Seljak Brand began as an experiment and a case study. Together as sisters, we wanted to explore our hunch that there were better ways of making and using things. Establishing a waste-to-resource circular business was how we could test and prove such ideas were desirable and viable, and provide an example of change.
The appetite for what we created blew us away from the beginning. Not just from customers, but from the textiles and fashion industry itself, all eager to find less exploitative and wasteful practices.
Closing our doors is a tough decision but we feel like it’s the right time. Even though we’ve weathered the last few years of rising costs of goods, local manufacturing transitions and international logistics crises, small business is especially challenging when you’re in the business of system change.
After nine years we’re proud to have proved the case for making waste beautiful and for contributing to the establishment of a circular economy model in Australia.
The world has changed dramatically since we launched our first recycled woollen blanket in 2016. And thank goodness! We’ll be passing on the torch to many wonderful new businesses that embed circularity and sustainability in their practices. That is, where being concerned with worker’s rights and the natural environment isn’t a key selling proposition anymore, rather considered as normal, obvious and non-negotiable.
Of course, there’s still much work to be done. Trend cycles are only speeding up, and climate changes are more visceral more often for more people. Pressure from the community must not let up. Which brings us to a very important point – acknowledging where that groundswell comes from.
To you, family and friends, employees, customers, stockists, suppliers, peers, followers, readers, buyers, models, photographers, academics, journalists, festival programmers and audience members – thank you for supporting us. You are the reason Seljak Brand existed at all. Every query, purchase and recommendation led to the news articles, major purchase orders, award nominations and global presentations that got our ideas out there.
By investing in cosy, durable recycled blankets, you supported us to push the industry to think differently about their waste streams. You were what enabled us to prove that indeed, there are possible tangible ways to make change, now.
Now’s the time to plan for your first or final blanket purchases! We’ll be on sale to make our blankets more accessible for the next few months, or until stocks last. Keep an eye on our socials and our mailing list for sale announcements.
We might be closing our doors, but Seljak blankets themselves will live on for a long time! Our website will remain live, capturing our years of learning through innovation projects and design collaborations. We will leave you with a place to come for blanket care and repair ideas and instructions, and a directory to recycle blankets that have come to the end of their useful life.
We’re taking all that we know and sharing it with whoever needs to hear it. We’re consulting with businesses of all sizes about circularity in action through local councils and corporate agencies. We’re delivering keynotes, masterclasses and mentoring via educational institutions, and pursuing further education ourselves to continue our work at a systems-level.
If you are interested in consultation or educational offerings, or have other ideas, please do get in touch.
So with that, onward. There's so much yet to investigate!
With love,
Sam & Karina Seljak
]]>We've seen incredible uptake of circularity in the textiles sector, with the launch of Seamless by Australia Fashion Council, implementing a circular design framework and stewardship system for all newly produced clothing items, for instance. And globally, a commitment to 'sustainability' accountability within Europe, introducing nature-based policies for governance and communication, where the aim to protect and grow biodiversity informs all business operations by giving Nature a seat at the table.
Every year we report on how we've supported this movement away from waste and towards more regenerative systems.
Impact from 1 January 2023 to now:
Other activities:
What drew you and Dan to buying this little hard-to-reach piece of land?
It all started when we were looking at doing an extension on our house. When we started looking into post pandemic costs we quickly realised it was going to be well out of our budget. We love a nature escape (and so do our two dogs) and I just started looking out of curiosity at what was out there. We looked at quite a few places. There was lots to weigh up in terms of distance, rainfall, bush fire regulations, cost, vibe etc. but we eventually landed on this block we fell in love with, both the area and the price tag!
We love the weathered-looking recycled corrugated iron you’ve used to build your shack! Not to mention the shape! How did you design and build the shack that’s now there?
The rusted corrugated iron was a core part of our initial design concept. While exploring the area around the block we began to appreciate the beauty in the shapes, colours and textures of rusted corrugated iron farming sheds and how this integrated into the Australian landscape. Such a hardy, quick to assemble and timeless material.
The structural design of the shack was all Dan with some help from his architect dad (shout out to David). He wanted to use the existing sizes and shapes from the recycled materials we had collected, with minimal cutting. This dictated the height and length as we only had a limited amount of structural recycled wood.
