Visit Amber Griffiths Instagram page and you’ll be shocked to find embroidery hoops displaying human anatomical parts in all their details. Such is the talent possessed by this embroidery artist from Shropshire, England.
But, why human anatomy? This inspiration came to Griffiths in her desire to do something different to portray the iconic Valentine’s Day heart. She explains it on thisiscolossal.com, thus, “I’m not particularly someone who’s into all the mushy classic love hearts, so I thought the anatomical route would be much more interesting.”
Griffiths created the heart in soft pink and used red and blue threads for its veins and aortas. Needless to say, the result was quite stunning. This prompted her to explore other anatomical parts of the body. With single-minded devotion, she began creating embroidery pieces of not only the organs of the human body, but also their skeletal parts, muscular system, a fetus in the womb, and much else.
What amazes one is not only the accuracy with which Griffith has embroidered them but also her use of appropriate colors for various organs and parts. She certainly has the eye to discern organic shapes and textures to fit them together to form a particular anatomical structure. All this accuracy comes from her research. She refers to 20 to 30 images of a particular anatomical part before she commences her work.
Griffiths favorite embroidery tool is a punch needle. As for the threads, she uses normal six-strand embroidery thread, which she then splits for smaller and more detailed stitching. Her choice of punch needle depends upon the number of strands.
That Griffiths anatomical embroideries are popular can be gauged from the number of followers on her Instagram page. At the last count, they were over 112,000 and counting!
Amber Griffiths: Etsy Store | Instagram | Facebook | Youtube
