Iyo Okumi Stitches Embroideries That Look Like Pen Drawings

Embroi­dery artist and illus­tra­tor Iyo Oku­mi cre­ates stitched com­po­si­tions that look like pen draw­ings. Each line could be the hatch mark of a draw­ing uten­sil until you look clos­er: they’re actu­al­ly fuzzy strands of thread. The effect is achieved by spac­ing the thread so that you can see the fab­ric beneath it.

Why does this work feel so much like draw­ing? I’ve con­clud­ed that because many embroi­dery stitch­es are designed to sit right next to one anoth­er (such as the satin stitch), see­ing inten­tion­al space between them feels unex­pect­ed. The first asso­ci­a­tion we make, instead, is to draw­ing. This isn’t sur­pris­ing con­sid­er­ing Iyo works in mul­ti­ple medi­ums. In addi­tion to embroi­dery, they also cre­ate pieces in col­ored pen­cil. In these works, it’s evi­dent that the mark-mak­ing and sketch­ing qual­i­ty informs the stitch­ing. Both are lovely!

See what Iyo’s work­ing on next when you fol­low them on Insta­gram.

Embroidery artist and illustrator Iyo Okumi creates stitched compositions that look like pen drawings.