Another factor which had to be considered was that it needed to be easily prepped at our place in Perth and transportable to the block flat packed on a trailer. For the final assembly on the block we used a generator so we were able to properly secure the structure. We used polycarbonate corrugated sheeting, which is transparent, on half of the shack walls to continue the look and weather proofness but also let some more light in. The final design has ended up looking like an opened up triangular prism.
We’ve heard about the incredible biodiversity of the Southwest of Western Australia. Can you tell us about that? And what’s it like to visit what sounds like an incredibly serene place?
The quietude is wonderful. The town we are in is ridiculously tiny, no shops or anything happening but a freight train (which we live quite close to) that goes by breaking the quiet every so often. If you’re a big native flower fan like I am then there are some of the most spectacular and unique natives in the area. Lots of national parks and walks around the Stirling Ranges and a couple of wineries – it’s an area known for its riesling. And of course the coastline of south west WA is spectacular.
What’s your longer-term vision for your little block of land?
It has so much potential and we are always playing with ideas of what we could do with it. But short term goals include installing a composting toilet and outdoor bath. Our longer term goals include creating a functional off-grid home that can be lived in or rented out, including solar panels, more water tanks and an outdoor shower and sauna!
Overall we want to keep it simple, off-grid, fun and stress free.
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TECHNIQUES
We’re outlining two dyeing techniques in this guide by applying them to two light grey woollen blankets.
DYES
It’s important to choose the correct dye based on the fibre type you’re using:
Ops shop utensils and recycled vessels make for a great dye kit!
Instructions for ratios will be on the dye packaging. In this case, 25g of dye will dye 250g of fleece, so 100g will dye a 1kg blanket. Approximating works if you don’t have a scale!
Dissolving dye in a small plastic container
Stir to dissolve. Remember items like spoons, stirrers and containers once added to your dye kit, stay in your dye kit and shouldn’t be used for cooking, or other uses, afterwards.
Fill a tub or stainless steel sink with about 25 litres of water (around 40 degrees Celsius) and stir in dye solution. The amount of water can be variable but needs to cover your item with room to move.
Before you submerge your item you can use a piece of paper towel to test your colour, adding more water to dilute, or dye to strengthen, the colour
Visit your blanket regularly over about 40 minutes to stir it around so the dye can access all parts of the items and create an even effect.
Rinsing in cold water until the water runs clear
This is where you get a sense of how much labour and resources are used to create textiles. It will take 5 minutes of running water to rinse all the dye out of your garment and a lot of hand kneading!
Big swaths of fabric can stretch if hung, so try to distribute the weight of the blanket over drying racks. Use drop cloths underneath if you’re working inside.
Follow the same process as above but after Step 1: Weighing your blanket, and before Step 2: Dissolve dye in hot water, tie your blanket in a Shibori style before submerging into your dye bath. For this blanket, we used a folding and board clamping technique:
Laying out the blanket and beginning the concertina-style fold
A. Lay your blanket out flat
B. Fold in concertina style
Running down the length of the blanket, folding a mountain, then valley, and repeat, until all of the blanket is folded
Concertina folding width after length
C. Fold in concertina style along the width of the blanket, until you have a folded stack
Gathering the final folds to create the stack
D. Secure the stack between two wooden (or plastic) blocks and tie tightly with rope
Showing one of two ties required to clamp the blanket
E. After 40 minutes in the dye bath, pull the whole apparatus out of the bath before untying, rinsing, and drying.
The blanket is exposed after absorbing the dye for 40 minutes
Dyeing fabric is an art, craft and science. Keep in mind dyeing is a fairly experimental way to bring new life to old textiles, and results may vary. If you’ve loved this process, you can play with other variables like natural dyes or adding vinegar, salt and other substances to explore colour, pattern, pigment and chemistry.
Drying the blanket on a rack outside – we love the subtlety of the Shibori on this piece!
]]>One of our photographers and friend, Holly Bartholomeusz, moved to Los Angeles recently. And as well as working and exploring in the electric city, Holly spends time with her family. With three cousins under the age of ten, Holly shares her experience of hanging out with little kids and how she supports the parents and families in her life.
These moments of family fun were captured on film by Holly herself, featuring our kids blanket, Dancing Daisies.
