Tamlin Blake

Tamlin Blake (born 1974) is a South African mixed media artist living and working in Riebeeck West. The major themes of Blake's work revolve around cross-cultural South African symbols of wealth and status and, more recently, what constitutes and underpins each individuals sense of belonging.[1] Her sculptural pieces often transcend boundaries between illustration, craft, and art, using weaving, beading, and drawing, amongst other media.[2]

Tamlin Blake
Tamlin Blake at work in 2009
Born	1974 Johannesburg
Nationality	South African
Website	tamlinblake.com

The main body of Blake's beaded art works took the form of South African stamps finely woven using glass seed beads.[3][4] “By replicating these original stamps in a traditional craft idiom that has such a strong association with indigenous African cultures , Blake offers a genteel but acerbic reference to [South Africa’s] troubled past.” (Innes 2012: pg20 ISBN 978-0-620-52880-1).

While working on her own bead art Blake helped Jeanetta Blignaut, to establish a bead studio which today exists as the Qubeka Bead Studio, a collaborative owned by the bead artists themselves.

After this Tamlin used a variety of different media including three-dimensional pieces in felt and beads to explore the use of farm animals as valued commodities and symbols of wealth and status across the boundaries of race and culture.[5][6]

Blake's more recent work consists of tapestries woven out of recycled and hand-spun newspaper [7][8] a collection of which were bought by The Spier Holdings Contemporary Art Collection [9]