Cross-stitch is a traditional embroidery technique made by stitching small X shapes onto fabric. Once associated with our grandmothers' favourite pastime, it is now being reinvented by contemporary artists and designers experimenting with unexpected materials, surfaces and scales.
From embroidered photographs and ceramic vases to metal objects, wooden accessories and large-scale architectural installations, discover eight artists bringing traditional embroidery into contemporary art and design.
Valeria Duque
Originally from Colombia, Valeria Duque is a photographer who combines photography with cross-stitch embroidery, adding colour, texture and new layers of meaning to her images.
Her creative journey with embroidery began as a way to challenge her perfectionism. After experimenting with traditional fabric embroidery, she started stitching directly onto printed photographs, transforming familiar images into tactile works of art.
Inspired by the visual similarities between cross-stitches and digital pixels, her work explores the relationship between photography, memory and human connection. Just as individual pixels come together to create an image, her stitches remind us that meaning often emerges through connection.
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Severija Inčirauskaitė
Lithuanian artist Severija Inčirauskaitė-Kriaunevičienė takes cross-stitch beyond its traditional textile surface, transforming everyday metal objects into unexpected works of art.
From rusty buckets and kitchen utensils to industrial materials, she decorates hard metal surfaces with delicate, colourful embroidery. The contrast between the roughness of metal and the softness of thread creates a striking visual dialogue between traditional craftsmanship and contemporary art.
Her work often carries a deeper message, exploring consumerism, collective memory and the changing value of everyday objects. Through this unusual combination of materials, she transforms forgotten items into poetic reflections on the past and present.
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Raquel Rodrigo
What happens when a traditional embroidery technique leaves the fabric and takes over an entire building?
Spanish artist Raquel Rodrigo answers this question through Arquicostura, her artistic project dedicated to bringing cross-stitch into architecture and public spaces.
Inspired by the embroidery techniques her mother taught her as a child, Raquel began experimenting with large-scale compositions, translating traditional patterns into colourful installations on architectural façades.
Working with a team of skilled artisans, she creates each piece by hand, using thread and metal mesh to transform urban environments into unexpected textile artworks. Her practice celebrates the beauty of handmade techniques while challenging the boundaries between craft, art and architecture.
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Eujue
Eujue is a Korean-American ceramicist and designer based in Brooklyn, New York, whose work explores the creative possibilities of clay through unconventional shapes, textures and materials.
Known for her experimental approach to ceramics, she often incorporates unexpected elements and techniques into her creations, pushing the boundaries of traditional pottery.
Among her explorations is a ceramic vase inspired by Basque culture, decorated with cross-stitch embroidery. By carefully creating small holes in the ceramic surface, she was able to stitch a decorative pattern using red thread.
The result is a playful and nostalgic piece that brings together two seemingly distant crafts: ceramics and embroidery.
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Caroline Harrius
Swedish ceramicist Caroline Harrius combines ceramics and embroidery to explore the relationship between traditional craftsmanship, gender roles and decorative art.
Her distinctive vases feature carefully perforated ceramic surfaces, through which colourful threads are woven to create delicate embroidered patterns, including floral cross-stitch motifs.
By bringing together two crafts traditionally associated with domestic life, Caroline questions the way certain techniques have historically been valued.
Her work transforms familiar materials into contemporary objects that celebrate the beauty, complexity and cultural significance of handmade traditions.
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Ulla-Stina Wikander
What if forgotten household objects could be given a second life through embroidery?
Swedish artist Ulla-Stina Wikander transforms vintage everyday objects into colourful sculptural artworks by covering them with traditional cross-stitch embroideries.
Since 2012, she has been collecting embroidered textiles from flea markets and vintage shops, repurposing them to cover objects such as vacuum cleaners, sewing machines and kitchen appliances.
Rather than creating the embroidery herself, she gives existing needlework a new context, celebrating the craftsmanship of the women who originally made it.
Her work combines nostalgia, humour and upcycling, questioning our perceptions of value, beauty and the objects we choose to preserve.
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Diane Meyer
American artist Diane Meyer explores the relationship between photography, memory and perception through a distinctive combination of photographic images and cross-stitch embroidery.
By stitching directly onto photographs, she recreates selected areas using coloured thread, transforming parts of the image into pixel-like patterns.
The embroidered sections appear simultaneously blurred and vibrant, creating an unusual contrast between the sharpness of photography and the tactile quality of handmade stitches.
Through this technique, Diane investigates how memories change over time and how digital images influence the way we remember places, people and experiences.
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Merve Burma
Istanbul-based designer Merve Burma is the founder of GRAV GRAV, a slow-fashion brand that combines traditional craftsmanship with natural materials to create distinctive wooden accessories.
Working with woods such as walnut, oak and beech, she transforms rigid surfaces into wearable objects through handcrafted textile details, stitched patterns and other decorative techniques.
Her wooden bags explore the contrast between the solidity of wood and the softness of thread, turning an everyday accessory into an unexpected expression of craftsmanship.
Inspired by nature and the individuality of natural materials, her work offers a contemporary interpretation of traditional making techniques, showing how embroidery and textile craftsmanship can extend beyond fabric.
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