Written by:
Jocelyn Voo
Photographer:
Philip Heying
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this Issue of Curve:
Vol. 15#3
“Be assured: No geese in bonnets. Ever,” promises Jenny Hart, the one-woman brains and brawn behind Sublime Stitching, a burgeoning embroidery empire. Curious, I scour samples of her previous work and the numerous stitching kits available for purchase, and discover that Hart is true to her word: The closest thing to an embroidered goose in a bonnet is a pattern for a pointy-nosed dachshund. Or maybe the print of an anthropomorphic tomato, I can’t decide which.
Either way, Hart’s embroidery designs are far from the traditional fare of bunnies and bows. The 33-year-old’s kitschy creations straddle the fence between “high art” and “low art” — who knows how to classify careful crewelwork of a scowling pirate face? — but seems to thrive as a wonderfully ambiguous artistic venture dangling in DIY creative purgatory.
“It would have been really easy to say, ‘I'm strictly an arteest; I have nothing to do with the hobby world,’ but it just wasn't that simple,” says Hart, who has a background in illustration and collage art and had never dabbled in hobby crafts before Sublime Stitching. “I really want to maintain the integrity of my own work, but I discovered how much I also wanted to offer a creative platform for others to take up embroidery. So my mission has been to update the look of embroidery and decorative needlework in general.”
After picking up a few stitches from her mother, the Iowa-born, Illinois-raised designer began designing portraits to honor family members. Since then, the up-and-coming DIY queen has developed a highly successful line of inexpensive, edgy embroidery patterns (ranging from pinup girls to Las Vegas-themed high rollers), published The Stitch It Kit (her first embroidery how-to manual, with a follow-up Stitch-It Book projected for 2006) and won the adoration of needle-toting creative lesbians everywhere. Celebrities such as Carrie Fisher, Tracey Ullman and Elizabeth Taylor have commissioned various custom works from Hart, who first sketches the desired image from a photograph, then hand-stitches exquisitely detailed portraits onto cotton panels in the converted computer room of her Austin, Texas, home. But don’t think that the requests are always to memorialize dear Granny and Pop-Pop. Her strangest commission?
“Hank Williams Jr.! I had to decline. Although, I recently agreed to stitch up a sign that says, ‘Please Don’t Do Coke in the Bathroom’ for Beerland here in Austin.”
Hart isn’t currently accepting commissions for specialty pieces, but if you’re craving something to round out your stuffy collection of Bauhaus and art deco, you’re in luck: Several completed designs are available for purchase. Trust me: An embroidered portrait of Iggy Pop or the White Stripes would be the perfect complement to the lone Basquiat in your foyer.
Visit http://www.jennyhart.net or http://www.sublimestitching.com
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