These designs convey all of the diverse wonder of coral reefs without having to walk along an actual sea floor (and presumably slice open a foot in the process.
Porto-based Portuguese textile artist Vanessa Barragão crochets, weaves and latch-hooks her textiles with inspiration from coral, algae and fungi, often from exotic, remote and underwater environments.
Her works range from entire round Earths (and other abstracted planetoids) to small ecosystems constructed at 1-to-1 scale, creating a sense of visual realism without compromising creature comforts.
Artist bio: “My name is Vanessa Barragão, I’m from the south of Portugal but right now I’m based in Porto. I took a degree in Fashion Design and when I was doing the master degree I started exploring more about handcrafted textile techniques and the wool process.” She then dedicated herself to “doing artworks such as tapestries using several techniques: latch hooking, crochet, weaving, knitting, basketry and felt.”
