Style Imitating Art | Embroidered Birds on Dried Leaves by Laura Dalla Vecchia

About Style Imitating Art

Style Imitating Art is hosted by Salazar of 14 Shades of Grey, Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge, and Marsha of Marsha in the Middle. Style Imitating Art challenges us to draw style inspiration from pieces of art. Every other Monday, one of the hosts, acting as presenter, selects an inspiration image that they will each post on their blogs. The following Monday, each host shares her art inspired outfit. Participants are invited to submit their art inspired outfits to the presenter by 10:00 p.m. EST on the Tuesday following the hosts’ art inspired outfit posts. The following day, Wednesday, the presenter will share all of the submissions on her blog.

You don’t have to be a blogger to join either! In fact, you don’t even have to join but you can still use the art to inspire an outfit just for the sake of trying something different. If you want to share your inspired outfit, we invite you do so on Instagram or any other social media platform that you prefer. Just be sure to tag Salazar, Shelbee, or Marsha or use #TeamLOTSStyle and #StyleImitatingArt so the hosts know you have joined. Go have some fun in your closets and join the SIA challenge next week!

This Week’s Presenter

Salazar chose this week’s artwork because she loves embroideries as well all things nature-themed, so she fell in love at first sight with these stunning bird embroideries on dried leaves. She also chose this particular collection of art as a beautiful transition into autumn, the season of falling leaves and migrating birds. For this challenge, however, we are not limited to one particular work of art, but rather you can use the artist’s entire collection of bird embroideries, or choose just one (or a few) as your inspiration.

The Artwork

Peach-Fronted Parakeets Embroidered on Dry Leaf by Laura Dalla Vecchia

About the Artist: Laura Dalla Vecchia

Laura Dalla Vecchia is a Brazilian biology student who found a unique medium for creating her detailed embroidery art back in 2019. Hailing from a richly biodiverse country, the artist combined her passion with purpose by blending her scientific knowledge of native flora and avian species with her exquisite embroidery talents. Her extensive collection of bird embroideries on dried leaves is her way of celebrating nature while also raising awareness about its fragility.

Using dry leaves, sticks, a needle, and embroidery thread, Laura creates an intricate narrative about the beauty of her native bird populations with a special focus on endangered species. The level of detail and accuracy in her bird embroideries reminds me of Mary Delany’s Paper Mosaiks.

I cannot find much more information about the artist herself but she has actively been engaging with Anne on social media as Anne has attempted to try some dry leaf embroidery after reading about this amazing artwork on my little ole blog.

About the Art: Embroidered Birds on Dry Leaf

For my sartorial inspiration, I chose a leaf with eight tiny peach-fronted parakeets embroidered on it. I found myself drawn to the green and blue coloring of this chatter of pretty parakeets because it very much reminded me of my green satin kimono robe that features a tropical bird print.

Before embroidering the bird images onto the leaves, the leaves must first be treated to prevent cracking and breaking. You can find some videos about this process on Laura’s Instagram page or you can go directly to her website, Leveza Art. Before putting the needle to the leaf, however, she does a lot of bird watching and bird sketching to accurately capture all of the beautiful details that nature has provided. I encourage you to go check out some of the links I provided here. Laura’s work is astonishingly breathtaking and I am so happy that Salazar chose her embroideries to be featured for this round of Style Imitating Art.

Resources/References:

• Leveza Art
• Leveza Art on IG
• Embroidery Artist Uses Dried Leaves as an Unconventional Canvas for Exquisite Bird Portraits
• Laura Dalla Vecchia: Bridging Science, Art and Embroidery
• Creative Works Blog
• This Artist Inherited Her Mother’s Talent For Handicrafts And Created A Type Of Embroidery On Leaves (59 Pics)
• Brazilian Artist Laura Dalla Vecchia Amazingly Embroidered Birds On Leaves

About My Outfit

As I already stated, the green parakeets reminded me of my green tropical bird print kimono robe so that was my starting point. I have had this robe since 2018 and still wear it fairly regularly including for a previous SIA challenge, for a recent Songful Style challenge, and for a fall wedding look a few years back.

To represent the leaf, I layered the robe over my brown leaf print slip dress. This dress came into my wardrobe in 2020, making subsequent appearances for a Magnificent 8 challenge where I wore it as a slip beneath a sheer dress and a recent SIA challenge featuring wood carvings.

I wanted to include some embroidery in my outfit but I don’t have very many embroidered things. My tan cowgirl boots have an embroidered floral pattern and work really well with this dress. I wore the same combination for the SIA challenge linked above. Because I layered the robe over the shapeless slip dress, I definitely needed to add a belt. So I reached for this embroidered one that I found at a local thrift shop. I really liked the way the pattern and colors of the belt mixed with the bird, leaf, and floral prints already in my outfit.

Keeping with the leaf and avian theme of the artwork, all of my other accessories are related to nature or birds…large feather earrings, birds on a branch necklace, tree of life necklace, my fave hat with a hand painted leaf design, and a crossbody bag with a bird print.

I really like how this outfit turned out. I am also enjoying showcasing the versatility of the clothing in my wardrobe and wearing the things that I already own in the interest of sustainability and budgets.

Here is the kimono robe styled 5 different ways.

And here is the dress styled 4 ways.

How do you I think I did with this challenge?

Be sure to check out Salazar’s interpretation of the artwork, but Marsha will not be joining us for this one because she is off traipsing around Europe somewhere right now! I do hope she is having the most amazing vacation. If you would like to participate in this challenge and have your photo included in Salazar’s round up post on Wednesday, August 28, 2024, be sure to email your photos to her by Tuesday, August 27, 2024, by 10:00 p.m. EST. I am excited to see what you all style!

Keeping it on the edge,

Shelbee

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