Meet Elena Brambilla

I’m an Italian born artist who now lives in New Zealand. All my childhood memories go back to me drawing, creating, hanging around in my mum's interior designer boutique surrounded by fabrics and wallpapers, drawing on my dad's drawing board, or being immersed in nature. I knew, since I could formulate a proper sentence, that once grown up I would want to become an artist.

But my young adult life took a different path. I became a professional athlete for Italy, got two University master degrees in Biotechnology and Herbal Science, moved to Germany for my sport, married my superstar Paralympic husband, and after we both ended our careers, we sailed for five years around the world with our non profit organisation Sailing4Handicaps, building and donating prosthetics for free to people in need. On the way, our little boy was born and our family was complete.

All that time, I never stopped being creative — drawing, and mainly sewing on the boat (since I was too seasick to paint). While sailing, I got this vision of making my childhood dream come true. I founded my brand, The Sewing Sailor, a sustainable stationery, homeware, and surface pattern design brand. When we arrived in New Zealand, alone on the other side of the world with my husband and son, with no support or friends and in the middle of COVID, I taught myself watercolours with the aim of becoming a surface pattern designer specialised in botanicals and children designs.

My brand was born in our boat cockpit, the boat becoming my office with professional printers and art materials everywhere. I launched my stationery products, then became known and Gallery represented, and started teaching watercolours and art to all age groups. I even received collaborations from known brands like Sarah Flint NY. But my deep dream to design fabrics and wallpaper was still there. I took several courses, none of them satisfactory, since they did not answer all my questions about the business.

Then in January 2025, I got an advert on my phone about the Immersion course. It felt like a sign from the universe. I talked about it with my husband. The price was a question mark, but he took his phone and booked Immersion for me. He said it was my childhood dream and that I should pursue it with all my heart. I could not imagine how my life was about to change.

I was proficient in Photoshop but had no idea of Illustrator and was very skeptical. Immersion has been an amazing turning point. The course answered all my questions about the business, taught me to use Illustrator (after a month the course was finished, I landed a job designing four labels for a honey company using Illustrator and got the course money back), and gave me so many insights about surface pattern design.

Today I have finished several collections, I am actively pitching and in talks with some companies I love. My stationery is still going strong, I have patterns on a POD site, fine art in galleries, and I am actively teaching watercolours both in person and online. I am pushing forward to license with fabric and wallpaper companies.

I am a Pattern+ member, which I believe is the natural step after Immersion, and I love listening to Bonnie's podcasts with my little son. I am still in contact with my Immersion group, which is such a blessing, and I have met so many more artists.

The joy of finishing a new collection and putting it out into the world is something I cannot describe. Thank you Bonnie and team for helping me make my childhood dream come true.