We recently connected with Samantha Bower and have shared our conversation below.

Samantha, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

I’m 1/4 women who have, unfortunately, exprienced a miscarriage. I lost my baby in May of 2021. I’ve always used art to work through really difficult patches of my life, and my miscarriage was no exception. As painful as it was at the time, I wanted to create beautiful and inspiring art for women who had been through the same thing.

Deep in my grief, I created a piece called “Hope” that features a woman letting go of black and white butterflies while she grows a colorful butterfly. This symbolized the hope I had for the future that I would get to be a mother again, despite having to let go of the baby that I lost.

The next piece I created about a month later was building off of the butterfly idea. It was a mixed media artwork on a painted canvas. On top of the painted landscape, I embroidered butterflies and flowers. This piece meant a lot to me, because it was a challenge to myself. I wanted to push my boundaries as an artist and try a medium that I had never done before.

Both of these pieces help me work through grief at different stages, and I am very thankful for them.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers?

My name is Samantha Bower and I currently reside in Central Texas. I love iced coffee, doggos, home decorating, hanging out with my husband, and all things stitching!

I grew up learning hand-embroidery from my mother and grandmother at a young age. I would help them embroider squares that they would eventually make into blankets.

It wasn’t until 2019 that I rediscovered the craft in the form of modern hand-embroidery. Since then, I have created my own embroidery designs and I launched @sitchin.with.samantha on Instagram at the beginning of 2021 and my Etsy shop shortly after.

My goal is to stitch vibrancy and light into each day. I create step-by-step patterns and hand-embroidered products for others so that more people can discover modern embroidery.

Most of my art is colorful and bright. I wanted every person that comes into contact with my social media or products to feel encouraged and uplifted.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being creative in your experience?

The most rewarding part of being an artist is the community. The embroidery community, and creative community at large, is so encouraging and kind. Life is really hard sometimes and that seeps into your art and into your business. Everytime I pour myself into my art, the community is right there to accept me and encourage me.

If you are looking to get into embroidery, we are here for you!! There is generally no gatekeeping in this craft, because we all started somewhere. Personally, I love to chat with people that are just starting out and I love to share secrets and tips that I have learned along the way.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Building an audience on social media is really tough sometimes. There are thousands, if not millions, of people doing the exact same thing that you are. My biggest advice would be to just create art that you LOVE. Try not to worry about likes, follows, or engagement. This is easier said than done… However, the times that I have done the best on social media is when I just created meaningful art and shared it because I truly loved it.

Other advice would be to invest into the community of artists that are doing the same thing that you are. Promoting and supporting other artists will naturally draw others to your own brand.

Also, content tip – don’t be afraid to re-post images and videos. You spend hours creating meaningful content – so share it on all your social media platforms and months later – share it again with a fresh twist! You will probably be the only person who actually notices that you are reposting content. People scroll past hundreds of things a day!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.etsy.com/shop/StitchinWithSamantha
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stitchin.with.samantha/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stitchinwithsamantha
• Other: Pinterest – https://www.pinterest.com/stitchinwithsamantha/ TikTok – https://www.tiktok.com/@stichin.with.samantha