Design Indaba Emerging Creative: Elizabeth Louisa van der Merwe possibilities of wax screen printing

Elizabeth is a trained architect who fell in love with the layers, paint and possibilities of wax screen printing.
Elizabeth Louisa van der Merwe lives in a small town in Mpumalanga called Lydenburg. Her setting informs her process, textures and colours. It is a dusty town and nothing jumps out like bright colours - they change the whole atmosphere. Her greatest source of inspiration is the beautiful bright clothes people wear.
She is a trained architect who fell in love with the layers, paint and possibilities of wax screen printing. This is not the traditional method and allows for a lot of "incidence" as the wax wears off during the printing process. It’s like writing a poem, or painting a picture in layers. And the result is a piece of material that could be used in so many ways. In this way, a bench or chair becomes a work of art.
Elizabeth started a brand called "anthology" in 2020 where she aims to add splashes of colour and art to household items such as table mats and tissue box covers, which she dubs domestic camouflage. She aims to artfully, poetically inundate the mundane and spark creativity and inspiration in the everyday.