Dear All
We welcome Joy Clark to Fibreworks and hope she will enjoy being a member.
It is with great sadness that we received the news that Leonie Malherbe, a founder member of Fibreworks in 1997, passed away on the 2nd March. She participated in every exhibition and her work was much admired. She created the logo for our early newsletters.
One of Leonie's large scale projects was the creation of the textile artwork South African Flag (2006). Leonie led this project at the African Art Centre in Durban, and the Flag was finally displayed in the court chamber at the Constitutional Court. The flag took many months of hand-stitching and hand beading.
Leonie planned the project, prepared the materials, ran workshops, and quality-checked the work. She worked with a team of KwaZulu-Natal seamstresses who made the beadwork and embroidery panels.
https://www.fibreworksart.com/Malherbe.html
https://ccac.concourttrust.org.za/artists/leona-macherbe
https://www.lucilledavie.co.za/post/2006/09/08/a-flag-and-an-elephant-for-the-concourt
Dates to diarize according to the exhibitions:
1 Dematerialize Exhibition
- 5 Feb - 23 March 2026 Fibreworks Members' Exhibition at Ballito Lifestyle centre. Fibreworks will be sending the unsold works to Oudtshoorn on 23 March at their cost.
- 28 March - 18 April 2026 - Dematerialize exhibition at the Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees (the KKNK) in Oudtshoorn.
- 21 March - You may send a 30 x 30 cm work for this exhibition in Oudtshoorn. Your art work, a photograph and the entry form must be sent to helga@adoptimise.com.
- We attach an entry form if you want to submit work.
- 20 April this exhibition will be sent to Jenny Hearn in Johannesburg for the St Lorient exhibition in October.
2 National Quilt Festival (NQF)
Intertidal exhibition in Gqeberha
- 30 April Closing date for entries. (for each entry, submit one NQF online form and one Fibreworks form accompanied by a digital image of the work.
- 1 May - 3 June 2026. Delivery of work (plus a copy of the entry form and a printed photograph) to the NQF curator Terry Urban, telephone number: 082 920 8471 48 Vitry Avenue, Lorraine, Gqeberha 6000
- 7 - 11 July 2026 Intertidal exhibition at the NQF, Collegiate School, Gqeberha.
3 The Viewing Room / St Lorient Art Gallery in Pretoria
- 30 April send photo's of your work for the St Lorient exhibition in Pretoria to Jenny Hearn and to Helga Beaumont
- 26 October - 26 November. Exhibition, including Dematerialize works at St Lorient in Pretoria.
- Fibreworks meeting
Present: T de Harde, K Tedder, J Hearn, J Gilks, O Tolksdorf, L Smuts, S Naidoo, B Murray, S Walwyn, C Knox, H Beaumont, T Horan, C Lemmer, S Neville. AA le Roux
Apologies:, M Pretorius, C De Villiers. M Shindler, M Letts
EXHIBITIONS. We discussed the three planned exhibitions for 2026 in detail. Below is a summary of what was discussed.
- National Members Exhibition - Fibreworks XIII The Gallery in Ballito, 2026
Finances and costs of the Ballito exhibition
We have paid R5630 to the gallery in Ballito. Those members who sent more than 2 art works will get a separate invoice from the gallery.
The exhibition closes 23 March so we will be packing up the works to send to Oudtshoorn. A courier company will take the works to Oudtshoorn and Fibreworks will pay this cost.
So far only one member has let us know she does not want her work to travel. Contact Helga if you also do not want your work to travel.
After the KKNK exhibition, these works will travel on to Jenny Hearn who is organizing an exhibition for them at St Lorient in Pretoria. Fibreworks will again pay the courier cost.
- 28 March to 18 April Dematerialize art works at KKNK in Oudtshoorn.
The mark up on sales is 30%. Helga will be using the same prices you sent to Ballito but will change the markups to 30%.
At the end of the exhibition these small art works will be sent to Jenny Hearn in Johannesburg and she will keep them for the October showing in Pretoria.
The Fibreworks members whose works do not sell in Pretoria, will have to make arrangements with Jenny Hearn for the return of their work at their cost.
- Intertidal exhibition at the NQF in Gqeberha 7 - 11 July 2026 (Collegiate School).
