Embroidery

Painted and Stitched Portraits Inspired by the Indigenous People of Chile

Mixed media hoop art by Katy Biele

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Trav­el is at the heart of embroi­dery artist Katy Biele. Chilean-born and now Cana­da-based, she spent four years explor­ing and liv­ing in dif­fer­ent coun­tries; south-east Asia is where she fell in love with tex­tiles and began her for­ay into embroi­dery. Since that time, she’s cre­at­ed float­ing gar­dens and vibrant flo­ral arrange­ments in the hoop. Her most recent series is a depar­ture from those past sub­jects and revolve around paint­ed and embroi­dered por­traits of people.

Katy stud­ied the Yaganes, an indige­nous peo­ple of Chile, as inspi­ra­tion for her work.  In small, four inch-hoops, Katy illus­trates the por­traits of the last Yaganes ladies. She high­lights their paint­ed facial mark­ings with thick thread and uses her sig­na­ture tac­tile plants to cre­ate tex­ture and sug­gest an environment.

Katy sells her work on her web­site. You can also buy some of her work as instant-down­load embroi­dery pat­terns on Etsy.

Embroidered portraits by Katy Biele

Mixed media hoop art by Katy Biele

Mixed media hoop art by Katy Biele

Mixed media hoop art by Katy Biele

Mixed media hoop art by Katy Biele

Mixed media hoop art by Katy Biele

Mixed media hoop art by Katy Biele

Embroidery art by Katy Biele

 

The Yaganes women aren’t Katy’s only embroidered portraits. She’s released finished a couple of others.

Embroidered portraits by Katy Biele

Embroidered portraits by Katy Biele

Embroidery art by Katy Biele

 

Mixed media embroidery art by Katy Biele

Mixed media embroidery art by Katy Biele

Mixed media embroidery art by Katy Biele