The Embroidered Menagerie: Coral & Tusk at BON TON goods
Coral & Tusk at BON TON goods
The Embroidered Menagerie
A room of gardens, birds, cats, curious creatures and seaside friends—each one drawn by hand, translated into thread and given a place within the collected BON TON interior.
Coral & Tusk has never made textiles that simply sit quietly in a room. Founded by artist Stephanie Housley in 2007, the studio begins with original pencil drawings and transforms them through richly detailed, machine-assisted embroidery. The result preserves the wit of the line, the expression of each character and the feeling that a story is already underway.
For this photographic story, we brought the collection together against one of the most expressive corners of BON TON goods: an antique chair, natural linen and a deep red chinoiserie paper alive with birds and flowers. The setting is theatrical, but the pillows remain wonderfully at ease.
Coral & Tusk works best in rooms with a past, a point of view and space for something unexpected.
A garden in thread
Where every stem holds a small surprise
The Garden Gathering Pillow makes a garden into a gathering place; tiny mushrooms, seed heads and insects emerge between the stems; a grand botanical composition is balanced by the smallest embroidered detail. The Garden Pillow brings a fuller field of flowers into the room. Natural linen keeps the color grounded, allowing these pieces to mix easily with antiques, patterned walls and textiles collected over time.
Garden scenes reward a closer look: color first, then texture, then the tiny cast of characters hidden among the stitches.
Birds of a rather different feather
From stately quail to a blackbird with an acorn
Stephanie Housley’s animals have personality without becoming cartoons. Desert Quail Love has its own quiet ceremony; the Blackbird with Acorn appears caught in thought. Paired together, they feel less like a coordinated set than portraits from the same eccentric family.
Characters with character
The pleasure of an embroidered personality
The Cats Pillow turns a gathering of embroidered felines into a group portrait. Butterflies, beetles and small garden visitors become jewel-like marks of color. These are sophisticated textiles with an essential sense of humor—the sort of pieces that make a beautiful room feel inhabited rather than arranged.
Small worlds within worlds
The pocket pillow, opened
The Lighthouse Friends Pocket Pillow turns a flat embroidered scene into something dimensional. A removable character waits within the landscape—here, Lighthouse Keeper Bear tucked into the tower. It is playful, certainly, but also beautifully resolved: illustration, embroidery and object combined.
A change of horizon
From the garden to the water
The embroidered world moves easily from woodland to shore. Boats, lighthouses and animal sailors carry the same narrative charm into a nautical room without relying on familiar coastal clichés. The navy thread, natural linen and flashes of warm color feel graphic, spirited and timeless.
A little company on the wall
The menagerie steps out of the frame
Let Coral & Tusk set the scene, then give one of its creatures a companion nearby. Cody Foster’s papier-mâché animal mounts bring that same pleasure in character into a different material: a sculptural presence above a chair, beside a picture or among the objects already collected in a room.
The Winter Hare Mount makes a gentle companion to embroidered gardens and woodland scenes. The Raven Mount echoes the darker silhouette of the Blackbird with Acorn Pillow. Whether you choose a single companion or a small gathering, leave room for the linen, the stitches and each animal’s expression.
There is room for a wider cast, too. The Brown Mouse Mount brings a small, curious face into a gallery of pictures, while the Ram Mount with Gold Horns adds a more theatrical note beside natural linen. The Peacock Mount extends the bird story; the Narwhal Mount carries it towards the sea, a fitting companion for Coral & Tusk’s Lighthouse Friends Pocket Pillow. Choose a creature that speaks to the room, then let the embroidered details make the connection.
Winter Hare Mount · Cody Foster
Raven Mount · Cody Foster
Mouse Mount - Brown · Cody Foster
Ram Mount with Gold Horns · Cody Foster
Peacock Mount · Cody Foster
Narwhal Mount · Cody Foster
The collected room
Serious craft, never a serious mood
That balance is the enduring appeal of Coral & Tusk. The drawings are observant, the embroidery is intricate and the linen is made to live with—yet the work never loses its delight. One pillow can interrupt a formal chair; several can create an entire cast. There is no requirement to match. Only to look closely.