For about 25 years the via creativa led me down a wonderful trail making wearable art.  It all began with buckets of household dyes and scrunched up cloth – the tie-dye of the sixties.  My inquiring mind being what it is, I researched all the material I could find about surface design for fabrics, taught myself dye chemistry, block printing, silk painting and the exciting techniques of Japanese shibori.  I was a one-woman-band, designing and creating the fabrics, the garments and their patterns, cutting and sewing and marketing – and even modelling the garments sometimes.

The path took a different turn when I was given a generous grant to spend time studying in Japan.  I worked with National Living Treasures there who are keeping alive the precious traditions of paper making, aizome (indigo dyeing), shibori and katazome.  When I returned my heart was hearing a new call; my work was coming off the body and onto the wall.  The wearable art days had been my apprenticeship and they had drawn to a close.

 

dyed and painted silks

 

dyed and printed cotton and canvas

featured in
New Zealand Fashion Museum

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