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Upcycling cross stich

Ulla Stina Wikander is a 61-year-old Swedish artist, currently based in Switzerland, who has been working as an artist since 1986.  She uses various home appliances and kitchen tools as the basis for her art, giving vintage objects a new life full of color and style.

Wikander has been collecting cross-stitch embroideries for over 10 years now and today she has a big collection of 100+ different designs. Although some of them are considered as kitsch, the artist finds them really beautiful and want to bring them back to life. "In 2012 I started to cover ordinary household things from the 70s, like a sewing machine, vacuum cleaner, electric mixer etc,” says Wikander on her website. "I find it interesting to see how these objects transform in a new context; the obsolet, the things we do not want any longer, the old and forgotten things.”

This artist often visits fleemarkets and vintage stores to find the materials for her artworks, including different vintage items that no-one else needs. It takes a day or two to "dress up" some of the smaller objects, such as an iron or a telephone, but the bigger ones might take weeks to finish. Scroll down to see them for yourself.










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