Type: Photo embroidery
Technique: Ercigoj stitch
Year: 2014 - ongoing
Edition: Limited (10)
Size: Medium
Dimension: 101 x 67 cm | 39.8 x 26.4 in
Number of stitches: over 1.7 mio
Thread length: over 20 km | over 12.4 mi
Thread colours: 90
Development: over 500 person hours
Price: on request
About the artwork
Every child dreams of finding their own place in this world where they can be themselves, without being restricted by their living conditions. It can only last a moment like a jump into a puddle but it is a moment of pure happiness and joy. The motif for this photo embroidery is a part of Childhood Dreams, one of the finest photo series by Chris de Bode.
About the artist
Chris de Bode is drawn to dramatic stories of people, especially children. His photographic work was commissioned by several non-governmental organisations like Save the Children, Aids Funds/Stop Aids Now, MSF, Greenpeace, VSO, CARE, Oxfam, Cordaid and also several UN branches like UNFPA, UNHCR and WHO. He is also acknowledged author of documentary films. He has broad experience in mentoring workshops in several countries educating photographers on all levels focusing on story telling in pictures. A winner of first prize World Press Photo award. Born 1965 in the Netherlands.
Based on an exclusive licence agreement with Ercigoj, five of his best photographs were monumentalized in Ercigoj stitch technique. They encompass a wide range of motifs, from art to documentary photography. Each one is available in limited edition in different sizes. Each one comes with a Certificate of authenticity, hand signed by de Bode.
Features
Innovation of layering
We layer multiple colours of threads and so create rich embroidery and colour texture that is impossible to create with classic one-layer embroidery technique. By layering, we develop colour transitions and shadowing, by which we create multiple-colour surfaces, similar to pointillism painting.
Smooth transitions and shading
By intertwining threads of endless colours and creating colour transitions, we can shape soft shadows, make one surface transition into another and mix colours into an endless multitude of hues. This way, we can also recreate motives from photographs and sophisticated art paintings which wouldn’t be possible with classic embroidery technique, using vector surfaces.
Sophisticated colour calibration
Usually in embroidery, 10 or 20, maybe 30 colours of threads are used. We use around 1,000 colour hues and if a colour still doesn’t match the desired one, we create it by layering and colour transitions. We have digitally scanned colours of all threads by using a spectrograph, so we can colour match any colour from an original material or from CMYK, RGB or Pantone colour schemes.