Milkweed Chain Stitch Embroidery
About the Artist
Paris King is a chain stitch embroidery artist that recently moved home to the Charleston area from Western North Carolina. She started her brand, Milkweed, in 2019. Using an antique chain stitch machine from 1930, each stitch is guided by hand. This creates a uniquely one of a kind look much different from today’s computer controlled embroidery. Her inspiration often comes anywhere from traditional tattoo imagery, 1970s color palettes, song lyrics, vintage wallpaper, and the flora and fauna of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Paris creates custom pieces for clients in addition to offering patches, embroidered jackets, bandanas and more. Paris works out of her home studio in Historic Downtown Summerville. She also travels to offer live chain stitching at events and markets.
From 12 Moons of the Year
"Rural roadsides now are fragrant with summer essences ranging from the sunny sweetness of curing, new-cut hay to the sharp tang of wild mint crushed underfoot. But most persistent of all, and the one often mistaken by the passerby for the smell of clover, is the heavy perfume of the common milkweed, which can sweeten a whole hillside. Trace it to its source, the clusters of brownish-lavender blossoms that later will produce those big silvery green pods, and milkweed fragrance is like a blend of honeysuckle and tuberose, both at their most intense."
Hal Borlands
