Needles, book and fanzine

Bea Lema is an illustrator and comic book author who also uses embroidery and knitting as a medium to convey her images. Her work, generally autobiographical, deals with themes related to madness, trauma, family relationships, religion and popular rites. In 2018 she published “O Corpo de Cristo”, a work that won the 12th Castelao Prize from the Provincial Council of A Coruña and has also been published in France, Italy and Portugal this year. The project received a grant for a graphic novel residency at the Maison des Auteurs in 2022 thanks to Acción Cultural Española (AC/E) and the Cité internationale de la bande dessinée et de l'image, with the collaboration of the French Embassy in Spain. In 2024, he received the ‘Prix du poubique - France TV’ for this work at the Angoulême comic festival, a world-renowned event.

Born in Hradec Králové but raised in Zlín, Alžběta was profoundly influenced by painter and poet Jaroslav Kovanda at the Robinson art school, who taught her to appreciate colors, percieve the world around her and observe life. She completed her education at the Secondary School of Arts and Crafts in Uherské Hradiště before advancing to study illustration and graphics at UMPRUM in Prague. Zemanová now works at the NaPOLI studio, specializing in creating paper foldings, cutouts, and author’s books. She is also a co-manager of the Xao Bookstore and Gallery in Prague's Vršovice district, alongside Klára Zahrádková, Jakub Plachý, and Zuzana Bramborová. A lover of nature, she cultivates a variety of plants including cornflowers, beans, and herbs in her garden in the Podkrkonoší region. Zemanová has a passion for bringing fictional characters to life, crafting them into both fabric and paper toys with their unique stories and personalities under her brand AKA.

During the first part of her career she dedicated herself to illustrating books for different publishers around the world while making webcomics independently. In 2015 her first comic book "La pelusa de los días" was published in Spain.

She was part of the Historietas Reales and Chicks on Comics collectives. She is a founding member of the Línea Peluda collective.

In 2019 she won the FNAC-Salamandra award with her graphic novel project "Naftalina". Later that same book would be awarded the Fauve Prix Public France TV during the Angoulême 2023 festival.

Alejandra Oviedo. She was born in Bogotá, Colombia. She is a visual artist, her work focuses on drawing and embroidering stories of her daily life, places, objects and people.  She has been very influenced by the culture of her country, its colours, textures, music, food and people. Embroidery has given her a lot, it taught her to be patient, to be able to express herself with threads, to meet new people, to meditate and to take time to take care of and discover her inner self.

She teaches illustration and embroidery at Casatinta, and experiments with materials other than thread, such as paper or metal. She also likes to draw in the sand and then erase it with her feet.