Meet Francis Santos | Embroidery Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Francis Santos and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Francis, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
I have been working in the entertainment industry, building costumes for actors and dancers for a long time so sewing, specially hand sewing, was always something that I took dear to my heart. I learned to sew when I was 15 y-o and my first big inspiration and crush was Thierry Mugler.
Fast forward 20 something years, I found myself working for Cirque Du Soleil and, as although the job was easy for me and I worked with wonderful people, it wasn’t fuelling my creativity and I was bored.
I was living in China at the time and one of my friends Cat, told me about Etsy. That was 2011 and when I decided to start making custom clothes for people.
It made me happy to be independent but still something was missing…
In 2017, I’ve taught myself embroidery and combined my hand sewing love to my eternal love for animals and started embroidering tiny animal portraits in earrings and necklaces and took a huge interested in custom animal portraits.
Today, I am much better at the embroidery portraits than I was when I first started and I love the stories that are shared with me about the animals that I portrait.
It makes the whole embroidery process, a magical connection to the best “people” I’d ever know, the animals and their loving families!

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
It definitely wasn’t easy to get where I am professionally today. Many times, I still doubt myself. My embroidery portraits are realistic, and even looking from afar, you might mistake them for paintings and to get to my skill level, I had to practice hard and be hard on myself. I am definitely my worse judge!
By asking the embroidery community, I overcame many challenges that at times made me rethink if I was going to “make it”.
Any small business owner knows how hard you have to work, sometimes without support, to get through the day, the month, the year.
Since moving to LA 2 years ago, I am very fortunately to have met a bunch of other small businesses owners that help each other in so many ways and I am so glad for them to be part of my life.
Community is very important if you want to make it as a small business owner.
The most important thing to me is that my embroidery art truly shows my love for animals, and that I am able to bring that love to life and share with others is what makes me the proudest.
Knowing that someone somewhere has a custom embroidered portrait of their best friend made by me is sometimes surreal.
I use my art to spread kindness towards all animals and I donate a percentage of my sales to Rancho Relaxo, an animal rescue in NJ which was the first farm animal rescue I came in contact with when I moved to the US.
By portraying loving animals, I hope people realize how important they are as members of our families. They bring joy and love without asking for anything in exchange.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Definitely, a hike will be in the plans. Maybe Hollywood Sign and Griffith Park or somewhere in the Santa Monica Mountains, where I am hoping to live one day.
Dine out is amazing in LA specially if you are vegan as me. From pizza at Pura Vita, to fine dine at Crossroads Kitchen, ice cream at Dear Bella to delicious burgers at Monty’s or Honeybee’s, there is an option to anyone. Did I mention croissants and French patisserie at Chaumont Vegan?!
All of that will make any non-vegans happy with a full belly of delicious food.
After all this eating, nothing like a walk at the beach with the puppies from Santa Monica to Will Rogers or if the weather permit, a beach trip with the puppies to Leo Carillo or Santa Barbara.
Or even a week long trip up PCH to Big Sur all the way to San Francisco… or a visit to one of my favourite National Parks Yosemite… or a day trip to Catalina Island
There are so many amazing things to do right here in beautiful California.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My mum was my biggest supporter and encouraged me to follow my dreams. She would do everything she could to help me conquer my dreams and she was the most positive person that I had ever known.
She always saw the bright side of the worse situation and always saw the light at the end of the tunnel.
Losing her this year was one of the hardest things that had happened to me in life.
I miss her every day and I know wherever she is now, she is proud of me.

Website: https://www.myprettybabi.com

Instagram: https://instagram.com/myprettybabi_shop

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/francisnellibailonidossantos/

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/myprettybabi/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MyPrettyBabi

Other: https://www.pinterest.com/myprettybabi

Image Credits
First photo by Kate Lee