Trini Guzmán, the hands that created the embroidered field of flowers

A little over a year ago, Trini began to embroider and there are now more than 16,000 people who follow her on Instagram. Although she was already known for being a member of the muralist duo ESTANPINTANDO, the success of her embroidery work came quickly. Today he recognizes that the love for this technique that he has learned by observing and studying in a self-taught way is influenced by having grown up in his mother's haute couture workshop.

More than 250 people have gone through the embroidery courses that he has taught since February. In them, Trinidad found a common place: the need to connect with creativity, empower oneself, feel the freedom to create and play again. Not only her students transmitted her desire to humanize things; According to her, there is a global tendency to value what is handmade. “We have reached a point as a society where everything seems to be so systematized and robotized that there is an enormous need to resume those things that connect you with your creativity and human gesture,” he comments. According to Trinidad, embroidery is also something out of time since the hours go by and you don't realize it. She calls it 'the phenomenon of suspended time'.

How do you think your mother's haute couture design influenced, firstly, studying art and secondly, what you do today?
It influenced a lot. At that time there was no fashion as fast as it exists today. I saw my mom prepare entire collections, choose her own materials, organize her shows, everything. Since I was 5 years old I have memory of playing in his workshop, taking scraps, recognizing different genres and reading haute couture magazines that my mother brought from abroad. I grew up looking at designs like Gaultier and Versace, which were super quirky and statuesque. I think that this also influenced the fact that, when I studied art, I wanted to do it with a mention in sculpture. I did a lot of textile research and now I realize that this fascination I have for textiles comes from when I was a girl.

And in your school days?
I always intervened in my clothes, but I didn't like doing the clothes myself. I would see my mom making the mould, measuring, cutting and making sure everything was perfect, but I preferred to do something that was already done. At some point I thought about studying costume design but my mom recommended that I shouldn't, that I should study art since it was something more global, and she was right. In art you can study everything and investigate different areas, from science to botany to haute couture.

When you started embroidering, did you see it as a hobby or did you immediately feel like you had to do something bigger with it?
I have always remembered loving embroidery and everything textile. I studied them, observed them, when I went on a trip and saw embroidery or prints I took photos and when I could, I bought them. I left making a collection of embroideries and images. But it happened to me with the embroidery that I felt was such a perfect place that required so much skill and meticulousness, that I felt that I was not going to be able to achieve it. I thought about taking courses, but in the end that impulse vanished, I think it was out of pure fear of thinking that I was going to do it wrong. Until last year I had more time and space to work on my personal research, I took the yarns I had and started to try. I declared to myself that all I was doing was research so that I would have that peace of mind, before thinking of a final product that would generate anxiety and expectations. Considering that it was an investigation, I gave myself the space to be in a field of exploration and play in which there were no limits or barriers. I started to embroider little by little, with the materials that I had within reach and understanding that I was only trying. This was never my hobby nor was it something I wanted to dedicate myself to; it was my field of exploration and research.

And from there you took a big leap, how was that process?
Yes, I never imagined it. It has been very organic and gradual. The truth is that I didn't have that much faith at first, I was super scared. ESTANPAINTING was a sum of the creative force of the two of us with Coni, but when I worked alone I was more shy and insecure. I was researching various things and punished myself a lot for not dedicating myself to exploring just one thing. I was not satisfied with my personal works nor did I see consistent work there. But this year I understood that my consistency lay precisely there, in constantly exploring different media and diverse possibilities. This is how I went through fear and overcoming that insecurity to realize and value that everything I have done and worked on up to now is part of my work and part of a research process that is in constant transformation and evolution.

In that it also contributes a lot that people value your work...
That is a part and it is very nice to know that there are people who also enjoy what you do, but before that it is important that you enjoy your work and be able to overcome insecurities and self-questioning. The moment I became aware that what I was doing was part of my language and my own identity, I began to see that consistency that I felt so lacking. After that I swore to myself to honor and value my work, because if I don't honor it and I don't want it, nobody else is going to want it. There was a very strong change in me and I believe that energetically these things are translated and noticed.

Chrysanthemums were Trinidad's dad's favorite flowers. According to his account, he arrived with a bouquet every weekend at his house.

For Trinidad, plants and flowers have always been a research element. According to him, the process is quite similar to people's lives: moments in which one flourishes, declines and then flourishes again.

How do the ESTANPINTANDO murals connect with your world of embroidery?
I believe that it is necessary to improvise. It is very much part of my personality to start with a reference idea and allow it to mutate in the process. In embroidery one can have a predetermined idea, but when channeling that idea through your nerves, through your muscles until it reaches your fine motor skills to take the needle, the behavior of your hand is totally different. It is a gesture that your brain does not quite know how it will turn out. Your idea is transformed and it is good to accept it, otherwise it is easy to fall into the dynamics of disagreement and have to undo and start over. I believe that if this is done consciously, it is easier to flow with the embroidery and that allows new things to appear and that something is not "wrong". You have to make friends with those eventualities or changes in plans and make them part of your own gesture.

Another element in common with the murals is the use of color, details and textures and it has been inevitable that this is transferred to my embroidery.

