Inside: How to create easy circle embroidery. Sharing some different stitches today and techniques that accomplish your circle goals.
When we use the embroidery hoop so often, it becomes a fun little idea to play around with circles in your embroidery! Geometric shapes and framing an image is such a cool way to utilize the circle shape in your embroidery pieces.
Floral borders or making flowers out of circles, there are so many ways to use them with the popular embroidery theme of flowers and floral arrangements.
It’s been proven by science and art that geometric patterns and shapes are incredibly pleasing to the eye when it comes to artwork and such, so if you want to create something eye-catching, using circles is the way to go!
There are different stitches that make circles look the best and there are some that create some really cool illusions with the shape.
Keep reading to find the coolest way to use a circle in your embroidery patterns and designs.
Unless you’re following a really particular pattern, playing with shapes is a fun way to make your pieces a little more interesting.
Not that they aren’t lovely already!
It simply makes things more cool when you include something different into your patterns. Abstract art shows us this with all of the lines and shapes that look like they don’t belong but create such a visually interesting image, you can’t really say no to it. You can’t look away and you can’t deny how cool it is.
What are you wanting to accomplish with adding some circle embroidery to your work?
If you want to create something a little different and have fun with it, these are going to be some perfect tips and tricks. If you want to look into the science behind shapes in art, this is a great break down for you. Check these out!
How Are Circles Different?
Whether you’re looking at circles to study them for art, advertising, or just because you’re simply interested in why shapes matter so much when it comes to artistic direction, I have some facts for you.
In history, in different cultures, and in different forms of art and creation, there are a ton of different ways to interpret a circle.
But one thing to note is that your eye will always naturally pick up on simple shapes, even if it doesn’t register. Stripes, circles, triangles, and squares will always be pleasing to the eye, even when they go unnoticed. Wild, right?
Speaking culturally, there are some where the circle can represent your aura and your Chakra. When circles are present in your artwork, the color and location of the circle signifies what your aura is in those moments, or what the subject’s natural aura is. This is common in Asian countries.
This article on OpenArt discusses how circles focus on singularity since all sides, corners, and angles are the same on these shapes. However, there is a different feeling and focus when you see a square or rectangle, because of their differentiation and broken-up feelings having different sides and corners.
Circles draw people in, squares block people out.
What Stitches Are The Best For Creating Circles?
Based on what your project is and why you’re wanting to stitch these circles, you’re probably going to want to use different kinds of stitches that will give you many different looks. It’s a great time to be able to create an image or a look that you want to bring to life with a simple stitch, and sometimes using new stitches and new shapes really make it something refreshed and new from your usual pieces that you create.
I won’t go into full tutorials today on each of these stitches, but I do want to let you know what kind of techniques you might want to be practicing to achieve different looks that you might get for different circles!
If you want to make a wheel, you should be using the eyelet wheel. This is close to what looks like would belong on a wagon or a bicycle. So if you’re wanting to add some simple spindly wheels to your image, look for the eyelet wheel.
When I see the rhodes wheel, I think of something a bit like a dandelion flower. It’s a stitch that goes from one side of the circle to the side directly across, creating a little fluffy looking flower if you continue and overlap once the circle is met.
You’re likely familiar with the satin stitch, but this is the one where it is a simple down and out to fill in an area. Smooth and simple to cleanly create a filled circle.
A woven wheel is easily achieved but looks more complicated than it is! It’s a stunning filled-circle shape, almost coming out to look like a rose in the end. How beautiful! These can add texture and romance, especially as you play up the rose-like shape of this stitch.
Sarah Homfray Embroidery has a wonderful tutorial on each of these stitches, if you’re interested in seeing how you can take these on and use them in your next stitching project!
Flower Borders
Using creative freedom to add something new and interesting what wasn’t initially a part of the design on the pattern is the simple start of creative freedom.
If you have a piece or a pattern that you’re working on that you think would be even better with a floral border… go for it! And if that floral border is a circle? Even better!
1. Wreath
2. Wildflowers
Circle Embroidery Designs
If you’re interested in what some of these circle embroidery designs can look like, here are a few examples!
It’s so common in life to see pictures and works that are square and rectangle, let alone all the linear walls in our houses and countertops… It’s nice to see something in a different shape sometimes.
Check these out for something new and refreshing!
3. Layered Wheel
4. Bubbles
Cool Circle Embroidery
Circle embroidery is a fun way to spice up your current embroidery patterns. Utilizing something new like shapes and sizes is going to refresh your view on all of the projects you’ve been working on.
Do something new and different and get inspired by these cool circle embroidery pieces.
Interested in more sashiko embroidery? Check out these Japanese embroidery ideas!
Circles are pretty cool shapes to add in your embroidery and to utilize in artwork all together. Simple shapes speak to our minds more than we think and it’s cool to see them being used in embroidery.
There are more circles around us than we realize, when you start to embroidery different images it becomes easier to see them over time. You realize that you need two circles for that bicycle piece and more than a few to create that wine bottle with a set of wine glasses. As you start to see them more in your artwork you will surely start to see them more in real life!
Photography heavily relies on triangles to make an interesting photo, and I think pieces that recreate life from scratch like embroidery and drawing really draw from circles to create an interesting image. Since straight lines are so usual for this type of media, throwing in a circle intrigues the eye!
I’m Victoria Hudgins and I believe in learning embroidery to express all the fun and joy that is within you. With the right instruction you can be sure your next threaded project is one you’ll love to keep or gift.