Manoela Grigorova is the textile artist behind Mojo & Muse. Born in Bulgaria, she moved to he UK as a child.” Her work is a colourful mix of bold colours, textures, hand stitching and salvaged materials. “I want to captivate the viewer and let them feel a sort of immersive escapism.”

Where does the name Mojo & Muse originate?

Mojo & Muse is my brand name, a fun and playful way to describe my work. I am Mojo because it sounds very similar to a childhood nickname I have and Muse is everything I take inspiration from, everything that guides the direction of my work. Mojo and Muse was born a few years ago when my grandmother passed away and I inherited a large collection of her embroidery threads which she used to create tapestries. With this and other salvaged materials, I started making upcycled and rope wrapped jewellery. I love breathing new life in preloved jewellery and materials that would otherwise go to landfill. I feel that embroidery and mixed media art was the next natural progression for me.

What is your Muse?

A cliché I know, but inspiration can come from anywhere and everywhere, you just have to look! However, I will try to pinpoint key ideas, themes and influences. 

My work is heavily influenced by emotions and feelings, contrasts and contradictions and movements such as Surrealism, Pointillism and Abstract Expressionism. Artisanal, traditional and tribal craft is also a big source of inspiration and that’s where travel becomes something quite important. 

The natural world and our environment are also often a theme. It is perhaps intrinsically linked to my family’s professional backgrounds with the natural world; geology, meteorology, and oceanography, things that were always points of conversation at the dinner table. 

For my abstracts, I often take inspiration from micro-organisms, close-ups of natural patterns and textures, earth’s geological layering and intend to evoke emotions around our dwindling natural world. 

 Ideas also often come from the salvaged materials themselves, which play out the narrative by layering and creating something with contrasting textures. The story unfolds itself through the materials and I let my hands and feelings lead the way. 

Where did you grow up and where do you live now?

I spent the first eight years of my life in Bulgaria, until 1991 when the Iron Curtain fell, my parents decided to move to the UK. To say we fled is not an exaggeration. My parents were unsure of how life would unfold once Communism ended, they wanted a better life for me and my brother. And I am thankful to them every day for making that difficult decision to leave everything and everyone they know. 

In Bulgaria, life was simple. We played outside a lot! As kids, my brother and I had everything we needed and not much more. Communism in Bulgaria was about being fed, clothed, schooled. Society was looked after but was not given the luxury of being frivolous. A complete opposite to the West, where choice was aplenty, in Bulgaria, excess was not a thing! We had a black and white TV with just 2 channels, one in Russian. We didn’t have tablets, mobile phones. Everyone had the same furniture, the same apartments. We played outside or got creative at home. 

My parents had good jobs, one a meteorologist, the other a geologist but they were both quite creative in their own ways! They made their own furniture, not just out of need but to have something a bit different to the neighbours! My mum did a lot of crochet, knitting, macrame, she was always making something beautiful with her hands. 

My memories of my childhood were very beautiful, full of colours and textures, just like the Bulgarian culture. I remember in my grandmother’s house, beautiful hand-made tapestries and rugs, all made by her and hung on the wall. They served a purpose, more than their visual splendour, they insulated against the bitter winters and I remember being fascinated by the vivid textures.

When we moved to London, I continued with my arty pursuits. I loved drawing, making things, writing. 

What is your background in textiles?

I am mostly self-taught when it comes to my embroidery work, though creativity, art and design have been in my life as far as I can remember. Since I was 10 years old, I knew I wanted to be a fashion designer and one day feature in Vogue magazine. But this love for fashion did eventually turn into a love/hate relationship. 

Formally, I studied a lot of art. Textiles was not available as a choice in high school, so I did an Art as well as a further GNVQ in the subject. This led to a BTEC Diploma in Fashion Design at college. Things changed at uni though. I started a BA degree at Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication but left in my first year. I had become disillusioned with the industry, unhappy with my work, and a bit lost. Though I still loved the aspect of design, working with fabric and handcrafting, I felt the fickle reality of the industry wasn’t for me anymore.  

