How my process begins...

Of course, all embroidery, whether by hand or using a machine starts with an idea. The idea for the pollen series came when I was examining parasites under the microscope (it’s my job)!!! Often, pollen is mistaken for parasites, so I decided to photograph pollens collected around the farm. I collected lots of wild flowers, extracted the pollen from each and viewed them under the microscope. They are all very different from each other and mind blowingly beautiful in the intricacy of their shape.

Daisy pollen

White clover pollen

I particularly liked the clover pollens, so this was the start point for my embroidered pollen series.

First I used Procreate software to exaggerate the key features of the pollen and create a black and white outline.

This was then transferred to the dissolvable embroidery fabric, which has to be infused with magic - I love it.

Then with a lot of latitude for colour selection, the embroidery begins…

The result is a skeleton of tightly bound and blended threads. All ready for the next stage…