This one’s a bit outside of our usual machine embroidery realm here at Gear Threads. But it involves embroidery and machines, threads and gears, and it’s simply too awesome not to share.

Zsanett Szirmay, a student at the Design Institute of Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design in Budapest, Hungary, collaborated with musician and composer Bálint Tárkány-Kovács to discover the enchanting sounds hidden in embroidery. Szirmay laser-cut traditional cross stitch motifs from Transylvanian Bukovina, Kalotaszeg, and Hungary into tapes that are then run through a music box, revealing the sweet melodies hidden in the threads.

Listen to some of the sounds of stitching here:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIuFFrFAOMo&w=600&h=450]

Makes us wonder … before machine embroidery designs were digital, they were painstakingly punched into tapes much like those read by a music box. What unheard cacophony is lurking in these stitches?

Learn, see, and hear more at Soundweaving’s beautiful site!

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Gear Threads is brought to you from the offbeat gals at Urban Threads. Created by illustrator Niamh O’Connor, Urban Threads is revolutionizing machine embroidery one edgy, elegant, innovative, and/or offbeat design at a time. Discover the future of digital stitchery at www.urbanthreads.com.