About

Born in Africa and educated in England, Pookie Weatherburn began her work in design by dyeing cloth. She took a particular interest in batik and cassava-paste techniques and made several wall hangings, using hues and ideas influenced by her time spent in Africa. Working with young children as a teacher of arts and crafts, Weatherburn started to expand her repertoire with cotton and, especially, silk. She designed scarves in vibrant colours with abstract flowers, birds, and plant life. She made stamps and experimented with different printing methods in a variety of materials, including metal. Exploring the contrast of the soft, light, flowing silk against the hard, strong structural element of metal, she became interested in working with wire and learning hand-weaving techniques to make jewelry. The wire affords her the opportunity to create built-up surfaces and textures, yet the method she uses gives the pieces a feeling of fabric and fiber.

Pieces by Pookie Weatherburn have been displayed at the SOFA exhibition in New York, at the Works gallery in Philadelphia, and at the national juried show Craft Forms at the Wayne Art Center, Pennsylvania (her Craft Forms entrant was the featured illustration in the Philadelphia Inquirer review of the show), at the Main Line Art Center, and the Raven Gallery, Manayunk.