larger then life portraits

I was recently contacted by the embroidery artist Harriet Maxwell - In essence she contacted me to simply share her work with me and I am so happy she did.


As an artist who studied Textiles at Goldsmiths University, London where she learned to use the Irish embroidery machine she makes incredibly sophisticated works of art. Her work excels in technique and is truly an homage to the craft of embroidery.

The portraits she creates are quite large, about 1 metre squared.


When asked about her work and choice of subject she wrote:

I crop the faces as I am interested in the surface, texture and colours of the skin rather than gender or age. I select any face that I find interesting or unique.


I love how the faces are cropped and therefore not about the individual themselves but about the planes and beauty of a face or about the emotion and content in their expression and... as you know I love me a little negative space.

Her work is gorgeous and I can only imagine how much more lovely in person, especially considering the scale. So now I just want to see more, more, more.

Thanks Harriet for sharing your work with me and everyone here at the bird.
See more of her work and a few different series here.