Embroidery

Tangled Balls of Embroidery Floss Seem to Magically Transform Into Lifelike Sculptures

French knot embroidery by Ipnot

I have tan­gles of embroi­dery floss on my desk. I can bare­ly bring myself to untan­gle and rewind it on bob­bins, much less cre­ate some­thing spec­tac­u­lar from it. Embroi­dery artist Ipnot man­ages to trans­form these bun­dles of thread into tiny sculp­tures that fit on two fin­gers. From tiny Japan­ese lob­sters to zebras to straw­ber­ries, the sub­ject mat­ter runs the gamut—but each nev­er ceas­es to impress me.

In addi­tion to the before-and-after shots, Ipnot cre­ates illu­sion­ist hoop art. A piece of piz­za is lifted—cheese and all—from the hoop while they’ve per­fect­ly cap­tured what it looks like when ketchup is squirt­ed onto a surface.

To achieve this lev­el of detail, Ipnot uses the French knot. “As in the art of stip­ple paint­ing,” they write, “I use my nee­dle like a paint­brush and I stitch one knot at a time.”

Fol­low Ipnot’s lat­est pieces on Insta­gram.

French knot embroidery by Ipnot

French knot embroidery by Ipnot

French knot embroidery by Ipnot

French knot embroidery by Ipnot

French knot embroidery by Ipnot

French knot embroidery by Ipnot

French knot embroidery by Ipnot

French knot embroidery by Ipnot

French knot embroidery by IpnotFrench knot embroidery by Ipnot

 

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