Fiona J Sperryn hand-weaves unique tapestry-style artworks, combining traditional techniques and digital innovation to interpret her original drawings through multiple colours and fibres.
Fiona says, “Great craft is hand, eye, head and heart combining, to materialise an inner vision. For me that means striving for excellence and utter craftsmanship in hand weave.”
Fiona enjoys the physical interactions of her process, from textural mark-making outdoors to hand finishing. In her new ‘Shallows’ series sixty strands of various fibres are combined into complex patterns, blending to create a joyful cloth in a process akin to painting. Her work evokes visions of standing on a sandy beach with the sun glinting off the water’s surface; travel without leaving the studio.
Fiona has pushed her techniques, creating more vibrant, larger scale hand-weaves, and is now using up to ten shuttles across the full width of her loom. She enjoys selecting the many yarns that are combined for each piece, consciously using a high percentage of industry ‘waste’, ethically sourced, organic and recycled.
New experimental colour combinations and textile constructions extend her creative boundaries, capturing the visions in her imagination. Stepping away from previous representational work, but still starting from original visual research, she explores colour more intuitively within more abstract imagery.