Made in Europe - Chantal Guillermet

Chantal GUILLERMET, France - Coming back home

This is the second piece of a series about the Guérande Peninsula traditions. Harvesting sea salt has always been a local and ancestral human activity in this part of France. The woman, a salt worker, is coming back home at sunset holding a dish of salt on her head. The warm colours of sunset are reflecting into the water of the salt marshes basins.

The woman's silhouette was inspired by the work of Jean Fréour a local sculptor and by several 19th century engravings.

The prints represents the movement of water and the salt.  Hand embroideries is used to enhance the prints and to represent saltwort plants on the foreground.

Basins : Background cut out, shapes slide into the holes and fused on the batting.

Lino prints, stencilling, free  motion quilting, hand embroideries. Soldering iron for the silhouette.

Hand-dyed poplin and thread, batik, organza, acrylic paint, rayon thread

Detail