Meet Chloe Giordano

Like a touch of the forest on your feed? Meet York-based creative, Chloe Giordano. You may have spotted her intricate pieces on your explore page via delicate stitches evoking the forest floor, delicate snoozing fawns, leaping velvety hares and rustling leaves. Wanna find out more about Chloe’s creative process, the perfect soundtrack to stitch to (cough, Jim Sullivan, cough!) and the benefits of working with your hands? You better read on for all for our whistle-stop chat... 

CAN YOU SUM UP WHAT YOU DO IN FIVE WORDS?

Tiny, needle painting hand embroidery!

FROM PODCASTS TO PLAYLISTS, WHAT DO YOU LISTEN TO INSPIRE YOU?

I've started listening to Andy J. Pizza's Creative Pep Talk podcast lately (I know I'm very late to the party on that one!) which is always an inspiring way to start the day. I listen to a lot of folk, 70's rock sort of playlists on Spotify, and I like to put a full album on in the afternoons to change things up a bit as that's when my energy starts to flag a bit (lately it's been Jim Sullivan's U.F.O. quite often).

HOW DID YOU DISCOVER EMBROIDERY AND HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELF? I.E. A MAKER, CREATOR…

I began embroidery in the last year of my illustration degree at UWE in Bristol, I had become interested in textile art and wanted to find a way to combine that with my background of realistic pencil and paintwork. I now finally just call myself an embroiderer, I used to say artist or illustrator as I felt that fit my background more and confused people less, but these days I just go with the confusion and try to explain what exactly I do for a living.

OK! WHAT'S YOUR FAVOURITE PIECE OF TEXTILE ART AND WHY?

I'm a very big fan of works like the Unicorn Tapestries, these were some of my biggest inspirations when I was starting out (I also spent a lot of time looking at illuminated manuscripts) and they're something I always return to when I need some inspiration. 

YOUR WORK IS INHERENTLY TACTILE, ARE THERE BENEFITS TO WORKING WITH YOUR HANDS?

There's definitely benefits to working by hand, it's the tactile nature of embroidery that made me fall in love with it and it's what keeps me interested. I'm very lucky in that I don't get any repetitive strain issues so I can continue to create with my hands for the time being! I also struggle to look at screens for too long so it's a relief that I went into a physical medium instead.

IF YOU COULD ILLUSTRATE ANY BOOK THROUGH THE MEDIUM OF EMBROIDERY, WHAT WOULD IT BE AND WHY?

I was actually pondering this yesterday, and my choice would probably be The Once and Future King by T. H. White. I would combine my love of tapestries and manuscripts (and Arthuriana) with wildlife embroideries and do something really elaborate. If any publishers are reading, please hire me to do this!

WHICH CREATIVES ARE YOU WATCHING RIGHT NOW?

I'm forever looking at the work of Aitch, she's made a lot of beautiful book covers over the last few years and I can't get enough of them, also Dinara Mirtalipova's lovely and delicate illustrations are always inspiring.

Thanks so much for letting us into your beautiful world, Chloe! Yearning for autumn leaves and wiley woodland creatures plain as your eyes can see? Discover more of Chloe’s work here, find out how you can support our Campaign For Creativity here and shop our crafty Make Your Future collection here!

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