Speaker Series Summary: Bookhou – Embroidery Process and Design
The first speaker for the 2025/26 series featured a presentation by Arounna Khounnoraj, a Canadian textile artist based in Toronto and co-founder of Bookhou, a multidisciplinary studio and online shop. Her work spans many textile techniques, but the one that has been with her since the beggining is embroidery. Here is a summary of Arounna’s presentation on September 27, 2025. Textile Art and Embroidery Journey Arounna shared her journey from childhood embroidery to becoming a textile artist, highlighting her transition from sculpture to textiles during art school. She is self-taught and draws inspiration from her environment and sketches for her work. Arounna discussed her latest project, a second embroidery book published by Abrams featuring abstract botanical designs. She also showcased various embroidery pieces and explained how she combines techniques such as printing and appliqué. During her presentation, Arounna revealed her latest collaboration with Kokka, a Japanese fabric company, resulting in a fabric collection inspired by her embroidery work. Textile Art and Digital Techniques Arounna discussed her artistic process, inspired by artists such as Louise Bourgeois and Kiki Smith, and shared her approach to creating textile art using digital tools like Procreate for sketching, emphasizing the importance of daily drawing and maintaining a balance between light and dark elements in her work. Once her designs are created, they are transferred onto fabric. Her preferred methods are using disappearing ink pens and tracing under the window for precise transfers. Arounna also highlighted the importance of licensing and royalties in her artistic practice and encouraged attendees to explore new techniques and maintain consistent creative work to overcome creative ruts. Embroidery Techniques and Tools Arounna demonstrated one of her embroidery techniques, appliqué. While demonstrating, Arounna explained how she uses clamps and stretch frames at home, but relies on Morgan no-slip hoops when travelling due to their tight grip and lack of marking. She shared that she typically uses a few basic stitches like split stitch, running stitch, and satin stitch, and often adds a layer of cotton muslin on the back for better stitching. She will generally use all six plies of the stranded cotton on her needle. Arounna also shared her preference for Japanese embroidery needles due to their sharp point and flat, round eye, which she had purchased during her last trip to Japan. Arounna has written several books, many which have been translated into multiple languages, and, later this year, she will be launching another book, The Handmade Home: 21 Simple Sewing Projects for Your Home. Arounna’s books are available for purchase at your local bookshop.
Rosemary Marchant: Narrative Embroidery
Rosemary explained that narrative embroideries are also made by ordinary people who want to record something important to them through stitching, sometimes with text to help tell their story.
What a Revelation! Salley Mavor and her Felt Art
As part of EAC/ACB’s Speaker Series, Salley Mavor spoke about her journey as an artist who tells stories with three-dimensional embroidery. The October 14 presentation covered a wide range of creative endeavours, from illustration to doll-making to stop-motion animation, demonstrating that there are no limits to what can be expressed with a needle and thread! It was an opportunity to take a behind-the-scenes peek at Salley’s innovative, creative process, which is unmatched within the fibre art world. Salley sees herself as a needle artist. A needle is her tool, thread is her medium, and stitches are her marks. Salley has been sharing her art and processes on her blog/home page for many years. You can view a recorded presentation, An Afternoon with Salley Mavor. You can find links to all her videos on her website. The videos include a short documentary of Salley creating the illustrations for her most recent children’s book, Making My Bed, the stop-animation video, Liberty and Justice – A Cautionary Tale in the Land of the Free, some of her installations, and so much more. That’s where you’ll also find her “Stitch Minute Videos” – short closeup views of her stitching various elements for her art. Learn more about her books, exhibitions, processes and more on her website Wee Folk Felt. The Speaker Series is just one of the free opportunities for current EAC/ACB members. Find out how you can become a member.