Whilst deciding what I wanted to do with my life, I took a job in the only other industry I knew – hairdressing. I had worked in salons part-time as a teenager, I loved working with people and with my hands, so it was an obvious choice. It was a different type of hairdressing though; it was building a head of hair for women with severe hair loss. It was magical work, rewarding and life-changing because it did so much for women. It gave me the creativity I craved and I was 

helping people at the same time. Building a head of hair is time-consuming, meticulous and meditative; sound familiar? Wig making is very similar to weaving and embroidery, especially working with mesh and very similar to stitches such as the turkey stitch! Funnily, even now, I use my hairdressing scissors and comb when trimming and cleaning up the turkey stitch.

10 years in the industry and with the big 30 (birthday) looming, I took what I call a life break and spent time travelling in Asia. I fell in love with the colours of different cultures, beautiful artisanal works, textures and textiles. Equally, my passion for the natural world grew tenfold and so did my disdain for fast fashion and cheap labour. The industry was also growing to be the second-largest polluter, aiding global, climate change and species extinction which really disturbed me. 

At this point I knew that my next professional challenge would involve nature somehow, eventually becoming a fundraiser in an animal charity, something that is amazingly rewarding. 

The artist in me is always there though, hiding in the background and in between the ‘real jobs’ or whenever I had an infusion of extra time.

What is it about textiles as an art form that appeals to you?

For me it is the tactile nature of embroidery, what I call the ‘touch-worthy’ aspect. Walking around art galleries, I find that even if I don’t connect with a particular piece, its subject matter, composition and feel, I like to get up close and see the texture of the paint, which can also be quite fascinating and exciting. 

My journey with embroidery began in 2019 but came to the forefront last year. March 2020 brought Covid to the world and personally, straight into my world. I got furloughed from work and at the same time, my dad went into hospital with the disease, my mum, home alone suffering a lesser but still evil version of it. My world was turned upside down, not to mention the impact on the rest of the world. 

Creativity was always something I craved, whether it was drawing, making jewellery, painting or discovering new mediums. Embroidery was something I wanted to delve into but made excuses about lack of time. Now, however, furlough had given me the gift of time! 

The process of embroidery is slow, repetitive, relaxing, meditative and even healing. It was a way of processing my emotions with every stitch. It allowed me to stay present and, in the moment, creating a sort of sanctuary for myself. I was cocooned in my little abstract worlds of beauty, colour and joy. I fell in love with the meticulous nature of the work, the slow aspect being a real antidote to the fast world we live in. 

How do you describe your work?

I would describe myself as a mixed-media artist who explores bold colours and contradicting textures through mixed media art, jewellery and sustainable adornment. My muse and I create wondrous textures and embellished abstract worlds that are colourful, playful and deliciously touch-worthy. 

It’s a noisy place inside my head, chaotic at times. I find relief in releasing the thoughts and energy down onto the canvas in a colourful, visual and tactile way. I would call my artistic vision “Poised Chaos” – The contrast of the intricate and repetitive with the noise of chaos. I want to captivate the viewer and let them feel a sort of immersive escapism. 

I also hope it conveys emotions of contradiction, curiosity, colour, to challenge the typical use of fibre and embellishment in craft and modernise this idea as an art form. 

As textile/embroidery artists know, these terms don’t always have a great appeal or connotation in the art world. This is why being part of SEW, the Society for Embroidered Work (https://www.societyforembroideredwork.com) is so important to me. As a society, we need to forge the way for fibre art and work with stitches to be recognised as an art form! A great example of this is Pointillism. A whole art movement created by the technique of using dots of paint to create an image. How is it that different if it’s a blob of paint or a French knot? The idea that embroidery is just ‘women’s crafts’ is absurd to me and we need to move on from these kinds of old-fashioned ideas. 

What techniques do you use?

A lot of experimentation got me to the point I’m at today. I was using different materials, putting stitches through anything I could get my hands on, there was a lot of trial and error! With all the time in the world (furlough) and consumed with worry, I put my energy into creating, experimenting and playing with different materials and techniques. There really wasn’t any space for self-doubt or personal judgement!

