"Where flowers bloom, so does hope."
— Lady Bird Johnson

My Story

Hello and welcome to O&Y Studio! My name is Andrea but I've always been known as Andy. This is the place where I share my passion for sewing, working with fibers and my love of flowers. I started O&Y Studio in late 2016 as a way to sell my self taught, unique flower-inspired fiber arts. The name comes from the phrase people have said to me all my life — "Oh Andy!"

I have been working with fibers for as long as I can remember. Growing up in South Africa, my mom put knitting needles in my hands at age 4, and she presented me with my first sewing machine at age 11. From then on I knitted and sewed my own clothes, taught myself to crochet and pursued anything artsy and crafty I could lay my hands on. When I wasn't "making," I was arranging flowers, baking or cooking. After high school, I attended culinary school in Cape Town and worked as a chef until I came to the United States in my 20s. After marriage and my first child, I developed a love for smocking, hand-sewing and embroidery and later owned a needlework and smocking shop. I joined a national stitching guild and attended every embroidery technique class that was offered.

It wasn’t until years later that I came up with a method to combine crochet and embroidery, far different from the tiny, perfect cotton stitches I had learned through the embroidery guild and had applied to smocked children’s garments. What I stitch now is my own interpretation of freehand wool embroidery, often embracing haphazard stitches and elements of imperfection. In the past year I have been experimenting on non-traditional surfaces, and recently embroidered on a rattan chair, several tennis rackets and even a pair of vintage snowshoes.

With extended family on different continents, I have been privileged to travel far and wide, both within the U.S. and internationally, but my trips "home" to South Africa are my favorite. Wherever I travel, I scout for yarn shops and I love to bring back interesting wool and mohair fibers for new creations.

Since the inception of O&Y Studio, my work has been featured in some wonderful publications. See the Press tab of this website to see a list. Last year in January, I was chosen to be a 2023 Cities Program Artist for ArtPop Street Gallery in my home city of Charlotte. Over the course of the year, a vinyl billboard displayed my art along 2 interstates and 2 busy highways. Digital billboards in our region and throughout the USA featured the 20 artists’ work. The pièce de résistance - our art was displayed in New York Times Square for the month of February. We traveled to New York - oh my! Seeing the mega-sized image of my work has been the recent high moment of my life!