‘Joyful Nostalgia’ is inspired by the eclectic and sentimental nature of our possessions. It explores the the collections and arrangements of such items can capture a fragment of an individual’s identity. The mark-making, motifs and imagery found in my drawings are translated into stitch.

I have explored traditional hand embroidery techniques and how the aesthetic alters with varying weights of threads. Using finer threads has allowed me to capture the ‘sketchy’ style of my drawings most successfully. These samples have informed my digital embroidery designs where I have focussed on maintaining the hand embroidery aesthetic while using digital means.

Using the digital embroidery machine has allowed me to explore scale and various materials on to which my designs have been produced, for example, faux-leather. I have visualised the faux-leather samples as clog and bag designs, while the silk digital embroidery samples are for the context of garments.