Today we’d like to introduce you to Melissa Galbraith
Hi Melissa, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Melissa Galbraith is the fiber artist behind MCreativeJ. She was born and raised in the desert of Washington state where her mother instilled a love of making things by hand at an early age. Melissa shares her love of nature through whimsical and modern hand embroidery kits, patterns, workshops, and her book, How to Embroider Texture and Pattern and DIY Embroidered Shoes.
Melissa was reintroduced to hand embroidery after finding her desk job monotonous and needing a creative outlet. She loves that embroidery is like coloring with a needle and thread. Melissa found that many craft enthusiasts also wanted to learn how to embroider but were daunted by where to start. Thanks to this and a love of teaching, Melissa began to share her hand embroidery knowledge.
Melissa’s embroidery kits make it easy to learn a new craft for makers of all skill levels. She enjoys seeing makers fall in love with the needle arts, especially that magical ah-ha moment of learning something new.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
MCreativeJ has had quite a few pivots along the way.
At the beginning, I designed and sold hand embroidered decor. This was a labor intensive and slow process because everything was stitched by hand. Additionally, I found that most buyers didn’t understand the time and skill needed to create a hand embroidered item. Unfortunately, fiber arts in general are not seen as art and more of a handicraft and thus seen as less valuable.
These early events helped me learn that while people didn’t usually want to purchase fiber art decor, they did want to learn how to make it. And I found that I would rather teach makers how to embroider than sell embroidered decor.
So I pivoted to teaching and designing hand embroidery kits… just before the pandemic hit. Kits became very popular during this time, but the in-person events I had planned, didn’t end up happening. This led to another pivot of figuring out virtual workshops. Over the 3ish years of lockdown, I taught over 200 virtual workshops. As we eased back into in-person events, I was able to start teaching in-person again as well.
While MCreativeJ has had some challenges and pivots along the way, we’ve always stayed true to our nature-inspired designs and now make embroidery kits and patterns for modern makers.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
MCreativeJ specialized in natured-inspired hand embroidery kits for modern makers. I have always pulled inspiration from nature and my surroundings; from walks around the neighborhood with my pups to tropical vacations- all of these experiences have given me inspiration for new designs, patterns, and kits.
Thankfully during my childhood my mom taught me some of the hand embroidery basics. As an adult, I have continued to teach myself new and different ways to use hand embroidery. I love dense designs with rich texture, whether it’s as decor, a clothing embellishment, or something more.
My travels and love of texture was the inspiration for my first DIY embroidery craft book, How to Embroider Texture and Pattern. It features 20 landscape inspired embroidery patterns and is full of rich texture and pop up stitching. When writing this book, I wanted to make it an accessible primer for anyone getting into embroidery.
As my love of hand embroidery has grown, so has the desire to break out of the embroidery hoop and embroider other things- like my clothing. Probably half of my wardrobe is embroidered by now. This love of wearable embroidery led to my second book, DIY Embroidered Shoes. This book will be out fall of 2024 and features 15 canvas shoe and espadrille projects + tons of detailed stitch tutorials and additional designs to truly create your own unique shoes.
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
Hand embroidery saw a big renewal of interest over the past 5 years thanks to people staying at home more. While not everyone who’s tried embroidery has continued to stitch, I think this has led to a wider appreciation of needle arts. Additionally, many makers who learned to embroider or got back into the craft will be looking to advance their skills and try new techniques. I can see this leading to a wider range of advanced techniques and classes becoming in demand.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.mcreativej.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mcreativej/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MCreativeJ
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@mcreativej
- Other: https://shop.mcreativej.com/
Image Credits
Photos by Melissa Galbraith of MCreativeJ.