Drawn Thread Embroidery Workshop with Didi Wu
Drawn Thread Embroidery Workshop with Didi Wu
Drawn thread work is so special because it works in the opposite direction from ordinary embroidery—instead of adding patterns onto cloth, you first remove part of the warp or weft, then regroup, wrap, and secure the remaining threads to create new patterns and structures.
In other words, it is an embroidery of subtraction.
A few months ago, Didi traveled to Mexico and learned colorful drawn thread work with a local embroidery group in Oaxaca. That experience opened up my previous understanding of European whitework traditions — Hardanger, Hedebo, Casalguidi, Schwalm, Ruskin Lace — which are often made on white or solid-colored linen.
Mexico turned over the color palette. And it made Didi wonder: if the color can change, can the fabric change too?
So for the past few months she has been experimenting with drawn thread work on hand-woven ramie called "summer cloth”. Ramie is the counterpart fiber of linen in East Asia; it feels very different from linen: lighter, more transparent, resilient with its own kind of “bones.” The result reminds less of soft European whitework, and more of bright, straight summer light.
That’s what inspires her to hold the workshop in NYC this Sunday. What’s more exciting is that she'll bring a precious piece of old handwoven ramie cloth that is becoming almost impossible to find, as the older women who once hand made such fine ramie threads have mostly passed away or can no longer continue.
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🌿 Who is this for?
Beginner-friendly; textile/embroidery experience welcome too.
No prior embroidery experience is required. Just bring patience, curiosity, and a love for beautiful details.
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🧵 What will you learn?
In the 3-hour workshop, we’ll start with the basics: drawing threads, securing edges, bundling threads, and building simple patterns. You can make a stitch sample, a small bookmark, or a coaster.
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✨ What will you take home?
You’ll leave with your own handmade drawn thread embroidery piece — a resourceful stitch sample, a small bookmark, or a coaster.
previous participants works:
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👩🏻🎨 About the teacher
Didi Wu started her weaving journey in Kyoto more than a decade ago, and then moved to London where she obtained her MA in traditional arts and also achieved a two-year apprenticeship in basketry using willow, rush and rattan. After settling down in the States, she’s acquired the craft of broom making which is still amazingly alive. She’s been continuously enriching her knowledge and practice by learning local weaving and basketry techniques and materials wherever and whenever she travels in Asia, Europe, Latin America, etc, indulging in the wisdom of craftsmanship passed down through generations and centuries.
Instagram: @didi_sylvia
Website: didi-in-woven.land
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🏡 Hosted by Oblique Table
Oblique Table is a cozy creative space in NYC for craft workshops, slow gatherings, and small beautiful things. We invite people to make with their hands, learn traditional techniques, and reconnect with material, nature, and each other.
Instagram: @obliquetable.nyc