Category Archives: Needlework

Jordan Nassar

Jordan Nassar is an embroidery artist of Palestinian descent who lives and works in New York City.  He embroiders his composition of repeated patterns using traditional Palestinian motifs and his own set of symbols. His favorite subject is landscape as a sort of utopian vision of Palestine.   On an interview with Berlin Art Link he says this about his patterns:   

“One of the features of Palestinian embroidery is that each town, village, and region has symbols that are distinctly theirs, that can identify them to others when an onlooker sees one such symbol on their clothing.” 

“When I began working with this embroidery, it didn’t feel right to me to use symbols that would identify me as being from Bethlehem, or from Ramallah, or from Jerusalem, as I’m from New York, and so I did develop my own lexicon. However, as the years have gone by, and as I’ve spent so much more time in Israel and Palestine, and as my work has developed from an idea to more of a way of life, I’ve let go of this concern and now freely use symbols from all over.”

The artist can be followed on his website and on Instagram.

Images:  Courtesy of Jordan Nassar.

Ulla-Stina Wikander


Over the years Swedish designer Ulla-Stina Wikander has collected cross-stitch embroideries to create new covers for vintage everyday objects.  To date she has produced over a hundred different designs. She explains her concept as follows:

“In 2012 I started to cover ordinary household items from the 70s, like a vacuum cleaner, sewing machine, electric mixer etc. I find it interesting to see how these objects transforms in a new context; the obsolete, the things we do not want any longer, the old and forgotten things. They become artifacts from a begone era, disguised, camouflaged and dressed. I give them a second life and although I cut the embroideries into pieces, I think they look very beautiful, when they have been ‘dressed up’.” 


You can view more of her work on her website and on Instagram.

Images:  Courtesy of Ulla-Stina Winkander.

Aheneah

Lisbon-based artist and graphic designer, Ana Martins, created these incredible designs under the brand name, Aheneah.  She uses traditional needle techniques and transforms them into modern graphics. Her needle work can be seen on walls, fences, fabric and  and paper.

You can view more of her designs on her website, Facebook, Behance and Instagram.

Images:  Courtesy of Aheneah (Ana Martins).

 

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