Cannabis embroidery is the healthy weed decor you need

Can the needle point help normalize grass? Heaven knows that the devil’s salad has never looked less threatening than when it was sewn in thread.

Cannabis embroidery is more than cheesy cottage-core decor; It’s a welcome departure from the “stoner aesthetic” so often stereotyped by old tie-dye T-shirts and outdated comedy specials.

Check out cannabis in this unique art form below.

Grass as a serious artistic subject

Many of the best examples of needlepoint cannabis mimick the style of UK-based tattoo artist and embroiderer Chloe O’Malley.

Trained in embroidery at Manchester Metropolitan University, O’Malley evolved from embroidering traditional floral motifs to depicting stunning cannabis nugs with surprising realism. She has garnered more than 24,000 followers on Instagram since sewing her first cannabis hoop as a gift for her partner in 2017. “He’s an avid smoker, so it seemed like the perfect gift!” She told CannabisNow in 2019.

Made of threads, these flowers take on a sculptural quality; flat-stitched sugar leaves topped with French knots to add dimension. The execution offers the opportunity to observe and appreciate the diversity of the different varieties; the unique physical properties, the bud structure and the color gradients.

Art and photo by Chloe O’Malley

BC-based budtender and sticker Lucky Saumur shares the same opinion: “Ever since I started sewing flowers, I’ve noticed the bud structure and colors in ways I’ve never had before. I’m used to the usual greens and purples, but if I look carefully there is a hidden rainbow. “

Some of the most amusing examples of cannabis embroidery reflect the aesthetics of botanical illustrations from the Victorian era used in studies of plant anatomy. Others maximize the medium’s potential by depicting pinnate plant stigmas in 3D threads in ways that could never be captured in 2D.

Cannabis embroidery and its therapeutic potential

Similar to how Subversive Cross Stitch creator Julie Jackson describes her swear art piece “as a form of anger management therapy,” embroiderer Kaitlin Earl, aka @HealTHCareEmbroidery, says she has started sewing French knots, to soothe their fears Flowers grow out of thread and cloth [calms me] if nothing else eases the stress and panic that comes from the day. “

And while the surge in popularity happened to coincide with the pandemic outbreak, cannabis embroidery isn’t just another analog activity to keep yourself busy in the middle of a lockdown. The popularity of cannabis-centered crafts means a shift in attitudes towards weed and cannabis culture.

Cannabis craftivism

Cannabis embroidery is seen as a subgroup of “craftivism,” a term coined by Betsy Greer to describe the intersection of craft and activism that often re-appropriates traditional “women” hobbies and decorative arts that, as Bust puts it, “ originally “were used to market a girl’s domesticity and femininity.”

It’s this very familiar, posh aesthetic that makes Cannabis Needlepoint look, well … harmless. A loving look, the attention to detail, the nuanced observations help to soften the public image of the once and still outlawed plant.

In contrast, when talented women (and artisans of all genders) have their affinity for the plant, it helps to challenge the classic – and often unflattering – stoner stereotypes. It’s a bit like when I found a packet of leopard-print papers in my grandma’s drawer. That moment simultaneously normalized weed for me and made my grandma look even cooler.

Already now, DIY enthusiasts and decorators from around the world have embraced the craft with patterns and commissions spreading every corner of Pinterest, Etsy, and the R / Embroidery subreddit. “I have sewn for people all over the world including but not limited to the US, Canada, Germany, Singapore, Finland, and Mexico,” Earl said. “I have customers who are growers in the cannabis industry asking you about specific strains … customers who are pharmacy owners and workers, growers, and pretty much anyone who loves this plant.”