BABY AND THE HOBBIT

Digital embroidery machines don’t come cheap. The Tajima machine from Japan that Kirsten calls Baby set her back about $ 36,000. But the investment was worth it to have her own machine to use for her art, and lucrative — if erratic — film work. Besides creating her own designs, Kirsten has been in demand to embroider costumes and props for films, including

The Hobbit series. “The day after I finished my master’s in 2010, I rang a friend working on The Hobbit to ask if they needed embroidery. She said, ‘Can you come in tomorrow?’ They gave me a sample to do and I took it back in two hours. They were like, ‘ Right, you’re starting now.’ While the production also used handembroiderers, Kirsten was the only machine embroider, creating beauty on the collars and edges of all the dwarves’ tunics, cloaks and leather gloves. “Orlando Bloom as Legolas had a leather jerkin with a dongle with embroidered edges. And Stephen Fry had amazing embroidered boots you don’t even see. I probably did 1000 garments. That was a full- on 18 months.”