Intricate Appliqué Embroideries Raise Awareness of Endangered and Extinct Species

There’s some­thing miss­ing from Katie Tume’s fiber art. Work­ing under the name Moth­er Eagle, her intri­cate land­scape embroi­deries and appliqued pieces high­light stun­ning details includ­ing three-dimen­sion­al leaves and lay­ered bead­ing. But in every piece, a small crea­ture is removed from the environment.

The organ­is­m’s absence is a sil­hou­ette that appears per­fect­ly extract­ed from the rest of Katie’s hand­i­work; the van­ished crea­tures are endan­gered and extinct species. “I have a strong dri­ving impulse to tell sto­ries of the ani­mals and species we are los­ing and have lost,” she tells Sarah K. Ben­ning in an inter­view. “I’m very inter­est­ed in human­i­ty’s rela­tion­ship with nature both now and in the past, and also how we mark loss, grieve and rit­u­al­ize death. It’s com­bin­ing these ideas that I’m explor­ing in my work, and it’s proved such a rich vein of inspi­ra­tion I can’t see an end to at the moment.”

Katie sells her work as kits and prints in her online shop. Fol­low her on Insta­gram to see her ani­mal embroi­dery in progress.