FIBERWORKS - A CELEBRATION OF SOUTH AFRICAN
FIBER AND TEXTILE ARTISTS

Title: First there was Black and White, then there was Colour.

Description: A large work which evolved from a process of digging into a 13 year old pile of samples made in a class with Nancy Crow. The sample sheets of strips were recut in wavy lines and stitched together with considerable thought going into the colour combinations and effects of light versus dark, plain versus pattern. The surface was then enhanced with the addition of beads, embroidery and couched threads. Unlike the title, the colour in fact came first and it seemed to want a black and white border.

Title: "Circles of Life"

Description: In this series of ten pieces which are stitched onto bamboo placemats, my primary concern was to play with texturing a variety of materials such as hessian, organza, chiffon, leather, handmade paper and aluminium mesh. Embroidery, beadwork, cutting and burning with a soldering iron were employed to depict little snippets from nature, such as a fire, a desert scene or a night sky. All the works are interwoven with circular shapes which represent the ever-continuing circles found in nature - from winter to summer, from fire and destruction to regeneration, from water to desert. The textile pieces evolved through a process of photographs of scenery or artworks, simplified sketches with notes on colour ideas to fabric design. I would like to go back to the sketches and simplify them further into much more abstract pieces.

Sheila Walwyn
3 Marne Ave
Claremont
Cape Town
7708

Cell: 0828878266
Phone: 27(0)216835497

Email: sheilaq@telkomsa.net