Hi! I’m Jacob de Graaf, and I am the owner and designer of Modern Folk Embroidery.
I grew up in Friesland (one of the northern provinces of the Netherlands) in a house surrounded by crafts: my mum was a maker, so it was only natural for me to have access to a large amount of craft materials. At a young age I learned to knit, sew, crochet and embroider. Slowly though the love for textile art gave way to my love for fine art. After graduating from the School of Fine Arts in Kampen (the Netherlands) I ran a small art gallery for several years.
It was during this time I started to develop a renewed interest in textile arts: studying old paintings I was fascinated by the beautiful fabrics and embroideries seen on late medieval and early renaissance paintings. Then, several years later, I decided that I wanted to make a cross-stitch embroidery piece. I quickly found out that what I wanted to stitch, and what I could find online at the time wasn’t matching up. So I decided to sit down, and do it myself.
I found that the process of designing was so much fun, that after stitching some models, some folks encouraged me to start selling them online. I opened up an Etsy shop in early 2011 – and since then I have been selling charts under the name Modern Folk Embroidery.
I settled on the name Modern Folk Embroidery as I wanted to create new designs for modern people – that they could display in both traditional and very modern houses. I liked the fact that folk both refers to folklore and to people. In a way my patterns could be seen as neo-folklore patterns for modern folks.
One of the best things about having a shop is being able to share something I really care about with so many people all over the world. I am always very moved by people sending me pictures of their handiwork. It’s so great to see a design that I created being made by someone on the other side of the world! (so do send me your photos of your finished work please by getting in touch!)