Andrea Cryer is a Textile Fine Artist who draws with thread to create unique portraits and landscapes.

She has twice been a finalist in the prestigious Hand & Lock Embroidery Prize competitions and has exhibited with Art of the Stitch Biennial International Open Touring exhibition organised by The Embroiderers Guild, alongside artists such as Shizuko Kimura, Alice Kettle, Tilleke Schwarz and Sue Stone.

In this interview, Andrea reveals how she creates art that, from a distance, can look like pen and ink. We discover what techniques and materials she uses to make these arresting images and why singing whilst working at her trusty Bernina helps get the job done!

Andrea Cryer, Martin Luther King, 2016

Textile artist Ian Berry has been working for 12 years with Denim. During this time Ian has developed a technique to make the art look like paintings or even photorealism.

Ian creates scenes, portraits, and installations in his chosen material and was proud to be named a 30 under 30 artist in the world. He says:

The work is not just about it being in jeans, it’s just my medium, the way of painting our contemporary lives, out of the of material or time.

In this interview, part of our From conception to creation series, Ian walks us through the process of making his 2017 installation The Secret Garden, which is on view at the Children’s Museum of the Arts in New York, until April 2018.

Nicole Chui was born and raised in Hong Kong but currently lives in London. She is an embroidery artist and a contributing illustrator for gal-dem magazine.

Nicole graduated from London College of Fashion with a BA in Creative Direction for Fashion. It was a course about brand communication, focusing on designing creative solutions to solve various problems or challenges that the fashion or arts industry face.

She has been featured in Complex UK, King Kong magazine and Vogue Italia. Her first exhibition outside graduation was commissioned by NOW gallery and was part of The Body Issue exhibition alongside various contemporary photographers in the UK.

In this interview, Nicole gives an insight into what she’s all about and why she chooses to create images mixing illustration and photography with embroidery. We learn about the materials and techniques she uses to achieve this and why loud music and fried chicken are amongst the things which inspire her.

Lauren DiCioccio is a textile artist living in San Francisco. Born and raised in Philadelphia, she received a BA from Colgate University where she studied art and art history.

Lauren has shown her work at venues in San Francisco, including Jack Fischer Gallery, Intersection for the Arts, The Lab and the SFMOMA Artists Gallery.

In this interview, Lauren discusses the materials and techniques she employs to produce her recreations of soon to be forgotten objects and how discovering fabric sculpture has opened the floodgates of her imagination.

Lauren DiCioccio, Two Dollar Bill, 2010, 6.25w x 2.6h x 0.125d

Tracy is a self-employed embroiderer, specialising mainly in traditional embroidery including crewelwork, silk shading, and gold work.

She manages her own studio in Fowlers Yard, Durham City and teaches privately, and for the Royal School of Needlework.

Along with this, Tracy has compiled three books on goldwork, white work, both published by Batsford, and self-published crewelwork.

In this interview, Tracy tells about her passion for embroidery and how she puts a contemporary twist on traditional stitching. We learn how she manages her time and why she finds teaching inspirational.