Taking embroidery to the next level
Spira Tlhankane | Friday April 17, 2015 18:00
With no background of visual arts, her breakthrough came at the age of 28 years of age after she attended a Chinese Embroidery workshop organised by the Department of Arts and Culture in 2010.
That was all it took for Mphetolang to make a drastic life change. She picked up her needle and began her handicraft of drawing pictures on fabric with needle and thread.
Her future in the arts industry began to unfold and she soon realised that she could excel naturally. It was the same year in 2010 when she decided to take part in the President’s Day Competitions and managed to win the award for the most promising artist.
“It was a turning point in my life and later that year I took my artwork for exhibition in Japan as part of the team of exhibitors representing Botswana’s sparkling Natural Beauty Art and Diamond Exhibition,’’ said Mphetolang.
She said the Japanese loved her work and she managed to sell two of her pieces.
In 2011, Mphetolang said she took part in the President’s Day Competitions again as a way to showcase to Batswana her talent in the creative arts.
“I scooped the first prize for best in textile and I managed to defend my title again in 2012,” she said. Mphetolang said she did all this while working in her own space at home, but soon realised her need to go outside the confines of her own home and take her hand embroidery to the people.
She said her first stop was Thapong Visual Arts Centre where she joined as a member. Mphetolang now has a studio in Thapong and she said she intended to market her unique artworks.
Mphetolang’s art pieces look like nobody else’s and that is because they stand out. Her outstanding craftsmanship is not just decorating a piece of fabric but also her sewing evokes powerful pictures. From a distance, they look more like coloured drawings, but the difference is that they have been hand crafted using needle and thread.
Every design tells a story and the same can be said for Mphetolang’s work. One of the art pieces hanging in her studio showed a pair of glowing hands, which indicated that she was able to use her talent after a dark period that lasted so many years.
In another related picture, she depicted two pairs of hands trapped by a Sengaparile tree.She said the picture meant that in life challenges could be overcome in relation to the Setswana proverb, se tshwarwa ke ntsa pedi ga se thata.
Mphetolang said she liked to portray her surroundings, especially nature. Most of her work portrays the life of animals and in one of her artworks, she showed all the contents used by traditional doctors to examine and heal their clients. The artwork was so unique that it looked like she pasted leather and animal furry on the fabric. She used bits and pieces of coloured threads to create a real life connection in her pictures.
“People have often asked me whether I had pasted something on the fabric and surprisingly, it is all made of thread,” she said. Mphetolang said other artists have approached her to aid in decorating their products.
“I have also been approached by the Molepolole College of Education to help in teaching art teachers some of my work,” she said.
She said she has also experimented with her embroidery on clothes during her wedding day celebration and people told her that it was very unique and beautiful.
“In the future I want to add beads and other natural materials,” she said.
Even though her work is painstaking, time-consuming and intimidating, Mphetolang said she usually takes three days to finish a simple product and three weeks tops for a complicated one. The most important thing she noted is that she sketched out all her drawings before the real embroidery began.
“I intend to work with other artists so that they can help grow my art,” she said.
She said despite any challenges, she would continue to use her hands to craft all her products.
“I will never use a machine because that would be a sign of laziness. I want to keep my uniqueness because I have a lot of passion for my works,” she said.