The Original Post: (This post originally appeared on the Stitches Magazine Blog, On Links and Needles, Monday, March 29, 2010. In recent days, I’ve been answering questions about how we learn embroidery, why I share so much information, and why I am a proponent of openly teaching technique, and this no-longer-available post seemed germane. -EC) “Bernard of Chartres used to compare us to dwarfs perched on the shoulders of giants. He pointed out that we see more and farther than our predecessors, not because we have keener vision or greater height, but because we are lifted up and borne aloft o ..read more

I’ve seen a recent increase in embroidery shops wanting to be more self-reliant. This extends to everything from supplies and garments to services. This reliance spread to digitizing, leaving my introductory digitizing classes increasingly well-attended. Adding in-house digitizing to any embroidery department brings the inevitable question of pricing. In this post, I’ll answer these new digitizers’ pricing query, leaving how you communicate fees aside for now. We’ll start with how digitizers I’ve known set their prices and why. Question: I’m an embroiderer just getting into digitizing. I don ..read more

If you’ve been watching the DTG, DTF, or sublimation spaces and wondered how machine embroidery can fit into the mix beyond a multimedia collaboration, you’re going to love Faux Embroidery for Print!  In my latest article for Images Magazine, I detail how I collaborated with the good folks at Equipment Zone to create a cool embroidery-styled design for their Mothers’ Day totes. You’ll see different methods, from using direct digital preview images generated by embroidery software, to creating vector files from stitches and applying artistic brushes. Your only limit to styling these fau ..read more

Circumstances and Priorities Change. How we change our behavior in relation to those priorities, and how we deal with circumstances outside of our control, however, can say a lot about how closely we are working to serve our primary purpose and how we see ourselves in relation to our work. That said, having a week of being largely laid up and missing out on both tasks that I dread and those that I find creatively satisfying made me question how I used to get along when I was primarily engaged in demanding, quick-turnaround, creative work as an in-house embroidery digitizer. I remembered many d ..read more

My good friends from Images Magazine UK asked me to write a short piece on the ins and outs of machine embroidery hooping. If you are new to machine embroidery or just have some basic questions on getting material prepped for the embroidery machine, you can read the print version here. That said, if you want a bite-sized overview, read on! The digital edition has a great print-like format! It’s no surprise to any embroiderer that hooping is a fundamental skill that we all have to attend to if we want reliably good results from our embroidery. The embroidery hoop, in concert with stabilizers, k ..read more

There’s nobody to blame but me for the lack of posts lately, but I’d like to believe I’ve been spending my time well since last I wrote here. Rather than stay with my comfort zone, I’ve taken the once experimental ‘Fridays with Erich’ and turned it into a commitment, spurred along by the awesome name thought up by my friend and creator of Embrilliance Embroidery Software, Brian Bailie. It’s one of those things you wish you could take credit for- The Takeup can mean many things. Sure, it’s the name of a critical part of our embroidery machines, but it’s also the information people take up from ..read more

The second episode of Friday with Erich is up and online; this time we cover the reasons I think embroidery and apparel decoration shops should consider business management software, how to get inspired and create new work from your inspirational resources without knocking off the styles you see, what ‘thread weight’ means, and discuss some elements of 3D Foam embroidery.  See the latest discussed from my articles in Printwear, Images Magazine UK, and replies to questions I’ve gotten from decorators this week! As mentioned on the show: Info on thread weights, provided by the in ..read more

For my inaugural weekly live stream (embedded below) I discussed my thoughts on recent seminars I taught at Impressions Expo, gave an update as to some upcoming opportunities to get in on machine embroidery and decoration education with me, and discussed my future in live streaming.  For those interested in the topics discussed during the stream, here’s some further information to help you get informed and get involved! Impressions Expo Impressions Expo holds tradeshows throughout the year and all over the country., and I’m often found in their list of presenters. Check their page to see ..read more

Join me and PromoKitchen’s own Kate Plummer on the latest #deepdive video! This is far from my first time talking to Promokitchen peeps (I’m an old hand at it, actually) but I always come to these discussions with a new perspective and it’s always great to talk to Kate.  In this video, Kate brought me in to discuss how you follow-up after a contact or job and the place the automation should take in the process. Unsurprisingly, I extolled the virtue of knowing your customers’ preferences, using automation in the proper context where personal interaction isn’t needed, and leverag ..read more

Veterans Day always finds me contemplating a time when I found myself face to face with a customer truly moved by my embroidery. Though I’ve had many happy customers, only a few have been sincerely emotionally affected by their first viewing of a piece. The thing that will surprise some decorators is that I hadn’t created an artistic triumph. This wasn’t a contest-winning, intensely detailed piece with lettering so small it defied the size of the needle and gradients smooth enough to seem printed; it was a piece consisting of 3 colors, and looked more than a little rough. The reason this man w ..read more