Embroidery artist makes the craft look chic with funky jewelry creations

While most embroideries can generally look a little dated in their design, Carly Owens, a Colorado-based contemporary hand embroidery artist, offers a fresh take. Owens creates jewelry and accessories that have a bit of a youthful edge, as seen in her signature eye emblems or metallic-lip jewelry

“I have a tendency to get fixated on motifs, so I’ll usually explore a design and stitch numerous variations of it until I’m ready to move onto something new,” she told design blog Embellished Talk. “I get a lot of inspiration from looking at historical textiles and artifacts as well as art. In my embroidery, I try to convey imagery that is dream-like and surrealist.” 

Owens said her process includes a lot of trial and error, since she often experiments with  designs. Because of that, it can take some time for her to execute an idea.

“New designs usually start with a rough sketch with annotations,” she explained. “From there, I try to visualize which stitches and types of embroidery to utilize. I always end up doing a lot of sampling for each design before finding ‘the one’ that works best.” 

Her work has since received significant attention on Instagram, where she has over 32,000 followers. 

“I try to view Instagram as a tool,” she said. “At the end of the day, you’re putting your work out there to be seen by a sea of people from around the world, which is amazing and can connect you with audiences you wouldn’t have otherwise been able to reach.”

If you enjoyed this story, you might also like reading about these floral embroidered shoes.

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