Alma Thomas was born in 1962 in Rustenburg, a rural area of Gauteng, South Africa.
After studying at the Fashion Academy in Johannesburg and a long career in fashion, she began making oversized fabrics about twenty years ago, large wall hangings she affectionately calls "lappies" in Afrikaans.
Alma developed a special, manually operated machine operated by two people in which the image, digitally printed on paper, is passed through a kind of roller machine, centimeter by centimeter, along with carefully selected fabric. By heating the paper, the ink becomes moist and transfers to the canvas.
She creates dreamy, mystical images in the computer that she hopes will transport you time and again, escaping the sometimes harsh reality of everyday life for a moment.
Our "Queen of Fabrics" says: "To me, every piece is unique and must make you linger for a while and wonder and come back; every 'lappie' has a soul and tells a story..."
