Homo Faber Fellowship:
José Luis Sánchez Expósito & Gonzalo García Cuevas
Gold embroidery - Spain

Master Artisan: José Luis Sánchez Expósito, gold thread embroidery - Spain

Fellow: Gonzalo García Cuevas, Centro de formación profesional Dolores Sopeña - Spain

Connected by their mutual love for Andalusia’s cultural and religious traditions, discover the duo keeping a precious embroidery heritage alive.

José Luis Sánchez Expósito began gold thread embroidering for the towns and brotherhoods of Córdoba at the age of 16. He moved to Seville in pursuit of a career and set up his own workshop over 10 years ago. José Luis specialises in the cardboard technique, “cartulina” and the “hojilla” technique. Gonzalo García Cuevas was born in Seville and showed an interest in the craft from a young age. His aspiration is to switch from a career as a pharmacy technician to being a full-time gold thread embroiderer.

Gonzalo: What sparked your interest in gold thread embroidery?

José Luis: As a Christian, I started sacred embroidery as a hobby. I enjoyed it so much that I started to ask myself if I could turn it into my livelihood. I was searching for a career that did not feel like work, where Monday arrives and I did not dread it, on the contrary, I would look forward to it.

José Luis: What about you?

Gonzalo: Similar to you as a fellow Christian, Holy Week has always been important to me. You don’t see ceremonial hand-embroidered robes and tunics every day, so I guess it always felt special and attracted my attention from a young age. The fact that the artworks are gold and shiny probably made it more eye catching. As I grew up I became more and more curious about how these embellishments were made, and belonging to a brotherhood opened the door to meeting people and discovering more about the craft.

Gonzalo: How did it go from a hobby to setting up your own workshop?

José Luis: When I was doing it as a self-taught hobby, I had some private commissions from brotherhoods that I did after work. So, I decided to go to Seville to work for an embroidery atelier there. I was admitted to one of them and that's where I started to train professionally. I left my life in my home village behind and seized the opportunity. When I was commissioned to make the tunic for the Señor de la Sentencia of the Macarena brotherhood, together with a cloak for the Nazareno de Castro del Río brotherhood, it was a turning point for me. I needed space and a year to complete them, so I took the leap and set up my own workshop in Seville.

José Luis: Did you study gold thread embroidery?

Gonzalo: Curiously enough, I didn't study anything related to my craft. I studied to become a pharmacy technician here in Seville, in a training centre called Dolores Sopeña, which is very close to my brotherhood. So my training and my professional life has always revolved around that. Gold thread embroidery has always been a hobby.

José Luis: What made you want to change careers?

Gonzalo: In fact it was visiting your atelier and seeing you at work when I was supervising the commission for my brotherhood. I was amazed by how you made a difficult and complex craft look simple and inspired by your love for your profession. It’s a rare day that I don’t have something to do with the brotherhood, so to be able to combine my two big life interests is a dream.

Gonzalo: What do you think is the challenge of continuing such an ancient craft today?

José Luis: To ensure the gold thread embroidery techniques remain faithful to the traditional ones used in the old days, as sometimes when the main aim is to make money we loose the essence of the craft as we try to take shortcuts. In terms of technology, it has actually helped the craft, as we now use a photocopy for designs instead of tracing paper. It’s a craft that cannot be learned from a book, but the gestures need to be passed down by human interaction, this is vital for its continuity.

José Luis: What do you think of the Art Deco themed co-creation project?

Gonzalo: I think it is wonderful. In my brotherhood the style of the Paso of the Virgin Mary is similar to Art Deco style. Creating a joint piece with you will be a very special experience. I've never drawn or designed anything like it, it's a style that attracts my attention and I think that applying it to embroidery will result in something curious and beautiful.

Gonzalo: Where do you get your golden thread?

José Luis: There used to be two manufacturers here in Spain, but now there's only one left which is in Barcelona. It's called Monforte. All the embroidery workshops buy the gold thread from there. When talking about our material we have to distinguish between two types “fino” goldthread, and “entrefino” goldthread. The first one is gold plated silver, the latter is gold plated metal. Usually it is the customer’s choice and depends on the type of usage and the budget.

José Luis Sánchez Expósito and Gonzalo García Cuevas are one of the 21 selected established artisan and fellow duos taking part in the first edition of Homo Faber Fellowship.

Discover more about the programme on michelangelofoundation.org