Ercigoj embroidery art — something that has never been done before

Pushing the limits of embroidery further than anyone has ever imagined being possible.

Some ideas need months to come to life, some years. This one took us 20 years. But I believe that it was worth it.

Ercigoj embroidery is a form of art unlike any other and we are utterly proud of it. Through this specific type of embroidery, combining machine and hand techniques, photos come to life, paintings start to vibrate, furniture and fashion become personalised and priceless.

Every time that we finish a project, we look at it and say, ok, it can’t get any better than this. But every time, the very next project proves us wrong.

This is the story of how we’ve got here.

Ercigoj Embroidery company is our family business of high quality and unique embroidery with almost a century of tradition. When I was in my late teens, already actively engaged in our family business, I began to develop an idea that then seemed to be impossible, maybe to some embroidery practitioners even blasphemous.

You see, in embroidery, there is almost dogmatic thinking present that many things simply can not be done. Either considering colours that are all too limiting to really express oneself, realism that is limited by existing styles of stitching or dimensions that are mainly bound due to restrictions of materials.

Being all too familiar with these boundaries of classic hand and machine embroidery, yet I decided to transform embroidery technology and invent new techniques so that they wouldn’t limit artistic expression but rather support it and even expand it.

Boundaries are there to be crossed — we did it in embroidery.

The whole company supported me in my efforts. We were determined to push the boundaries of technology and the know-how beyond all known limits. Not because it would be easy — because it really wasn’t, I cannot count all the sleepless nights that I have been banging my head to find solutions for problems that arose during the day. Not because we wanted to make quick money — because we really didn’t, as it took as two decades to come to where we are now. But because we genuinely wanted to see how far can we get and what — from a wide universe of never-been-done in embroidery — can we actually make. Not to mention our big desire to go, well, big, to overcome the issue of format in high-density machine embroidery and present art pieces as big as they deserve to be.

After two decades of development, we now create photo embroideries and embroidered paintings of top edge sophistication and details.

We started to work on complicated images with delicate shading and demanding colour transitions that has not yet been done as embroideries exactly because of their complexity. We learnt on them and used all the acquired knowledge for improvements, and after a while, various renown artists began to show interest in cooperating with us. We started to work with famous artistic photographs to recreate their photos — like Steve McCurry’s and Chris de Bode’s — and later progressed to cooperation with painters, Silvester Plotajs — Sicoe and Vladimir Leben among others.

A new step in the development were projects, conceptualised to be born as Ercigoj embroideries or, as we call them affectionately, Ercigojs.

Sometimes people who see images of our embroideries don’t believe that they are actually embroideries and not photos or paintings. We call this our sweet problem.

At the moment, we are expanding into three dimensions, using Ercigoj technique to develop unique furniture like sofas and decorative screens that are artistic, aesthetic and still functional.

One of my favourites is a three-dimensional park-like bench that even has an embroidery of a sticked chewing gum on.

We at Ercigoj have started this journey to see how far can embroideries really go and we still don’t know the answer.

Is it possible that there are no limits?
Join us on our trip and find out!

Take a look at some of our embroidered artworks

One of the best photos ever. Only that it’s not a photo, it’s an embroidery!

Holi Festival
Motif: by Steve McCurry
Dimension: 150 x 100 cm | 59.1 x 39.4 in
Number of stitches: over 4.6 mio
Development: over 900 person hours

Info & deep zoom:
https://www.ercigojart.com/gallery/holi-festival/

The skin complexion of the protagonist is perfectly rendered in an almost monochrome palette of embroidery threads.

Eyes Shut
Motif: by Chris de Bode
Dimension: 100 x 100 cm | 39.4 x 39.4 in
Number of stitches: over 3.3 mio
Development: over 700 person hours

Info & deep zoom:
https://www.ercigojart.com/gallery/eyes-shut/

Work by one of National Geographic’s finest photographers recreated as an embroidery with over 2.4 mio stitches.

Girl with Green Shawl
Motif: by Steve McCurry
Dimension: 68 x 101 cm | 26.8 x 39.8 in
Number of stitches: over 2.4 mio
Development: over 500 person hours

Info & deep zoom:
https://www.ercigojart.com/gallery/girl-with-green-shawl

It took the entire palette of threads to recreate the magic of this McCurry’s photo in the embroidery.

Kashmir Flower Seller
Motif: by Steve McCurry
Dimension: 98 x 150 cm | 38.6 x 59.1 in
Number of stitches: over 4.6 mio
Development: over 900 person hours

Info & deep zoom:
https://www.ercigojart.com/gallery/kashmir-flower-seller

A Dog’s Life embroidery series offers a glimpse into one of the most interesting city stories ever, that is the one about subway dwelling dogs that live in the stations, use the system to commute and have learnt how to ride to specific locations for food or a quiet spot.

A Dog’s Life
Series: A Dog’s Life
Motif: by Vladimir Leben
Dimension: 152 x 133 cm | 59.8 x 52.4 in
Number of stitches: over 7.5 mio
Development: over 1500 person hours

Info & deep zoom:
https://www.ercigojart.com/gallery/a-dogs-life/

Urban myth of the Moscow subway dogs is real — though to many, this embroidery is even better than the real thing!

Invisible Workers
Series: A Dog’s Life
Motif: by Vladimir Leben
Dimension: 152 x 133 cm | 59.8 x 52.4 in
Number of stitches: over 7.8 mio
Development: over 1500 person hours

Info & deep zoom:
https://www.ercigojart.com/gallery/invisible-worker

Embroidered texture emphasises the contrast between cold walls, illuminated by neon lights, and warm furs of the dogs which are brought to life with detailed and smooth shading techniques.

After a Hard Day’s Work
Series: A Dog’s Life
Motif: by Vladimir Leben
Dimension: 152 x 133 cm | 59.8 x 52.4 in
Number of stitches: over 7 mio
Development: over 1400 person hours

Info & deep zoom:
https://www.ercigojart.com/gallery/after-a-hard-days-work/

There is a boy, hidden in this embroidery. And then, there is a human-like being, dominating the image, with a gun in his hands, representing a modern mechanised soldier.

Homoid
Motif: by Uroš Weinberger
Dimension: 84 x 107 cm | 33.1 x 42.1 in
Number of stitches: over 1.9 mio
Development: over 700 person hours

Info & deep zoom:
https://www.ercigojart.com/gallery/homoid/

A naked runner holding a dandelion clock in his lifted hand on this embroidery is a parable of human cravings, yearnings, and phantasms.

Dandelion Runner
Motif: by Boštjan Plesničar
Dimension: 202 x 101 cm | 79.5 x 39.8 in
Number of stitches: over 3.5 mio
Development: over 1200 person hours

Info & deep zoom:
https://www.ercigojart.com/gallery/dandelion-runner/

Don’t let annual rings fool you — this bench is actually an embroidery.

The Bench
Series: A Dog’s Life
Motif: by Vladimir Leben
Dimension: 180 x 42 x 42 cm | 70.9 x 16.5 x 16.5 in
Number of stitches: over 7.2 mio
Development: over 1300 person hours

Info & deep zoom:
https://www.ercigojart.com/gallery/the-bench/

Thanks for reading!

Questions? Comments? Leave a note here or email us at info@ercigojart.com.

Sincerely,

Boštjan Vidmar
Owner, embroidery specialist & innovator

Our web site and online gallery:
www.ercigojart.com

Facebook:
www.facebook.com/ErcigojArt

LinkedIn:
www.linkedin.com/company/ErcigojArt

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PS:
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