I made the transformation work
My name is Ilaria Paparesta and I was born in Arezzo, Tuscany, in 1980. I grew up in a city of art and cultivated a passion for craftsmanship from an early age, having a mother who was a seamstress and spending a lot of time with her, watching her work.
During adolescence and then adulthood, my educational and career choices took me away from what I felt was my true nature: creating.
After a highly respected academic career, yet completely unrelated to what I do today (I'm a criminological psychologist!), I finally returned to the root of my spirit. But let's take it slowly; let me walk you along the path I've built in this new phase of my life.
In 2017, I decided to believe in what I was doing and made a decisive, bold, and courageous choice: I quit my job and decided to invest everything in myself. I applied to the Leather Goods Course at Polimoda in Florence and was selected! I learned how to create a bag, from the design to the finished product, but not only that: communication, branding, visual merchandising, and so much more... This wonderful year changed me: a school like Polimoda helps you see far, lets you have no limits in your creations, and above all, lets you never feel like you're wrong. My mind opened!
In 2018, while I was turning my handicrafts into a career, I began to explore collage in my spare time. I had some vintage magazines from the 1950s and 1960s at home, and I began cutting up some images and titles that inspired me. I tried my hand at my first pop art creations: initially, I glued them onto black cardstock, combining images and phrases that evoked a smile, often sarcastic and ironic.
In 2019, a meeting with an important person introduced me to a new art form: the world of embroidery. He taught me the fundamentals of this technique, and together we took an online course on the specific technique of "photo-transfer embroidery." I loved the combination of contemporary media and craftsmanship, but I was disappointed by the subjects more typically chosen for this manual art form. Family portraits, photos of dogs and cats, and landscapes were certainly not as free and absolute as what had previously distinguished me. I had to embroider subjects that appealed to me, not the market. My first choices were American Horror Story posters, then came mouths and hands, and finally circus performers and beautiful women. Everything exploded suddenly, from playing games to distract myself from work to over 1,000 embroidery designs sold in that first year of creativity!
The greatest treasure I've gained from all these experiences is a maxim I'd like to share with all of you: Being true to yourself always pays off.
I loved the combination of contemporary media and craftsmanship, but I was disappointed by the subjects more typically chosen for this manual art form. Family portraits, photos of dogs and cats, and landscapes were certainly not as free and absolute as what had distinguished me until then. I had to embroider subjects that appealed to me, not to the market. My first choices were therefore American Horror Story posters, then came mouths and hands, and finally circus performers and beautiful women.
Everything exploded suddenly, from playing games to distract myself from work to over 1,000 embroidery designs sold in that first year of creativity.
The greatest treasure I've gained from all these experiences is a maxim I'd like to share with all of you: Being true to yourself always pays off.
