DMC recently redesigned their website and I recently had a chance to explore it. For a company that has been in the needlework business for so long and who has many threads that are popular with needlepointers, this site is a huge disappointment.
There are several areas where you might look for needlepoint, and most of them are very disappointing. Let’s begin with “threads.” Go there and click on “needlepoint threads.”
What’s is listed there” Tapestry Wool and no other threads.
People stopped using only wool in needlepoint in the mid-70’s. Where are the many other threads that have been standards for needlepoint for decades, let alone DMC’s innovative new products?
Not under needlepoint, you’ll find them under embroidery threads. Couldn’t DMC have listed them under needlepoint as well, it isn’t hard to do.
A second section is education and this is the only good part of the site for needlepoint. It has a small stitch dictionary (that could use some kind of index) and a nice introduction to needlepoint. It could have been better if they had incorporated more of their recent blog series on needlepoint.
I was unhappy enough with the product area, but when I got to inspiration, I got very unhappy indeed. First there are two “projects” listed under needlepoint. One of those is the memory thread brochure, a product they couldn’t even be bothered to list as a needlepoint thread.
But look at “half cross stitch” which is essentially needlepoint done on fabric — there are 15 projects. Why aren’t they cross listed? If it has to do with materials, add the line or two to tell about canvas size and number of strands.
And there are more needlepoint gems, no doubt under other headings such as whole stitch cross stitch charts. And even free projects they have designed and promoted on their blog for needlepoint, such as their lovely bag, are not here.
I’m not happy, we deserve more, we deserve a site that is, as their blog said “a comprehensive resource for all artists, crafters and stitchers.” Instead of comprehensive except for needlepoint.
We shouldn’t be the poor stepsister of the embroidery world.
About Janet M Perry
Janet Perry is the Internet's leading authority on needlepoint. She designs, teaches and writes, getting raves from her fans for her innovative techniques, extensive knowledge and generous teaching style. A leading writer of stitch guides, she blogs here and lives on an island in the northeast corner of the SF Bay with her family
It is odd, because the site is dmc-usa and I have come to realise that those who do ‘needlepoint’ in the USA tend to think of it as seperate to ’embroidery’.
But I think that to the rest of the world, needlepoint is simply one sort of embroidery, and to me it make perfect sense to have all the threads listed as ’embroidery threads’.
I cannot think of one single thread that is limited to one type of embroidery – they can be used for pretty well everything these days. Why try to limit that?
For example, perle 12 thread… People doing crazy quilting use it. People doing cross stitch use it. People doing Or Nue use it. People doing crewel work use it. People doing cutwork use it. People doing blackwork use it. And Assisi, and hardanger, and pulled thread, and bead embroidery, and stumpwork. And needlepoint.
Instead of trying to cover all the different forms of embroidery, it makes sense to have all the threads together and just call them Embroidery Threads.
🙂
Jocelyn
I agree, but then why single needlepoint out and then not put the additional products there?
They could just put everything together in one category, maybe even call it “Threads for embroidery and needlepoint.” Or they could have done the little work needed and added the other threads to the needlepoint section.
Keep Stitching,
Janet