One of the most popular crafting technique lately is embroidery. It really helps to work with smaller projects like jewelry designs when learning how to embroider. The designs will be faster to make. 

The results are simply elegant and beautiful as you can see from the embroidered jewelry tutorials and kits shown here. Please check carefully as not all instructors provide kits with their tutorials. 

Canadian embroiderer, Natalie, of EmbroideryArtbyNatCA offers 14 different mostly botanical designs for her embroidery tutorial (shown above).

I really like how New Yorker, Katie Miller of DandelionDoiley uses black backgrounds for her pendant kits. The dark background makes her lovely designs pop!


Katie's shop is a treasure trove of many outstanding kits including this beginner kit shown below : 


While botanical themes dominant, Katie also has a lovely bee embroidery necklace kit. 


Nebraskan, Chloe of ChloeArtCrafts offers a vintage look with her beginner embroidery necklace kits which include filigree edged bezels.


This embroidered hedgehog necklace kit is my all time favorite. The talented designer is Arizonan, Jessica of JessLongEmbroidery. 


Chinese embroiderer, AlisaHandcrafts, is the only designer I found who offers landscape embroidery jewelry kits rather than the more popular botanical themes.


Emma of AustincraftsArt also offers something different. Her kits can either be purchased as pins or as necklaces. I really like the sunflower style bezels she uses for her designs. 



I think these DIY embroidery kits for corner bookmarks are so pretty. Lizzy of TheFancyCrafts offers them. 


A Brief History of Embroidery

Embroidery is an ancient technique found all over the world. While modern machines have revolutionized the technique, handmade embroidery designs have been making a comeback in recent years. Watch this short history of embroidery by Domestika which shows many beautiful global examples. 

Domestic skills such as embroidery were indeed a "skills" test for marriageable young women in some parts of the world. My grandmother had to bead embroider slippers as gifts for her future in-laws.

The video also mentioned embroidery as a hobby but we should remember handwork was often a means for home bound women to earn money to augment family incomes. My own maternal grandmother was illiterate - girls in her time were simply not sent to school. Yet she became a skilled machine embroiderer using a simple one stitch treadle machine during and just after WWII.  See my post on 100 Years of South East Asian Embroidery which shows her amazing work.  




How Embroidery Helped Surgery Pioneer Develop Sutures

Alexis Carrel (1873-1944), French surgery pioneer and biologist, was just a 20-year-old medical student when he witnessed, to his horror, the 1894 stabbing assassination of the popular French President, François Carnot. The latter died from a massive hemorrhage due to a severed portal vein. The surgeons of the time could not save him. 

Carrel was convinced he could solve the problem. His mother owned a needle lace embroidery factory in Lyons. The women used incredibly fine needles and silk. He was well aware of the technique so he practised extensively with his mother until he became a proficient embroiderer. All this while he was completing his medical training. He became a surgery pioneer including work on organ transplants.  He went on to win the 1912 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for pioneering vascular (blood vessel) suturing stitches. 


Alexis Carrel 

Want to know how needle lace is done? Watch this ASMR needle lace embroidery demo by Mathew Gnagy of the Modern Maker. He said :
Needle lace worked in linen on a template supported on a bolster pillow. With linen thread, buttonhole stitches are worked over foundation threads on a template which slowly creates the most intricate and sturdy lace. Sometimes called cutwork or reticella, and more often punto in aria, this style of 17th century lace has typically been hard to learn due to a lack of resources. Now, with this short video, I can introduce you to the technique while helping you relax as you watch the stitches take place.

Lace makers, Brittany, France. Ca. 1920 Picture source

Before You Go:


jewelry making supplies

Disclosure 

This blog may contain affiliate links. I do receive a small fee for any products purchased through affiliate links. This goes towards the support of this blog and to provide resource information to readers. The opinions expressed are solely my own. They would be the same whether or not I receive any compensation. 
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Original Post by THE BEADING GEM