Inspirations Issue 114

SENSE OF PLACE As I write this, we are enjoying all the delights of warmer weather and an abundance of rain over the past months means everything is wonderfully green while plants are bursting into glorious bloom and insects and birds are busy collecting pollen and nectar. When walking around my neighbourhood I get to enjoy the delights of others’ gardening endeavours but have noticed that many gardens don’t look the same as they used to. Gone are the ordered lines of rose bushes and borders of pretty petunias with their bright, blowsy flowers and heady scent, all visitors from the other side of the world. In their place are plants that are just as beautiful but display flower and leaf forms that are totally different and would have seemed very…

Susie started her career in the 1980s as a costume maker for theatre productions – first in Australia and later at the Royal Shakespeare Company and the West End in London. “I specialised in making 19th century men’s costumes purely because it was the time of Les Miserables and Phantom of the Opera. There were a lot of big West End musicals that needed 19th-century men’s costumes.” This make-believe world of theatre quickly became very real when in 1998, Susie and her husband followed his career to Kathmandu in Nepal. Susie enrolled in an embroidery course, first through City & Guilds and later followed by a university degree. “It was the days before internet and Zoom when distance learning meant receiving printed coursework and returning completed projects through the mail. It…

AS PART OF HER ANNUAL MASTERCLASS in 19th century men’s tailoring at the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne, Susie teaches the students to work on half-scale models. “I love the technical challenge of making prototypes. Problem-solving and learning new skills are some of my favourite aspects of my work. I also love working on a smaller scale – it is less unwieldy and makes good use of all the scraps of precious fabric that I have been hoarding!” The idea of Citizen Botanist developed over time. Once Susie set her sights on making a puppet, she had to discover his name, character, and story. “I was going to make a puppet – he would be embroidered and wear fabulous 19th century costumes, and he would be travelling with me…

BORN IN NORMANDY, France, in 1755, Labillardière studied botany and medicine at Montpellier, graduating as a doctor of medicine in Paris around 1780. After working at the Jardin du Roi, he was sent to England for two years in 1782 to study the plant collections in Kew Gardens where he met Sir Joseph Banks. He undertook his first voyage as a naturalist in 1783, travelling and collecting in the Alps, the Mediterranean, and the Levant, before setting sail for Oceania. He was one of the great traveller-naturalists of the 18th century and published several books, including the first book on the flora of Australia. In 1791 he was appointed as the naturalist to Bruni d’Entrecasteaux’s expedition to Oceania in search of a lost ship. They failed to find the missing expedition…

Trace Michele Carragher | Search Press 2021 | Hardcover 176pg ISBN 978-1-78221-743-5 | RRP $64.99 Become immersed in the fascinating and exquisitely detailed world of Michele Carragher’s embroidered art. Trace opens with a gallery tour of the three featured artworks, All That Glitters, Entropy and Conscience. Pages are filled with close-up images of the stunning, and at times confronting, works utilising intricate, dimensional embroidery and beading to create a narrative layered with metaphor and meaning. The inspiration for this body of work grew from Michele’s research of historical artefacts for her costume and conservation work. Beyond the physical objects, she is drawn to the stories surrounding them, and exploring meanings and dualities that resonate through time. A costume-related artefact created by Michele has been the springboard for each artwork. A highly decorated glove, evoking symbol-rich…

“My first introduction to the Umm Al Quwain mangroves was the breathtaking aerial view during a skydiving experience in 2005. I never knew this landscape existed here in the UAE.” Twelve years after this experience, Stephanie participated in the Mangroves from the Water art project led by Zahidah Zeytoun Millie (see p.15). Stephanie’s contribution to this project included site installations mimicking the emotions of nurturing and protecting by covering the mangrove trees in knitted wool. Images of the covered trees were then transferred onto cotton fabric and embellished with hand and machine embroidery. Stephanie used the threads and stitching as a metaphor for our human touch on nature, being both protective and destructive. “The ocean scares me. I don’t like swimming in it. Yet, I like hearing and smelling it. I like…