the number you are calling...

My landline rang for ages last night and I almost jumped out of my skin.

It rings so rarely that I forget it is even sitting there. The only person who ever used my landline number was my Mum and unless she has found way to call me from heaven ( which I wouldn’t put past her) but now on the very odd occasion it does, it’s only an unwanted sales call.

I was standing last last night looking at my phone and realised I had never shared the utterly wonderful work of the textile artist Ulla-Stina Wikander’

She creates cross stitch works that she wraps around old tools and objects found in the home.

”For more then 10 years I have collected cross stitch embroidery and today I have a big collection with over 100 different designs. These embroideries have been made by women and is often seen as kitch and regarded pretty worthless. I have mixed feelings for them but sometimes they are very beautiful and I want to bring them back to life.

In 2012 I started to cover ordinary household items from the 70s, like a vacuum cleaner, sewing machine, electric mixer etc. I find it interesting to see how these objects transforms in a new context; the obsolet, the things we do not want any longer, the old and forgotten things. They become artifacts from a begone era, disguised, camouflaged and dressed. I give them a second life and although I cut the embroideries into pieces, I think they look very beautiful, when they have been ”dressed up”.

I visit flea markets and vintage stores to find cross stitch embroidery and the objects I want to work with. Some of the small objects, like an iron or a phone take me a day or two to make, but the bigger installations takes weeks to finish.

I just adore her work. You can see more of it on Instagram.

Now I just need my Mum to call me up and tell me what’s happening upstairs in heaven…

Queen Marie

x