Why my latest work is called 'Transformation'

Welcome again to my third blog already :)

Today I want to tell you more about the process and story behind my most recent work. Three hand embroidered wall-art pieces which I call the 'Transformation series'

Before I dive into the why and how on this embroidery, I just want to explain a bit about my way of working and how a design comes to life from scratch.

I love to draw...however I don't consider myself as a very skilled person when drawing any embroidery design with pencils, paint or markers. Instead I always take piles of magazines, rip out everything hat inspires me, and create a moodboard or collage which will be the starting point for a new embroidery design.

Even when I was young, I saved interesting images in notebooks and loved making collages and moodboards. It can be just one specific image that is inspiring or a color. 

Ok enough with this, now back to my recent work...:)

So, it started with my moodboard. In this case I didn't have a idea but just loved how the moodboard turned out and wanted to challenge myself by converting it into embroidery. Because of the big size of the design I splitted the design in two.

Moodboard for embroidery design 

I found this beautiful quote;

"Change is superficial. Transformation is deep. It alters our perception of reality and therefore causes everything in our life to shift. Transformation is what happens when we live our life rather than analyze it" (Frank Natale)

What's the story behind 'Transformation'?

Actually, all three designs have a different name but together form the Transformation series. The title came to me after the collage was finished. I was in a hectic time of private and personal changes and this title felt right.

When I started with the first one 'Past', the thought I had while looking at the image, was a feeling of memories, learning (hence the book probably) and growing up. Your past is forever with you and has defined a great part on who you are today and tomorrow.

'II Present'

The smallest piece is called 'Present' and represent present time. Halfway through the process I had this idea of connecting the two larger works with a smaller one, in the same colours and style. I really want to use goldwork in this piece to balance out the gold colour and all the tiny details makes it so interesting and layered.

I feel that how you think about your past and present, affects your future and how you deal with things, good or bad. If you take a closer look, you can see that I used this circle twice in the serie...can you find it?

'III Future'

The third and final piece is called 'Future' and you see the womans face looking up and forward to experience new things and eager to live a rich and full life. For me this is a powerful image and how I live my live as much as possible.

So many lovely materials are used in these works. I used a combination of several couture embroidery techniques and rich materials like silk organza as a base, (vintage) glass beads, goldwork and silk thread, crystals(citrine), sequins, wool and lace.

I had a lot of positive feedback, people said to me that they loved the embroidered face and that all 3 works has a mysterious Eastern vibe to it...

That's what I love about my work, that every person has a different view, feeling and opinion. Art brings people together and can start a conversation..

Find more unique handembroidered art

Hope to see, meet, or hear you soon, let’s stay in touch:

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