How do you like to connect with your little cousins?
I love to just *be* with them and play in their environment, usually at one of their homes. It's always special to observe them playing with their toys, learning something new or dancing around the house and entertaining the grown ups. For me, connecting doesn't always look like one-on-one play. I think there's a lot of beauty in observation and interaction in the quieter moments of their inner worlds.
With record-breaking temperatures seen in most continents over the past 6 weeks, we’re bracing ourselves for what this summer’s going to be like in Australia. Coordinated action is key to avert further crises, and it’s focused on a just transition OFF fossil fuels and ON to renewable energies to meaningfully reduce carbon emissions. Scientists are baffled as to how corporations and governments are lagging on ever-clearer messages from both data and lived experiences of extreme weather. As a collective, they still send a message of hope, which Gore reinforces.
Al Gore says, “We know how to fix this. We can stop the temperatures going up worldwide with as little as a three-year time lag by reaching net zero,” he said. “And if we stay at true net zero, we’ll see half of the human-caused CO2 coming out of the atmosphere in as little as 30 years.”
Team Climate Reality recently called an urgent meeting and shared their strategy, which includes four key pillars for making change. Here’s what they had to say.
Reducing emissions is the first and vital step to reducing global warming and avoiding ever more extreme weather events. The goal is to:
Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados and Ajay Banga, president of the World Bank. Kristy Sparow/Getty Images For Global Citizen
There must be greater investment in renewables and the inclusion of nations and communities previously left behind. And a break for those hit hardest. For example, in June the president of the World Bank, Ajay Banga, said that the World Bank would pause debt repayments for countries that were recently hit by a disaster. What else is needed:
Misinformation from fossil fuel companies and is slowing the transition to a renewables economy. There needs to be:
Identify and share examples of greenwashing in your national and local regions with Climate Reality who will use them to pressure fossil fuel companies.
Egyptian Foreign Minister and Egypt's COP27 President Sameh Shoukry attends an informal stocktaking session during the COP27 climate summit, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, November 18, 2022. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany
COP28 is the United Nations Climate Change Conference in November this year, where global climate strategies and actions will be agreed on per nation. How it needs to improve:
Send a message to US President Joe Biden to call for removal of current head of COP28, who is also the CEO of a national oil company.
We recognise Climate Reality builds a largely US-centric narrative from a WEIRD perspective (Western, Educated, Industrial, Rich and Democratic), however we appreciate the inclusive alignment of a global community of people willing to take climate action. For an Australian take, listen to climate scientist, Joelle Gergis, on Schwarts Media’s 7am.
An estimated 100,000 people took to the streets for the climate march in Melbourne, September 2019
]]>Now, with a toddler, a newborn and a fur baby in tow, they’ve embarked on their biggest project yet… building their dream home!
We chatted to Imo about the process of building what they’ve named the Good Day House, the ups and downs of the process, and the key decisions around design, materiality and, of course, sustainability. Managing a small business, taking care of a tiny human, adding a pregnancy to the mix, and all the while tackling a first home build is no mean feat! We’re in awe of what this pair has achieved!
Congrats on recently moving into the Good Day House! For those who haven't followed along, tell us a little bit about the project?
For as long as we can remember we've dreamt about building our own home. At the end of 2020 we found a block of land and started the design and build process. Two years, a global pandemic and two babies later we've moved into our beautiful home. The Good Day House is a modern, all-electric, 7.5-star, energy-efficient family home and is situated in the beautiful seaside town of Torquay, about 5 minutes from the iconic Bells Beach.
The kitchen and the bathroom
What was the design process like?
In close collaboration with Sherriff Constructions, a trusted local designer-builder, we spent a long time crafting a house design that perfectly suits our growing family and lifestyle. The unique shape of the block, wide at the front and narrow at the back, demanded expert guidance to ensure optimal use of space and sunlight orientation. Thanks to their professional design team's expertise, we now have a floorplan that maximises both aspects.
As I jot down these words the sun's rays flood through my window. It's a chilly 15 degrees outside, but inside a cosy 23-degrees that allows us to walk around comfortably in t-shirts.
The process of working with the design team was an absolute joy. Both Al and I had a clear vision of what we wanted, and our builder was incredibly receptive to collaborating with us.
