She Wore Her Armour | The Painted Cloth Studio

She Wore Her Armour is a mixed-media textile work made entirely from used teabags, printed, inked, torn, and hand-stitched into a worn, apron-like form. The surface bears the marks of repeated use—tannin stains, rusted tones, faded blues, and creases that echo domestic labour and the passage of time.

A cotton pocket sits at the centre of the work, holding the actual rusted needle used in its making. This small, intimate detail anchors the piece in lived experience, transforming an everyday tool into a symbol of endurance, care, and quiet resilience.
The work reframes domesticity as a site of strength rather than fragility, honouring women’s labour within the home as a form of armour—worn daily, invisibly, and with devotion.
Made in collaboration by Diane Parker and Santie Cronje under The Painted Cloth Studio.

She Wore Her Armour is presented in a custom frame with anti-reflective AR70 glass, ensuring clarity while preserving the delicate textures and material detail of the work.

Dimensions H915mm x W650mm

About

The Painted Cloth Studio is the collaborative practice of artists Santie Cronje and Diane Parker, bringing together shared interests in material storytelling, ritual, and slow, contemplative making. Working primarily with cloth, paper, and found materials, their practice is grounded in the transformation of the everyday into objects of reflection and meaning.

Their debut collection draws inspiration from tea’s enduring presence in spiritual, domestic, and cultural rituals—moments of pause that invite connection, care, and quiet awareness. Through processes of staining, printing, tearing, and hand-stitching used teabags, the artists embed time, touch, and repetition into the surface of each work, allowing material to carry memory.

At the heart of their collaboration is an interest in mindfulness as a lived practice rather than a concept—found in small, repeated gestures and shared domestic rituals. By merging tea, textile, and mark-making, The Painted Cloth Studio creates works that speak softly yet powerfully of presence, labour, and the intimate spaces where meaning is formed.