Flinders-based weaver Emma Shepherd practices one of the world’s oldest crafts with a sensibility of an artist deeply embedded in her environment. Using yarns collected from all around the world allows Shepherd an opportunity to reflect on the deeper history of fibre, its role in human history and weaving’s legacy as humanity’s earliest algorithms in action. Thinking through the fabric, its strength and structure, as well as the ethos of Bauhaus textiles, Shepherd folds in colours resembling green foliage, the dark tones of tree trunks, the neutrals of the sand and the rock of her hometown. Her work incorporates materials like pine needles, horsehair and bark taken from Shepherd’s immediate surrounds, letting them shape the work in a gentle yet deliberate way.

Shepherd has exhibited across the state with solo exhibitions at Brunswick St Gallery, Lon Retreat, Craft Vitrine Gallery and the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery.