Since I gave up the Facebook App on my phone, I started killing boredom on Pinterest. For those of you who don’t know what Pinterest is, you should definitely check it out. Every time you see a picture on the web that catches your interest, you save it, or better said, you pin it, to your created albums or boards. It’s a sort of bookmarking, but only for images, with the possibility to access the source link, and also combined with the thrill of discovering amazing photos pinned by others.
You scroll down through the pictures, just like you do on Instagram or Facebook.
One day I fell in love with an image with beautiful embroidered flowers, on a piece of linen, so I pinned it. Once you pin something, the algorithm populates your feed with similar pictures. As days passed, I discovered more and more pictures, sinking into the beauty of embroidery. I felt like in a fairy tale.
I started to search online for embroidery supplies, but I was afraid to place the order. Countless times I spend a lot of money on crafting supplies in the hope of starting a new project, but never had the time to complete it. What if this was the case again? Plus, embroidery didn’t seem so easy, it needed research and practice. Will I be able to get through with it?
One day I decided to go shopping at a Hypermarket populated with cheap toys, craft supplies and home decorations, just for fun.
I discovered a small kit for embroidery, designed for kids, with imprinted pattern, a piece of linen and thread, for just 1 dollar.
Once I got home I started watching tutorials and made my first creations, flower brooches.
To my surprise, I remained dedicated, and created a piece each weekend. Every piece took me around 2 hours to make, but I was getting better and better.
I even started to experiment with different types of materials, like felt.
After gaining confidence, I decided to buy more supplies. I went to a local store with sewing supplies, and I bought thread in all sorts of beautiful colors, little beads, special needles, an embroidery loop, and different colors of felt.
Now the only thing that remained was to start practicing, and have fun.
Embroidery thought me a very important lesson. Every time my mind drifted away at problems or random thoughts, the needle would act crazy and stung me, the thread would knot or the beads would fall.
Basically embroidery forced me to stay 100% present in what I was doing. Embroidery forced me to meditate.
I know a lot of people drift away when doing house work or any mechanical, repetitive work. I often do that when I wash the dishes.
But I found it’s different with embroidery. You build a relationship with it. Become close friends, and promise to be faithful.
Aside all that emotional words, it’s pretty cool to learn embroidery. Once you start indulging into YouTube tutorials, you realize it’s a lot easier than you thought. And after a few days of practice, you can say you have a new skill.
If you are from Romania, you can also buy some of my embroidered creations here.
Lots of love to you all!
Laura Dogariu 