NeedleXChange

In this episode of NeedleXChange I interview Haf Weighton , a Wales-based contemporary embroidery and textile artist known for turning place, memory and identity into stitch. This is part two, where we turn to Wales, starting with Arts Council support and moving into language, cultural identity and what it means to be an artist who happens to be Welsh. Haf reflects on bilingualism, creativity and...

In this episode of NeedleXChange I interview Haf Weighton , a Wales-based contemporary embroidery and textile artist whose work is rooted in places, journeys and the details we usually walk past. We talk about the story behind her High Street exhibition, from Arts Council support to a last-minute route to New Zealand and Australia, and the way travel, memory and architecture feed into her work. Al...

In this episode of NeedleXChange, I interview Prisma Andrade , a Chicago-based fiber and textile artist and recent School of the Art Institute of Chicago graduate whose work turns her family's archive into material and asks what makes something sacred. Prisma builds her pieces from spinning, jacquard weaving, dye painting and quilting, treating process as a way to make everyday objects sacred. In...

In this episode of NeedleXChange, I interview Prisma Andrade , a Chicago-based fiber and textile artist and recent School of the Art Institute of Chicago graduate whose work turns her family's archive into material and asks what makes something sacred. Prisma recreates artworks and photographs from her family, past and present, using weaving, quilting and dye to disrupt the border between painting...

This is Part 2 of my conversation with mixed-media artist Margot Peer . We open with her breakout piece, "Cross Stitch of Me Crying in My Bathroom When I Was 16," scaled up to a three-foot-by-four-foot, full-body stitching experience in yarn, and the accidental "glitch" of cascading threads that became part of her style. Margot talks candidly about what it means to sit and stitch your own crying f...

In this episode of NeedleXChange, I interview Masey Kaplan , founder of the Loose Ends project, a global community that matches volunteer textile finishers with projects left unfinished by death, illness or disability. Masey launched Loose Ends with a friend after finishing a sweater for a grieving friend; four years on, nearly 40,000 finishers across 83 countries complete everything from quilts t...

In this episode of NeedleXChange, I interview Margot Peer , a mixed-media artist and Rhode Island School of Design painting major whose hyperrealistic cross-stitches turn deeply personal photographs into universally resonant images. In Part 1 we get into her love of glitches, malfunctions and failing technology, how painting became the "trunk" that everything else grows out of, and the first cross...

It's the school summer holidays and I'm taking a break. So instead of new chats, I'm replaying some of my old favourites! This is a repeat of episode #8. In this episode of NeedleXChange I interview Meredith Woolnough . Meredith Woolnough is an Australian machine embroidery artist whose organic creations are instantly recognisable and simply stunning. Meredith’s art pieces are celebration of the b...

It's the school summer holidays and I'm taking a break. So instead of new chats, I'm replaying some of my old favourites! This is a repeat of episode #64. In this episode of NeedleXChange I interview Peter Frederiksen . Peter Frederiksen is a Chicago-based artist whose machine embroidered cartoon vignettes are filled with tension and dark humour. In this second part of our NeedleXChange we talk ab...

It's the school summer holidays and I'm taking a break. So instead of new chats, I'm replaying some of my old favourites! This is a repeat of episode #63. In this episode of NeedleXChange I interview Peter Frederiksen . Peter Frederiksen is a Chicago-based artist whose machine embroidered cartoon vignettes are filled with tension and dark humour. In this first part of our NeedleXChange we talk abo...

It's the school summer holidays and I'm taking a break. So instead of new chats, I'm replaying some of my old favourites! This is a repeat of episode #87. In this episode of NeedleXChange I interview Stephanie Kelly Clark. Stephanie is a contemporary embroidery artist whose work transforms humble homes and everyday moments into rich visual stories stitched with painterly precision. In this first p...

It's the school summer holidays and I'm taking a break. So instead of new chats, I'm replaying some of my old favourites! This is a repeat of episode #86. In this episode of NeedleXChange I interview Stephanie Kelly Clark. Stephanie is a contemporary embroidery artist whose work transforms humble homes and everyday moments into rich visual stories stitched with painterly precision. In this first p...

It's the school summer holidays and I'm taking a break. So instead of new chats, I'm replaying some of my old favourites! This is a repeat of episode #[]. In this episode of NeedleXChange I interview Orly Cogan . Orly Cogan is a New York-based textile artist whose embroidered fabrics contain other-worldly images of modern concepts with a dream-like twist. In this second part of our NeedleXChange w...

