My creative world can be broken down into two, equality important parts – spinning and embroidery. Even though those are very different fiber crafts, they are extremely connected in my work – I spin my own yarn which I also use in my embroidery, thus making it more sustainable, unique and made from scratch.
I use a lot of special tools in order to be able to do my work, like hand carders and spinning wheel
I spent many months to teach myself how to spin from various fibers in different techniques
Spinning is basically creating tension in a strand of fiber, spinning wheel only does the tension part – working fiber depends only on hands
I recycle yarn scraps of my own and collect it from other knitters and embroiderers, in order to card it back into fluff, mix it with new fibers and spin it back into usable yarn.
In order to card the scraps, they have to be cut into smaller bits
Carding scrap yarn and embroidery floss takes a lot of work
I also use hand carders to blend different fibers and/or colors in order to create specific blends and color combinations for different yarn types.
Every spinning and embroidery project for me begins with carding. It helps me to manipulate fiber and color and is vital in my art
The clouds in this embroidery are made from hand carded, hand spun recycled yarn.
It looks grey from the distance, but up close anyone can spot how deep and wonderful is the color of recycled cloud yarn
On top of hard work, I enjoy being funny with my creations. I make quirky yarn and weir yarn projects (like these eye balls) and put funny references into my embroidery work (like alien abduction scenes or people falling from the sky)
Even carding becomes a fun and humor filled activity for me, because I love love love what I do and I am so happy to share my creations with other people
One of the major part of my work is recycling. When you are a maker, it is easy to spot how much waste your creativity is producing. In my case it is whole lot of embroidery floss scraps, yarn scraps, tiny wool bits, knitting waste, small pieces of linen, etc. I could just throw it in a compost or trash bin (because textile waste is not considered recyclable and there is no recycling bin for it), but I chose to reuse it in my art.