Creating art using needle and thread is a craft aesthetic that’s received a lot of praise lately. What makes embroidery appreciable is not only because of its ancient Mughlian roots but also the handmade labour involved in each stitch. We found an embroidery artist from Kerala who sought this medium of art as an expression of her creative mind.
Ansiya Abbas Mundol, a final year Maths student at St Teresa’s College, Kochi, enjoys embroidery, hand-lettering and watching series. On a normal day, you’ll either find her hooked on to a show, hiding away from her mother’s prying eyes, or creating embroidered portraits for her clients. This is her story of exploring this timeless craft, and how she finds peace one stitch at a time.
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Ansiya’s embroidery story is quite funny, actually.
She told PinkLungi, “My mom’s really into embroidery, crochet, patchwork etc. She’s pretty much talented in every single activity that requires a needle. So after my 12th, she taught me embroidery because I was spending every single day on my phone and she was fed up with it. That’s how I got into embroidery. It takes me around 1-2 days to make a small hoop and around 7-10 days for a larger one.”
After doing embroidery for around 5-6 months, she realized that even though there are a lot of craft pages on Instagram, hand embroidery pages were comparatively less. So she decided to start My Needle Stories on Instagram around two years ago, and her journey as an embroidery artist took a serious turn. She shared, “I started with football logos and monograms, but now I’m open to trying anything and everything there is in the embroidery world.”
For her work, she uses wooden embroidery hoops that are sized between 5 inches to 14 inches, depending on the customer preferences, and anchor embroidery threads. According to her, these are the best available threads in India that any embroidery artist should use. While she has a local source where she buys her supplies, she also banks on a lot of online stores/Instagram pages that sell good-quality materials.
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Her best selling products would be picture recreations. She shared, “A lot of the orders I get would be to recreate a fond memory the person has into an everlasting piece, and honestly that makes me so happy. Football logos, wedding calendars and floral hoops are also some other products that do really well.”
The price of the hoop actually depends on the size and the design, but it begins from 500/- and above. Check out @myneedlestories if you wish to buy embroidered pieces of artwork.
