Wine Stain Portraits by Amelia Harnas

Artist Amelia Harnas creates beautiful embroidered wine stain portraits. We recently wrote about another example of gorgeous embroidery portraiture by artist Cayce Zavaglia.

My process for creating these wine stain portraits uses a wax resist (batik) and repeated wine stains to build up a light/dark pattern. Then, I add embroidery (split stitch, to be precise) to reinforce the design of the portrait. So far, my equipment is rather crude, melting dead candle remnants in a coffee can over a propane grill or stovetop & painting the wax resist with a kiddie bristle brush. The first stains are made with a $10 bottle of French Cahors, but subsequent stains will feature Finger Lakes reds chosen for deep color and lowest residual sugars.

via Colossal