KOCHI: After Ansiya Abbas Mundol graduated Class 12, the youngster spent her free time very mindfully. While most teenagers would binge watch TV shows and movies or stay up scrolling their phones, Ansiya was perfecting her hand embroidery skills. “My mother introduced me to embroidery art. She learned it from her mother and is quite talented in making things out of needles and thread. When I got the hang of it, I wanted to take my craft forward,” says Ansiya, who is now a final year Maths student at St Teresa’s College, Kochi.
Two years ago, the youngster’s embroidery hoop art became a hit among netizens. Her online venture ‘My needle stories’ uses knots, picot stitches, pattern stitch and stem stitches to make floral hoops, monograms and football club logos. She recreates memories using threads and works on gifting too. “Embroidery artists were a rarity in Kerala, especially those who embroidered football club logos. One of the first orders I got was for the Liverpool Football Club logo, for my brother’s friend,” says Ansiya, who hails from Calicut.
Ansiya also adds a tint of colour to her simple hoops. “I only paint the base. Two or three complementary watercolours are mixed. It is then paired with a contrasting coloured thread,” she adds. With help from her mother and YouTube tutorials, Ansiya seems to have now mastered the thread art. Crochet shoes, headbands, and table mats, embroidery pendants, scrunchies, embroidery frames — she can do them all.
“I’ve always considered myself to be artistically illiterate. It was after venturing into embroidery that I realised I had the potential to even draw,” quips Ansiya.
She has a special affection for pastel shades. Ansiya’s embroidery hoops are anywhere between 5 to 14-inches in size!. “If it’s a simple design, it would take around three days. From sketching the image, stitching and packing is done from scratch,” says Ansiya, who also balances classes while playing entrepreneur.
One of her creations, the Koi pond, a habitat for the ornamental carp fish was made in 3D. “To get the 3D effect I used two hoops. The work was done on net fabric. The leaves were embroidered on one, and colourful fishes were made on the other. Then, I joined the two hoops. In the middle I added sugar beads for the pebbles and to get the watery effect, I attached a blue cloth in the base,” explains Ansiya.
Price: Starts from Rs 550
Instagram: @myneedlestories