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Delight in Heather Rios’s Delectable Cakes Made from Polymer Clay and Embroidery

by Aurelia Butler 17 March 2025, 12:26

All images courtesy of Heather Rios, shared with permission

Delight in Heather Rios’s Delectable Cakes Made from Polymer Clay and Embroidery

March 17, 2025

ArtCraftFood

Kate Mothes

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While Heather Rios’s slices of layer cake look ready to stick a fork into, you may want to think twice. Formed of polymer clay and finished with embroidery, the artist pairs the sweets with a vintage plate—and sometimes a fork—in playful trompe l’oeils.

Enveloped in realistic frosting and decorated with berries, blossoms, and sprinkles, each work evokes pieces you’d be ready to dig into at a birthday or wedding. Rios meticulously embroiders each sponge element, fashioning patterned layers in thread on a hoop before transferring the finished panel to the sculpture.

In addition to freestanding forms, Rios embellishes small paintings with shallow reliefs of cakes on canvas, emphasizing vibrant color and the fluffy texture of the exposed interiors.

Many of Rios’s cakes would be exceedingly difficult to achieve in reality, like detailed floral designs or motifs from blue-and-white porcelain. Lucky for us, we can have our cake and keep it, too. Find more on the artist’s Instagram, and purchase a slice from her Etsy shop.

