Embodying Veiled Utterances - Intimate Encounters // Translating conversation through intuitive process

“Embroidery is still seen as an emotional gesture… expressed yet safely concealed in the stabbing satin stitches”

Rosika Parker[1]

There is something incredibly intuitive in the embroidery process. As soon as the needle takes its place between finger and thumb, the metal and thread become an extension of the body. The body gently rocks as the thread winds around the hand, and the strands slip through the eye of the needle. The fingers guide small spaces for the stitches as the needle punctures through. The body feels the puncture, the pull, the tension, and moves with it, through it. The moment the thread slides through the hand, the body takes over, and the rhythm settles into the muscles. The body remembers. The soothing repetition of manual work bypasses cognitive functions. All that remains is sensation - intuition embodied.

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[1] Rozsika Parker, The Subversive Stitch: Embroidery and the Making of the Feminine, (London: The Women’s Press Ltd, 1984), pg. 213.