De Borduurschool: Merlijne Marell

Walking into Merlijne Marell’s studio is like entering a mysterious story. Large cabinets with books on art and nature line the walls, and plants with whimsical leaves hang from the ceiling. In one corner stands a dark wood armchair covered with a sheepskin; in another, a display case filled with pinned insects. Pinned to the back wall is some of Merlijne’s work: drawings and woodcuts of mythical creatures and writhing bushes, worked out in deep gemstone colours, highlighted with streaks of bright pink and orange.

The books, the plants, the insects: they provide inspiration for Merlinne’s own stories. In her head, fantasy worlds unfold that are fairytale-like, but with a grim edge. They come out in the form of books or prints, and these days – ever more often – as fine embroidery where various complex techniques are integrated.

Merline sits in the centre of the studio at a large work table. She wears a colourful patchwork jacket, and on her chest sits a self-embroidered brooch in the shape of a mayfly.

Merlijne, the bio on your website says you believe in fairytales. What do you mean?

“Haha, it’s not that I think there are leprechauns living here under my table, mind you. I mostly believe in the power of fairytales. I think fairytales are very important for us humans to tell to each other, and to relate to. They teach us about right and wrong. I don’t always agree with how black-and-white fairytales are, but they provide food for thought. Especially older fairytales – they tend to be a bit more rough. They’re about doom, or death. Fairytales are a way to learn how to deal with these things.”

What kinds of stories do you create?

“I think a good example is my picture book project ‘Schobbejacques and the 7 goats’. The story of that book plays with the well-known fairytale of the wolf and the seven little goats. That fairytale formed the inspiration for my book, but mine ended up becoming a completely different story, because I found the original fairytale a bit lame.”

Why did you think it was a bit lame?

“In that story, it seems like the bad guy – that is to say, the wolf – is bad to the core, and the goats are just silly and innocent. I found that a little simplistic. And I thought it had a senseless ending: the wolf has eaten all the goats except the smallest one, and the smallest one goes to tell on him, and then the wolf is cut open and all the goats jump out of his belly alive again. That’s weird, isn’t it?”

“I wanted to make the story my own, working from the characters. The character of Schobbejacques looks like a wolf, but also has something human-like, and he has horns on his head. He is a bad guy, but at the same time, he has some insecurities. The characters are much more layered.”

Where do stories start with you?

“Sometimes a story starts with a character, as with ‘Schobbejacques and the 7 goats’, sometimes they are rooted in a mood. I explore that starting point further, and then a world gradually evolves.”

How does that world take shape?

“I try to capture the world I have in my head in material. Sketching is often not fast enough for me – my imagination is too fast for that. So first I collect all kinds of things: pictures, notes, sketches, color combinations, material samples. I stick these in a notebook. Eventually the fantasy world world emerges out of the notebook in some way, in the form of a drawing, for example, a print, or embroidery.”

What came to you first: drawing or embroidery?

“Drawing. I did always enjoy needlework, even as a child. I learned it at home, and at school. I always liked to do needlework, but there was a period when I didn’t do it at all, I think until about eight years ago. At that time, the Crafts Council organized a five-day summer course on Chinese embroidery techniques. I was somehow drawn to it, although I didn’t immediately understand why.”

“The course was fantastic. It was taught by Ien Rappoldt, an expert in Chinese embroidery techniques. She shared so much knowledge, inspiration and examples. The way she teaches, the stories she tells… Amazing.”

“The idea was for all participants to embroider examples: butterflies, for example, to learn specific techniques. The first few days I did that, but at some point I wanted to make my own thing. In the end, instead of a butterfly, I embroidered a bat.”

“I have very clear ideas about design, colour and material. Even now, I rarely embroider based on existing patterns. I embroider after my own drawings. For example, I embroidered my own drawing of a raven in a combination of gold embroidery and a patchwork technique originating from the Miao people in China, where you fold and sew up very small pieces of fabric.”

What do you like so much about embroidery?

“I really like to fiddle. That brings me so much fun. Especially Chinese embroidery, which is extremely fiddly. I love to completely surrender to a technique or craft. I think long and hard in advance: what do I want to make? How am I going to do it? But once I’ve figured that out, I just start executing, stitching endlessly. I find that very calming.”

“With printmaking, it actually works the same way. That starts with a design phase that consists mainly of thinking and planning: what colours do I want to use, how many layers do I want to apply. But as soon as I start gouging in wood or linoleum it becomes more executive work, and I really like that too. It’s meditative, but you’re actually doing something in the meantime.”

“What I also like is that you can bring embroidery with you so easily. Take this one –  I remember embroidering it on Bornholm, an island near in Denmark. Embroidery travels with you, in time and space, and in your experiences. The stitches kind of hold the places you’ve visited, the periods in your life, the emotions. I think that’s so beautiful.”

Do you embroider very different things than you draw or print?

“Less and less actually, it’s becoming more and more integrated. Sometimes I choose one medium, sometimes times another. It’s fun to see what happens when you use different techniques for one image. The starting point is the same, but the result is totally different.”

Would you like to try other media?

“I would love to make a really big tapestry for a public space, a government building or something. Then you have a nice big canvas to work on, and the end result is visible to a lot of people. I would like to share my work with a larger audience.”

“At this moment, I am working on a book on the theme of metamorphosis. It features many insects, such as caterpillars that become butterflies, or larvae that become beetles. I’m fantasizing about making my own garment, something I can wear at the book launch, and which will have caterpillars, butterflies and beetles embroidered on it. That’s something I find myself increasingly looking for: that my works are linked, that they belong to the same world.”