HOW TO ENTER: Intertidal - Fibreworks satellite exhibition entry (National Quilt Festival 2026)
GO TO:
https://tickets.tixsa.co.za/events/33048
SCROLL DOWN TO LAST EVENT:
IMPORTANT DATES:
30 April 2026: Deadline for entry forms.
3 June 2026: Final deadline for delivering artworks
BACKGROUND: The response to an invitation to Fibreworks from NQF (in Jan 2025) was divided so it was decided that those who wished to exhibit in a satellite exhibition at NQF were free to do so on the understanding that this would not be an official Fibreworks project.
17 Fibreworks members are committed to exhibiting. Additional Fibreworks members who may still wish to join are welcome to do so - just let Helga know.
An open call was put out for a title and Intertidal was agreed upon. Catherine Knox accepted nomination to act as liaison person with the NQF. Group communication is shared via the Intertidal whatsapp group that adequately serves in place of an organising chairman or committee.
Detailed information about submission requirements and collection of work are shared on this group. There is also detailed information on both the Fibreworks and NQF online entry forms.
Intertidal will be hung by Antoinette Kriel and Paul Schutte on behalf of the NQF in the music auditorium at the school (along with two other satellite exhibitions). Exhibiting artists attending NQF will take turns to host the Intertidal show and talk to visitors. Sheila Walwyn is creating the duty roster.
All expenses are for the individual artist's account (including courier costs and the R220 NQF hanging fee for each of the first two entries, further entries being free).
Fibreworks is willing to allocate up to R3 000 for the printing of promotional material. In return, we will promote the Fibreworks website at Intertidal.
All work will be for sale, with a 20% commission payable to the NQF. (No commission is payable to Fibreworks.) Details about sales procedure will be shared with the exhibiting artists nearer the time.
Some of the work may be selected (with the artist's agreement) for The Viewing Room exhibition in Pretoria (September).
Exhibitors attending the NQF can collect their work from the exhibition from 14h00 on 11 July. Those who cannot do this, must send their courier to collect on their behalf (collection address in Gqeberha to be advised nearer the time).
Thank you Cathy for the above information.
- 26 October to 26 November The Viewing Room/St Lorient Gallery in Pretoria
30 April is the deadline date by which you must send photos of bigger works.
- Achievements of members:
Threads of Time:
Angeline-Ann Le Roux - Fibre and textile fine arts, with threads as a social metaphor.
From newspaper to thread: Transforming text to textile
Threads of Time is an exploration of fibre and textile fine art in which threads become a social metaphor-quietly carrying stories, opinions, truths, and myths through time. For this exhibition, I work with newspaper, a material often dismissed as disposable. This "paper of the people" becomes threads: twisted, plaited, crocheted, and folded into sculptural forms.
Shaping with newspaper
My practice is informed by a background in textile design and visual arts, with particular emphasis on fibre as conceptual medium. The creative processes are often very labour intensive, not only in the making but also in the experimentation and exploring of innovative approaches to material use. For Threads of time, I returned to newspaper as a medium that I had not used for more than a decade. By treating newspaper as thread, allows for an examination of how society digests narratives over time, how repetition reinforces belief and how transformation alters meaning. The act of twisting is conceptually significant: it marks a moment of transition in which legible text is rendered abstract, suggesting a shift from information to internalised perception.
Circulation. Newspaper. 145cm x 84cm
Detail of Circulation.
For this exhibition, I started working on a piece called Circulation first. Although this title references news and stories that circulate within society, the continuity is stated as an ongoing flow.
Layered narratives is presented as a patchwork where threads are linked through weaving and patterning. This intends to symbolise networks of relations that resemble patchworks of social translation. Each thread suggests an individual perception; together, they form a complex structure that reflects the interconnectedness of society itself.
These works are very much about language and perception. Text is gradually obscured as strips are twisted into threads. This concealment reflects the ways in which information is filtered, fragmented, and reinterpreted as it moves through social systems. Individual threads function as discrete units of interpretation, each shaped by subjective engagement with narrative. When assembled through weaving and patterning, these threads form interconnected systems that resemble patchworks or networks of social translation consistent with the fabric of society.
Layered narratives. Newspaper, pigment and wax on board. 160 cm x 124 cm
Layered Narrative (detail).
Threads of time is Presented at Du Toitskloof Wines from December 2025 to March
2026 as a collaborative exhibition alongside the work of Elmarie Stofberg and Werner Scheepers.
Jeanette and Helga.
