Stitching Stories: A Journey into the Art of Toucan Brooches and Embroidery Tutorial
The initial toucan brooch took shape in March 2016 and with a long story it lead to creating a Full Toucan Embroidery Tutorial in 2023.
The first hand embroidered Toucan brooch featured a flat eye, ribbon elements, and a vibrant stitched beak. At that stage, I was still refining the technique, and while the ribbon elements might have appeared a bit untidy, and the color gradients on the beak not perfectly defined, the bird quickly found its way to a new owner, paving the way for exciting experiments. Here are some toco birds from 2016:
Shortly after, toco bird orders started pouring in. With each new bird brooch, my skills in beak embroidery and creating volume feathers improved significantly.
In the summer of 2016, I hosted my first giveaway, and the lucky winner chose the Toco bird brooch. Rising to the challenge, I crafted a special version with a rainbow-colored Toco bird, complete with metal pin legs and an additional layer for the tail. Remarkably, this particular design remains one-of-a-kind, never to be replicated.
Over time, I decided to enhance the brooches further by replacing the flat eye with one adorned with a glass bead. The unique Toucan with a dark beak was also a limited edition, created as a single, exceptional piece. The following birds were created in 2018:
And now finally you can try to make this lovely bird yourself with my thorough guidance in the Toucan step-by-step tutorial. In the ebook and videos I guide you from the first stitch to the final assembled brooch piece. You receive additional bird patterns for practice.