It's the school summer holidays and I'm taking a break. So instead of new chats, I'm replaying some of my old favourites! This is a repeat of episode #33. In this episode of NeedleXChange I interview Orly Cogan . Orly Cogan is a New York-based textile artist whose embroidered fabrics contain other-worldly images of modern concepts with a dream-like twist. In this first part of our NeedleXChange we...

It's the school summer holidays and I'm taking a break. So instead of new chats, I'm replaying some of my old favourites! This is a repeat of episode #56. In this episode of NeedleXChange I interview Diana Weymar . Diana Weymar is an embroidery artist and curator, and founder of the Tiny Pricks project, a collaborative needlework project that immortalises quotes from Donald Trump as a crowdsourced...

It's the school summer holidays and I'm taking a break. So instead of new chats, I'm replaying some of my old favourites! This is a repeat of episode #55. In this episode of NeedleXChange I interview Diana Weymar . Diana Weymar is an embroidery artist and curator, and founder of the Tiny Pricks project, a collaborative needlework project that immortalises quotes from Donald Trump as a crowdsourced...

It's the school summer holidays and I'm taking a break. So instead of new chats, I'm replaying some of my old favourites! This is a repeat of episode #12. In this episode of NeedleXChange I interview John Thomas Paradiso . John Thomas Paradiso is a Washington-based artist who has been exploring the intimacy of gay culture through needlework for over 30 years. Using hand embroidered quilting techni...

It's the school summer holidays and I'm taking a break. So instead of new chats, I'm replaying some of my old favourites! This is a repeat of episode #11. In this episode of NeedleXChange I interview John Thomas Paradiso . John Thomas Paradiso is a Washington-based artist who has been exploring the intimacy of gay culture through needlework for over 30 years. Using hand embroidered quilting techni...

It's the school summer holidays and I'm taking a break. So instead of new chats, I'm replaying some of my old favourites! This is a repeat of episode #52. In this episode of NeedleXChange I interview Emma McKee. Emma McKee is a Chicago-based cross stitch artist whose work is adored by hip-hop artists and basketball icons. This is the second part of our NeedleXChange and we explore Emma's relations...

It's the school summer holidays and I'm taking a break. So instead of new chats, I'm replaying some of my old favourites! This is a repeat of episode #51. In this episode of NeedleXChange I interview Emma McKee. Emma McKee is a Chicago-based cross stitch artist whose work is adored by hip-hop artists and basketball icons. This is the first part of our NeedleXChange and we talk about how Emma came...

It's the school summer holidays and I'm taking a break. So instead of new chats, I'm replaying some of my old favourites! This is a repeat of episode #46. Danielle is an South African artist known for her vibrant and expressive embroidery work, characterised by bold colours, movement, and layering, creating a visual impact that evokes joy. She believes in the inherent goodness of people and the po...

It's the school summer holidays and I'm taking a break. So instead of new chats, I'm replaying some of my old favourites! This is a repeat of episode #45. In this episode of NeedleXChange I interview Danielle Clough, aka Fiancé Knowles. Danielle is an South African artist known for her vibrant and expressive embroidery work, characterised by bold colours, movement, and layering, creating a visual...

In this episode of NeedleXChange I interview Róisín Phelan , a contemporary embroidery and textile artist who has built her practice around punch needle. Part 2 opens with practical punch needle wisdom (use the flat "wrong" side for detail, match your needle to your cloth, and keep the fabric taut), then gets into how she taught herself to embroider water and people, why she leans into a blocky, i...

In this episode of NeedleXChange I interview Róisín Phelan , a contemporary embroidery and textile artist who has built her practice around punch needle. We start on common ground (a shared love of squared notebooks and to-do lists) before getting into how she creates the visual identity for the family brewery, the cafe, and the Colours coffee company, and how building a whole visual "world" means...

In this episode of NeedleXChange, I interview Sean Alistair, a Germany-based contemporary embroidery and textile art artist known for work that mixes beauty, chaos, identity and emotional honesty. After the first chat, I realised I needed to ask Sean more directly about the work itself, so we spoke again. In this final part, we dig into Sean’s artistic practice: music as a way of naming and feelin...