What are some of the key materials you chose and why? How did you choose materials to limit your impact on the environment?
There's no denying our deep love for timber, so when we set out to design our dream home, we knew from the very start that timber would play a central role. We love its warmth and timeless character and our skills in working with and maintaining it made the choice even more obvious.
During the early stages of our construction, we were introduced to a really great product called TouchWood by Britton Timbers. They are moisture-resistant MDF tongue and groove panels with a timber veneer face, creating the illusion of solid timber lining boards. They come in 1200mm wide sheets and can extend up to 3.6m in length, allowing us to cover more surface area efficiently and sustainably compared to solid hardwood alternatives. Britton Timbers sources all its Tasmanian timber responsibly from the PEFC-certified temperate forests of the north-west region of the state.
In our pursuit of an eco-conscious and energy-efficient home, we've embraced an all-electric approach and have made provisions to incorporate solar power and a battery system. Additionally, we've taken the initiative to implement a water tank in the backyard to collect and utilise greywater.
We went overboard with home insulation, our ceilings, external and internal walls are all insulated using Earthwool which is made from 80% recycled glass. Having never lived in a well-insulated home before, we’re so shocked (and stoked) about how warm and quiet it is! Highly suggest to anyone building or renovating to invest in insulation upgrades while you have the opportunity.
All of our paint is from Tint Paint, which is certified 99.9% VOC-free and doesn't include animal by-products. They also plant a tree for every can of paint they sell which is great.
We enlisted the expertise of a local landscape architect, Simon Taylor, who has skillfully designed a coastal-inspired, low-maintenance garden using native plants, which we’re really excited to see come to life.
What were some key challenges in taking your idea to fruition?
Time and money of course! Anyone who’s built / renovated over the past few years would know there’s been huge delays in construction, trades and materials. Some things took much longer than we expected and prices sky-rocketed. To help keep costs down we jumped on the tools and have done a lot of the work ourselves.
Imo and Al standing in the frame of their future home
How did you hold space for Al + Imo (the business) while you had such a major life project cooking (not to mention bubba #2 on the way)?
No denying it was a juggle, by the end we were burnt-out and so tired! The day I went into labour was the first day that Al and I actually relaxed in the house together... which sounds terrible when I say it out loud – toddlers don’t allow much time to chill!
Keeping the business running while also building the house has been a challenge. We did plenty of late nights and weekends, but the day we were able to photograph a bed in our beautiful home made all of the hard work worth it. I think if you want to achieve big things you have to have those busy seasons.
Post-build and pre-move and a Seljak Pinot blanket cosying up the living space
What's your number one piece of advice for those embarking on a build?
Find a great builder / designer / architect that understands you, your needs, vision and budget. Make sure to shop around and pick professionals that are easy to work with who communicate well. You’re going to be spending a lot of time and money with them so you want to make sure it’s a good fit. We’ve heard horror stories of people building and feel so grateful that we were guided by our experts and had a really great experience.
Also, get ready to make a lot of decisions... and when you’re faced with the decision to play it safe or go bold... go bold!
Oh, and maybe don’t move house at 37 weeks pregnant!
A signature Al + Imo bed – the Slim Bed – in the Good Day House
Developed with new knitting outfit Hatch & Make on Wurundjeri Country aka the Yarra Valley, Riverbed is our most luxurious blanket so far, made from 100% merino wool. Producing this blanket is a way for us to scope opportunities to support the regenerative wool movement in Australia. And because Riverbed is made from all-natural fibres, it can be composted at the end of its useful life, returning its nutrients to the soil.
The colours of water and pastures in bold blue and deep green sit in contrast to the constructed starkness of black and white.
Looking at the Sunshine Coast hinterland from a height informed the design of the Riverbed blanket, which uses rich colours and textures to reflect native forests and waterways meeting built infrastructure, like pastures and solar farms.
By using joins and intersections in panelling and stitching, the Riverbed blanket explores the questions, 'How can we as humans better meet the needs of the natural environment? How can we benefit, rather than detract from, plants, wildlife and our ecosystems?’
