Your hometown?
Sunny Melbourne! I love the changeable weather, the cosmopolitan inhabitants and food, and that the beach, mountains and snowfields are all within cooee.         

Favourite food?
‘Favourites’ aren’t really my thing as is the case with many Librans. I tend to have a broad liking of many different and diverse foods — Indian, Thai, German are probably at the top of the list.

Favourite restaurant?
Would you believe I don’t have one?? Bit sad. We don’t get out much and when we do we usually try different restaurants!

Favourite recipe?
Delia’s Pavlova dessert (a ‘traditional’ Australian meringue dessert created sometime around the visit of the prima ballerina of the same name to Australia in 1926). We have lived overseas for extended periods at various times in places where buying a packet pavlova base in a shop is not possible. While living in Vienna I learned to make my own from her simple recipe and it’s a cinch and always a hit!

Favourite market?
Rose Street Artists’ Market in Fitzroy

Favourite travel destination?
What a decision! We lived overseas for 4 years before we had kids and another 2 after they arrived on the scene (all within a 10 year span) so we’ve seen many, many places. An amazing overseas holiday depends on so many factors (weather, hotel, health, jetlag, etc) that the location itself is never the only consideration when choosing one above the others. Both Barcelona and Prague are way up there as superb places to visit. So beautiful!

Dream travel destination?
South America (okay, okay not terribly specific but as much as possible down that way!)

What do you enjoy most about making your products?  Where do you draw your inspiration from?
Someone once told me that an artist, or a musician, in the process of performing their art are actually in a state not unlike meditation and that resonates with me. I’m somehow at peace when creating and get huge satisfaction from this process — and not just the end product. Each of my creations is unique although I occasionally use body types that I’ve used previously. Even so the features distinguish each one of these from the others.

The idea of found object sculpture had been floating around in the back of my mind for a while due to various fabulous artists here in Australia and around the globe (particularly Jean Tinguely -- Swiss sculptor, and American, Brian Marshall, who is also a found object sculptor). Brian’s superb creations were the original impetus to start composing household objects into sculpture but my current work has ended up being a completely original take on this idea.    

How long does it take to make one of your creations?  Anything interesting about the process that you would like to mention?
I find it really hard to put a finger on the time it has taken to assemble each sculpture. Most often I make the ‘choices’ of the features of a number of owls all at once, pre-drill any holes needed in the body, eye parts and beaks, then keep their body and the various features together in a ‘kit’. I then assemble them when I have the time. The assemblage process can occur almost anywhere. If I know I’m going to be waiting somewhere I’ll take my ‘sculpture bag’ with me — as  some people do with their knitting. It makes for great exposure and along with the admiring ones, I also get some very strange looks! I’ve been known to work at the swimming pool during my kids’ swimming lessons, kids’ dance classes, in the lodge at the snow, anywhere really.

Discounting the time it takes to collect all of the items in the first place (its not possible to ring a supplier and just place an order!) I estimate it takes around 1.5 hours to create the average owl. This also depends on the object used for the ‘body’ -- something with holes doesn’t need pre-drilling but this can sometimes make the assemblage more complicated as the position of the holes allows for less flexibility in design.

As to the process: it’s not rocket science. I use wire to combine all of the requisite parts, although sometimes machine screws & nuts used as part of the design work to fix the parts together. What makes a cohesive/pleasing whole is the particular combination of the various features. Once a piece is complete care is taken to find a name fitting to the sculpture. My husband is an inherent part of this process and comes up with some superb names that reflect either the parts used or the expression. My 8 year old daughter reckons that the names help to lend personality to the piece. Each item is then engraved with its series number, name, my signature and the year it was made. Photographs are taken of every piece to make it easier to part with. 

In your words, what makes your products unique?
All of the components I use are recognisable as something that had a previous purpose. I revel in repurposing (well in anything re- or upcycled actually) and I cringe at the amount of waste that we humans produce. I am delighted to be able to make something special out of old junk. Owning one of my sculptures is a way of saying I care for the environment: I don’t need something made from new components. I believe that there is an inherent beauty in repurposing discarded, obsolete bits and pieces that would otherwise end up as landfill and I don’t need to compound the issue of global warming by buying something made on a production line overseas that has consumed enormous amounts of energy just to get to me. Buying handmade has so many advantages.