A sponge embroidery in progress

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Melissa Calderón Preserves Neighborhood Memories in Bold Textured Thread
by Aurelia Butler 13 March 2025, 13:06
“Out Here (we is)” (2025), cotton and metallic thread hand embroidered on linen, 16 x 20 inches. All images courtesy of Melissa Calderón, shared with permission
Melissa Calderón Preserves Neighborhood Memories in Bold Textured Thread
March 13, 2025
ArtCraft
Grace Ebert
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On expanses of beige linen, Melissa Calderón immortalizes pockets of a neighborhood or domestic space. Combining imagery from her childhood in the Bronx with her family’s native Puerto Rico, the artist translates familiar landscapes and sights into vivid embroideries, preserving her memories in thread.
The intimate compositions capture how neighborhoods and communities change, particularly as long-time residents are displaced. Her current body of work, titled Gentrified Landscapes, explores “a place that once was but is now between the two spurts of gentrified-led divestment and revitalization and how this particularly affects the Bronx and Puerto Rico.”
“Villa Nueva (I’d Still be Puerto Rican even if born on the Moon)” (2024), cotton, nylon, and chenille hand embroidered on linen, 24 x 24 inches
Calderón embraces the potential of thread to add texture and emphasize the more conceptual elements of her work. “Villa Nueva (I’d Still be Puerto Rican even if born on the Moon),” for example, drapes soft, green chenille across the composition like a lush cluster of vines. “Prone IV | My Underemployed Life series” features a green sofa unraveling into tangled fibers that spill off the canvas.
In her studio, Calderón focuses on the meditative, entrancing process of stitching. Works begin with a drawing that’s transferred to a pattern and freehand rendered onto the linen. She enjoys the slow, methodical movements, which remind her “of times I sewed with my grandmother, making Cabbage Patch Kids clothes to sell on the playground before school started for the day. Embroidery takes me to a calm place where only the process matters.”
Currently, Calderón is working on a few commissions and preparing for a solo exhibition in Puerto Rico. She also recently began a large-scale work titled “Bodega Miles” that will stretch 40 inches wide and take more than a year to complete. You can follow her progress on Instagram.
“Prone IV | My Underemployed Life series” (2023), cotton and satin thread hand embroidered on linen, 16 x 20 inches
A work in progress
“Coming Soon” (2023), cotton and metallic thread hand embroidered on linen, 16 x 20 inches
“El Tiempo Muerto (The Dead Times)” (2023), cotton, and metallic thread hand embroidered on linen, 24 x 24 inches
Detail of “Coming Soon” (2023), cotton and metallic thread hand embroidered on linen, 16 x 20 inches
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Regal Portraits Evoke Myth and Power in Simone Elizabeth Saunders’ Hand-Tufted Textiles
by Aurelia Butler 12 March 2025, 13:41
“Girl with Butterflies” (2024), silk and wool yarn on muslin warp, 50 x 40 inches. All images courtesy of the artist and Claire Oliver Gallery, shared with permission
Regal Portraits Evoke Myth and Power in Simone Elizabeth Saunders’ Hand-Tufted Textiles
March 12, 2025
ArtCraft
Kate Mothes
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Emblazoned with vibrant patterns and words like “TRUTH” and “LOVE,” Simone Elizabeth Saunders explores Black identity in relation to kinship, power, and survival. Her hand-tufted textiles (previously) merge cultural narratives and history with mythology, nostalgia, and personal experiences.
Saunders predominantly focuses on women, who she portrays in bold portraits and within fantastical, empowering scenarios. In recent works like “Girl with Butterflies” and “She Manifests Her Destiny,” figures embrace and commune with totem-like snakes, insects, and plants.
“She Reveals” (2022), hand-tufted velvet, acrylic, and wool yarn on rug warp, 65 x 60.5 x 1 inches
Rooted in the myriad histories of the global Black diaspora and rich textile traditions throughout countless cultures, Saunders employs a craft technique historically relegated to a role “beneath” fine art in order to turn the tables on how we comprehend influence, identity, and artistic expression.
Saunders is represented by Claire Oliver Gallery, and you can explore more work on the artist’s Instagram.
“(Be)Longing IV” (2023), hand-tufted acrylic, cotton, wool, and metallic yarn on cotton rug warp, 20 x 1 x 30 inches
“Girl with Hummingbirds” (2024), silk and wool yarn on muslin warp, 50 x 40 inches
“Internal Reflections” (2022), hand-tufted velvet, acrylic, and wool yarn on rug warp, 66 x 62.5 x 1 inches
“(Be)Longing VIII” (2024), hand-tufted acrylic, cotton, wool, and metallic yarn on cotton rug warp, 20 x 1 x 30 inches
“Release in Darkness” (2022), hand-tufted velvet and acrylic yarn on muslin warp, 66 x 55 inches
“She Manifests Her Destiny” (2024), silk and wool yarn on textile backing, 50 x 40 inches
“Break Away at Dawn” (2023), hand-tufted velvet, acrylic, and wool yarn on muslin warp, 66 x 56 x 1 inches
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Join Us for a Colossal x Joy Machine Workshop with Peter Frederiksen
by Aurelia Butler 11 February 2025, 13:33
“Not Taking Any Chances” (2022), freehand machine embroidery on linen, 8 x 6 inches
Join Us for a Colossal x Joy Machine Workshop with Peter Frederiksen
February 11, 2025
ArtColossalWorkshops
Grace Ebert
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We’re excited to share that we’re hosting an embroidery workshop next month with Chicago-based artist Peter Frederiksen. Join us at Joy Machine on March 2 for Frederiksen’s signature Stitch Circle.
The three-hour workshop will unpack his unique approach to image-making and teach the basics of embroidery. All skill levels are welcome.
This workshop coincides with Joy Machine’s inaugural exhibition, Light Preserver, which features Frederiksen’s embroideries alongside works by eight artists who cultivate and ritualize joy.
There are only a handful of tickets left, so get yours before they sell out. And if you’re a Colossal Member, don’t forget to use the discount code in your account for $5 off.
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Signe Emdal’s Chromatic Weavings Manifest Wonder and Joy
