"My name is Hanna Melin and I was born in Sweden 1978.
I am an illustrator using a lot of embroidery and sewing, as well as drawings, in my work. It is important for me to combine different materials in the process of communicating. My grandmother taught me to do cross-stitching when I was four, we had sewing meetings once a week. I feel like I am keeping a bit of her in me when I use thread and needle.
I like to use embroidery because, for me, it is an innocent way of working and then to have your image say the opposite makes the message stronger. It is a way of surprising the audience. I use the computer a lot in my work, to make embroidery take part in the evolution of technology.
I moved to England in 1998 to do a one-year foundation course at Kent Institute of Art and design, with plans to return to Sweden, but after one year decided that I wanted to study further. I went on to do illustration at Brighton University. After graduating I worked one year as graphic designer for a fertilizer company in Sweden, but did not think it was my call in life and I missed England, so I moved to London and started a MA in Communication at the Royal College of Art and Design. Now I am a freelance illustrator that lives and works in London. I even started liking baked beans; I used to think they tasted like air."
