About Me

 

 

Hi there! Thanks for stopping by wrenbirdarts! I'm Erin Eggenburg, sometimes called "wrenbird", hence the name of my business. I have always been "crafty" and in 2011, I dabbled my way over to hand embroidery, and fell deeply in love with it. I decided to add a few hankies to what was then my fabric wallet shop on Etsy, and the wallets soon became a thing of the past. For the next few years, I hand embroidered more than 15,000 hankies! 

Then in 2018, while working at a local creative reuse non-profit, I found a way to blend embroidery and upcycling/reuse through visible mending. I was able to save my favorite pair of jeans with a few patches and patterned embroidery. They looked great and the mends were strong, I was ready to explore this new way to use embroidery.  

As I shared my projects locally and on social media, there was an enormous positive response. I began teaching mending workshops and creating my own mending and embroidery patterns, using a material that I had used with embroidery, to recreate my own designs in previous work, thinking others would find it helpful when learning how to mend in pattern. 

When COVID hit, I took my workshops online, and started Mending Club for fellow stitchers looking to connect during a very stressful and scary time.

Mending Club has taken a different form, but still meets online once a month, and continues to grow in membership today. 

Wrenbirdarts, like many handmade businesses in the 2010's started out on Etsy, and though wrenbirdarts.com has so many more resources, I continue to maintain a shop on Etsy for mending and embroidery patterns and my book. If you'd like to read the reviews from my customers, please click here.

My book, The Mending Directory, was published in November of 2021. It's a book of 52 mending patterns that includes detailed instructions, and some mending transfer designs too! Order a copy here or from your local bookstore, or check it out from your library! 

I've lived in lots of different places in the midwestern and western United States. About 10 years ago, I moved to the Pacific Northwest, and it became home. I currently live in Portland, Oregon with my adorable cats, and sweet partner. 

When I'm not teaching workshops, or working on a mending project, you'll find me attending local events, snacking around Portland, thrift shopping, playing pinball or likely a combination of these activities. 

Contact:

If you have any questions, email: erin@wrenbirdarts.com