Ivana Vujnović
- City
- Belgrade
- Country
- Serbia
My name is Ivana Vujnović, and I am the founder of Rukotvorka, a small creative studio dedicated to embroidery, upcycling, and traditional crafts. Before starting my own project, I spent more than twenty years working as an editor, journalist, and PR professional in publishing and culture.
What excites me most is exploring the connection between handcraft and technology. Although embroidery and programming seem to belong to completely different worlds, both rely on patterns, structure, problem-solving, and patience. Through my work, I try to preserve traditional skills while presenting them in a contemporary way through workshops, educational materials, and creative projects.
I work with embroidery on fabric and paper, recycled materials, and handmade objects, always searching for ways to combine creativity, sustainability, and storytelling. I am particularly interested in how traditional crafts can find a place in the digital age and how making things by hand can help us slow down, focus, and reconnect with the creative process.
Artworks
This piece, titled Self-Portrait, combines textile printmaking and hand embroidery with gold thread. Rather than concealing an existing crack, I followed its path with stitching and incorporated it into the composition. The gold thread highlights the point of connection, while the sequins introduce an element of lightness and playfulness.
I am drawn to the possibility of using craft to give new form and meaning to what has been cracked, discarded, or overlooked. I am drawn to the possibility of giving discarded materials new meaning through craft.
"Lux Occulta" is made from paper clay created by recycling old newspapers. Fragments of broken glass and the stem of a wine glass are embedded into its surface, while wire stitching and a branch become part of its structure.
I am interested in the journeys materials take: from tree to paper, from useful object to waste, and finally into a new form. Through upcycling, stitching, and hand-building, I explore how discarded materials can be transformed while still carrying traces of their previous lives.
Created on a second-hand shirt, this embroidered piece is inspired by river currents and the places where they meet. The motif is worked in rice stitch, a technique composed of thousands of small stitches whose repetition creates a meditative rhythm. Through embroidery and upcycling, I explore ways of giving existing objects a new life.
In this piece, I used paper as a surface for hand embroidery, treating thread as a drawing medium. The image of a woman emerging from a book was inspired by the experience of reading and those moments when the boundary between story and reality becomes blurred. I am interested in applying traditional embroidery techniques beyond their usual context and exploring how they can be translated onto new surfaces.