Santo Cielo

Hola! My name is Santiago Celio Cioli, but everyone knows me as Santo Cielo (kind of an anagram with my name).
In my childhood, I remember being surrounded by fabrics, threads, and dressmakers. For many years, my mother owned a haberdashery in the little town where I was born, and I tend to think this had an influence on my later decision to study Industrial Design in Textiles.
I started learning embroidery in 2015 while I was doing a joint degree thesis about hand embroidery and national identity: We created an interview/workshop system where embroiderers, in this case, women of various ages, would tell us stories relating to their craft, teaching us one or two stitches at the same time. Thanks to them, I was able to discover and learn beautiful techniques.
Nowadays, I focus mostly on portraits of animals and humans using the thread painting technique. Many portraits are created in response to customer requests I receive through Instagram and my website; through family photos, I get involved in people’s lives to create a memory they can treasure for years to come.
I love to impart my passion and skills to others because I find beauty in the verbal and mimetic transmission of this knowledge, just as those women did for me.