by hand@corbans
auckland handweavers & spinners guild 70th anniversary exhibition
corban estate arts centre
12 Apr - 7 Jun 2025
auckland handweavers & spinners guild 70th anniversary exhibition
corban estate arts centre
12 Apr - 7 Jun 2025
collection of miniature plant fibre weaving
inspired by english textile/fibre artists including sally pointer and alice fox, i first started experimenting with adding dandelion stems and rhubarb skins into my weaving; this led to series of explorations into textures and colours using various fibres found in my immediate environment
kitchen fibre series: onion skin | blue corn husk | rhubarb | leek
garden fibre series: arum lilies | banana flower | harakeke flax | monbretia
foraged fibre series: dandelion | renga-renga lilies | cabbage tree | stinging nettle
three bowls of words handspun and coil-stitched from an old dictionary
fascinated by susan byrd’s japanese shifu paper spinning, this dictionary sitting idle and long unused was cut up, handspun using a drop spindle, then coil-stitched and transformed into three bowls of words
yew twigs embedded in woven hemp fibre
a friend’s gift of yew branches from his garden and his love of the hard and close-grained wood inspired me to create this piece
raining fibres of arum lilies
the idea of using arum lily fibre came one day while cutting back the vigorous growth of my arum patch in the garden. having learned to make dandelion and rhubarb cordages from historic craft educator sally pointer, the same technique was used to make these cordages. after much peeling, drying and twisting, my arums were transformed into fibre rain
Installation of salvaged bolts woven with handspun hemp on driftwood
discovered near a university in hong kong where i worked at the time, these forgotten bolts were gathered over several months from the end of 2019. they had laid scattered and abandoned around many street corners, small metal casualties from the students’ dismantling of pedestrian fences for use as barricades during the 2019 political unrest. this installation is a remembrance of a significant historical event, and an attempt to record the “heaviness” of the widespread social turmoil that took place in hong kong.