Sew Wanderlust: Teresa Lim’s Embroidered Travel Diary

Imagine holding a small circle of stitched water and hills in front of the view that inspired it. The landscape stretches far beyond your hand, while the embroidery gathers a few chosen colours and shapes into something you can carry home.

That relationship gives Teresa Lim’s Sew Wanderlust project its charm. The Singapore-based artist began the series in late 2014, recording travel scenes through embroidery. The original coverage connects the work with her wish to spend more attentive time with a place.

A souvenir made through looking

The selected Ha Long Bay image shows a hoop held against the water and limestone forms of the surrounding view. Inside the hoop, the scene becomes thread: simplified edges, blocks of colour and a surface with its own texture.

The pleasure comes partly from comparing the two scales. You can see what the artwork keeps and what it leaves out. A small embroidered picture cannot contain everything, so each choice becomes more noticeable.

Other pieces in the original series draw on places including Tokyo, Prague, London and Serpentine Falls near Perth. Together they form a travel record with a recognisable material language.

Thread changes the questions you ask

A camera lets you make a frame quickly. Stitching asks different questions: which colour matters most, how a roofline turns, whether a tree needs individual branches or only an overall shape.

Neither method guarantees a better memory. Their value lies in the attention you bring to them, and they can work happily together. A photograph can record a reference while a sketch or small textile piece develops more slowly afterward.

Explore Lim’s own website for her wider practice. Sew Wanderlust is one project within an artist’s work, not a rule that every traveller must follow.

Try a three-colour travel study

You do not need to begin with a detailed landmark. Choose a scene that can be reduced to three main colours: perhaps water, a roof and sky, or a doorway surrounded by climbing plants.

1. Make a small sketch and decide which shape gives the scene its identity.
2. Select three colours that remind you of being there, even if they are not an exact match.
3. Leave some empty space. A small piece often feels clearer when every corner is not filled.
4. Add the place and date in your notebook, along with one detail the image cannot show, such as a sound or a conversation.

Work somewhere comfortable without obstructing a path or a business entrance. If you prefer paper, coloured pencils can create the same useful constraint with less equipment.

Let the finished piece stay personal

A slightly uneven line can become part of the memory. You are making a record of your attention, not applying for permission to enjoy art.

For another portable creative idea, explore travel-map crafts. If the journey itself is still taking shape, our trip-planning article can help turn that first spark of curiosity into a day worth remembering.

The places stitched into the collection

The original works include Hạ Long Bay, Tokyo, Serpentine Falls near Perth, Prague, Laufersweiler, London’s Westminster landmark, Hanoi, Berlin, Charles Bridge and Amsterdam. Some places appear more than once because the project records individual views, not simply a country checklist.

Lim described starting Sew Wanderlust in late 2014 and wanting to spend more time with a place than a quick photograph might require. That is her account of the project’s motivation, not evidence that photography itself is a less thoughtful medium.

The landscape translated into thread

An embroidered view has to translate a landscape into lines, areas of colour and a limited working surface. Fine details may be simplified while the shape of a roof or horizon becomes more prominent. The material therefore influences the way the memory is represented.

The photographs of hoops held against their source views let you compare the landscape with Lim’s decisions about it. A complicated outline becomes a manageable stitched edge; a broad area of water becomes a small field of colour. Try looking first at the embroidery, then at the background, to see which details made the translation. The result records more than a destination name. It carries the material, the artist’s choices and the time spent making them, all within an object small enough to hold in one hand.