delicately embroidered butterflies and other wildlife by emillie ferris

graphic designer, illustrator and photographer emillie ferris embroiders hoops that feature detailed butterflies, mushrooms, and other wildlife. creating realistically-styled portraits, she uses various threads in a myriad of colors to capture her natural subjects.

images courtesy of emillie ferris

ferris hand-stitches each artwork and keeps it on its original frame. a single piece can take anything from 18-25 hours to complete, depending on how many color changes are needed. some pieces can take up to 15 different colours, others even more, providing ample opportunity to shade and give each image an impressive amount of depth.

in recent years ferris has begun teaching others helping them to develop their own embroidery skills, as well expanding her repertoire to include pet portraits. turning a much-loved hobby into a career, her artworks can also be found on original hand embroidered greeting cards and necklaces, of which you can purchase from her etsy shop.

‘I love using this medium as it is timeless, unique and requires a lot of patience,’ she explains. ‘I embroider with one strand of dmc embroidery thread at a time, as this allows me to get capture the finest details possible. the most challenging part is trying to find the perfect colour for a portrait, as you can’t easily mix colour as you would with paint, thus I have to create the illusion of it!’

in other news, textile artist alicja kozłowska has used embroidery to transform everyday items into delicately crafted felt sculptures. inspired by consumerism and the ordinary objects, she embroiders various materials together including labels, newspapers, and crisp packets to create household objects with a pop art aesthetic

project info

designer: emillie ferris