What Makes You Smile? Is a collaborative Community Art project between myself and Josh Wells  and sponsored by a City of Stirling, Artist in Situ Residency. Over the month of February we interviewed over 173 people attending the Hamersley Recreation Centre asking them “What Makes You Smile?’ while Josh took their portrait. We had an overwhelmingly positive response to the project from all the groups, teams, clubs we approached. People from 3 years old to 94, footy players, art groups, after school programs, a theatre company, exercise groups, dance groups participated. What Makes People S ..read more

Welcome to the second edition of my newsletter, What’s Happening in the Studio A whole season has passed since my last newsletter. I have spent most of summer in the studio working on several projects, and four of them go on show in the next few weeks! It is an exciting time. I hope you get the opportunity to see some of what I’m sure will be wonderful exhibitions. Castledine and Company – Influence  Lost Eden, Dwellingup 17th  March – 16th April The theme of this exhibition is to celebrate and highlight the interdependence of artists. We were each asked to make a work that reference ..read more

I am delighted to have my work Marking Time Series 2.5 selected for The International Art Textile Biennale 2023. The work consists of recycled business tie linings complete with stitch marks and dye bleed stains, doilies, silk scraps, offcuts of previous artworks and threads, that have been folded, pleated and hand stitched. Artist Statement – I watch the gradual blooming of a banksia flower, its tightly contained florets in perfect symmetry. The repetitive nature of my daily walk allows space for observation of its small changes over time. As 2020’s winter progresses, rain and wind ..read more

My original intention was to look at metallic colours in December. Gold, silver, bronze etc. I also planned to work through the book Folding Techniques for Designers, From Sheet to Form by Paul Jackson. It became apparent in the first few days that these samples would work much better in plain white paper.  At  this time I also visited the Picasso to Warhol exhibition at the WA Art Gallery and saw works by Alexander Calder (I’ve loved his work since discovering it in High School) The shadows created by his two pieces below helped confirm my change of plan. Shadows and light play ..read more

In November I worked with Pink. Many of the samples here have had an influence of my work over the years since the project. Cut away technique, folding and wrapping… A book on fabric origami was my starting point. These two macrame style braids were in the bookLittle stars, quite thick due to the size and double layer of fabricA little larger with less folds works a bit better I’ve used an old sheet from an op shop and dyed it with “Fushia” dylon dye. The wrapping technique involved long strips of fabric folded lengthwise and rolled.Folded back and pinned Three shades of pink Printed with a va ..read more

In October I worked with indigo and shibori techniques. Indigo is the colour named after the blue dye from the plant Indigofera tinctoria and related species. Indigo can’t easily be made into dye, oxygen must be removed from the vat by fermentation or reducing. The liquid becomes yellow-green with a deep blue metallic looking skin or flower. The colour blue returns after re-oxygenation in the air. Successive dips and aerations are made until the right shade of blue is achieved. Indigo dyeing was somewhat of a mystery to me until I attended a workshop with the amazing expert dyer, Trudi Pollard ..read more

WAFTA’s twenty five + Crossover exhibition opened at Holmes a Court Gallery at10 Douglas St West Perth on Friday night. I am delighted to have my work To Learn to Read is to Light a Fire jury selected and to be hanging alongside 41 other thought provoking and beautiful works. Open daily until 12 November 2022. The text in this work is written in Pitman’s Shorthand. Imagine if we needed to be able to read this to navigate the world. How would we manage to fill in government forms, read labels on containers, follow a recipe, get a drivers licence, enjoy reading a good book, get, and maintain a ..read more

In conjunction with the Stitched & Bound exhibition, Midland Junction Arts Centre is hosting an Artist in Residency program until 5th November. Anne Williams, Julie Devereux and I were pleased to be a part of the program from Wed 5th – Sat 15th October. My work on display Anne’s work Julie’s work. Rust and naturally dyed silk scarves. The residency program has been a great success, both for us individually and bringing new and repeat visitors to the gallery over the length of the show. We had nearly 300 visitors over the two weeks. It has been a space for fellow textile friends and collea ..read more

An image a day challenge created by @seam_collective to share a love of textiles on the Instagram platform. Each day in September has a prompt to interpret as you wish. Here is my full month long challenge. Day 1: About/Introduction I am an artist based in Perth Western Australia. I’ve had a love of textiles right from when my left handed Nanna tried to teach me to crochet right handed. I my 20s I designed and screen printed clothing in an old cool drink factory. Many years later, I now work in a lovely light filled room in my house. I’m surrounded by the many distractions working from home br ..read more

The stone remains of Point King Lighthouse, Albany, sit on the edge of the rocks, only 17 metres above sea level. Between 1858 – 1911, three Lightkeepers and their wives raised 5, 8 and 10 children respectively, in this 4-room house. At this rocky isolated post they were both self-sufficient and resilient. What could the walls tell us of their lives?Silk organza hand dyed with purple carrots, various silks, some recycled, recycled woollen blanket. Machine stitched together; cut away areas revel the layers beneath. Hand stitched marks throughout the piece. Our family are regular visitors to Alb ..read more