Embroidery workshop mixes textiles with live music

On Saturday, Peel Gallery was alive with chatter as adults and children gathered fabric, thread and embroidery hoops from a table in a corner of the store. As they began their embroidery projects, synth music flowed through a speaker.

This music was not just for background noise but also to inspire attendees to create embroidery works based on it.

The workshop, called Loops & Bloops, was part of LEVEL Retreat's artist-in-residence program. The program invites artists to stay at LEVEL’s two-bedroom cabin in Chapel Hill to work on their creative projects and provides them grants to host local events.

LEVEL invited artists-in-residence Lauren Leone and Mike Gintz — a Boston-based creative couple — to host Saturday's workshop. The event was based on a 2023 project they completed for “Jamuary," which encourages musicians to create a new song each day in January. Gintz, who makes electronic music, approached Leone about the Jamuary collaboration. Leone is an art therapist and long-time embroiderer, and she suggested pairing embroidery with music.

First,Gintz made a musical piece while Leone made an embroidery one. The next day, they swapped their creations; Leone listened to Gintz’s music from the previous day and made an embroidery piece based on it, while Gintz made a song based on Leone’s embroidery.

“And then we kept passing back and forth for the whole month, and so we ended up with 31 pieces — 'threads,' we called them — that went back and forth between embroidery and music,” Gintz said.

The project caught the attention of LEVEL co-founders BJ Warshaw and Marie Rossettie.

“Just the way that they were providing these two, seemingly disparate, mediums into something that was really cohesive was just so impressive to us, and that's what we look for,” Warshaw said.

During the workshop, Leone and Gintz showcased all 31 of Leone’s embroidered pieces from Jamuary, ranging from circles and lines to jagged spikes. They also answered attendees’ questions about how they conceptualized their music or embroidery based on what the other had made. 

Following the Q&A, Leone demonstrated the basics of embroidery and let attendees create their own designs based on Gintz’s music. The music included pieces Gintz made in-residence or improvised on the spot. Attendees were also encouraged to adjust some of the knobs on Gintz’s soundboard to alter the music.

India Leigh Lassiter, a UNC alumnus who has embroidered since 2020, embroidered lines on their fabric on Saturday. While the pattern was random, they said the music may have subconsciously influenced their design. In a little over an hour, they created a patch of lines narrowing down into tiny dots.

Lassiter heard about the workshop through Facebook and said she hasn’t heard of anyone using embroidery as a response to music before.

“I think embroidery is associated with being stuck at home and having no useful skills, lots of tradition, and it's cool to see it be something that anyone can engage in and that it’s as much a part of modern art as making [electronic] music,” she said.

UNC School of Information and Library Science professor Willie Payne created a series of dashed lines against his black fabric at the event.

Payne, who has a doctorate in music technology and has done research in music-making and accessibility, said that he likes when the arts are made informal.

“It's very different than classical music, where you're having to learn to play in a certain way and memorizing skills,” he said. “I like this type of inclusive space where it's like everybody can do it in some way.”

Towards the end of the workshop, attendees displayed their work altogether by placing them side-by-side on the floor. Some commented on the inspiration behind their pieces.

@dthlifestyle | lifestyle@dailytarheel.com