Santo Cielo
Embroidery artist Santo Cielo, inspired by childhood memories and diverse techniques, shares the evolution of her craft from a haberdashery background to creating personalized, emotional portraits through needle painting.
Edition 3 Interview
Words by: Santo Cielo
Location: Berlin, Germany
Photo Credits: ©Debi Simon @debisimon
In my childhood, I remember being surrounded by fabrics, threads and dressmakers. For many years, my mother owned a haberdashery in the little town where I was born, and I tend to think this had an influence on my later decision to study textile design. Although I earned my degree in industrial design, at the Escuela Universitaria Centro de Diseño in Montevideo, Uruguay, and have since worked in many design and artistic fields, I think of myself first and foremost as an embroiderer.
At the end of our university courses, a friend and I got together to do a joint degree thesis, researching hand embroidery as a textile alteration technique and also national identity. We created an interview/workshop system where embroiderers, in this case women of various ages, would tell us stories relating to their craft, teaching us one or two stitches at the same time.
