YCA ‘at Home’ Project 2020.
With the help of the fantastic folks at the Young Creative Awards Nottingham & its brilliant sponsors, I was able to be a part of an amazing project this year! Aimed at textile students and other young creatives, stuck inside during the coronavirus lockdown, (who had likely been impacted by their studies being completely put on hold), I created a week long ‘at home embroidery club’! This was designed to engage & inspire the students to try a new creative skill, and to bring people together in what was a very difficult time for us all. I designed an adorable embroidery template for each day of the week- taking inspiration from the small joys that were connecting us all (lockdown baking, clapping for our NHS and zoom parties to name a few!). I also provided step-by-step instruction guides and put together time lapse demonstration videos, showing how to do the embroidery techniques, which you can view below!
This was such a brilliant project to work on, for such a positive cause at a time which we can all agree, was incredibly challenging!
Participate here - http://www.youngcreativeawards.org/yca-embroidery-club/
Daily Embroidery Club- Monday
The YCA Daily embroidery club kicked off on 1st June 2020, as the UK continued into its 11th week of lock down due to the Covid-19 Pandemic.
Follow the demo to recreate this cute embroidery celebrating #stayathome culture. The embroidery features, bead work, sequin work and satin stitch embroidery. I chose to add some interesting features such as the metallic copper roof, folded green sequins to give the plant a 3D feel, and a mix of blue tones in transparent sequin quality to give the windows a glassy effect. My favourite part of the embroidery is the brick pattern on the house, which I creating using horizontal stitching and horizontal bugle beads- I love how the bugles give the effect of raised brick.
You can find the template, full instructions & demo on the YCA Website.
#YCAembroideryclub
Daily Embroidery Club- Tuesday
Tuesday’s YCA embroidery club video featured an adorable beaded cupcake and whisk - Inspired by all the home baking taking place during lockdown.
The embroidery featured clustered bead work, 3D pearl beads and thread work. I love the cherry on top of the cake, which I created with thick satin stitch for the red cherry, folded sequins for the leaves, and a white pearl for the highlight. The cake topping has been designed using densely clustered micro beads and copper pearls to look like a chocolate frosting, and textured tortoise shell sequins have been applied to look like baked cake. Alternating thread lines were used to create the cake case, whilst satin stitch and back stitch techniques have been used to fill the whisk. My favourite element to this design is the 3D mixed pearls that look like a dollop of frosting on the end of the whisk!
You can find the template, full instructions & demo on the YCA Website.
#YCAembroideryclub
Daily Embroidery Club- Wednesday
Wednesday’s YCA embroidery club celebrates the outdoors with this beautiful pastel floral garden - Inspired by my daily walks during lockdown and a new found appreciation for the beautiful outdoors.
The template features ombre thread work, complex sequin stacking and Swarovski bicone beads in the centres of all the flowers.
You can find the template, full instructions & demo on the YCA Website.
#YCAembroideryclub
Daily Embroidery Club- Thursday
Inspired by the weekly ‘clap for key workers’ event, which took place at 8pm every Thursday for 10 weeks during lockdown, I designed this beautiful ombre beaded NHS heart, with white satin stitch lettering.
The densely clustered beading inside the heart seamlessly gradates from dark indigo, with flashes of electric blue, into a soft pastel tone with touches of clear crystal and silver. I used over 30 different types of beads and sequins in this design including; dark indigo blue sequins with a brushed metallic finish, electric blue giant bugles, semi-precious blue jade beads, Swarovski crystals in teardrop, xillion and navette shapes, micro cutdana beads in all tones and minty blue boat shaped sequins.
You can find the template, full instructions & demo on the YCA Website.
#YCAembroideryclub
Daily Embroidery Club- Friday
As the simplest template of the week, Friday’s design was created so that even absolute embroidery beginners could get involved with the club. The design was inspired by the culture of ‘learning a new skill’ during lockdown after seeing so many people taking up learning an instrument, a new language and and a variety of creative hobbies. The template features a colourful paint palette, filled with sequins, beads, crystals, and pearl droplets- and a hand embroidered paint brush.
I began by embroidering the outline of the palette in a back stitch technique, and then started filling the space with a mixture of beads and sequins to give the effect of an array of colourful paints. I filled the brush with the same back stitch technique but created a swirling wood effect with the stitches. As a final touch, I added some blue beads and sequins to the tip of the brush, as if it had just been dipped into the paint.
You can find the template, full instructions & demo on the YCA Website.
#YCAembroideryclub
Daily Embroidery Club- Saturday
Saturday’s YCA embroidery club template featured a very familiar home setting -including a brightly lit embellished laptop and a home made cocktail, complete with a embroidered cocktail umbrella! This design was inspired by the many Zoom quizzes and whatsapp video calls that became the Saturday night norm during lockdown for many of us. This was also really a celebration of tech, and how lucky those of us with access are, to have been able to stay easily connected with friends and family during the pandemic.
The embroidery featured bead and sequin work, along side some interesting hand embroidery techniques such as split stitch and braiding/weaving stitch techniques. My favourite parts of this design include the delicately stitched and beaded cocktail umbrella, and the mix of materials I was able to find to embellish the laptop from the black bugles in different sizes for the keyboard, to the metallic silver sequins for the borders.
You can find the template, full instructions & demo on the YCA Website.
#YCAembroideryclub
Daily Embroidery Club- Sunday
The final YCA embroidery club template represented the global emblem of positivity during the coronavirus pandemic. Rainbows have been see all over the places during lockdown, as a reminder of hope and to keep looking forward to the future and to better times. So I really wanted to design my own version.
The embroidery in this template features 4 beautiful pastel shades of baby pink, lemon, mint and pale blue transparent sequins, which give the rainbow a wonderful glassy, reflective quality. The rainbow is bordered with a row a clear crystal cup-chain for extra shine, whilst the raindrops have been finished in a chain stitch technique, in a blue grey tone- making the colours of the rainbow stand out even more.
You can find the template, full instructions & demo on the YCA Website.
#YCAembroideryclub