Most of us know what it’s like to get a song stuck in our head. It’s an earworm, a sense invader that replays countless times and doesn’t seem to leave no matter what we do.
As a visual creator and maker, I experience something similar, so I’ve coined a term in the past few days to describe it: the mind’s eyeworm. In my experience it’s an image that keeps reappearing in my mind’s eye, regardless of the time of day or whatever else I happen to be thinking about.
This kind of visualization has always been part of my practice. When I worked with ceramics, I would often see recurring forms that insisted on being realized in clay. To relieve that internal pressure, I could simply step into the studio and make them.
Now, as a pattern designer, those impulses show up as persistent motifs, pattern compositions, and sometimes fully formed ideas. When they do, I have a decision to make. My options are fairly simple: ignore them, park them, or act on them.
I can’t possibly make everything that presents itself, so I let some of the more fleeting images go. If they return, I might sketch them or jot down a few notes. But when an idea lingers for days or even weeks, it becomes a signal worth paying attention to.
Over the past couple of years, I’ve followed a few of these visual threads all the way through to finished designs, including GOAT Farm and Shakespeare and Swans. There is something particularly satisfying about working this way. The process never feels forced or driven by the need to produce something new just for the sake of keeping my portfolio fresh. It’s more intuitive, and it reveals something about how I process and filter the constant flow of visual information around me.
GOAT Farm
Shakespeare and Swans
Lately, as I wait for a new order to arrive from my supplier, I’ve been thinking about table runners. I’ve ordered several designs in this format to see how people respond to the scale, colour, and overall feel.
My latest shipment is now en route! The table runners include the design in the upper left.
At the same time, a new eyeworm has taken hold. I keep returning to the image of a tree with blossoms and birds, loosely inspired by chinoiserie, but interpreted in my own way. I can see one tall tree anchoring each end of a table runner, or perhaps a single tree on a shorter piece that could also function as a wall hanging. For perhaps the first time, but not the last, the product and the pattern have appeared together from the beginning.
18th Century chinoiserie wall pattern for European market. I can use this image among others as inspiration.
So, as this image continues to make itself at home in my mind’s eye, I suspect I’ll have to follow it and see where it leads. I’ll let you know what happens.
Published by Princeton University Press, 400 pp, 8.25 x 10.5 in., 300 colour photos. (Also available on Amazon).
As I touched on in my previous article, being a visual creator requires a lot of input. This can be achieved through a myriad methods including taking walks, gardening, travelling, watching film and theatre, taking photos, visiting art museums, reading and looking through reference material.
I received this wonderful visual reference book as a gift recently. It delivers a comprehensive survey of important embroidery styles and motifs around the world, with origins reaching back thousands of years. I haven’t ventured into making embroidery myself, though members of my family have.
There are so many embroidery styles and traditions here that the author can really only hint at the breadth, variety and history and offer a few high quality images to illustrate each one. This does create an appetite for learning more about the particular colour palettes, materials and techniques from so many cultures.
In order to keep the reference manageable, Vogelsang-Eastwood has divided the work into eight regions of the world including the Americas, Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa and the Middle East, the Indian Subcontintent along with Central, East and Southeast Asia. Beyond the fantastic and dense pattern examples from many cultures, it is also fascinating to find similar motifs popping up in far flung locations. For example, the 8-pointed star that I referred to in my February 2026 issue as a Norwegian Selburose is also a prominent motif found in Afghani prayer cloths.
Details from a Parsi garment, Pakistani embroidered shoes and a sample of the motif directory with the 8 pointed star from Afghani designs (top left).
Across vast geographies, embroidery continues to be an important and vibrant expression of meaningful visual motifs lending a touch of status and luxury to garments, accessories, ritual fabrics, quilts and hangings. Detailed and tightly stitched embroidery creates an embossed quality to a fabric, lending added depth and dimension to each piece. These handmade items continue to be treasured as family heirlooms through countless generations.
Though Vogelsang-Eastwood has her hands full attempting to cover such a huge variety of work around the world, she does an admirable job giving readers a first taste of this often very personalized work. The book’s photography is high quality, and the layout is easy to read. The other nice touch from a pattern design perspective is the addition of a motif directory at the back of the book. The six pages of line art give a good variety of geometric, floral and trailing motifs that create inspiration for both embroiderers and designers. The only quibble I have with a book format is not being able to easily zoom in to investigate the details more closely!
While it’s certainly a niche volume, the author succeeds in creating a level of appreciation for this well developed art form. I definitely see areas of cross-pollination between the textural and more freehand nature of embroidery and the precise and mathematical repeats of digitally produced surface pattern design. Perhaps it’s time to be a bit looser in my own approach.
Hexamagical Freebie
Thanks for reading this month’s issue. Here’s a little gift for you to use as a digital asset or as a printed piece. I have taken a triangular slice of one of my original drawings and created a hexagonally based design. The colour palette reflects the warm days of spring. Hope you enjoy it!
These hues reflect the blue skies and warm sun we're expecting this spring!
Online Shop
My Farmiliar Places Collection tea towels are now available online. Shipping is calculated according to the total order and is available only in Canada. I deeply appreciate all of you that have already been customers of my work and provided feedback and encouragement! By late May, I'll be attending the St. Marys Farmer's Market in person, selling tea towels, cushion covers and table runners. See you there!
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