Italian artist Francesca Colussi Cramer started embroidering patterns and grids onto found photographs four years ago when she discovered a small vintage shop down the street from her house in North Wales. She was enthralled with the nostalgic feel of the store’s old images and postcards, and began adding thread to provide a visual and physical contrast to the original work. Some of her additions are abstract, like images which appear like patchwork quilts, while for others she makes more representational choices by layering the real life hues of a location or person in small bursts of color.
“Adding thread on paper alters an existing surface and creates such a rich texture and contrast with the original image itself,” Cramer tells Colossal. “It’s both visual and tactile, and doing it on paper, instead of fabric, comes with challenges and differences that I find more intriguing every day. It is a sort of conversation with the past in the images, like lifting a layer of dust and letting the color through, adding another chapter.”
Cramer still sources her photographs and postcards from the original shop that sparked the project, while also scouring a monthly vintage fair near her home and searching online on Ebay or Etsy. Cramer sells her embroideries on her online shop. You can view the process behind her works by following her on Instagram. (via Lustik)
https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2019/03/embroidered-photographs-by-francesca-colussi-cramer/