“I’m not really a patient person” explains Inge Jacobsen, an Irish-born artist who’s in the business of embroidery and collage. Interested in the over saturation of images, Jacobsen seeks to create work which is unique by using found imagery, stitching onto anything from newspaper articles to adverts to magazine covers, including our very own Beyonce shoot from last summer. Ahead of taking part in a group exhibition opening in Munich later this month, we asked her how she got into the seriously old craft and what she looks for in a canvas. 

I choose images that appeal to me personally – either for their compositional values or its sex appeal

Dazed Digital: What kick started your interest in embroidery?
Inge Jacobsen: It started while I was at university, we had a lot of freedom on the course to explore our ideas in any way possible. I had some cross-stitch works that I inherited from my grandmother, and I thought it would be a really obvious medium to use to intervene into images that are already out there. It creates a nice contrast between the old and the new.

DD: How do you decide what to embroider? And how long does it take?
Inge Jacobsen: I decide by simply choosing things that appeal to me on some level. It could purely be aesthetics or it could be something that fits in with what I’m exploring conceptually. It takes a good bit of time, but it all depends on how large the image is, how much is being stitched, and what stitches I’m using. Some of the magazine covers I’ve done have taken around 30 – 40 hours.

DD: What do you look for in an image to work with?
Inge Jacobsen: There isn’t an exact formula, I choose images that appeal to me personally– either for their compositional values or its sex appeal. On a technical level I avoid anything with a lot of tiny details because they’re usually lost during the process.

DD: Has your passion for embroidery waned? Do you think you'll move onto something else soon?
Inge Jacobsen: It wanes but then when I finish a piece I feel excited about it again. It can get very tedious because I’m not really a patient person, so I work on several things at once to try and combat this. I’m always look for something else to do and it may not involve stitching. I don’t know how soon I’ll be moving on to something else but I always keep an open mind about these things.