Macro Views of British Beaches Become Abstract Textural Embroideries by Emily Botelho

Although she doesn’t live right by the ocean, artist Emily Botelho channels her passion for marine landscapes with frequent trips to explore where soil and sea meet. On these trips, she photographs the colors and textures that appear on the rocky waterfront: lichen, seaweed, and small sea creatures all create unique visual patterns. The Manchester, U.K.-based artist then prints her photographs on cotton fabric and embellishes them with long straight stitches, tight beadwork, sea shells, semi-precious stones, and three-dimensional tufts.

Botelho, who creates work under the name Salt Stitches, formerly had a career in the fashion industry, and only took up embroidery about a year ago. In that time she has built a substantial following sharing and selling her hoop-based works on Instagram and Etsy. Botelho is also participating in an online auction with fiber art curator The Fiber Studio, which launches on June 28, 2019.