From customer to unwind studio artist!
What do you like to do to explore your creativity and improve your mental health at the same time?
It was back in March this year, right before the COVID-19 pandemic reached Europe at a larger scale, that our lovely customer Laura from the UK bought her first needlepoint kits. One for her, and another for her mother.
Previously to this experience, she had only done a little cross stitch, but had never ventured into more varied and different needlepoint stitches.
When she started stitching our Skyroom design, the experience of trying out different stitches, to obtain different patterns and textures, was something that got her attention and before she knew it, she was hooked to needlepoint (also called tapestry in the UK)!
And then, there were also the mental health benefits that she was noticing. She found needlepoint very relaxing and therapeutic. And at the time of the global pandemic lockdown, it was something that helped her go through that period.
If you want to learn more about the benefits of needlepoint and crafts in general, read our "Take Your Pleasure Seriously" blog post.
Skyroom needlepoint/tapestry designed by Charlie Bennell, and embroidered by Laura Croft.
Creating your own needlepoint/tapestry design
As a surface pattern designer, and owner of Letter & Brush, Laura immediately wanted to try to reproduce her own art into the needlepoint medium.
Letter & Brush is an expression of Laura's passion for homeware; in particular colorful patterned kitchenware, fun stationary and anything beautiful you can make yourself for your home!
Process: 1) Collage 2) Preparing digital artwork for printing 3) Stitching her own printed design
This experience was so gratifying: both for Laura, for seeing her art creation coming to life in a medium she had never though of; and for us, for accompanying such a lovely journey from a customer that was enjoying her needlepoint experience so much! And then we started talking and sharing thoughts more often, until....
Becoming an unwind studio artist
The step to becoming one of the unwind studio artists was so natural, and it needed to happen! By that time we were working in our Summer Mini Series collection, and having Laura's adapted version of her pomegranates pattern would be amazing.
And that's how our Still Pomegranates design came to life!
And there's more!
Helping business creatives with SEO
Besides running her Letter & Brush small business project, Laura is also an Search Engine Optimization (SEO) expert, helping creatives business with all things SEO.
And now we can't operate without her support, and her knowledge has been extremely valuable to our project. We can't recommend her enough!
Happy Stitching!
Cristina
