Creating Digital Embroidery with Jess Coldrey

Last year we had the pleasure of meeting Jess Coldrey, an award-winning Australian artist who loves working with textiles and uses embroidery, fashion and costume as part of her contemporary photography and arts practice.

In the summer of 2025, Jess joined us for a Digital Embroidery Masterclass, attending a series of weekly evening sessions over three months to fit around her work schedule as a London-based engineer. The classes were tailored entirely to her goals and by the end, she had completed a striking new piece of art and prepared a digital file ready for production at Hand & Lock.

Jess' Journey

Jess began working with textiles while studying for her Bachelor of Visual Arts at Monash University in Australia. During the 2021 lockdown, she filled her new found time making silk scarves from 3D-scanned camellia flowers. Sparking her love of using new technologies for textile design, this work eventually paved the way for conceptual fashion work supported by the Australian French Association for Innovation and Research, who funded her first artist residency in France, after her graduation, which led to several new works including Invisible Pain.

Jess’s first solo exhibition explored endometriosis and was titled Pain Pageant: A Visual Chronicle of Life with Endometriosis. For this exhibition, she created a series of sketches documenting her personal journey and experiences - from diagnosis to recovery after surgery. Alongside these diary-like artworks, she developed a series of embellished hospital gowns that told a story, planting the seed for her interest in the art of digital embroidery.

Exploring Digital Embroidery as an Art Form

Before discovering Hand & Lock, Jess was unaware that digital embroidery could be used as an art form. She came across our Digital Embroidery Masterclass through an online search and given that textile art and embroidery had featured heavily in her previous work, she was excited to explore the possibilities and try it out!

In 2025, Jess received a grant from Arts Council England to support the development of her creative practice and the exploration of new ideas and techniques. This funding gave her the opportunity to experiment with a range of mediums, including drone photography, digital fashion and, of course - digital embroidery, which she learnt at Hand & Lock.

During the classes held in our central London studio, Jess explored many different machine embroidery techniques, from simple fills and textures, to 3D elements with wadding and applique. We asked her what she found the most exciting and challenging during the classes:

Applique & wadding was a new challenge, wrapping my head around all of the layers, cutting and stitching to secure it was trickier than I’d imagined. It’s a more 3D way to think about textiles.”

Picturing things on top of each other, working out what elements will be shown and what will be hidden beneath the applique, it’s a new way of thinking and planning"

Jess also said she most enjoyed ‘drawing through stitch’ using the digital software as a form of art, layering colours and strokes.

‘It was also interesting to see how the digital render is then translated into stitch, and how the different finishes / techniques looked in real life’.

Once the main digital file was complete, Jess relocated to France, and eventually Australia, trusting us with the very important final job to stitch out the finished article. We worked closely online with her during this time, making sure she was happy with all the colours and techniques being used.

‘I really appreciated how thorough Connie was in testing so many fabric samples and thread choices, especially via email and zoom chats which was more challenging than expected, not being able to see things in person as the project was unfolding.’

Jess described the Digital Embroidery Masterclasses as “amazing, enjoyable and fun” and says she felt like being behind the scenes in a high fashion house. Her favourite part of the experience was browsing through the library of samples available, and loved seeing everyone else's pieces coming through the studio as well as her own!

“ Digital Embroidery is a great skill to learn, you don’t need to be good at computers to give it a go. Artists and people who draw / paint should experiment with this software and test translating their artwork into a new avenue.”

What’s Next for Jess?

Since attending our digital embroidery classes, one of Jess’s pieces created during the sessions, Scar (Sleepscape), was shortlisted as a finalist in the prestigious Lloyd Rees Emerging Artist Award in Sydney, Australia.

Having recently completed her newest piece Transmission Field,Jess is currently volunteering with Bloomin Algae in response to a harmful algae outbreak in Australia, and working on her podcast Art Strategy Impact exploring new ways of seeing and protecting the ocean.

Jess sees the ocean as a new potential source of inspiration for her upcoming creative projects. She has a keen interest on the impact of global warming in the sea and finds visual parallels in some of her endometriosis artworks and forms of algae and is hoping to use both past and present experiences to make a connection and create new art.

Discover more of Jess’ work on her website jesscoldrey.com and instagram @jesscoldrey.art. Whilst she currently doesn’t have any live exhibitions on show, you can stay tuned for future shows through Jess’ monthly mailing list, The First Spark.

Wanting to Learn More About Digital Embroidery?

Discover Hand & Lock's ultimate Digital Embroidery Masterclass. This fully bespoke, 5 hour session taught on a 1-1 basis. Digital machine embroidery is fast becoming the go-to technique for cost effective yet creative embroidery designs that can be made in a fraction of the time of hand embroidery. Popular among contemporary fashion designers & influencers - digital embroidery is hugely versatile and can be utilised to customise, upcycle & add beautiful detail to almost any item.

Read more information on our Digital Masterclass here.

Author: Connie Mabbott