From photograph to frame

The craft

I turn your photograph into tens of thousands of crosses on canvas, one stitch at a time.

A colour portrait photograph lying on a dark wooden table, the print the work begins from

The photograph

I restore old prints, clear a busy background, take out a stray object. It is part of the work, not an extra.

The plan

I map your photograph onto the canvas square by square. Every square becomes one cross.

Printed cross-stitch charts fanned out, every square carrying the symbol of one thread shade

The palette

A single work takes forty to sixty shades of thread, each chosen from a palette of hundreds. I match them so the transitions read as skin, not steps, in thread that keeps its colour for decades.

Two hands at the hoop, a needle setting a dark green cross into the Aida canvas

The stitching

I sew every cross by hand, shade by shade. A large piece runs to tens of thousands of stitches and hundreds of hours.

The frame

My framing partners mount it, mat it, and set it behind glass in a frame chosen for the piece. It reaches you ready to hang.

The finished portrait behind glass in a whitewashed frame, hung among other works on a gallery wall

It begins with one photograph.

Send me your photo. I'll give you an honest estimate of size, stitches and time before anything starts.

Commission a work