Saving Graces II
Title: Saving Graces II
Artist: Penelope Williams
Year: 2025
Medium: Hand-embroidery on bronze silk and a layer of hand-painted silk, framed in a velvet-lined oak case with art glass.
Dimensions: 30 x 40 cm
Collection: In Praise of Healing Plants
Status: Available
Price: £2,750
At the end of the 15th century, an unknown artist created a religious polyptych for his patron, Scarognino. I found the reference by accident, and was immediatley enchanted by its magical seven windows. It was the perfect sequel to my first Saving Graces piece, inspired by Kapka Kassabova’s extraordinary book, Elixir.
The flowers are all stitched on hand-painted blue silk, mostly in single-strand embroidery floss. The polyptych frame is embroidered and beaded on a single layer of bronze silk and applied over the flower panels. The ensemble is mounted on a pale honey coloured velvet.
For those interested in hand stitching, the frame took 82 hours to complete, and the plants and finishing took 62 hours. A total of 144 hours.
The plants I chose all have medicinal properties:
Top centre: Chamomile (Matricaria recutita)
Second row, left to right: Holy Rope/Hemp Agrimony (Eupatorium cannabinum); Comfrey (Symphytum officinale); Flax (Linum perenne)
Bottom left to right: Chicory (Cichorium intybus); Evening Primrose (Oenochera biennis); Greater Burdock (Arctium lappa)
This piece premiered at Delamore Arts in May 2026. It is accompanied by a small botanical guide to the plants, hand-stitched and bound in embroidered silk. Colored pencil sketches on khadi paper give the common and Latin names of each plant.
