JOKE BUURSMA

ART QUILTS - QUILT ART - TEXTILE ART

I started working with textiles when I moved from The Netherlands to Ireland (Co. Waterford) in 1996. It started as a hobby, but gradually it grew to a  real passion for fabric and colour. I wanted to express my design ideas in textile wall hangings, like painters do in their paintings. Although I worked for many years as a librarian and later as a consultant in curriculum design for vocational education, my artistic life began when I took evening classes in painting and drawing at that time. When I discovered fabric and thread as a medium, a whole new world opened  up and ideas poured forth. The sewing machine has become my brush and pencil; thread and fabric have become my palette for images set on various backgrounds.

Colour and shape are for me the most important design elements. My medium is a pieced, layered and stitched art form in which surface design plays a most important role. I mainly use a mix of self dyed and commercially printed cotton fabrics, but occasionally I use silk, linen and man-made material as well.  I work with various surface techniques, for example piecing, appliqueing, dyeing, painting, stamping, and discolouring. From a distance my work often resembles a painting, but as the viewer approaches, the stitching detail beckons and invites even closer inspection.


If you are interested in purchasing a piece, please e-mail me at:  jokebuursma@gmail.com, or,
ring me at 00353 (0) 86 0527947

Joke (pronounced Yoka) Buursma,
​February, 2021