Textile artist Kathrin Marchenko works magic with thread and tulle. Throughout the years, she has embroidered on the netting, and the effects have made her stitches appear as if they’re floating. Combined with Marchenko’s penchant for detail and painterly approach, the style is whimsical with a dark color palette that makes her work easy to recognize.
Marchenko is a prolific textile artist who experiments in a variety of ways. “For me, embroidery is more than technique; it’s a way of storytelling in silence,” she explains to My Modern Met. Previously, Marchenko has combined thread painting and kintsugi on vintage plates, collaborating with mixed-media artist Artashes Sardarian. Chrysalis, one of her latest pieces, is a departure from that and imagines embroidery as a mural. The large piece features the bust of a figure cloaked in beautiful butterflies and a selection of blooms. Its soft, almost gentle demeanor has an edge, however, with thorny stems that climb toward the figure’s head. Accompanying the entire piece are Marchenko’s signature “drips,” or thread left to dangle from the butterflies’ wings.
“Chrysalis was born from my fascination with the silent moment of transformation,” Marchenko shares, “that fragile pause between what is and what is about to become. The figure’s eyes are covered with butterfly wings, a metaphor for both concealment and the imminent promise of flight. For me, it speaks about vulnerability as much as it does about hope: the feeling of being hidden, protected, and yet on the edge of an entirely new existence.”
The placement of the flowers was also intentional. “The flowers interwoven with the wings act like a living cocoon,” Marchenko explains, “[and] they represent nature’s way of nurturing change, embracing fragility, and turning it into strength.” The act of embroidery was a way to put these ideas into practice. “Each stitch became, for me, a meditation on metamorphosis: slow, repetitive, and deeply contemplative. The act of embroidering layer by layer mirrored the process of growth itself, invisible yet inevitable.”
Chrysalis epitomizes why tulle is such a special fabric for Marchenko. “Its transparency gives the illusion that the embroidery is floating in the air, suspended between presence and absence. It feels ephemeral, delicate, almost like breath—and yet it can carry the weight of thousands of stitches. This duality of fragility and resilience is exactly what I wanted to capture in Chrysalis.”
To stay up to date with what the artist is stitching next, follow Kathrin Marchenko on Instagram.
Textile artist Kathrin Marchenko works magic with thread and tulle. Chrysalis is one of her latest pieces, featuring the bust of a figure cloaked in beautiful butterflies and a selection of blooms.
“Chrysalis was born from my fascination with the silent moment of transformation,” Marchenko shares with My Modern Met, “that fragile pause between what is and what is about to become.”
“The figure’s eyes are covered with butterfly wings, a metaphor for both concealment and the imminent promise of flight. For me, it speaks about vulnerability as much as it does about hope: the feeling of being hidden, protected, and yet on the edge of an entirely new existence.”
Watch Chrysalis come to life:
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