hand-stitched delights by maricor/maricar

~ jama

#47 in an ongoing series of posts celebrating the alphabet

MaricorMaricar_HK_Del7
(click to see more from the “Delicious” project at Maricor/Maricar)

I fairly swooned when I first saw the amazing hand embroidered typography created by twin sisters Maricor and Maricar Manalo. Based in Sydney, Australia, they’re designers, illustrators and animators by trade and refer to themselves as “Makers of Things assorted.”

logoSelf-taught in needlework, they seem to be creativity personified — I love their colors, patterns, lines, textures, and refreshing sense of fun and whimsy. The gorgeous piece pictured above is part of a project they completed for the Hong Kong Airport, where they were asked to embroider the word “Delicious” in six different languages, all spelled out using food from the different regions — pizza, sushi, pretzels, prawns, grapes, onions, limes, hotdogs — too cool!

abcs embroider

MaricorMaricar_HK_Del8

MaricorMaricar_HK_Del2

MaricorMaricar_HK_Del1

This family set of Sweater Letters was created for a private commission:

MaricorMaricar_SweaterLetter_Family_1

MaricorMaricar_SweaterLetter_Family_3

MaricorMaricar_SweaterLetter_Family_4

MaricorMaricar_SweaterLetter_Family_5

MaricorMaricar_SweaterLetter_Family_2

Here’s their first commercial embroidery commission for ESPN Magazine:

MaricorMaricar_GoPlay

Their hand-stitched logos and sayings are just gorgeous:

maricormaricar-1

cheering
From the “Turns of Speech and Figures of Phrase” series
makers and dreamers
“We are the music makers and we are the dreamers of dreams” quote from Arthur O’Shaughnessy’s “Ode” (Signed and Numbered Limited Edition Giclee Print available at Etsy)
makers detail
Detail from Makers and Dreamers print (really love the tiny fork, knife and spoon)

Believe it or not, neither sister knew how to embroider until they were asked to create a music video for the band Architecture in Helsinki. They watched internet tutorials and bought a Reader’s Digest embroidery manual and winged it! Have you ever seen an embroidered animation?

* * *

Finally, enjoy this short interview — lovely to see the way Maricar and Maricor interact with each other:

* * *

♥ Maricor/Maricar is open to commissions, and will work freelance or by contract. You can purchase giclee prints of some of their sewn works at Etsy.

♥ Check out this great interview at The Design Files to learn more about their process and backstory.

♥  Don’t miss their website, blog, Vimeo, and Instagram.

♥ More Alphabetica here.

alphabet iconCertified authentic alphabetica. Made by hand just for you with love, needles, floss, and the awesome power of twins.

———————————————–

Copyright © 2013 Jama Rattigan of Jama’s Alphabet Soup. All rights reserved.

20 thoughts on “hand-stitched delights by maricor/maricar”

  2. Jama, this is awesome! I’m going to have to share that video w/my daughter, who is both a seamstress & embroiders & makes stop motion videos herself!

    Like

  4. These are great – thanks for sharing. There is something about things that are made so slowly that makes me want to look at them slowly too.

    Like

    1. Yes, I agree — that’s part of the great appeal of handmade art — it IS slow and detailed and we appreciate all the time and patience that went into it.

      Like

Comments are closed.