FAN Feature: Sophie Standing

Aurifil has been working collaboratively with Fiber Art Now for the past year. It is a partnership that allows us to support a remarkable publication, uniquely designed to celebrate the work of textile artists worldwide. Over the past few years, the magazine has undergone a beautiful shift– centering focus more on textile art and content and less on advertising. It’s truly like holding a subscription to a quarterly coffee table book. We often find ourselves browsing through, getting mesmerized by the brilliance of it all.

You’ll see Aurifil as one of the few ads in each publication, but rather than working a sales angle, we see it as an opportunity to showcase the work of our wildly talented Designers & Artisans. Each page puts one work of art front and center, beautifully illustrating the possibilities that exist when partnering intense creativity with a little Aurifil thread. These highlighted artists will occasionally have the opportunity to take over the FAN Instagram account, sharing their workspaces, works of art, ideas in progress, and more.

While we recognize that Aurifil and Fiber Art Now do have a cross-over audience, we’re guessing that many of you may not have had the opportunity to experience each artist takeover from start to finish. As such, we’re bringing those takeovers here to Auribuzz. We kicked off the series with Aurifil Artisan Emma Giacalone back in August. Today, we’re delighted to feature Aurifil Designer and awe-inspiring textile illustrator, Sophie Standing. We have been following along with Sophie for years, having also partnered with her on a curated thread set back in 2017. Sophie uses a brilliant combination of Aurifil threads and fabric collage to create her epic textile illustrations inspired by the remarkable animals she witnessed in the wild during her decades living in Kenya and other areas of Africa.

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ONE

Hello everyone, I’m Sophie Standing @sophiestandingart. I am thrilled to have been asked by Fibre Art Now to take over their account this weekend. I hope you all enjoy my posts.

I’m a wildlife artist working with fabric and thread. No pen, no paint, no pencil, just fabric and thread. I have lots to share with you: Living in Africa for 22yrs, my inspiration, my materials and studio, and looking at my artworks in greater detail.

Artwork: Bonobo (Botanical print cotton canvas, Liberty fabric and Aurifil thread)

15,000 bonobos remain in the wild in Congo. Humankind’s sister species. Peaceful. Intelligent. Loving. Endangered. They are our closest cousins, we share 98.7 % DNA 

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TWO

I am British but my husband and I have spent the last 22yrs living in Africa (South Africa, Seychelles, and Kenya). We have 2 sons, Fynn and Sam.

Being surrounded by a diverse range of flora and fauna has been a huge inspiration for my artwork. Whether it was zebra grazing in our garden, camping out and watching lions in the Masai Mara or driving 15 minutes up the road from our house to be amongst elephants.Always humbled by it and feeling privileged to have had these special moments with wildlife and friends over the years. 

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THREE

Here is a little break down of my process for how I create my artworks. First I make a detailed drawing from a photograph. This helps me to understand the anatomy of the animal I am creating. This drawing will also become my stencil/template. I photocopy my drawing to the right size needed for the artwork. It is this black and white paper photocopy that I use as the template to redraw the animal onto my cotton canvas background.

Once I have drawn the animal out, I then appliqué the whole thing… this is a collage of fabric pieces. I glue them in place. Then, using the free motion foot on my sewing machine, I thread paint/free motion stitch, all the details of the animal.

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FOUR

I have been doing my textile embroidered artworks for 13yrs now. I have moved country 5 times and lived in 10 different houses, so I’ve had many different studio spaces too! Here is my latest workshop space in Somerset U.K. We have moved here as a family for the boys’ secondary education. Who knows which country I will end up in next!

Like all artists, I find it so important to get set up fast in my new creative place. I need all my treasures and special things around me. My display of heavenly threads by @aurifilthread is one of them! I alsohave boxes and boxes of fabrics, some for my work and others just because they were too delicious not to buy. These are stored in my beautiful antique wardrobe. 

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FIVE

This large gorilla I made 8yrs ago was such fun to make. The clients gave me full reign to use whatever fabrics I wanted.

I normally do all the appliqué/fabric collage before I start thread painting the details but with this face I wanted to get some of the details of the sewing done a bit at a time. His arms are adorned with foxgloves and ranunculus, his cheek is a cabbage leaf…

I think pretty much the whole artwork was created with the fabrics of the Kaffe Fassett Collective who are Kaffe Fassett, Brandon Mably, and Philip Jacobs. The fabric designs by these three different designers work so beautifully all mixed up together. All the thread painting is with 50wt cotton by Aurifil.

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SIX

Here is a collection of some of my textile embroidered artworks. My background fabric is 12 to 15oz cotton canvas. I use many things to create a colourful texture. Mud, clay, tea and coffee, rust, eco dye botanical printing, acrylic paint…

The animals and birds are created with a collage of appliquéd fabric and then I sew (thread paint) all the details with 50wt cotton thread by Aurifil. 

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SEVEN

I have been teaching textile art workshops for 6yrs. I’ve taught in America, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, and England. The workshops normally run for four days. Often these are done as stay away retreats and are such fun to be a part of.

Since covid, my teaching went over to online workshops which were very successful and are still carrying on this way. There are already discussions happening and workshops being put in place in for 2024… so far Australia and America are on the books. I’m so looking forward to in person teaching again.

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EIGHT

Here is a selection of rhino art for you. Black and white rhino.

Black rhino are browsers, they tend to live alone and safe cover of brush and shrub. They have a pointed upper lip and use this to help them twist the leaves off the branches.

White rhino are larger and are more social than the black rhino. They have a wide mouth and graze the savannah grasslands much like a cow.

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NINE

Generally the textile embroidered artworks I created are quite large, but this Grevy zebra was the largest to date. He is 163cm x 220cm. I created him for the Kaffe Fassett – The Power of Pattern exhibition that was featured at the London Fashion and Textile Museum.

He is made with Kaffe Fassett Collective fabrics and Aurifil 50wt cotton thread. The last image that shows the zebra in black and white is the back of the artwork, this is all bobbin thread and better explains the amount of sewing I do to create my artworks. 

TEN

Leaving you with a selection of birds I’ve created. Thank you so much FAN for letting me take over the Instagram account this weekend. I hope you’ve all enjoyed my posts.

HUGE thanks, again, to Sophie for allowing us to recreate this takeover here. Have you ever tried thread illustration? Be sure to follow her on Instagram for more!

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