Woven into this remarkable works of fabric sculpture are incredible details, from metallic sheen and scratches on a recreated pay phone to grime and fish skeletons on dirty dishes (complete with fabric “water” pouring into the sink).

Working out of Beijing, China, Mongolian artist Gao Rong sews scenes from her own history, drawing on time spent in past apartments, family homes and familiar streets. At the same time, the objects she chooses are easy for anyone to relate to.

Her “meticulously crafted and embroidered pay phone,” for instance, “replicates the chips and scratches of a once-shiny public” utility, preserving the memory of a modern relic. Structurally, the work employs wood, metal, sponge and foam as shaping materials, all covered in detail-driven cloth.

In her own way, Rong is preserving a family tradition, adapting a legacy practice to create a new kind of art. In her more elaborate settings, it can be hard to tell that embroidery is the visible expression, but once realized, that lends a kind of ambiguous softness to nostalgic scenes.

More about the artist: “Gao Rong takes the ordinary and makes it extraordinary. In banal moments of the everyday – waiting at a bus stop, making a call from a public phone, collecting the mail, catching a cab – she sees a deeper significance. She re-creates quotidian things from her student days and from her life today as an artist in Beijing, documenting her existence in a dramatically fast-changing city. With her hyper-real embroidered sculptures she is recording the memories of a 1980s generation and their experiences of a transforming post-Mao China.”

Her projects intentionally question tradition: “Think of Chinese embroidery and you tend to imagine dragons, phoenixes, and blossoms applied with tiny, delicate stitches – a feminine craft from the imperial past. Gao Rong subverts this notion of decorative ‘women’s work,’ creating large-scale 3D works in stitched fabric wrapped around an armature of sponge, steel frames and wire.”

“Exact representations of peeling paint, moldy shower rooms, electrical fuse boxes, public telephones and bus timetables replace the traditional motifs. Embroidery has become her visual language … it appears astonishingly real. On closer inspection you see that every single detail is embroidered fabric … evocative and nostalgic.”

With his own skin as his canvas and needles as his tools, artist David Cata demands a pound of flesh from himself in return for his creative expression. That is to say, each individual piece takes a toll that may require a healing period before he can begin another – something that can’t be said about most other kinds of artistic media. Previously known for embroidering photographs of his family members onto his palms, Catá now turns to scenery and still life as his subjects of choice.

But don’t worry, it isn’t too painful, and only barely draws blood. Working just on the surface with the layer of skin that’s mostly dead and easy to pierce, Catá typically ‘sketches’ whatever’s right in front of him, whether that’s the sleeping figure of a woman in bed, photos of his relatives, a snowy landscape or – as in the case of his most recent piece, Horizonte 07. La Musicá – the keys of a piano. He has also sewn tiny pockets for soil into his skin to support seedlings.

The artist leaves his works in place for mere minutes, recording their creation or photographing the results before ripping out the stitches. He says the resulting ‘tracks’ stay on his body for about four weeks. In an interview with Citizen Brooklyn, he said, “Somehow, all of the portraits I’ve done are permanently living on me, even if they are not visible. Each print is latent on my body. But, if I had to pick one, I’d keep my great-grandmother Perpetua’s portrait.”

This is definitely not your grandmother’s embroidery. It’s stitched into the helmets of soldiers, onto car doors and fences, producing cats that pop out of shirt pockets and portraits so painterly, it’s hard to believe they’re made of thread. In fact, needlework stands in for everything from spray-painted street art to living moss in these extraordinarily artistic stitch-based creations.

Floral Cross-Stitch Urban Murals by Raquel Rodrigo

Cross-stitched street art is in bloom all over Madrid this week thanks to floral creations by artist Raquel Rodrigo, who wraps thick string around a wire mesh form and then affixes it to urban surfaces.

Cross-Stitched Microbes by Alicia Watkins

Rather than flowers and the other pretty things that are typically stitched within an embroidery hoop, artist Alicia Watkins puts the spotlight on nasty germs and microbes ranging from the measles to mad cow disease.

Pets in Pockets by Hiroko Kubota

Adorable, strikingly realistic cats and puppies pop out of pockets in this fun clothing line by Hiroko Kubota called Go!Go!5. The project started when the Japanese embroidery artist’s son asked for a custom cat-adorned shirt, and took off from there. You can even have a custom pet portrait created just for you.

Embroidery Gone Wild by Danielle Clough

Virtually anything that can be punctured or woven with embroidery floss is fair game for Danielle Clough, whose wildly unique creations have appeared on tennis rackets, shoes and fences.

Splotchy Embroidered Fashion by Olya Glagoleva and Lisa Smirnov

What appears, from a distance, to be splotches of paint roughly applied to textured textiles turns out to be hyper-detailed embroidery in abstract forms. Russian artist Lisa Smirnova paired up with fashion designer Olya Glagoleva to collaborate on this fun project for the eco-friendly clothing line GO!

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In Stitches 45 Artistic Embroidered Cross Stitched Creations

This ain’t your grandmother’s cross-stitched bible verses. Contemporary artists exploit, subvert and otherwise manipulate the traditional craft of embroidery with hyperealistic portraits, surreal seemingly LSD-induced additions to old photos or pretty flowers added to actual x-rays. Some even use bread – or their own skin – as the canvas for their threaded creations.

Family Portraits Sewn into the Palm of an Artist’s Hand

Combining visual and performance art, David Cata sews portraits of his family members into the palm of his own hand, poking the thread through the topmost layer of skin. The series symbolizes people who have ‘left their mark’ on the artist’s life, just as the portraits leave their mark on his skin. “Their lives have been interwoven with mine to build my history, every moment lived stays in the memory to finally be forgotten. Somehow, this fact is painful, since there are only material things and traces that people leave behind.”

Traditional Temari Spheres by 88-Year-Old Grandmother

Flickr user NanaAkua shares photos of the 500-odd, incredibly intricate temari spheres embroidered by her 88-year-old grandmother. Temari balls are a form of Japanese folk art (of Chinese origin), often made from the thread of old kimonos and given as gifts to children on New Year’s Day.

Bear Sculptures Embroidered with Anatomy

Bears are seemingly turned inside-out with embroidery of their anatomy in stunning lifelike sculpture by Deborah Simon. Measuring about two feet square, the sculptures reveal internal organs, musculature, skeletons and nerves. The series highlights how human desire for their pelts puts these majestic creatures in danger. “Bears are the ultimate stuffed animals; both the iconic plush toy and the prized taxidermy specimen for hunters,” says Simon. “Most of the sculptures deal with vulnerability; the vulnerability that the animals face from environmental degradation, conflicts with people, suburban sprawl and poaching. I particularly find the dichotomy between the defanged, declawed childhood toy and the fierce reality of a top predator fascinating.”

Embroidered Flesh by Eliza Bennet

David Cata isn’t the only artist using the thick, relatively bloodless skin of his palms as a surface for embroidery. Eliza Bennet uses a similar method, but her work invokes more of a visceral reaction of disgust for its visual mimicry of wounds. The idea is to highlight the idea of embroidery being women’s work, and women’s work being ‘easy.’ Bennet notes that many low-paid jobs typically aligned with women, like cleaning, caring and catering, can be difficult and labor-intensive. “Through a personally charged perception, I explore a range of issues relating to the formlessness of both individual and social reality,” she says.

Embroidered X-Rays by Matthew Cox

Traditional embroidery is juxtaposed with plastic x-ray film in this series by Matthew Cox, superimposing images of vivid life on top of the stark white-bones-on-black. Fleshy hands hold flowers, or reach up toward the sky.

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By A Thread 31 Excellent Works Of Embroidered Art