abbie chambers. clothing & textiles
Abbie is an artist working in fashion and textiles. She creates art with fabric as well as clothing.
Dresses:
Abbie is currently studying fashion design with Shirley Willett. She is currently working on dresses made from traditional African wax prints which use colorful imagery of items such as toasters, rollerskates and scissors as well as more traditional floral and animal imagery. Traveling to Ghana this winter, she plans to work with women's sewing cooperatives to sew her pieces.
Textiles:
Abbie studied textile design and UMass Dartmouth where she learned various surface design techniques. Painting on silk using potato dextrin resist, Abbie paints layers of dye and resist on top each other. As the layers build up, it is no longer possible to see what is happening to the fabric underneath. Making art in this way requires very accurate record keeping and attention to detail. However, as careful as you may be in trying to control the outcome, there is always some magic that happens underneath the creating. Fabric treated in this way records everything that has been done to it, intentionally and unintentionally.
