.jpg)
Estelle Hivernet
Embroidery artist
In my workshop in the Marais Poitevin in western France, I handcraft scapulars, embroidered medallions and devotional badges inspired by the Catholic tradition.
Each piece is entirely handmade using traditional embroidery techniques, with patience and precision.
I trained in Lunéville, a historic center of French embroidery, where I obtained my diploma in art embroidery.
This training taught me the love of careful workmanship, respect for the right gesture, and a deep appreciation for traditional craftsmanship.
My journey is also deeply rooted in faith. I spent two years in a Carmelite monastery near Paris with the desire to become a Carmelite nun.
Due to health reasons, I was unable to continue this vocation.
With time, I came to understand that this path was part of a wider calling: to serve in another way.
For more than twelve years, embroidery has become for me a place of prayer and transmission. Stitch by stitch,
I create devotional objects meant to accompany the spiritual life of the faithful.
Over the years, the workshop has grown.
Five years ago, my husband joined this family venture and now helps develop the workshop.
Each creation requires many hours of work and is prepared with great care, often in silence and recollection.
Through these humble objects, my desire is to transmit something of the beauty and living tradition of the Church.
In my workshop, the thread becomes prayer, and embroidery a humble way of giving glory to God.
Denis Morin
Embroiderer
In my workshop, thread becomes prayer, and embroidery becomes living memory.
I come from wood and tools: trained as a cabinetmaker, I learned early on to respect materials, the slowness of the gesture, and the humility of work done well.
It was alongside Estelle that I discovered traditional embroidery. At first, I worked quietly in the background—preparing threads, assembling kits, supporting the unseen labor.
Then, little by little, through patient and generous transmission, the stitch found its path, and embroidery became a language.
Today, I embroider as one tends a flame.
Stitch after stitch, in silence and in the long flow of time, I place myself within the continuity of ancient gestures.
Each creation is born of a slow rhythm, of full attention, of an inner dialogue between the hand and the heart.
My embroidered ex-votos draw inspiration from Catholic heritage, from the sacred, and from the discreet beauty of symbols. They do not seek to shine, but to endure.
My embroidery kits invite the one who stitches to slow down, to dwell in the gesture, and to reconnect with what binds.
Through thread, I extend a bond.
A bond between hand and soul, between memory and hope, between the artisan and the one who receives.
My desire is not only to pass on a craft, but to open an inner space—a time of peace, presence, and meaning.
Over the course of thoughts ...
Some thoughts that arise during the work of creation ...
"artists embrace more than they separate,
pose the mystery of Creation and open the heart and mind to this mystery. (...)
"Beauty will save the world", said Prince Muishkin, from Dostoyevsky's pen,
"beauty, this eternity here below", and Bulgakov added: "And art is an instrument".
Hélène Grimaud - Return to Salem
Embroidery, an opening to the world
By discovering embroidery, which quickly became a passion, it is a whole set of fields that open up and become a source. Indeed, the embroiderer is constantly in search of inspiration for her creations. Painting, architecture, nature, but also literature and music. Everything is food. We must let ourselves be permeated by what we see, by what surrounds us, without wanting to get our hands on it. It is long-term work that is done almost without our knowledge. A descent into the depths before emerging transfigured under the fingers of the embroiderer.
Embroidery, timeless attention
Time doesn't count in embroidery. Point by point, - pearl by pearl, creation advances patiently but without haste. It is a job of listening. Listen to what colors and materials tell us, to assemble them in constant attention to beauty and harmony. We enter into embroidery as we enter into prayer. The universe is present at your fingertips and the work advances to the rhythm of the heart.
Embroidery, an art of living
Embroidery requires skill and thoroughness. It is precision work that requires patience and dexterity. The embroiderer must be as perfectionist as he is passionate!
Embroidery, a surprise
There is something almost supernatural about creation. At the start you have a good idea precise what you want to do. Then at one point, the work escapes you. It has a life of its own, it takes a direction you would not have imagined ... and that's what makes any art work so exciting.
Embroidery, the place of my prayer
"Art is like prayer, a hand stretched out in the dark
that wants to seize a part of grace, to transform itself into a hand that gives."
Franz Kafka
Embroidery is an activity that needs silence and concentration. It is conducive to meditation and contemplation.
Artists have this blissful ability to write what they wear through their work. Their joys and their sorrows weave the fabric of their creation.
My embroideries tell stories: mine, that of people I love, that of those I meet from near or far.
This is what makes the work unique and precious!