blackberry_bird_detail2, originally uploaded by Nicky Perryman.

I’ve wanted to run around to all my crafty friends for a while now, squealing about Nicky’s work.

She’s an amazing embroiderer, both by hand and machine…she uses stitches that everyone knows, and yet her work’s so distinctive, and unique! The way she layers her fabrics, and the way she seeds them with color, the subtle gradations and textures…make them really stand out.

Some people are neat stitchers, some people have an eye for colour, some people bring fascinating texture to their work…she seems to have perfected all these facets, and more, of textile artistry, and brings them together in a harmonious whole that isn’t (as one would expect) garish, loud, heavy, or busy. A real master. AND she’s super nice, too. Gosh.

I’m inspired to embroider when I see her work, at the same time I find myself thinking “Oh, why bother with Nicky in the world?!”

So that someday you, too, will become as good as Nicky Perryman? *sigh*

Nicky Perryman’s Flickr set and blog