New pathways to explore

FIGURED OUT: Flora and Fleur, a Sculpture by Isbel Shepherd.

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Isbel Shepherd has worked with fabrics all her life. Now in her seventh decade, she says she now has the time to explore their properties fully – to use threads, dyes and stitch in ways she would never have dreamed of even five years ago.

"I have a very strong concern for the environment and use recycled materials whenever I can. This has never been a constraint on my work – to the contrary, having to improvise has often led to unexpected delights, and to something I could never have planned."

For Shepherd, the most important part of working with textiles and mixed media is the process.

"First, there is the germ of an idea; then, by writing and thinking about it, the idea expands and leads off on to unexpected paths.

"As someone once said, `At my age, it is not what you get excited about, but it is the fact that you can get excited at all' – that is the important thing."

• Artifacts and Other Works by Isbel Shepherd, Fibre Spectrum, Trafalgar St, March.

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