polalab Spirit of the forest ✨

New artwork in progress 🌱🌱🌱

Videography: @sinitsehelsinki @poletelianna
Edit/costume/process: @polalab

#doublesidedembroidery #contemporaryembroidery #needlework

polalab 🧶 Threads migrate between pieces. Colours return unexpectedly. Fragments of one embroidery become part of another. What seems like a finished decision often continues its life elsewhere.

This process is guided as much by intuition as by intention—a conversation between material, memory, and chance.

Sometimes the smallest thread end is already the beginning of the next work.

#contemporaryembroidery #textileart #polalab_karelia

polalab 🧶 I am a guest.

I approach Karelian embroidery as a guest — with curiosity, respect, and care. This project is not about claiming tradition, but about opening a small space where more people can see its beauty, ask questions, and feel why it matters.

Cherish it with me.

This reel is a part of project series #polalab_karelia

The project is supported by @koneensaatio

#contemporaryembroidery #embroideryheritage #crimsonwork
@texo_ry @hiaafinland

polalab Double-sided running stitch on canvas —
heritage continues its life,
quietly, through both sides of the surface.

#contemporaryembroidery #textileart #livingheritage

polalab Embroidery details from my paintings over the
WINTER-SPRING 25/26

Hand embroidery on canvas. Double sided running stitch and freehand volume embroidery.

#contemporaryembroidery #handembroiderywork

polalab Balkan Textile Biennale I Novi Sad I Serbia🧵
@balkan_textinnale

Pola @polalab is showing two of her works at Atelje 61 @atelje61 — a cornerstone of textile art in the Balkans.

The biennale is curated by Nordistica @nordistica by Saška Kremenets @superkremenets and Katya Ablamskaya @kate_ablamskaya , bringing together an inspiring international selection of artists.

Still on view until March 22 —
don’t miss it if you’re in Novi Sad.

@atelje61 @balkan_textinnale
#textilebiennale #contemporaryfiberart #novisadserbia

polalab Day 21 — Strain and gain

Embroidery is slow work: time, repetition, patience, and the occasional stiffness in the hands. The gain is in the quiet progress—one small section at a time, until the piece starts to hold together.

Lately I’ve been optimising my making process by finding extra hours where they naturally exist: long train rides, quiet movie evenings, and late nights. Not to rush the work, but to stay in rhythm—so the strain becomes momentum, and the momentum becomes a finished surface.

#thedevilisinthedetails2026 #thedevilisinthedetails #embroideryart

polalab 🪡 It’s all in the color.

Process from a new piece in my Karelian series. In this embroidery tradition, red is the given—a familiar, inherited presence.

My focus is how to let that red breathe by surrounding it with grayscale and beige tones. These quieter colours soften the surface, sharpen the contrast, and make the red feel even more intentional—less loud, more powerful. It’s my way of keeping the tradition visible while refining the atmosphere of the piece.

#thedevilisinthedetails2026 #thedevilisinthedetails #embroideryart

polalab Stop for a moment and enjoy mindful stitches of double sided stitch (aka Holbein stitch or crimsonwork)

Every stitch is calculated and precise as the pattern should look the same on the back side as on the front.

#crimsonwork #kareliantextiles #dmcembroidery

polalab Artwork reveal : 2na3yan

Hand embroidery on raw canvas
40x60 cm
2025
Pola Laamanen @polalab

The artwork was created as a part of @tidskriftenkontradiktion matchmaking art residency at the Jörn Donner residence.

#handembroidery #contemporaryembroidery #modernembroidery