Today, I’m thrilled to be joined by Coral & Tusk founder, Stephanie Housley. Stephanie is someone whose work beautifully embodies the art of storytelling through collecting and creativity and her journey is nothing short of inspiring. Growing up in the Ohio Valley, she cultivated a deep appreciation for nature and found objects—traits that became the foundation for her unique creative voice. After studying textile design at RISD, she spent 15 years as an interior textile designer in New York City. But in 2007, with a single embroidery machine in her Brooklyn apartment, Stephanie took a leap of faith and started Coral & Tusk, a brand now celebrated for its spirited embroidered textiles and home goods.
What sets Coral & Tusk apart is the magic of Stephanie’s process: every design begins as her original hand-drawn illustration before being meticulously translated to cloth. Today, Stephanie calls the mountains of Wyoming home—a setting that feels perfectly aligned with Coral & Tusk’s celebration of nature and imagination.
We delve into the idea of collecting with your eyes first, how her latest book, In Stitches, offers a window into her collections and creative process, and three of my favorite designs from the book and the stories behind them. So without further adieu, Stephanie Housley, founder of Coral & Tusk, for Collectors Gene Radio.
Some excerpts from their talk:
Cameron Ross Steiner: "So Coral and Tusk is your company, and you make the most amazing embroidered items for the home, whether it's textiles or you know for the holidays ornaments or or pillows or all sorts of stuff. And all the ideas actually come from items that you've collected from nature and your surroundings and things that you've thought of. But what I love the most is that everything starts out as a hand drawing from you, direct from the source. And then it's transferred to cloth in some sort of fashion, but it remains your hand. Is that right?"
Stephanie Housley: "That's totally right. Yeah. So everything is inspired by something in nature, right? So that could be something that I find an object like that would be very linear. Like let's say, if i find a feather, and then I'm very interested, like, oh, well, what birds live in this area that I found this feather in? And then really looking at, like, well, what's the environment that I found it in? What what tree is it by? Is it in an open field? And then identifying that feather and then creating I'm coming back to my studio, right, and then doing um some research to figure out, oh, well, this is that's so interesting. This is a rare bird, or it must have lost it during this time in migration. And then doing a drawing of that feather depicting it, again, in a very linear fashion."