The enduring art of embroidery can be traced back to 30,000 BC and local artisan Kristen Boyle is putting her own modern and subversive spin on it.
“I think the appeal is the art itself and the timelessness you get from something that is handmade,” said Boyle. “There is so much detail in it. It really attracts peoples’ interest. They want to know how it was made. How do you do that?”
Boyle has been a fan of embroidery since she was a child but it wasn’t her first career choice.
“I thought I wanted to be a chef but the work is really hard on you,” she said. “I spent 10 years working in kitchens.”
Her priorities changed when she became a mother to sons Calvin (5) and Quinn (3).
“My last kitchen job was at the Aberfoyle Mill in 2012,” said Boyle. “Then, I was a stay at home mom with my kids.”
Boyle is one of four siblings born in Guelph to parents Dan and Linda Boyle.
Commitment to family has been a motivating factor.
“When my sister got really sick about four years ago with cancer, something in the back of my mind made me decide to make her a cross stitch,” said Boyle. “She loves Batman and the quote, ‘Always be yourself unless you can be Batman’ so I made her that with a cross stitch and I haven’t stopped.”
Boyle picked up much of what she knows from her mother and grandmother.
“When I was young my mother used to do so much cross stitch,” she said. “My grandmother embroidered a lot so I got a lot of her hand me downs after she passed away, which is nice – her sewing box and stuff like that.”
Some of Boyle’s work draws from traditional designs.
“I do hand embroidery to decorate your home,” she said. “It is good for presents, weddings, bridal showers, baby showers, birthdays, anything that holds a memory.”
A growing element of her work is decidedly modern and radical.
“There is some feminism stuff I’ve been doing and subversive where you embroider swear words,” she said. “I started doing that on face cloths and hand cloths. I am starting to get into backpacks, shoes, shirts and clothing.”
She has been marketing Needle and Hoop online through Facebook and her Etsy website and also by networking with local businesses and setting up at craft markets.
“I was in the hand made and vintage market last year and I have done the Etsy Market,” she said. “I have been working to get a workshop going at the Handmade Den and also the Gilded Cage.”
She is also planning to go back to school this fall.
“I have always wanted to get into graphic design,” said Boyle. “That has been my thing since high school. Going back to school was a fear for me but I have finally pushed past that fear, which is really nice.”
Every new idea and opportunity leads to another.
“I have thought about opening my own shop and getting commercial size embroidery machine so I can take orders for teams along with still doing my handmade stuff,” she said. “Right now I am going to school and I am just going to feel it out and see where it takes me.”