How I became interested in Japanese Embroidery:  I attended my first needlearts seminar several years ago and became aware of Japanese Embroidery (J.E.) in both the exhibit there and by peeking in on the class that was taking place and taught by Jennifer Ashley Taylor.  I immediately was interested in it, the beauty of it and the contemplative nature of doing the work.  It seemed special to me, but very difficult.  The next year, I took Jennifer Ashley Taylor's class, to learn J.E. and do the piece, "Spring Blossoms."  I thought it was a delicate and lovely piece and it was a beginner level class.  I was very nervous and all thumbs!  But I was smitten.

When I got back to home after the seminar, I went online to the J.E. Center in Dunwoody, Georgia and found, through them, a teacher in Silver Spring, Maryland, a two-hour drive from my house. This would be Tonie Evans.  She does exquisite work and is a fine teacher.  I started in her next Phase I class that fall and am now up to Phase VI - "Eternal Grace."  We do about three phases a year in four full-day Saturday classes which meet once a month.  You have to keep up or else it means purchasing another frame!  I am still loving J.E. and the beauty of the work.  It is unlike anything I have ever stitched before.  I find the time to stitch mostly by setting aside the time in the afternoons.  I am too tired by the evening and the light is not good.  I  discipline myself to do a couple of hours of stitching a day. There is always other stuff to do...clean the house, paperwork, errands and my job.  I retired from a full-time day job several years ago and was casting around for something creative and beautiful to do - fortuitously, J.E. entered my life. I am also a former dancer and currently teach ballet, Pilates, Yoga and stretch and relaxation/meditation classes up to 10 hours a week.  Afternoons are my free time.

I find that Japanese Embroidery feeds my soul and is very similar to meditation practice and gives me an inner sense of joy.  There is, for me, a definite connection between spirit and craft. There is a contemplative nature to the practice of J.E. and brings me to a centered and at peace place. The beauty of the work truly feeds my soul. I was so excited and proud of my first finished piece of J.E. - "American Basket" - that I hung the framed picture opposite my bed so I could see it right before going to sleep and the first thing I see when I wake up.   To find inner harmony, if only for a few seconds, is a gift and J.E. gets me on the way to that place.

Mary Pinto