NDLWANA
She is the founder of textile design studio Ingyeyo textiles and also works collaboratively as co-founder and organizer of Loomlife’s - Wine, Weave and Beats workshop events with Nkuli Mlangeni-Berg, designer and founder of The Ninevites.
Loomlife is an emerging creative wellness project-series offering textile making workshops that are dedicated to keeping our enduring craft techniques of textile heritage alive through collaborative public and private weaving workshops. This platform focuses on community, creative engagement, skill share and care.
Her design collaboration with furniture designer Cameron Warp bench explored sustainable design practice using eucalyptus plant matter as material for the woven textiles.
Sibabalwe is a Mail & Guardian Top 200 Young South African of 2019. She received her fashion Design Diploma from Cape Town College of Fashion Design, and completed her M.A. in New Materials and Textile Design cum laude from Nuova Accademia di Belli Arti, Milan, Italy.
Sibabalwe Ndlwana is a weaving artist, textile designer and researcher based in Cape Town.
South African - Ugandan, b. 1985
Her practice as a textile maker focuses on utilizing the meditative processes of handweaving in an improvisational style in bringing personal narratives, memory and abstract landscapes into focus while paying homage to artisanal processes of ancient practices.
Sibabalwe is fascinated in the nature of weaving and of cloth-making. It is a evolving endeavor and continuous process of unlearning and discovery. Her interest in integrating some traditional African textile-making methods, techniques and technology continues to inform better sustainable textile production practices. Along side her own practice, she has taught at Cape Peninsula University of Technology and offers classes and workshops relating to her specialism.
EDUCATION
2011 - 2013
Nuova Accademia Di Belle Arti, NABA Italy.
M.A. in Textiles & New Materials Design
cum laude
2005 - 2007
Cape Town College of Fashion Design, Cape Town, South Africa
Diploma in in Fashion Design
WORK / TEACHING
2017 - 2018
Lecturer (part-time) in History of Graphic Design, Design and Infomatics Dept, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Cape Town
March - July 2019
Lecturer in Surface Design, Design and Infomatics Dept, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Cape Town
AWARDS
2019
Mail & Guardian 200 Young South Africans, Arts & Entertainment, Johannesburg
https://200youngsouthafricans.co.za/sibabalwe-ndlwana-arts-2019/
2010
Winner of NABA International Scholarship Competition in Textile Design by Nuova Accademia di Belli Arti, Milan
TALKS / SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS
2014
Guest artist speaker for African Textiles and the Stories they Tell" hosted by Sematsatsa Library and African Arts Institute
2020
Guest speaker for ArtSat webcasts hosted by Art and Ubuntu Trust
EXHIBITIONS
Group
2019
2018
Untangle, WorldArt Gallery, Cape Town
Common Threads, 99 Juta Popup Gallery, Johannesburg