Stephen Wilson’s fascination with the embroidered arts world became instant upon completing his
first design over 25 years ago. Since then, his corporate creation of Anita Goodesign has prospered by
using entirely original artwork, digitized directly over the source material. Wilson has been digitizing
tile scenes and tapestry-style works for Anita Goodesign for over 15 years, only recently including
them in his studio work in the last 5 years. Wilson’s fine art process differs from Anita Goodesign’s
in that he prefers to use vintage drawings and patterns for the artwork, translating these into modern
embroideries through digitizing. These tapestries generally become fully stitched designs, with no
appliqué fabrics needed, and usually feature botanically-themed elements.
If you are curious about Wilson’s sources for these antiqued patterns, he is always on the look out for
items that inspire him, often coming across these inspirations in used book stores and antique markets.
“I was exhibiting at an art fair last year and happened upon a rare book dealer from London. She
specialized in books of old textile patterns that were used by textile mills around the 18th and 19th
century. Back then, artists that worked at the mills would hand paint patterns and scenes that would
be given to the salespeople. These paintings were then used to sell the fabric to potential customers. If
a customer picked the pattern from the book, then the mill would create the woven Jacquard fabric,”
Wilson adds.
Upon coming across these original, hand-painted intricacies, he immediately sorted through them for
inspiration. “I was thrilled to see this stash of fabric history, and I am honored to be able to give them
new life in modern embroidery designs.” Over the course of several weeks, Wilson set forth to handdigitize
each of the tapestry designs he selected from the archive. Upon the completion of these works,
he has put in well over 160 hours of digitizing these tapestry designs, converting each original piece
into the embroidered modern marvels seen in the pages to come.
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