I had used alcohol inks for a few years and really enjoyed the process and hypnotic flow of the inks. Unhappy with stitching on fabric alone, I just started poking holes through my alcohol ink pieces. Today, I mostly work on canvas and hand embroider everything using a variety of stitches, some of which I don’t even know the names of! It may be obvious but the French Knot is definitely a favourite! There’s a lot of beading in my work too which is more about building the texture on the canvas.

I didn’t learn embroidery the traditional way and I would say I’m not interested in that so much. Learning is important though, if you want to break the rules, you must know them first.  For me, the stitches are more like strokes of paint, just another type of medium to express emotion, feeling and evoke an idea. The French knots and beads are not embellishments as such, they are part of the fabric of the work, they are the medium. I don’t even use the intended embroidery needles because on canvas they’re just not sharp or long enough for me.. curved wig needles are also something I use a lot as well as my hairdressing scissors and comb! 

How do you create a piece?

Although I have a rough idea of where I’m going with a particular piece, I seldom plan. My embroidery process is slow and intuitive. Saying that, there still has to be some consideration when stitching through the canvas. Every hole must be intentional, considered and committed, it’s not like fabric – if you make a mistake, it won’t just stretch out and disappear. 

My pieces are born from a blank canvas which I usually paint on (but not always) with alcohol ink or other types of fast flow paint – I really go for it. I can usually paint a number of canvases in one sitting. I love this contrast between fast and slow processes! These painted pieces would then become the base and starting point. Then I would start layering with a variety of salvaged 

materials, embroidery and beading. The materials themselves have a part to play in the narrative, layering and creating something with contrasting textures in a very organic way. 

Materials are often salvaged from thrift stores and charity shops, as well as places like eBay. I go to second hand first before buying materials which are newly made. This gives a sort of limitation which in itself is inspiring. This makes my pieces even more unique because even if I wanted to, I cannot repeat or remake pieces that are the same. 

When it comes to commissions or pieces for competitions, it plays out differently and there is a lot more planning involved. When there is a brief, I would go through the process of first sketching my compositions, then relaying back to my earlier works or research to decide on techniques and 

colour palettes.

I know this is a hard question but how long does a piece take?

Pieces can take anywhere from 30 hours for a small piece to over 150 hours. It’s really difficult to tell also because I can go from obsessing on one piece and working on it every day to working on several pieces at a time. Though I can tell you, I don’t have one single embroidered piece that has taken less than one day to complete. 

 Last year, I created ‘Glowing, Going. Gone.’ for an art competition and that took me about a month to create, working on it full-time during furlough, it had all of my attention!

What are you most proud of in your art career so far?

I would say creating the piece I mentioned above – ‘Glowing. Going. Gone.’ It was just very poignant for me to speak for the natural world and all of the problems we have caused as the most powerful animals on earth. It was made for an art competition ‘Sketch for Survival’, for the conservation charity Explorers Against Extinction. It entered into the ‘Wild Spaces’ section and was chosen for the final 10 pieces to exhibit at their annual exhibition at the Oxo Tower, London. It was really unfortunate that due to the pandemic, the exhibition was thwarted, like a lot of things in 2020. 

‘Glowing. Going. Gone.’ was inspired by the bleaching events around the world of coral reefs due to global warming. What was awesome was that my piece was chosen out of hundreds of entries and even though it wasn’t a traditional sketch or painting, rather fibre, it was still accepted as ‘Art’! It was snapped up at their auction and I’m happy it sold and raised vital funds for the charity. I would love to know who purchased it, but it was a secret auction. The exhibition did still go ahead, virtually, though it wasn’t the same. 

 I’m also very proud to be part of S.E.W. and continue to challenge old fashioned ideas about embroidery and textiles, with the mantra ‘Stitched Art is Art!’. This is something very important for me, to keep challenging the status quo!

Is there anything you would like to add?

Thank you to the wonderful community of artists on Instagram, such as embroiderers, stitch artists, fibre artist, mixed media artists… I could go on… for being so encouraging! Truly, I never imagined that so many amazing artists on social media that have never met would rally round each other and be so, so supportive.

 www.instagram.com/mojoandmuse

You can also contact Manoela by email at mojoandmuse@gmail.com to discuss anything from exhibiting, collaboration and commissions.