Elisa Vieira Novás

#Threads 1 is light, open, and deliberately unresolved visually. The collar takes shape as a loose ring of interconnected forms rather than a fixed perimeter. It reads less as a contained object and more as a system that is porous, expandable, and responsive to space. Air and movement are not incidental here; they are integral to how the piece operates.

The structure is built from repeated yet irregular units of thread that cluster and separate along the curve of the collar. Each form feels grown rather than designed, bulbous and cellular, with soft edges and trailing threads that resist clean finish. Color moves gradually across the surface, shifting through a spectrum without clear divisions. This chromatic drift reinforces continuity while avoiding stagnant symmetry or hierarchy. Nothing resolves into pattern; instead, variation accumulates. Material relationships drive the tension of the work. PLA provides a lightweight, digitally produced scaffold that is present but not dominant. It holds space rather than claiming it. Textile thread introduces softness, labor, and time, its stitched density contrasting with the rigidity of the printed forms. Silver appears quietly, functioning as connection rather than emphasis. No material takes precedence. Each contributes without stabilizing the whole.

Embroidery is central to this work. The stitching reads as gesture and process with the shifts in color acting as the embellishment. Repetition becomes a way of thinking through the work. The hand remains visible, and the piece records decision-making through small shifts, tangles, and deviations. These moments of improvisation prevent the work from closing in on itself. Symbolically, #Threads 1 positions embroidery as a collective and resistant act. The interlinked forms suggest networks of emotion, social, and political fragile but persistent networks. The openness of the structure allows for movement and reconfiguration, implying connection as something provisional rather than fixed. The work maps relationships instead of illustrating them.

Worn as a collar, the piece occupies a sensitive bodily zone. It frames the neck without enclosing it, asserting presence without control. Rather than signaling status or protection, it feels adaptive and relational. The body does not carry the object; it activates it.

#Threads 1 marks a shift in Vieira Novás’s practice from couture-based embroidery toward an experimental, sculptural language. Thread becomes structure, color becomes volume, and jewelry becomes a site for reflection rather than resolution. The work remains openboth materially and conceptually, inviting the wearer to complete it through movement, proximity, and time.

References

Vieira Novás, Elisa. “#Threads 1.” Accessed November 15, 2025.
https://elisavieiranovas.wixsite.com/evenstudio