Flannery O'Connor author portrait hand embroidered shops hoop art | #bookstitch2018 Little Sasquatch embroidery project
This hand embroidered portrait of the author Flannery O'Connor was created for my #bookstitch2018 project. I read the novel Wise Blood, and reflected on how throughout history famous men have tended to be more often portrayed in art whereas important women have often remained somewhat faceless and unrecognisable. I decided to honour Flannery O'Connor by depicting her using hand embroidery. To reflect the stark, jarring nature of the novel, I designed this piece in a simple, high contrast style.
This portrait is hand embroidered in black thread on natural, unbleached cotton. Framed in a 5" bamboo wood hoop, backed with card and beautifully gift wrapped.
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About #bookstitch2018:
Toward the end of 2017, I realised that my bookcase was filled almost entirely with books by men, particularly white European and American men. It occurred to me that I ought to strive for a more diverse representation of authors in the books that I read, and to start with I decided to focus on women. From this shops decision a project was born, as I felt inspired to use hand embroidery to produce hoop art inspired by each book that I read. I posted about the idea on my Instagram account (@littlesasquatchembroideries) and other users expressed an interest in joining in on the endeavour. Across the year I read 25 books by women, creating hand embroidered art for each title or author.
Numerous other embroidery artists joined in, either reading books by women or creating book inspired embroideries, or both. To see all the embroidery art created as part of #bookstitch2018, search the hashtag on Instagram.
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Looking for something a little different? Contact me about customised hand embroidery designs - I love to make custom pieces, and I'm happy to recreate existing embroidery designs with different fabrics, thread colours or wording.
All Little Sasquatch embroideries are handmade by me, Joanna, mostly in my tiny flat in London, England. I've been embroidering for around 10 years now and creating hoop art is my passion. I take inspiration from both popular culture and subculture, with influences from TV, movies, music, books and more.
A lot of my embroideries are made using vintage fabric donated by my mum from her old quilting stash; these are limited in quantity so catch them while you can. Since all my items are hand embroidered, none of them are 'perfect', and that's what makes them so charming and unique - no two embroideries are the same.
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