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.

Title: Love and Roses, Friends and Wine.

Description: Made in response to a "Wine and roses" challenge, this work went through a process of pencil sketches of roses, followed by a more abstract watercolour/collage design, which was then translated into fabric. The machine embroidered quote reads "What though youth gave love and roses….age still leaves us friends and wine".

Title: Shadows across our beautiful land

Description: Vicious xenophobic attacks on refugees all over the country seemed to cast yet another shadow over our beautiful land, along with other ills such as Aids, drug abuse and rape, just to name a few.

Title: Sunset at Okakuejo

Description: D 2552 Water

Title: Desert Miracle

Description:

Title: Egoli

Description: This quilt was made as part of a theme of "Shosholoza", meaning a traditional African song favoured by men whose work it was to lay railway lines. Meaning to push forward, endeavour or strive, it evokes a sense of pride. Gumboot dancers and steam trains are portrayed, with Egoli, or Johannesburg, in the background as the hub of employment opportunities.

Title: Sanscape

Description: A choice of earthy colours in paint combined with applied papers and textural fabrics on canvas, was the starting point for this piece which came to depict a Kalahari rockface with San paintings

Sheila Walwyn