An unlikely textile art podcaster!
It was early 2017 and I was looking for an embroidery podcast or a textile art podcast that featured mainly UK based textile artists and embroiderers. And I didn’t really find anything. Lots on knitting, and crochet, and dressmaking, and sewing, and quilting, and crafting, but nothing that really focused on textile art and embroidery. An idea began to take root…….
Stitchery Stories is an embroidery and textile art podcast set up by me in July 2017. I am Susan Weeks and I am a textile art & embroidery enthusiast, and now a popular textile art podcaster! Embroidery and textile art is my hobby. I love it, but don’t spend as much time on it as I would always like to. A familiar problem I am sure!
Why Stitchery Stories was launched
So embroidery is my hobby…. why did I launch this podcast? Why did I become a textile art podcaster?
Back in 2017 podcasting started to become more ‘mainstream’ and since I love technology and textile art, I thought… why not start my own podcast? Push myself out of my comfort zone, learn some new skills and… have some fun too!
A Popular Textile Art Podcast: A Leader In Its Niche
Since it’s low-key launch in July 2017, Stitchery Stories has consistently ranked within the Top 200 podcasts in the UK Visual Arts podcasts in Apple Podcasts. And not only ranking in the UK! Stitchery Stories can be found everyday, all over the world in the Top200. This alone makes me feel very proud of what I have created.
Did you know there are now over 2.4 million podcasts out there as of September 2022? Literally hundreds of podcasts are launched every day. Sadly, many of them only reach a few episodes and then die off and ‘podfade’. But thanks to a very engaged and passionate audience, Stitchery Stories continues to grow. I am therefore, an established & popular textile art podcaster, with a global audience. This podcast has been mentioned in several magazines and by prominent textile artists, needlework organisations and bloggers. It’s all very exciting, that’s for sure 🙂
The podcast went over the 200,000 all-time downloads milestone in early 2021. Currently, September 2022 I have achieved over 256,000 downloads. That blows my mind. 256,000 times, people chose to listen to me chatting with lovely guests about our shared passion of textile art and embroidery. I took a break of 12 months from october 2021 until october 2022, yes during that time of no marketing whatsoever, over 15 thousand downloads happened, as textile art fans continued to find my niche and enjoyable textile art podcast!
Surprisingly, my podcast episodes are not just lovely chats with creatives. Something that has emerged over time, is that my conversations with artists have also featured business highlights and dilemmas. Plus, some very inspiring stories of how guests have overcome great challenges to succeed and build a life and business they love! Being a textile art podcaster is very enjoyable.
Textile Art Blog
I also decided to start writing the occasional textile art blog post. This is to share some of my textile art creations and other related embroidery and textile art topics that don’t fit within the boundaries of my textile art podcast. Over on Instagram, September 2022, a month long posting theme #septtextilelove has been very enjoyable. I decided to take part, and have enjoyed making short videos, telling the stories and inspiration behind some of my textile art pieces. I will make blog posts around those videos so they get a longer ‘shelf life’ than on my Instagram @stitcherystories_podcast account.
Enjoy Stitchery Stories & Thank You For Listening
I hope you enjoy these embroidery and textile art podcast episodes. Please also go and follow the links to the artists websites & pages to find out more about them.
And PLEASE share this with any of your friends who love embroidery & textile art too!