by Aurelia Butler 10 February 2025, 15:10
Detail of “Fantasia” (2023). All artwork photos by Kristine Funch, courtesy of the artist, shared with permission
Signe Emdal’s Chromatic Weavings Manifest Wonder and Joy
February 10, 2025
ArtCraft
Kate Mothes
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Twenty years ago, Signe Emdal founded a business that focused on making unique textile objects and garments, drawing on her background in jacquard weaving, fabric printing, and a range of other techniques. By 2021, though, she was feeling hemmed in and longed for a way to express herself through a more intuitive, less functional creative direction.
“It was time to free myself from a frame I no longer fit and make a new one,” she tells Colossal. “I had no idea what the new frame would look like, but I trusted that life would bring me something better if I said goodbye to a setup that didn’t bring me joy anymore.”
“Maison” (2023)
A self-described “textile composer,” Emdal views the loom as a window where warp and weft interact to create storage vessels for memories. She is also deeply influenced by exploring new locations. “Art allows me to travel in a completely new way because I get to be in a creation process while spending time with or (being) in other cultures,” she says. Many works she makes on-site, influenced by her surroundings.
Process is central to Emdal’s artistic education and continues to be the primary influence in her practice. “Everything is process, and everything is changing all the time,” she says. “Nothing is ever going to be finished!” She shares that through textiles, she learned to hone her concentration on both physical and metaphysical levels, finding that the meditative methodology of weaving echoes how she views art-making and life more broadly.
Emdal’s related series Touch and Loop comprise sculptural, loom-woven wool in vibrant colors. From radiating puffs of vibrating color to elegant, draping details, her pieces are inspired by science fiction, feminism, art history, and music. “The sculptures are layers of delicate memories,” she says, embodying fragility, resilience, sophistication, and joy.
Emdal’s work will be included in the Textile Art Biennial Slovenia, which runs from May 31 to August 14 across five cities. Find more on Emdal’s website and Instagram.
“Dreams of Gaia” (2024)
Detail of “Dreams of Gaia”
“Heart of Nebula” (2024)
“Fantasia” (2023)
“Acqua 4 ever/Evigheden” (2024)
“Spirit of Green” (2024)
Detail of “Spirit of Green”
“Murex 4ever” (2023)
“Silky Way” (2023)
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Announcing Joy Machine, a New Art Gallery in Chicago
by Aurelia Butler 10 February 2025, 10:00
Abi Castillo, “Blooming” and “Blue Caterpillar” (2025), ceramic
Announcing Joy Machine, a New Art Gallery in Chicago
February 10, 2025
Art
Grace Ebert and Christopher Jobson
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As Colossal prepares to turn 15 this year, we’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to be part of a creative community. During the last decade and a half, we’ve spoken with thousands of artists, designers, and makers and cultivated a vast network of friends and colleagues around the globe. Publishing has been one of the greatest joys of our lives and demonstrated again and again how art can connect us all.
We’re incredibly excited to share that we’re expanding our footprint right here in our home of Chicago. Our new art gallery, Joy Machine, opens on February 21.
Michael McGrath, “Night Ride, Spring Gods” (2025), colored pencil on wood panel, 10 x 8 inches
A year in the making, Joy Machine is built around the belief that amid deep uncertainty and upheaval, joy becomes an indispensable gateway to hope. As we navigate this incredibly difficult time, we’re interested in coming together to expand our power to feel and process experiences good and bad.
Our first exhibition, Light Preserver, features nine artists who cultivate and ritualize joy through humor, nostalgia, vibrancy, and excitement for new possibilities. Whether reflecting on childhood fun or invoking art’s ability to rescue us from depression, each artist taps into our shared humanity—not to evade difficult realities but to find meaning and purpose amid chaos. In this way, joy becomes an essential antidote to despair and a fundamental lifeline to keep us all afloat.
Light Preserver features work by many artists you’re probably familiar with, including Moises Salazar Tlatenchi, David Heo, Liz Flores, Peter Frederiksen, Danym Kwon, Lisa Congdon, Michael McGrath, Jeff Rubio, and Abi Castillo.
Colossal will continue publishing independently as it always has, and when Joy Machine’s projects fit Colossal’s mission, we’ll be sure to share them with you all here.
If you’re in Chicago, please join us to celebrate Joy Machine’s opening on February 21. You can follow the gallery on Instagram, and sign up for the newsletter on the website.
Danym Kwon, “When Small Happiness Found Us” (2025), acrylic and acrylic gouache on canvas, 18 x 18 inches
David Heo, “Mamihlapinatapai” (2024), mixed media on paper mounted on panel, 11 x 28 inches
“Red Boots” (2025), acrylic on wood, framed in hemlock, 18 x 24 inches
Peter Frederiksen, “Sharing Secrets” (2022), freehand machine embroidery on linen, 6 x 8 inches
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Order and Chaos Entwine in Abstract Embroideries by Kristine Stattin
by Aurelia Butler 5 February 2025, 19:49
All images courtesy of Kristine Stattin, shared with permission
Order and Chaos Entwine in Abstract Embroideries by Kristine Stattin
February 5, 2025
ArtCraft
Grace Ebert
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Where someone might see opposition, Kristine Stattin finds fitting companions. Working in her studio in the Occitanie region of southern France, the artist alternates between hand and machine embroidery as she layers long, sweeping lines and tiny, tufted French knots. The contrasts create tension and intrigue and ensure that Stattin doesn’t get too comfortable with any one mode.
“My work is all about the process, being in and surrendering to the moment, embracing the unknown, not being attached to outcomes and expectations, and bringing the threads to life,” she says.
