Tactile Hoop Art Inspired by the Colorful Beauty of Floating Gardens

Chilean born, Cana­da-based Katy Biele is one of my favorite embroi­dery artists work­ing today. Com­ing from the back­ground of a draw­er and painter, her tex­tile art often fea­tures a col­or­ful array of bold blooms. Years ago, she began trav­el­ing “on a mis­sion to seek out tex­tiles and paint­ings of oth­er coun­tries,” and dur­ing her trips, she start­ed imag­in­ing an “end­less gar­den of flow­ers float­ing in the water.”

This prompt­ed a theme of float­ing gar­dens in her work—one that was per­fect for embroi­dery. “It allowed me to play with tex­tures and bring more life to the flow­ers,” she writes. “I began to devote the major­i­ty of my cre­ative time to stitch­ing hand embroi­dery pieces and it has proven to be my most ful­fill­ing and well-received body of work to date.”

Katy has released more orig­i­nal hoop art with the same tac­tile blooms that I fell in love with; she’s also includ­ed a por­trait and beau­ti­ful acrylic paint­ing wash­es, too. They’re now avail­able in her online shop, in addi­tion to hand embroi­dery kits (with video instruc­tion).  To see her work in progress, fol­low her on Insta­gram!

Using vibrant colors and a variety of stitches, Katy Biele creates textile art inspired by floating gardens.