15 Beautiful Handmade Moths Made Out Of Fiber, As Created By Yumi Okita
Yumi Okita, a talented North Carolina-based artist, creates beautiful embroidered art depicting large moths, the less popular but no less beautiful cousin of the ubiquitous butterfly. Okita's creations, replete with fur, eyes, legs, antennae, and finely-embroidered wing patterns, strike a fine balance between artistry and realism.
Independently testedUnbiased Demilked scoreFree to implementTools included
Yumi Okita is an artist who has been creating fiber insects for about 10 years. She uses colorful threads and textiles to create intricate patterns of moths and butterflies. In an interview with DeMilked, the artist revealed, "I have always been drawn to things that seem fragile, yet hide their strength and cruelty - beautiful and yet grotesque, such as insects and plants."
Yumi further explained, "My background is in 3D fine art (ceramics) but I lost interest after school. I was looking for something new and started to fiddle with fabric, a vintage kimono that I brought back from Japan, starting to make handbags and accessories with them. Then I started to get interested in creating my own fabric, so l started to hand-dye and hand-paint them. Gradually, form, texture, and patterns started to become more important than being functional and my handbags started to become more sculptural. One of the bags I made had an embroidered moth sculpture attached. When I saw that people were drawn to my moth, I realized it needed to be free from the bag, and thus it became the pieces to date. Over the years, the insect's wing became more detailed and intricate."
When we asked Yumi about her creative process, she said, "When I start a piece I don't sketch, I roughly decide on the form and colors in my head and then I start stitching. Embroidering is like painting to me. To hand-stitch one thread at a time, creating layers and layers of colors to create depth and texture is an important process to me and my work."
Check out some of her wonderful works in the gallery below. And if you wish to buy some of her stuff, don't forget to visit her Etsy shop.
More info: Instgram | Etsy
Image source: Yumi Okita
Image source: Yumi Okita
Image source: Yumi Okita
Image source: Yumi Okita
Image source: Yumi Okita
Image source: Yumi Okita
Image source: Yumi Okita
Image source: Yumi Okita
Image source: Yumi Okita
Image source: Yumi Okita
Image source: Yumi Okita
Image source: Yumi Okita
Image source: Yumi Okita
Image source: Yumi Okita
Image source: Yumi Okita
#1
Image source: Yumi Okita
#2
Image source: Yumi Okita
#3
Image source: Yumi Okita
#4
Image source: Yumi Okita
#5
Image source: Yumi Okita
#6
Image source: Yumi Okita
#7
Image source: Yumi Okita
#8
Image source: Yumi Okita
#9
Image source: Yumi Okita
#10
Image source: Yumi Okita
#11
Image source: Yumi Okita
#12
Image source: Yumi Okita
#13
Image source: Yumi Okita
#14
Image source: Yumi Okita
#15
Image source: Yumi OkitaDE
Written by
Demilked Editorial
SaaS Review Specialist · Demilked
With 5+ years in the creator, entertainment, and publishing spaces, Demilked shortlists, reviews, and ranks leading tools that actually make your life easier.