Embroideries with a difference by Richard Saja

Article Added: 09/03/2009 15:49:47
Richard Saja, an embroiderer based in New York, is famed for his unusual embroideries, which he describes as “a cheeky and irreverent take on classic textile history.” Richard was recently featured in the New York Times and was awarded a Searchlight Fellowship by the American Craft Council, which allowed him to show his work at their annual show in Baltimore in February.

I caught up with Richard once his feet touched the ground after an action-packed show and he was clearly still revelling at his first jaunt into the craft world. He told me “I entered the professional world through the design community so many in the traditional craft scene weren’t familiar with it. The response to my work was incredible.” Despite some initial reservations about doing a trade show – “I don’t really like them, mostly because people can be so dismissive and disrespectful” – he met some great friends and business contacts at the event.

A look through the archive of his work on his blog site www.historically-inaccurate.blogspot.com quickly reveals why his work was received so well. His innovative ideas and way of working are very unique and set him apart from any embroiderer we have come across before. Unlike many embroiderers, Richard looks to fabric for the base of his art and then uses embroidery to enhance individual details within the fabric – embellishing hair onto people, beaks onto birds and petals onto flowers to create a distinctive piece of artwork. Toile prints are prevalent in the US fabric market and are Richard’s fabric of choice. A particular favourite of his is the Pleasures of the Four Seasons toile, of which there are many versions available. Richard explains, “I look for a fairly large pattern so that I’m not using tiny stitches to achieve imagery. I’m very exacting when it comes to my needlework, regardless of how free wheeling it may appear, and I can spend hours working on a tiny area if the print is too small.”

Richard was always a fan of textiles having grown up in the early 70s when bold, bright colours were all the rage. However, his move into embroidery was much more practical, as he explains: “My love of embroidery was born out of necessity as that was what was selling for me in the early days of my textile career, so I had to learn to stitch in order to fill orders. Luckily, as it turned out, I had a talent for needlework.” This talent is clearly evident in his work, which almost looks as if the fabric has simply been coloured in and no thread used in the process at all. Richard says, “I use thread like paint or ink and the physical process is very similar for me, I feel like I’m painting. Many people have thought that my work was simply coloured in using paints or dyes, so I’m achieving the desired effect.”

Richard has worked on many different embroideries, which he usually incorporates into cushions and other usable artworks – a sofa being his most ambitious project. His favourite piece to date is The Travers Series, a set of cushions he completed in the summer of 2008 images of these can be seen below. Richard explains, “The colours pop off the black on tan linen so nicely and the embroidery is the most dense thus far. It was the first time I’ve embellished that print and I really like its narrative potential. I bought scads of it and look forward to using it again soon.”

Richard has many new projects in the pipeline and is working on his largest embroidery to date – “an 11 panel, rainbow-hued series of monkeys based on 19th century zoological drawings.” HotHive Textiles will certainly be keeping an eye on Richard’s blog for when images of that piece are posted!

For those of you who live in or around Vermont, Richard will also be running his first solo exhibition at The Shelburne Museum from mid May. This is guaranteed to be an interesting exhibition and inspiration for all embroiderers so will be well worth making space for in your diary. More information about the exhibition is available here.