The Stitch Safari Podcast
Australian Textile Artist, Cathy Jack Coupland hosts this brand-new fortnightly safari-inspired podcast, journeying into the beguiling world of stitch, sewing, and embroidery, with insights into its history, use, and innovations. Join this unique expedition and thread your way into the amazing and irresistible world of needle and thread. Learn more about Cathy's work with needle and thread at cathyjackcoupland.com
Episodes
136 episodes
Dynamic Embroidery - The Power of Contrast
Contrast creates visual interest, emphasis and clarity in a design that can guide the viewer's eye, separate information, and make certain parts of the design stand out from everything else. It can make your work pop, sparkle and sizzle, creati...
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19:34
Dynamic Embroidery - The Power of Texture
This episode of the Stitch Safari Podcast is the first in a series entitled 'Dynamic Embroidery'. Embroidery is an art form that adheres to the same practices, principles and devices as all other art forms - and that's exactly what I want to de...
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22:41
Abstract Embroidery
This is a unique space where abstraction encourages us to look beyond what we see, to feel the artist's expression of emotion and imagination formed by using fabric, techniques involving a needle and thread and a whole bucketload of intuition.<...
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20:54
The Lehenga - Indian Embroidery At It's Very Best
In this episode, I'm travelling to exotic India, where embroidery isn't simply decoration; it's devotion to a long and fascinating heritage, as told through the Lehenga, a tale of elegance and timeless beauty.Whether you're a textile art...
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21:38
The Subversive Bridal Gown
What happens when one lets go of convention, yet still retains strong connections with beauty and craftsmanship? We can still utilise symbolism and fine work to explore and disrupt norms by using non-traditional materials, aggressive moti...
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15:30
Embroidered Illusion: Distorting the Senses
This is the episode where fabric and thread meet imagination. Can a needle and thread truly be used to trick the eye? Is it magic or simply sleight of hand? For centuries, artists and embroiderers have been playing games with our minds to...
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28:05
The Connective Power of Passion and Curiosity in Embroidery
So why do people fall in love with embroidery, and what keeps them hooked? We know it's a sensory experience that's soothing and engaging, allowing personal creativity free rein. But embroidery is also a learned skill, one that can ...
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19:44
Embroidery and The Preservation of Skills: The Hand & Lock Prize
The legacy of Hand & Lock is the championing of artists through their annual Prize, reminding us that even the most delicate threads carry powerful and insightful stories across the centuries and cultures. Join me as I explore ...
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27:04
The Leaf Motif in Embroidery: From Garden to Gallery
This inspiring form of embroidery offers a deep dive into how easily obtained natural elements, such as leaves, can be transformed through embroidery.To help round out this episode, I'll explore how natural design motifs such as leaves h...
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21:06
The Sartorial Embroidered Glove
In 2025, gloves are emerging as a prominent and versatile medium for artistic expression. More and more artists are using them as repurposed items, or to explore their symbolism and narrative potential. Join me as I briefly journey ...
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24:44
2025 Embroidery Trends - Are They Here Or Not?
Join me as I explore the predictions from 2024 for embroidery trends in 2025. Are they correct? Do they tally with what embroiderers are creating now? Let's find out together.Show Notes:
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23:16
The Wonderful World of Embroidery Hoops and Frames
Hoops can be used to maintain tension while stitching but also to display the finished work, as I'm doing with my 100 Stitched Circles. En masse, they make a great installation. They can be hung from the ceiling or used for 3D embro...
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22:35
Anatomical Embroidery
Join me on this examination and inspection of anatomic embroidery as I dissect, audit and review the whys and wherefores along with the artistic evaluation and interpretation of this genre of embroidery. It's unique, it's educative, and it may ...
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19:31
Why Is Embroidery Popular?
Recently I saw a post on social media questioning whether embroidery was outdated. The resounding answer is, of course, no - but why? The wiser question would be, why is embroidery enjoying a renaissance? Hasn't it been around for eons? W...
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21:31
Turn Your Sewing Room from Drab to Delicious
We've all been there, haven't we? In stressful times it's too easy to make the sewing room a dumping ground for works-in-progress and newly acquired items. We're all visual artists, so visually the space we work in has to be pleasing too,...
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18:53
Embroidery Journalling
What better way to begin 2025 than with something gaining traction as a popular means of documenting life events, happenings, memorable moments or simply feelings - I'm talking about Embroidery Journalling. Join me as I explore this amazi...
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20:30
Embroidered Food
Embroidered food is an unusual topic offering a surprisingly interesting and complex level of realism that's truly off the charts.But the simple needle and thread are also used here to comment on consumerism, everyday life, and things we ta...
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18:36
Embroidered Faces and Figures
Stitch Safari listeners, whether faces or figures, embroidery, patchwork or quilting, these artists capture the synergy of humanity through a gesture or a look. They do it with flair and vivacity giving personality to each an...
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21:47
Embroidered Aerial Views
How often do embroiderers think of perspective? Well, in the case of the following embroidery artists, the answer would have to be, often, because they take their work to an aerial perspective depicting embroidered scenes one does not oft...
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16:05
Beetles, Butterflies and Insectes in Embroidery
This bountiful aspect of the natural world offers such scope for variety, colour, shape, and pattern it's hard to overlook it. Vital to the world's ecosystems and sustainable food production, they are also incredibly beautiful and are increasin...
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18:13
Embroidered Christmas Treasures
In this episode, I dip into some Yuletide bliss offering suggestions to make ourselves a Merry Little Christmas or a Winter Wonderland of creativity and love. This pre-Christmas countdown is really about slowing down and thinking about th...
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21:47
Australian Textile Artist Annemieke Mein
This episode pays tribute to an embroidery artist who, from a very young age, was devoted to capturing and recording the beauty and complexity of nature, learning to note intricate details that would later lay a foundation for her work in texti...
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18:09
Machine Embroidery - Book Reviews
This is a follow-up to the previous episode of the Stitch Safari Podcast, Masters of Our Machines, and focuses on books offering inspiration, technique, and thoughts on the artistry of machine embroidery today.Show Notes: https://stitchsafa...
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15:52
Masters of Our Machines
The sewing machine becomes an extension of ourselves and a means of describing the world around us. It can produce many marks and qualities to express artistic vision and perceptions, including colour, texture, dimension and pattern—just as a p...
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23:51
Master Embroiderers - Alice Kettle and Salley Mavor
What a privilege to introduce two inspiring embroidery artists. Whether or not you like machine embroidery or small dolls, these two artists are worth studying for their amazing use of technique and how they apply that to create wonderful narra...
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19:53