Attitudes that place the human outside of, and more important than, other creatures and living beings (including trees and arguably bodies of water) falsely enable a sense of control over the incomprehensible magnitude and interconnectivity of natural systems. These attitudes, if left unchecked, will lead humanity to its own demise because people are inextricably linked to, indeed are but a mere part of, the natural world.
We’re looking at some antidotes to the attitudes of exceptionalism, superiority and entitlement that underpin current approaches to the linear paradigm (ie extraction, manufacturing, consumption and discarding). Here's three ways we've found to help reframe our relationship with nature.
Robin Wall Kimmerer photographed by Matt Roth
Seeing the natural environment including land, water and all creatures as entities to be in conversation with, is an approach that Robin Wall Kimmerer explores in her work. Kimmerer has a foot in two words, being a scientist and a Potawatomi woman, merging her botany training with ancient knowledges. Through a beautiful and generous meandering through mosses, grasses and edible plants in various regions of USA, one of her books, Braiding Sweetgrass, is a scientific and personal reflection on managing and nurturing these relationships.
In the book, Kimmerer shares principals for ‘The Honourable Harvest’, which can be applied to foraging but potentially other dynamics in which one ‘takes’, including, ‘ask for permission before taking’, ‘take only what you need’, ‘never take the first, never take the last’, and ‘give a gift in reciprocity for what you have taken’, to name just a few.
‘Earthrise’ by NASA. Taken aboard Apollo 8 by Bill Anders
Zooming out, far out, like into space, is another perspective of how the interconnectivity of all things was born. In 1968, a photograph of the whole earth was taken by an astronaut on Apollo 8, and sent to earth. The repeatedly reported experience of hanging out in orbit is known as ‘the overview effect’, and is characterised by a transcendence of separation – literally seeing the unity and interactivity of the biosphere as one.
Like-images from the Apollo missions are said to have inspired the environmental movement of the 1970s, when earthlings saw these photographs themselves and it sparked a collective epiphany that the earth is in fact but one organism. Though told through the predominantly western white male perspective, the short film ‘Overview’ captures this transformative shift in self-concept and values from seeing earth from a distance.
Janine Benyus. Image: Liu Lectures by Stanford University
Coming back to earth, it’s listening to and observing the ways of plants, animals and the land that offers myriad clues to how we can work together, rather than at odds, with ‘nature’. Biologist Janine Benyus, who spearheads the biomimicry movement, shares design principals in this fantastic podcast on biomimicry with conversationalist Krista Tippett.
In its design ethos, which has inspired Seljak Brand from inception, biomimicry includes looking to nature as a model or exemplifier, a way to measure success and a mentor for improvement. Non-human nature knows best how to create conditions most conducive to life because it’s been evolving for so much longer. Therefore, to design and build to thrive it’s about asking, ‘what would nature do here? What would nature not do here. Why?’.
Texture is celebrated through Riverbed’s knitted construction, using ribbing to emulate the depth of various landscapes.
There’s no question that collectively we need to rethink how we think about the living world and our place within it. ‘Saving the planet’ is not a mission to be relegated to activists, ‘green’ companies and government departments – rather, it’s about fostering a deeper understanding of what human survival depends on to create transformational change in dominant societies and economies.
If you’re inspired by how concepts such as regarding other living beings as entities, the overview effect and biomimicry informed our design process, you can check out the Riverbed blanket here.
]]>Here we’ll use scrap fabric and colourful embroidery thread to create a patch that not only fixes your stuff but creates a feature that is unique to you. Repairing your stuff can be easy, fun, and meditative – and in this case, really beautiful. Appropriate for all levels, from total beginners to experienced needleworkers!
Please note: This technique is designed for woven, not knitted, materials (so no to t-shirts, sweaters and yoga pants and yes to jeans, jackets and shirts). Also, as a decorative style, armpits and crotch repairs are not recommended because the aesthetic is bold and the threads will not be durable enough for these areas.
Dip into your craft box, find an old garment no longer in use or hit the op shop to find some fabric to create a patch for your repair. Think about what colours and patterns would match the garment or blanket you’re going to fix – do you want it to stand out or blend in a little bit? You’re looking for a woven fabric so it’s not stretchy, nor slippery.
