the Journey of a Needle

I have many memories of my childhood, I can sort of replay them in my head if I want to, like an abstract film, a collection of disjointed but related clips that have an overall pleasant appeal, mainly because I had a happy childhood.

One memory that I remember is of my mother teaching me various embroidery stitches. Now, I have no context, don't remember how old I was or why we were doing it, was it her whim or mine? No idea. The only thing I remember is attempting the chain stitch with a brown thread on a baby pink piece of satin. Funny how sometimes the intricacies of events are often etched in our brain, and so much else just vanishes, forgotten.

 Another fact about me is that I like to keep my fingers busy. So, I have always gravitated towards art, craft, DIY and the like (these days they looove scrolling). As a kid I could keep myself happily occupied with my various projects but I have grown up to be a perfectionist of sorts. I don't regret it, I don't know if I can regret it (is it in my hands? can I control it? help!). AND on top of that, I have high expectations, from both myself and others. I am trying to rationalise the latter as that only leads to disappointment but I don't see anything wrong in having high expectations from myself, it's one of the only things that make me stop procrastinating, because guess what, I am a procrastinator too 😂.

Now, I am also pretty creative and mostly have great ideas. However, I am a little challenged when it comes to executing them, in plain words, I am not the best at drawing, painting and the like.  It's not like I'm pathetic, but I often struggle to achieve what I  have in mind, and it is here that being a perfectionist and having high expectations don't really prove to be my best friends. I have blamed my failure on paintbrushes, paints, paper, everything and even used this as an excuse to splurge my parents' hard earned money on expensive materials but, I have now come to terms with the fact that I cannot be THE BEST at everything. It still pinches me at times, but mostly I have made peace with it.

Okay, so coming to the crux of this post, after my very final school exams result in 2018, I had again picked up a needle and thread, fitted a stray piece of cloth in my embroidery hoop and had gotten to work. What drove me to do this, no idea, but I did it and created a tiny, but wholly original piece which managed to captured all my feelings at the time perfectly. I had scored well, everything else was chill, life was good! And hmmm I wasn't unhappy with my creation, rather quite pleased and satisfied?! Seems like I was getting somewhere!?

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Concept: me, sitting in a field of wildflowers that surround my mansion in the countryside. The sun is pleasant and the light dances on my face as I watch a vapour trail slowly fade away.

A post shared by Samkiti (@itikmas) on Jun 7, 2018 at 1:07am PDT

LOL! The next time I picked up my tools was a year later. Quite a long hiatus considering that had I thoroughly enjoyed it the previous time. But hey, life happens. This time I made a very simplistic piece which was inspired by a post on Pinterest and my visit to Petersham Nurseries in London. Again, it turned out pretty well BUT while I was applying fabric glue at the back to secure the threads  in place, I did not do it properly and sadly, it seeped through the cloth and refused to come out despite washing it several times. I was quite devastated but the flowers were quite safe from the mess, so I cut them out to stick them in my art journal or to make pins out of them. Till this day, if you are lucky, you might find them in my room-  lonely, forgotten and drifting around aimlessly. :|

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inspired by #pinterest and @petershamnurseries but, #saynotocutflowers . . . #embroidery #embroideryart #embroideryinstaguild #embroideryflowers #embroiderylove #flowers #nature #art #bloom

A post shared by Samkiti (@itikmas) on Aug 18, 2019 at 2:54am PDT

In this eventful summer of 2020, I repicked my hoop (this really is becoming a yearly thing, isn't it). I hadn't read a book in a while and was upset with myself because I lovee reading but was procrastinating on my phone 😛🙄 and also because I have so many beautiful unread books lined up in my bookshelf who keep beckoning to me, that too so sweetly and here I was, constantly disappointing them 😔. SOOOO I read a book, Agatha Christie's Mrs McGinty's Dead (AC always gets me fired up when I'm facing a reading related dry spell) and then unlocked my phone (not to procrastinate, I swear!). I opened Pinterest and just scrolled through a few random embroidery pieces, just to get a bit of inspiration. Then, I etched a basic design on my fabric and got started. 

First week, I was very into it. I had nothing much to do, so would happily devote a lot of time. Gradually, it went to being a couple of hours a day and soon, it had been 3 weeks and my piece was still not complete! So I upped my hours and went at it with the ferocity of a bird weaving her nest. And lo, I had done it and it was BEAUTIFUL!

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◦°˚\(*❛‿❛)/˚°◦ #embroidery #sewingproject #embroiderydesign #embroidersofinstagram #embroiderpaage_feature #tangledupinfloss #handmade #handembroidery #embroidering #damngoodstitch #threadart #hoopembroidery #fibreart #fibreartistofinstagram #slowcraft #hoopart #hoopartembroidery

A post shared by Samkiti (@itikmas) on Jun 6, 2020 at 5:49am PDT

I posted it on my Instagram and was so pleasantly surprised to see that the embroidery community on Instagram is so positive and supportive! This was truly so so encouraging, thank you everyone ☺️.

Embroidery has taught me many things. But mostly it has taught me the importance of patience and perseverance. The sound of the needle and thread going to the fabric is so calming and relaxing and the whole process almost meditative. Most importantly, it has given me a big self-confidence boost, an art form, I can proudly say I am pretty darn good at! 

Now, I am experimenting with mixed-media embroidery, mixing embroidery with other mediums like paint and embroidering surfaces other than the conventional fabric in a hoop (all inspo credits to @fiance_knowles on Instagram). I share this with you to encourage you to explore this beautiful world of embroidery or any other world that interests you and urge you to always take out some time for things that bring a big smile to your face, and bring you peace and pure joy 🙂