Maricor/Maricar Research

I realise I've been a bit AWOL on the blog of late, but with my dissertation first draft handed in and a day of rest under my belt before I go full steam into my design brief projects, I thought I'd add a bit of my favourite research from my first brief of third year.

As you have probably seen on my online pages, over summer I took it upon myself to start to learn how to embroider. So, naturally, when a 'Celebrate Craft' brief came up as an option for our first brief I decided to celebrate embroidery! I am looking into 'craftivism' and how females can use embroidery for the greater good. With this, I wanted to embroider a book of a craftivist manifesto and so started researching typography. It was then I came across the amazing Maricor/Maricar.

When I decided I wanted to learn embroidery, the first thing my parents said was 'why', and I didn't really have an answer other than I wanted to. Maricor/Maricar prove that it doesn't just have to be a hobby or a craft with little other purpose than to look pretty on your wall. Their hand sewn lettering and illustration is used for commercial use, in publishing, advertising, and animation, for example. 

Maricor/Maricar give another dimension to a craft that is stereotyped as one for old people. They use fun, modern typography that would attract any youngster, with bright colours and quirky typefaces. At first glance, you wouldn't even be able to tell they are sewn, but when you realise how much detail has gone into them to make them look that way is when you really start to appreciate the work. For example, the 'Don't Worry It's All Fucked' piece is double sided, with the 'It's All Fucked' type sewn into the stitches of the foreground so that you can't tell it is double sided from the front, adding another dimension. There is also the image below, which at first glance looks like it is a paint splatter, however it is all created with cotton and silk thread onto fabric. 

Maricor/Maricar have shown me that learning to embroider over summer wasn't a waste of time, and that I could actually use it in the future to create fun and impressive works of art with a needle and thread. 

You can buy digital patterns from their Etsy store here.

Be sure to visit Maricor/Maricar website to check out their collection of amazing sewn designs.