Hi I’m Kasia, I’m an embroidery artist, pattern designer and teacher, I live and work in Hunters Hill in Sydney, Australia.

I embroider with passion but without fuss and without perfection.

My finished pieces are not delicate or fragile. I use them, wear them, hang them on the walls and let children play with them and touch them.

There is a marvellous world of embroidery that is far removed from the traditional tiny stitches, perfect back-sides and strict rules and I want to take you there. This world is fun, relaxing and magical and it’s what all my work is based around.

“It’s so important to relieve yourself from any pressure to create something perfect or ‘good’. Your work is meant to look handmade, that’s its charm and that’s how it carries your unique characteristics.”

A LITTLE BIT OF HISTORY

I didn’t formally learn embroidery, I absorbed it as a child growing up in a small Polish village surrounded by lots of women who made everyday things. Back then (in the 1970’s) women knitted, sewed, embroidered, crocheted not as a hobby but out of necessity and a natural drive to make things by hand. My childhood world was full of the handmade, hand painted, hand stitched, mended and knitted. I know that the desire to create and make is innate in us all. Embroidery is one expression of that desire and what a stunning expression it is!

I started this business in 2014 quite by accident. A friend who knew I embroidered asked me if I wanted to teach a class in her beautiful homewares store in Sydney. I didn’t think anyone would be interested but I agreed as I thought it would be fun to share my skills. The classes were a huge success and I started teaching part time while I worked an office job full time. Pretty soon I was being asked for kits and patterns and I started making these and selling them in my friends store.

In 2018 after four years of markets, teaching workshops around Australia, selling kits and materials online I resigned from my office job and took up my embroidery business full time. I love my work with all my heart.

My professional background is in graphic design and architectural drafting, I’ve also studied fine arts.

WHY I DO WHAT I DO

I strongly believe that what we own and what we surround ourselves with has a big impact on our well-being. I’ve always felt drawn to hand made things, old things, used things. I felt they had a soul and that the artificial and mass produced was cold and lifeless and didn’t belong in my life. Of course my home is a mix of new and old, cheap and well made, but in my dreams I live with only things that are unique and created to live with me  instead of being created just to be used and discarded.

Every product that I design and add to my online shop is carefully considered. I hate waste and I hate producing goods for the sake of selling them or just to follow a trend. I feel I have a responsibility to not add more junk to this planet. This is why every product is packaged minimally with all the kits being wrapped in the stitching instructions. The linen only wears a small sticker and the threads are all packed in small wraps of cardboard.

I wanted my designs to serve a purpose and not just be yet another embroidery pattern that gets stitched, framed in a hoop or left in a drawer. If we are to make things let us make things and use them and love them.

I encourage all my students, customers and followers to make usable items and I constantly show examples of what I’ve made. Embroidery is just so much better experienced like that. Worn on your body, hung on your wall, laid on a pillow, displayed on a table, carried as a bag. This is your craft living together with you. Being part of your life. As it should be.

WHAT I OFFER

Above all else I offer relief from the pressure to create something perfect or “good” whatever that means. I offer you an escape from the noisy, tech filled, mass produced world we live in and invite you into the calm, artistic and tactile world of hand embroidery.

I can’t say I broke away from traditional strict rules of embroidery because I never followed them in the first place. I want my work to look organic and handmade and I encourage everyone who I interact with to let go of the need to make something perfect.

My designs are deliberately bold and chunky where you won’t need to make tiny stitches for hours on end. I use all six strands of thread more than 90% of the time, this means the work is finished quicker and has a delicious thick texture to it. It also means any wonky lines or uneven stitches blend in nicely to the whole design.

Just recently I have also started offering large quilt panels for embroidery. I have always loved the idea of sleeping under a hand embroidered quilt. What a dream (literally!)

Aside from products that I make I have also created spaces for my students and customers to come together and learn, support each other and share their work. I have an online School Of Creative Embroidery which offers loads of free tuition.

I also have an awesome Facebook community of over 5000 creative and amazing embroiderers working on my designs. So if you’re stitching one of my patterns you can share your work in this group or find how someone else has stitched the same design as you.