Bursting with color and texture, Stattin’s abstract embroideries evoke movement and energy through several layers of thin, sewing thread stitched atop one another. There’s tension between orderly rows and chaotic smatterings. “Each new piece is an internal journey, a sort of enigma that asks to be solved, and I use the needle and threads to capture a feeling, movement, and life itself,” she shares.
Occasionally, appliqué, screen-printing, and acrylic-painted details appear in her pieces, and decisions to incorporate new materials are part of an instinctive process guided by the work itself. Color is similar, with combinations of pastel hues and bold, saturated palettes derived from nature, the artist’s surroundings, or even the way sewing thread falls on her table.
“I am interested in an intuitive, yet mindful process, to see where the threads will take me, to see and respond to what happens, and to work with eventual mistakes,” she says. “I embrace those mistakes as they often lead to new ideas that I bring into future work.”
Follow Stattin on Instagram for updates and glimpses into her process.
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Ernesto Neto Crochets an Enormous Snake to Slither Inside Le Bon Marché
by Aurelia Butler 31 January 2025, 20:00
All images © Stephane Aboudaram | we are content(s), shared with permission
Ernesto Neto Crochets an Enormous Snake to Slither Inside Le Bon Marché
January 31, 2025
Art
Grace Ebert
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“If Adam and Eve had not eaten the Divine Apple, they would still be in paradise, wouldn’t they? And us? Where would we be?” asks Ernesto Neto in relation to his latest project.
At Le Bon Marché Rive Gauche in Paris, the Brazilian artist (previously) presents his signature crocheted installations. A 28-foot snake coils up through the atrium for “Le La Serpent,” a monumental project evoking the creation myth of Adam, Eve, and the snake.
Rather than view the story from the perspective of sin, Neto chooses to see the animal as a life-giving force that transcends the Abrahamic story. Utilizing both male and female articles, the title positions the serpent as exceeding gender and instead as a joyful, spiritual force that can connect mind and body. The artist notes that many cultures, from Mesoamerica to Cambodian mythology to ancient Greek, viewed the serpent as god. Given that the Lunar New Year recently ushered in the Year of the Snake, the project also has a timely tie to Eastern traditions.
Although Neto frequently incorporates bold colors into his installations, the yarn in this project uses white to celebrate Aristide and Marguerite Boucicaut, the founders of Le Bon Marché who encouraged artists to use the color in their works in the 19th century.
A collaborative, meditative space awaits visitors on the second floor. Neto composed a song that plays throughout the room, while a large tee stands at the center. Dried leaves, turmeric, and cumin fill the trunk, adding an earthy, spiced scent to the air. The chalkboard-style walls are designed for visitors to draw and leave notes for future viewers.
“I want to remind people that they have a body—that they can feel it,” the artist said. “Scents activate memory and help us reconnect with our own essence.”
If you’re in Paris, see “Le La Serpent” through February 22.
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Lifelike Canines Lounge in Emily O’Leary Uncanny Hooked Rugs
by Aurelia Butler 13 January 2025, 17:00
“Fluffy-Tailed Ticked Dog” (2022), hand-hooked mostly-wool yarn on linen. All images courtesy of Emily O’Leary, shared with permission
Lifelike Canines Lounge in Emily O’Leary Uncanny Hooked Rugs
January 13, 2025
ArtCraft
Kate Mothes
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Most dogs spend at least half of their day asleep—some getting z’s for upwards of 18 hours. Whether curled up on the floor or enjoying a long-legged stretch, the subjects of Emily O’Leary’s rugs evoke our beloved pets.
Based on photographs of actual dogs, she focuses mostly on animals the artist doesn’t know. “I like to hook dogs that are pretty ‘mutty’ looking, that don’t look like yard-bound Golden Retrievers or Doodles,” she tells Colossal. “I’m attracted to the shared history of humans and dogs—how the bulk of their domestication may have happened somewhat inadvertently.”
“Injured Elbow Dog” (2020), hand-hooked wool yarn on linen
Employing a carpet-making technique called rug hooking, the earliest form of which can be traced to Northern England in the early 19th century, O’Leary spends several months on a single piece. Compared to tufting, “It’s a slower, more traditional process,” she says, but the process allows each individual loop to be applied at a different height, giving her the ability to create three-dimensional reliefs.
O’Leary learned to make rugs after predominantly focusing on embroidery. When some friends organized an exhibition themed around dogs, she had the idea to make a work in the shape of a life-size canine. “I’m lucky that the rugs sort of do inspire tender feelings in the people who see them, but that they’re also a bit uncanny,” she says.
The pieces’ weight and realistic details engender an intimate connection as they come to life, so to speak. “I really feel like I’ve built a relationship with the object,” she says, adding: “Sometimes the dogs I hook have wounds or scars. The dog rug I’m working on right now is missing a little chunk of her ear. I want to depict them as they are, not stuffed animal versions.”
Find more on O’Leary’s website and Instagram.
“Brown and Black Dog” (2021), hand-hooked wool yarn on linen
Detail of “Mottled-leg Dog” (2024), hand-hooked wool yarn on linen
“Sandy Reddish Dog” (2023), hand-hooked mostly-wool yarn on linen
Photo by Bucky Miller
Photo by Bucky Miller
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fiber art

Latest story

Delight in Heather Rios’s Delectable Cakes Made from Polymer Clay and Embroidery

More stories

Melissa Calderón Preserves Neighborhood Memories in Bold Textured Thread

Regal Portraits Evoke Myth and Power in Simone Elizabeth Saunders’ Hand-Tufted Textiles

Join Us for a Colossal x Joy Machine Workshop with Peter Frederiksen

Signe Emdal’s Chromatic Weavings Manifest Wonder and Joy

Announcing Joy Machine, a New Art Gallery in Chicago

Order and Chaos Entwine in Abstract Embroideries by Kristine Stattin

Ernesto Neto Crochets an Enormous Snake to Slither Inside Le Bon Marché

Lifelike Canines Lounge in Emily O’Leary Uncanny Hooked Rugs

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