According to Trinidad, the need for colors, textures, and reliefs that so characterizes her embroideries comes from her training in sculpture.

This book is from 1979 and is about the flora and fauna of Tierra del Fuego. According to Trinidad, he has a special connection to that place.

How did you collect the information from this investigation that you told us about?
I had the idea of ​​making a blog about sewing, embroidery and knitting more than three years ago. I felt that the collection I had could be turned into a blog and that way I would also be able to continue investigating in a more formal way. I wanted to know more and that is why I invented Cosío, Bordao, Tejío. I wanted an official ground of investigation, and that, regardless of whether someone read this blog or not, I would have this need to collect information in some way. I started taking classes in February of this year and I have realized that they are a fundamental part of this research. Super diverse people come to my classes and they have been super transversal; I have had students from 11 years old to 76. Listening to them through the classes is very interesting. All with different stories but in the end there is a common place that is the need to reconnect with creativity, empower oneself, allow that fluidity of feeling the freedom to create, to play again.

It has also been very interesting to hear testimonials from older people, such as listening to my great-aunts talk about their embroidery, or how they made vests or sewed to do business, or what was fashion in those years. Or my mom when she tells me that her clothes were made and how she later turned to haute couture. I felt that there was enormous value in those stories and I didn't want them to be lost, I wanted to keep them and prevent them from becoming extinct and I thought that a blog could be a good place for that.

How are your classes? Do you prepare them? What themes are seen?
The classes have been enriching as the people have come. All the students have contributed a lot to make the class better and more consistent and complete. I realized that there were frequently asked questions and very common doubts that helped me enhance the content of the classes and their quality. I have also realized that in my classes it is not only about teaching the techniques or points, but about how to empower oneself creatively. That is what makes sense to me the most and that is why my class is based on that, since it is what I needed in a minute to believe in myself and get ahead, something very genuine and that is why I like to share it.

How was your work for Mappin's map "And your embroidered field of flowers"?
I had just started embroidering when I was invited to participate in Chile A Mano. I thought how I could relate my proposal to make an embroidered map and there I remembered the national anthem when it says "And your embroidered field of flowers is the happy copy of Eden". I loved the idea of ​​embroidering flowers since it is something that I really like and being able to do a version of Chile like this. I searched for plants, not necessarily native, but according to the areas of Chile. At first I thought that I was going to do it super fast since when I paint I am usually quite fast, but when I started to embroider, the days began to pass and I did not advance. Two weeks went by and she was only in one corner, embroidering twelve hours a day. In the end it took me a month in total to do it and I understood that embroidery has other times and that there are several ways to solve it according to the times one has.

This is the map "Y tu campo de flores embroiderado" that Trinidad embroidered for Mappin.

Was it a lot of detail?
Yeah, I was super slow. Especially with that way of embroidering, putting one stitch next to the other. Now I realize that there are ways to solve an embroidery much faster if one needs it, but at that moment I was just starting and I didn't know, but I really enjoyed doing it that way. It was also very entertaining because I was uploading photos of the process and expectation was generated without realizing it. There were even people who wrote to buy the print before I finished it, which was very encouraging.

What has been your biggest challenge around embroidery?
I believe that the constant challenge is to keep asking myself how to continue advancing and what else can be done. Keep pushing the limits of possibilities, reinvent yourself, and stay in a constant state of curiosity. Taking classes also represents a great challenge since you always have to give your best. In all classes you have to have super high energy to deliver what your students see in your work and what they come looking for to get the best out of them too.

How do you work with the error in your embroidery?
Understanding that there are no mistakes. The mistake may be part of your own gesture and personality, so it would be unkind to refer to it as a mistake. The word generates the anguish of "I did it wrong" so I always tell my students that it is better to see them as "eventualities" that can be solved creatively. That is when one begins to find their own gesture, their own embroidery. That's when you treasure your own language. At least for me that was very important and helped me treasure my work and my identity instead of continuing to question it.

Sometimes you create and sometimes you intervene. How do you know when it's ready?
I could be intervening and saturating forever, I love it, but one of the most valuable advice a teacher gave me is that it's like when you cook: knowing how much salt to add to the soup. That is something that has helped me not only in painting, but also in embroidery. To what extent do I add salt to embroidery. I think you know, but you have to pay attention and continue until you are satisfied with what you are doing.

This jacket that Trinidad bought at a clothing sale has drawings that she wants to embroider with plants from Tierra del Fuego.

Sculpture, murals, embroidery. Always pursuing creativity. What comes next?
Keep exploring and advancing as an artist. I also want Cosío, Bordao, Tejío to continue to grow as a community and platform, where creativity is always celebrated and shared so that it reaches more people and is always an energy that multiplies. That's why I'm working on further developing the blog and the new YouTube channel.

Safari is the faithful companion of Trinidad. According to her account, it forces her to break the inertia of staying 'stuck' embroidering because she needs to go out for a walk every day.

Interview by : Josefa Errázuriz
Photographs : Rafaelo RoasendaIf you want to see or buy the Map " And your embroidered field of Flowers " by Trini Guzmán, click on any of the images.

"And your field of embroidered flowers" - Trini Guzmán ( Buy it here )