Meet Francisnelli Santos | Embroidery Artist

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

Hi Francisnelli, what are you inspired by?
I am inspired by my love of animals. My Pretty Babi is dedicated to my late cat Blossom. She was an immense inspiration to me since the day I adopted her from an animal shelter in China. My whole life, animals were the biggest part of my life and my best friends. So it made sense to me, after 30 years being a costume maker, to open my own small business and have it be centered around these incredible beings. When I was a costume maker, the hand finishing touches were always my favourites, and I always wanted to learn to embroider, so I combined my passions of hand sewing and animals to create the custom embroidery animals I embroider today.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My love of animals definitely sets me apart and it shows in my art. To get to where I am now, skill level wise, I have years of practice and studies. I have attended courses and asked for guidance to many of my fellow embroidery artists around the world. However, my career as a costume maker has helped me a lot to developed a high embroidery skill level on my own. I was trained by highly skilled cutters back home in Sydney, Australia and they set work standards that I carry along with me throughout my whole career and now, on my own art.

It is never easy to start anything specially when you are self-taught like me. I am sometimes my worse critic and sometimes I still doubt myself however once I start a portrait, I know I can do it, even the hardest ones. It takes a lot of concentration and time to create an embroidery animal portrait and when I’m not happy with the way it is going, I will definitely start over. Sometimes, it a colour that seems off to me and sometimes, it is something else. My main goal with my embroidery is capture the animal’ personality and that’s why, many times my embroidery gets confused with painting by people until they take a closer look.

My art brings me and my customers a lot of happiness and that is what keeps me going.

It is, to me, a way to immortalise a being that sometimes are no longer with us and it helps to keep their memories alive.

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.
Hiking is one of the best things to do in Los Angeles and it costs nothing. Some of the hiking around here offers the best views, both from the ocean and from the mountains. If you are not an outdoor person, you are missing out big time coming to LA. Here you can be 30 minutes out of town in a hike and it will feel like you are in a completely different environment. You can find yourself in the middle of a mountain, with waterfalls and nature all around you.

I would definitely take them to a nice brunch or dinner in some of my favorites restaurants around Los Angeles, like Pura Vita or Crossroads. I am very lucky to have some awesome friends that are open to vegan cuisine.

The best of all will be definitely catching up with my friends and hanging out with my best paws, my dogs and kitty. I am also a museum goer so we would definitely visit some of the many exhibitions in some of the amazing museums around town.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I have to be grateful above all to all the other embroidery artists that I have encounter along my journey.

Many of them are extraordinary artists and I have learned so much from them by observing their techniques and asking questions.

I am grateful that my art also allow me to help many rescues and animal sanctuaries. Nothing that my art makes a difference in not only my customers but also in many animals’ life means a lot to me. It gives me strength to keep on doing what I am doing.

I am very grateful to Brian for all the support in all stages of my chaotic lifestyle. I could not have asked for a better life partner.

I am also very thankful for my own animals that bring me so much joy and happiness into my everyday life and whom without I’d be just another lonely person. There is nothing that beats having my animals greeting me with undeniable love every time I walk through my front door.

That kind of love keeps me motivated so therefore, my art can keep on helping my customers honouring their beloved animals and also I try to help the local rescues to find their adoptable dogs and cats, their forever homes, by donating and participating in charity events.

Website: https://myprettybabi.com/

Instagram: https://instagram.com/myprettybabi_shop

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

Other: Pinterest www.pinterest.com/myprettybabi