Sheena Liam’s Flowing Thread Embroidery

During the quieter moments of the day, when model Sheena Liam is somewhere between travelling and photoshoots, she picks up her embroidery hoop and creates portraits of girls with flowing thread hair. The project has enabled Liam to explore her own taste for art direction, and each embroidered piece appears as an inventive contemporary approach to a traditional craft. Liam’s simple line drawings, created with a needle and thread, are layered with a technique of allowing the thread to sit loose against and beyond the canvas. This graces Liam’s work with another dimension, through the impression of flowing hair. The girls in each frame embrace this new possibility of interaction–they appear to be readjusting the thread, cutting it with tiny scissors and even dipping the ends in noodle soup. This endearing play with portraiture is explained by Liam as bringing “a certain sort of soul to the pieces.”

All images © Sheena Liam