Bianca Kau
textile artist · est. 2021
Portraits that remember.
Words, memory & feeling, painted in thread.
Hyper-realistic portraits, hand-embroidered one strand at a time — for the pets, the people, and the loves we want to keep forever.
selected work
A few souls, in thread.
the craft
A photograph becomes a living thing, slowly, by hand.
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your photo, studied
From a photo you love, I read the light and the eyes, and choose the threads to match.
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thread by thread
Hundreds of fine strands in long-and-short stitch, laid the way the fur and feathers grow.
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an heirloom, finished
Framed after many weeks: a piece made to keep, and to hand down.
commissions
Three kinds of keeping.
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animal portraits
The companion who shares your life, rendered with every marking true.
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portraits of people
A face you love, in thread. A wedding, a birth, a parent: quiet, warm, and entirely hand-made.
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memorial pieces
For the ones we’ve lost. A gentle way to hold on, not one sparrow falls unseen.
I take a small number of commissions at a time. Tell me about your piece, and we’ll begin with a conversation.
the studio
Meet the artist.
I paint with a needle. I was born in São Paulo, Brazil, and I now live and work in London, where I founded my studio in 2021. I started because I wanted to keep something I was afraid of forgetting — and discovered that a face, laid down stitch by stitch over many weeks, becomes somehow more present than any photograph.
letters from the studio
The slow craft of keeping someone.
A fortnightly letter on process, memory, and the quiet art of needle painting — plus first word on commission openings, course launches and new patterns.
On Substack. A quiet letter, no noise, unsubscribe anytime.
say hello
Let’s make
something to keep.
or write to me directly
[email protected]Tell me about the piece you have in mind, with a photo or two if you have them. I reply within a day or two.
