Jennifer McBrien is a thread illustrator. She uses hand and freehand machine embroidery with appliqué techniques on found, vintage, and certified organic fabrics, to illustrate her perception of the natural and complicated world, concentrating mainly on ignored birds and plants. Her process begins with ink drawings from observation and photographic resources. She interprets her ink drawings with thread. She especially loves the look and the challenge of drawing with the stitch line , especially the black line that so eloquently imitates ink marks. McBrien truly feels that embroidery is a three dimensional act which claims true when challenged by mixing colors of thread to create realistic effects. Luckily, her past artistic life as a painter has fulfilled her knowledge with color theory for achieving various effects needed to render her color subjects.She uses this more labor intensive method as a dedication to her subjects as well as this traditional craft. As a female, she is very aware of the history and labor of hand embroidery and its connection to female’s roles and work duties.