Textile Birdhouses

 When I first came to  New Zealand I was intrigued to come across the local expression  “I’m a box- o-’birds”  or “a box of fluffy ducks” menaing you're feeling great.  It  prompted the idea of making  birdboxes which elicit a state of happiness or delight. As an ex-theatre set and costume designer,  researching  and recreating  settings and characters from different periods, and using visual elements to create a particular world, these are no different, really. I scavenges  from the past  and from different styles to make  little decorative shrines for the home. Many of the fabrics and trims have had a previous life; they’re  remnants that  carry their own stories. By recycling these materials into new objets d’art I hope to re-generate their lifecycles. The handwork celebrates the simple stitch and the intimate and slightly irregular quality of the hand-made in a mass produced world. The use of fabric references  the silk wallpaper, heavy drapery and  embossed velvet boxes of past eras and I try to make thebirds as quirky and characterful as I can.