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Pacifika by Jan Lewis

Pacifika
 

Pacifika
Qty in Basket: None
Code: 70JLRUG1
Price: $1,000.00
Dimensions: 48" L x 28" W
 

 
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This design was inspired by tapa cloth, which is a bark cloth made in the islands of the Pacific Ocean near New Zealand.  Common motifs are frangipani blooms,fish, geometric shapes - and hearts, for love, of course. A cotton duvet cover inspired this work and forms the centre of the frangipani motifs in each corner. This method of hooking uses vast amounts of material, so a double sided quilt is a real find for me. The artist loves the rich earthy browns and creams in this design, which have proved a little harder to source recently, given New Zealand's predilection for clothing in black, black and more black.

I'm an ex-Londoner living on a beautiful island in the Hauraki Gulf off the coast of Auckland in New Zealand. I've always loved art and drawing, and have worked in many mediums before getting 'hooked on' fabric art. I started recycling used clothing to make my wallhangings many years ago, mainly because of the waste I saw with manmade fabrics being dumped in the landfill, a concern when you live on an island where we have to take care of our own waste. So I began hooking rag rugs with the backs of old denim jeans which never seem to wear out, unlike the fronts... Some people certainly do use my work as rugs, in low traffic areas, but I mainly hook them as wallhangings - acrylics, polyesters and other manmade fabrics aren't quite as resilient on floors as wool & tend to attract dirt, and each item comprises a huge mixture of different types of fabric. Although I do hook variations on similar designs, each piece is totally unique and different because it depends on the fabrics I find. I never buy new materials, the whole purpose is to use clothes which are no longer wearable. I've done many commissions and projects, sometimes using plastic bags, wire, paper and card to demonstrate how flexible the medium is, and my work is all over the globe. Somewhere in Nigeria, there's a brightly coloured nikau palm on the wall of a conservation centre... I've had a variety of 'careers' but never - ever - tire of this one. It continues to be inspiring and ever-changing and with a head full of designs yet to create, I plan to live a very long time!

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