Self-covered Buttons
‘Self-covered Buttons’ is an installation resembling a giant display of buttons, recalling the haberdasher’s shops that were a treasure trove of inspiration for the artist and her sister as teenagers in the 1980s when they were learning dressmaking skills from a family friend.
The sisters would spend hours after school poring over pattern books, choosing their next projects, and many long evenings taking over the family dining room as their sewing room. They amassed quite a collection of haberdashery items including buttons, some handed down from grandmothers and great aunts, and which still exist in tins and jars in the artist’s studio.
The whimsical button-like soft sculptures are mounted on to round “lids” and presented as an installation to mimic the tops of the tubes of buttons displayed in a shop, with a variety of sizes and colours to reflect the selection of buttons by size, style or colour-way.
These sculptures are wet-felted from merino and corriedale wools and incorporate other materials such as silk and cotton fabrics, silk fibres, wool locks, yarns and threads, and even tea bags with asemic writing.
The title references several layers of meaning. Firstly, the self-cover buttons that are part of the dressmaker’s arsenal, which can be covered in fabrics to match or complement the garment. Secondly, the ‘hand’ of the artist in creating these works based on personal experiences: some of these buttons represent the people, places and life events and form something of a visual memoir.
Sam was a recipient of the Joyce Spencer Highly Commended Award. The Joyce Spencer Textiles Fellowship supports a regional NSW textile artist or collective to deliver a new artwork or exhibition. Named after the textile artist Joyce Spencer (1928 – 2019) from Narrandera NSW, the fellowship is made possible with funds from the Spencer family and Western Riverina Arts, in partnership with the Cad Factory.
