14 October – 16 December 2017

Femke Lemmens uses natural fibres and naturally obtained colours, to create weaves with a certain lightness and movement. Creating her own colours at home from plants and kitchen waste, has become an engaging and integral part of her whole process.

Femke visited the Alpujarras mountains in Andalucia, southern Spain. There , she found that the blueish-cold evening air coming down onto the red of the mountains was inspiring. This led her to try the weaves in blue, red, and russet. She strung up her scarves in a woven shibori technique, while she was dyeing them. Then she unfolded them after they were dry. This has contributed to the ripple effect of the colours.

Weaving can be a very momentous expression for an artist. Changes along the way lead to new inspirations. We end up slowly growing something true to who we are. The products of this kind of SAORI weaving are alive

Femke Lemmens

Saori weaving

Femke enjoys the age old traditions in this interplay between dyeing and weaving, which fits perfectly with the freedom she has discovered through SAORI weaving.  Misao Jo.invented the term in the 1970s in Japan. It comes from the word “SAI” in Zen vocabulary: everything has its own individual dignity | ORI means weaving. 

Misao Jo realised that irregularities in her weavings were an expression of her creative spirit. She was the first to think that this was a positive expression of her personality, not as an imperfection.

As a teacher, she encouraged her many pupils to explore freely as young children do, to see everything with wonder, to break with convention and be true to their instincts.