Elian Elias Aboudi (DecoElian)

Tatreez artist Elian Elias Aboudi holding one of her large samplers

Cross-stitch patterns that reflect the heritage and story of a Palestinian artist in diaspora. Elian uses the patterns and motifs from Palestinian embroidery as the geometric base for all her designs. She manipulates different colors and patterns to create her designs and tell her story. She selects these motifs from her surroundings such as thobes (Palestinian dress), wall hangings, pillows and tableware pieces.

Elian is an artist that uses different means and mediums to create pieces that connect her with her identity as a Palestinian. Elian was born in Kuwait and has lived in the US, Jordan, the UAE and now resides in Canada.

Palestinian patterns and motifs are the finest form of art that has been proudly passed down from generation to generation. Palestinian women have cross-stitched their dresses with motifs inspired by their surroundings for centuries.

The artist has chosen to use some of these patterns in a new and abstract style to design art pieces using new colors to tell her story and connect with her identity.

Her modern twist on using these patterns to create her artwork has attracted worldwide interest especially after she single handedly hand stitched a 2 meter by 1 and half meter piece that tells her own story.

Inspired by her piece the artist now receives many orders from around the world to create individual one of a kind pieces for her clients that tell their story making each piece unique to the owner.

Each of the artist’s pieces can be stitched as a whole or each pattern as a separate component to create new designs.