Meet Julia Haman | Embroidery Artist & Nature Enthusiast

We had the good fortune of connecting with Julia Haman and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Julia, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
My business, Appalachian Stitch Witch, feels like it birthed itself rather than began from any business plan. It emerged from the hardest year of my life after I was forced to leave my chosen career as a middle school outdoor educator. The stress of teaching during COVID for two years flared my chronic illness, Lyme disease, and I was suddenly experiencing daily migraines, which left me no choice but to leave in the middle of the school year. I went from recreating in the mountains as much as possible to hiding from the world in dark rooms, unable to leave my home for months on end.

I found relief only in embroidery and it emerged as a meditative portal to peace and joy amidst a lot of confusion and pain. I embroidered during all hours of the day and night, seeking relief from the migraines that ravaged my body. After embroidering my own Blundstone boots, friends started to request that I stitch up theirs. On my 30th birthday, a group of rowdy girlfriends riffed until they came up with the name Appalachian Stitch Witch and created an Instagram for the business. To my amazement, it has continued to grow and my waitlist to have boots embroidered now stretches months long.

One year after leaving teaching, the migraines have decreased in frequency but my body is still too unreliable to show up to a job with dependency. After stressing over what my next career should be when I was so in love with the career I was forced to leave, I finally surrendered to following the plot twist of a burgeoning business that is Appalachian Stitch Witch. In this new version of my body where I cannot access the outdoors the way that I used to, I am able to spend time in the mountains while I stitch their essence into thread. I visit fields of wildflowers and mountain oases when clients request their likeness be represented on their boots. I am wildly grateful to have stumbled upon this business which gives grace to my body’s needs, sparks joy in my heart, and (small detail) pays the rent.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My career as an embroiderer began when I started obsessively completing pre-made embroidery kits during cold winter months when biking and paddling was decidedly less fun. Eventually, I stumbled across the book Mystical Stitches: Embroidery for Personal Empowerment and Magical Embellishment by Christi Johnson. Her book put into words much of what I had been feeling through my embroidery journey; embroidery is a moving meditation and a path to personal transformation. Shortly after reading her book I experienced a health crisis that forced me to leave my job and spend all my time at home healing. During the hardest year of my life, embroidering images of mountains and lakes served as an escape to these places when I was trapped in my house. This process taught me about grief and inspiration, longing and surrendering to the call of alignment with the great nature of things. Hours of stillness and tying knots in thread has called me towards a path in life that I had not planned yet keeps unfolding with simultaneously great and little effort. Thus Appalachian Stitch Witch was born, a business that seeks to alchemize the darkness I’ve faced into light by creating wearable art.

I fell into a groove embroidering Blundstone boots as I, and many of my mountain loving friends, wear these on the daily. My goal is for my stitches to serve the wearer as a talisman and physical representation of the feelings they wish to embody. I want each stitch to evoke within the wearer a sense of connection to the special mountaintop or wildflower they request for their boots. A small reminder of their inner wildness and connection to earth and stars. In this practice of stitch witchery, I seek to sew connection and joy through thread.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I have lived in and around Asheville, North Carolina since 2010 and absolutely love opportunities to share this magical place with visitors. These mountains are overflowing with rivers, waterfalls, and moss covered forests just waiting to be explored as well as breweries for days, and mouth watering restaurants.

Day one I would take a visitor mountain biking in DuPont State Forest which is full of flowy trails leading to secret swimming holes in both lakes and waterfalls. We would bike for a few miles then swim in my favorite lake, lounge in the sun for an hour to dry off, then bike out. We’d hit Mills River Brewery for some free music in the forest, dinner, and a beer.

We’d have to hit a downtown day as this area of Asheville has endless quirky shops and Mela, my favorite Indian restaurant with an all you can eat lunch buffet. Then we’d head to the Grey Eagle, my favorite place to see an intimate show.

After a full day of city life, we would drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway and hike along the Art Loeb Trail to Tennent Mountain. This trail is my favorite of favorites as it runs along a ridge line around 6,000 feet and serves views of soft, rolling mountaintops for the entire hike. We’d catch the sunset at Black Balsam Knob and head down to The Hub in Brevard for beers and whatever food truck they have on hand.

Next I would take visitors to a secret lake about two hours west of Asheville. We’d find dispersed camping along the lakeshore and spend the rest of the week paddle boarding, canoeing, and swimming. There is an old growth forest near the lake so we would wander through it for a morning before mountain biking around the nearby Tsali trail system. There is nothing like a few nights spent in the stillness of the forest to bring you home to yourself!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I would love to give a shout out to the book Mystical Stitches: Embroidery for Personal Empowerment and Magical Embellishment by Christi Johnson. This book gave voice to what I was experiencing yet did not yet know how to express; embroidery is a portal to personal growth. Christi’s words allowed me to view the process of passing a needle back and forth while tying knots as a moving meditation and a way to bring magic into the world.

Instagram: @AppalachianStitchWitch

Other: TikTok: @AppalachianStitchWitch Email: AppalachianStitchWitch@gmail.com

Image Credits
All images were taken by me.