Weaving for me is a form of meditation, of being in the moment.
It’s my way of putting joy out into the world.
I started weaving at a time when I was craving creativity in my life. I just stumbled into it after mucking around making art with other mediums. That “stuff” – the mucking around – was for the sake of doing something. Anything! I’d always been a creative kid but I lost my way a bit in adulthood. And by adulthood I mean in my 30s, because really we’re all still growing up in our 20s!
So cue trawling Pinterest for how-to’s and regular appearances at Walmart for cheap acrylic yarn, because hello – husband and I were on a career break in the US (aka grown-up gap-year) and on a budget! I taught myself to weave between the forks of branches I found in the park across the road. It was a lot of trial and error, but I enjoyed it. By the time we returned to Australia, I was interested in pursuing this craft further.
I found a tapestry weaving course through our local university and really fell in love with the whole process.
I’d finally discovered my creative passion and committed to making time for something that felt so fulfilling every day.
My muse is the natural landscape and my experience of place. I’ve been fortunate to travel extensively in the US, and this has been an endless source of inspiration to draw upon. I like to explore variations in texture and organic patterns typical of both intuitive weaving and the landscapes that make my heart sing. Although the interpretation is often abstract,
I seek to evoke a sense of connection to and feeling about the place that has informed each tapestry.
Besides my childhood home in the central west of New South Wales, the places I have felt the deepest affinity with are Arches National Park in Utah and the Bisti-De-Na-Zin Wilderness in New Mexico. One of the most satisfying creative experiences was taking my loom and project bag out amongst the red rocks of Arches and weaving in the desert. And the overwhelming sense of belonging within the Bisti landscape was something I had never experienced before. Being in that place, my soul felt like it was soaring! It brought me such a feeling of calm and quiet and will no doubt continue to impact my artistic direction into the future.
To read more about my practice, check out the media links below
Style Curator:
Weaving magic through her art: A chat with Australian tapestry artist Lee Leibrandt
AllHomes:
Canberra tapestry weaver entwines Australian landscape into the home
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