for today’s generation.
Sanaz Nataj ✿ Treasures from Qeshm and Khorashad - Atefe Mirsane uncovers the splendid couture of Sanaz Nataj, which draws on Iran's rich culture of village crafts.
Tiao David Nithakhong Somsanith: The relevance of royal craft today - The fourth talk in Reinventing the Wheel takes us to Laos, where Linda McIntosh will introduce the life and work of a master goldsmith who uses his royal background to uphold craft.
Asif Shaikh and Aziz Murtazaev ✿ A dialogue of print and stitch - Our October laurel goes to Our October laurel goes to an eloquent collaboration between Indian embroiderer Asif Shaik and Uzbek ikat maker Aziz Murtazaev.an eloquent collaboration between Indian embroider Asif Shaik and Uzbek ikat maker Aziz Murtazaev.
Chikankari: The gift of health - Jaspal Kalra's scholarship leads him back to Lucknow where he celebrates those who add delight to our new masked identities.
The Mongolian snuff bottle pouch: Embracing aromatic culture - The snuff bottle pouch adorns a key ritual that binds Mongolians together: the exchange of smells.
Jodhaa Akbar: A love story tailor-made for today - Lachlan Blain looks behind the sixteenth-century Bollywood blockbuster Jodhaa Akbar and discovers its master storyteller, the veteran costume designer Neeta Lulla.
A post-digital threat out of the labyrinth: Christus Nobrega review - Pamela See finds that the embroidery exhibition Labirinto by Christus Nobrega offers a post-digital means of housing the past.
Embroideries with love from Mauritius - Palmesh Cuttaree has painted scenes that are typical of folklife in his native Mauritius.
How Jewish embroidery is sustained by an Indian Muslim - The ancient Jewish culture of India is honoured today by Taha Ibrahim, the adopted son of Sarah Cohen.
Why the copy of a Turkmen wedding dress is better than the original - Unintentionally, Hermann E. Rudolph breaks a sacred rule of Turkmen culture and tries to make amends. 
Maggie Baxter ✿ Peeling walls and tattered ledgers - Maggie Baxter shares new works that use embroidery to evoke the textures of time she has found in India.
Susie Vickery ✿ Embroidery portraits - Our July Laurel goes to Susie Vickery for her unique genre of embroidery portraits.
Re-Threading the tapestry of an arid topography: A return to Kutch with Maggie Baxter - Gopika Nath returns to Kutch to reflect on the enduring embroidery culture and distinctive collaborations of Maggie Baxter. 
The delight of embroidery now – 2018 Chaozhou International Embroidery Art Biennale - Valerie Kirk is amazed by the quality of support for textile arts at the 2018 Chaozhou International Embroidery Art Biennale
Thanks giving in Australia: Eva Heiky Olga Abbinga’s Rajah Quilt - Kevin Murray describes a project that makes connections across time to the beginning of settlement and space with Aboriginal and craft guild collaborations
To carve memories: The belt of El Señor de Lázaro in Oaxaca 🇲🇽 - María del Carmen Castillo Cisneros recounts the challenge of re-making a sacred belt and how it reveals ancient Zapotec memories.
Can Suzhou Embroidery be contemporary art? - Anying Chen discusses the Suzhou embroidery produced by Yao Huifen for the China Pavilion, Venice Biennale 2017, and considered whether it would be considered contemporary art from a Chinese perspective.
KUTCH: a visual identity for a radiant people - Ishan Khosla reflects on a graphic design project using the vibrant crafts that belie the parched and bleak salty land they live on
Smile for the embroidery: Abdul Abdullah and DGTMB - Abdul Abdullah talks about his collaboration with Indonesian embroidery workshop DGTMB
The embroidered house - A project at A Casa museu do objeto Brasileiro, São Paulo City, commissioned local crafts from across Brazil to create a house of embroidery
Lesley Uren’s Celtic Dogs (2016) - Garland brings you occasional works of note. This recent embroidery work by Lesley Uren is based on designs from an Irish monastery. 
The Rohingya story in Thailand, through embroidery - Jakkai Siributr travels to Switte, in the Rakhine province of Myanmar, where the Rohinga begin their journey as refugees. The embroideries that tell this story involve a conversation between different ethnic perspectives in contemporary Thailand.
The rare art of Mumbai’s Parsis - Priyanka Kochar uncovers the rare embroidery of Mumbai's Parsis. She finds a combination of Persian and Chinese influence in the textiles of this declining yet powerful ethnic group. 
Paisley stands tall again: Akhtar Ismailzadeh’s patteh embroidery - Ansie van der Walt writes about the patteh embroidery of Akhtar Ismailzadeh, an Iranian migrant living in South Australia. The paisley is sometimes inteprets as the cyprus tree which has been bent by the hardships of exile. Akhtar's work corrects this by straightening the paisley again.
A map for the embroidered garden - Gopika Nath's essay draws on a lifetime of learning in the enduring power of craft. Here's a quick guide to some major influences in her essay.
With the tip of a needle - Melinda Rackham looks into the Guildhouse Traditional Crafts program, and finds how some migrants to Australia are building new lives for themselves from the craft skills they brought with them.
Quarterly essay – Reclaiming the Lost Embroidered Garden - Unlike block printing, weaving and other textile arts, embroidery work such as Phulkari is heavily invested with the passion and presence of the person handling the needle and thread.
Reclaiming the Lost Embroidered Garden: The Bagh and Phulkari Embroideries of Punjab - Gopika Nath goes in search of the lost splendour of the phulkari embroidery, whose thread was broken with Partition.