Designer Edge with Miyuki Sakai
While experimenting at art collage in Kyoto, Japan, Miyuki Sakai switched brushes for a sewing machine and paints for thread. Now, with close to 30 years’ experience and about 150 colours of thread at hand, the San Francisco-based artist has created ‘illustrations’ of everything from supermarket products to dressing-table accoutrement, all with free-motion machine stitching.
Realistic images are created with thread, which make viewers look twice and look closely. It’s surprising how radical a traditional medium can look – still lifes with a new, fresh face. But it’s the ‘coloured in’ style of the artworks that really adds to their charm – lots of swirls and cross hatching and long, loose thread ends.
Katrina Hadjimichael’s Jelly Friends quilt will help you use up your precut fabrics in no time.
Miyuki often groups objects together to create an evocative composition, adding element such as flickering candles and steaming-hot dishes. And she’s not afraid to go outside the lines, quite literally. Ragged edges and loose threads have become something of a signature style, as are her ‘deliberate errors’. “I don’t mind some mistakes,” she says. “I move the fabric randomly under the needle of the sewing machine and sometimes my fingers go too far, right under the needle. Then the needle stitches onto my finger. Ouch!”
For this reason, Miyuki lists Band-Aids as an essential for her work. Another is polyester spun sewing thread- her thread of choice is Schappe Spun, from Japanese company Fujix. The spools are stored on her ‘thread tower’, a case that stands up against the wall, with the threads organised in colour order. “When I told Fujix that I was a big fan (and user) of Schappe Spun, they gave me the case which they use in stores. This tower was my dream. I always wanted to have one,” she says.
The sweetest embroidery design for a child’s bedroom, check out this Forest Friends Embroidery pattern!
Along with a rainbow of coloured threads, all Miyuki needs is a sewing machine that does a straight stitch. A darning presser foot isn’t even required; the pressure of a regular presser foot is simply loosened to achieve the required effect. She layers stitches to create the image, making the work heavy and textured. “The most challenging part is blending colours on the fabric. It’s not like watercolour or oil paint – I can’t mix colours in advance.”
Many different-coloured threads are used throughout the process, but bobbin colours aren’t changed as many times as the upper colour is. “For example, when I draw an orange, I use five orange upper colours, and three under (on the bobbins).” In five seconds Miyuki can change the thread on her machine (not using an automatic needle threader) and has about 50 pre-wound bobbins ready to go. Each form is finished off with outlines in a dark coloured thread – a process that totally changes the overall image.
Miyuki was drawn to sewing from a young age, as her mother is a professional dressmaker. But she was never allowed to touch the machine. “Her sewing machine is her business tool. She didn’t want me to mess up her machine,” she says. Miyuki was clearly impressed enough with her mother’s skills to learn the basics and then adapt them to suit her own talents and requirements. And she has proved herself a unique artist in the process.
Make a set of sewing accessories with Vicki Porter’s sweet embroidery pattern!
Last November saw her first children’s book published. Called Fruit Pancake, it’s a Japanese book that’s predominately illustrated. It’s filled with lots of yummy stitched stacks of pancakes and vibrant slices of fruit and it has all the charm of her actual embroideries.
Visit www.miyukisakai.com to browse Miyuki’s virtual art gallery. There are more than 200 artworks there (and this is only about a tenth of her entire portfolio!)
