Gill Burke

“Remembering Hideyo”.
Hanging decorated with screen stencils and shibori
on cotton and hand-woven paper.
Commemorates colleague Hideyo McDonnel,
died December 2005.

“Kurrajong” - Design based on lino-block print
by Natalie Densely.
In blue on calico, in brown on ramie cotton  

“Éarth” “Panel in the ‘Elements” series, 1m x1m.
Dye, gutta resist, salt and urea.

Gill Burke trained at the School of Art, Hastings, UK, more years ago than she cares to remember.

Her early career was spent designing and painting theatre scenery and she only returned to her first love-textile design, after coming to Braidwood in 1997.

For the past nine years her studio, The Silken Tent, has produced furnishing fabrics designed and hand printed by Gill and her colleagues. The Silken Tent has a strong commitment to the handcraft process so does not use computer generated designs.

Other forms of cloth decoration include

• batik,

• block printing,

• rõsome and shibori using indigo and natural dyes.

 Examples of work can be seen at www.silkentent.com.au

“Golden Road”. Design derived from tiles on
the Great Mosque, Isfahan.
In white on hand-woven gold Thai silk.

“Kangaroo Grass”
Monoprint in white on ivory silk organza.

“Nautilus Fern”. Design by Andrew Fraggle.
In black on grey silk/cotton mix,
in grey on cotton satin, and
in gold on double fuji silk.