Sabina Tiemroth doesn’t let anything go to waste. When we speak, the textile artist is working on an exhibition based entirely on leftover cuttings from previous work. Using remnants from her more commercial line of scarfs Ovo to create new pieces of art, she sees her art and design as part of a circle, and also part of a lifestyle.

 

“For me, design is a way of life,” she says. “When you design something, whether it’s clothing, a house or a utensil, you’re creating a lifestyle. I try to always work with leftover material and I keep everything that my workshop generates. There’s always something leftover. There a circle and a chain of feedback between materials.”

 

Sabina grew up in the Alto Valle region in the south of Argentina, surrounded by the contrasting landscapes of the lush valley and orchards and the arid Patagonian desert. When she moved to Buenos Aires to study, the big city provided another contrast influencing her mixture of textures and integration different techniques using natural materials like wool and silk, and experimenting with weaving using leftover selvedge sold in hardware shops in the south.

 

“I try to combine my South with the big city,” she says. “The landscapes of my childhood are an important influence on what I look for in the contrast of textures. I grew up surrounded by natural fibres – my mum would knit sweaters from wool that we would buy in the mountains. These things really stayed with me.” 

 

Sabina compares design to cook experimenting in the kitchen, which seems an interesting comparison now she has her workshop and showroom in Buenos Aires’ hip Palermo neighbourhood near the latest restaurants and cocktail bars of all kinds.

 

“I draw sketches and experiment trying out materials, cooking things and trying them like a chef,” she says. “I play with the material to see what it will allow and what it won’t and that way a dialogue develops.”

 

Sabina Tiemroth’s showroom in Palermo is open to the public by appointment: https://www.sabinatiemroth.com/