DMC embroidery thread is our favourite for these repairs. It’s a four-ply luminous cotton thread that can be separated into a thinner thread if needed (by pulling apart the plys), but we love the bold and luxurious effect of using it in tact. Again, choose two colours you like that are in contrast to, or in harmony with, your garment and patch fabric.
For this visible repair technique, you’ll need:
To create a patch, cut your piece of fabric into a circle about 1cm over the edge of your rip, tear or stain so that it’s fully covered. If you have a very small hole, for instance, add a few more centimetres so you’ve got enough room to stitch back and forth around the edges. Use your pins to secure the patch to your fabric.
Cut a length of thread around 40cm long, and thread it through the needle. Tie a knot at one end, and have about 10cm of the thread pulled through the needle for ease of use. If the eye of your needle is too small for a four-ply thread, you can separate the thread down to two-ply by slowly pulling the thread apart.
At about half a centimetre away from the edge of your patch, pass your needle from the back to the front of your blanket or garment, so the knot sits on the back of your work. Find half a centimetre into your patch from its edge and pass the needle from the front to the back of your work (ensure the stitch crosses the tear or rip if that’s the case so the problem area will be covered as you make more stitches). Voila, this is your first stitch!
Stitch back and forth perpendicular to the edge of the patch, working your way slowly around the circle. Use various stitch lengths by a few millimetres to create a more textured and organic look. Be aware of your tension, which is how firmly you hold both your needle and thread and your fabric to avoid puckering. Also be aware of what’s happening on the back of the fabric, checking that the stitches are neat. Although your work doesn’t need to be perfect (and we think it looks better imperfect!), it’s worth pulling out a stitch or two and rethreading your needle if it gets a bit crazy.
Once you’ve used up your thread by stitching back and forth, you’ll need to tie a knot on the back of your work. Give yourself 5-10cm to do this (once you get the hang of it, you’ll need less). Do the same simple knot that you tied at the end of your thread, keeping a loose loop and shimmying and tightening it down at the base of the fabric. Chop the end off at about 5mm.
Add a second row of thread to bring more colour and dimension to your visible mending job. To add a second colour, thread your needle with new yarn and tie a knot, like you did with your first colour. Make your first stitch by nestling your needle in between two stitches of the first colour, about halfway down the stitch length. Make the second colour stitches around the same length, extending out into your fabric and away from the patch. Vary these stitch lengths too.
Stitch back and forth, nestling each stitch into each gap between the stitches of the first colour, all around the edge of the patch. Pass the needle to the back side of your work and tie a knot – and you’ve finished your visible repair!
If you enjoyed this process, you can experiment by adding a patch to the back as well as the front of a garment, create different shapes with your patches or overlap different techniques. If you want to try other styles, check out how to repair your blanket using a traditional patch with a blanket-stitch, and an invisible repair technique here.
]]>Up-and-coming design talent Nel is helping put Meanjin on the fashion map, with her brand recently featured in Fashion Journal Magazine’s emerging designers to watch and her designs showcased at Brisbane Fashion Festival. Known for her whimsical, hyper-wearable designs that experiment with texture and form, Nel produces garments by hand that she describes as “playful clothing for playful bodies.” Nel’s exciting graduate collection At Play featured bold, graphic floral motifs and delicate petallike layering, experimenting with unisex designs, natural dyes from foraged leaves, deadstock and repurposed fabrics and artfully crafted reversible garments.
Lawn Bowls pieces are handmade with love using a process where each item bears their own unique qualities. Finn best describes the intricacies: “Small irregularities and wayward details adorn each piece. Bubbles or wobbly edges that cannot be commanded are part of what makes glass a magic material to work with.” Lawn Bowls’ characteristically bright combinations of vivid palettes and patterns have quickly earned a cult following, particularly her charming anthropomorphic glassware designs of bowls and plates featuring faces. They’re undeniably joyful, functional objects which enrich any space they’re placed in. Recently, Lawn Bowls has branched out with the launch of a new jewellery collaboration with Bianca Mavrick Jewellery.
Seljak Brand had the pleasure of being invited into Nel and Finn’s home they share with Nel’s partner Jacob and Finn’s shaggy pup Daphy, for a peek at their studios and the space they’ve made their own.
Daphne, Finn and Nel in their backyard
How did you end up as housemates?
Finn: I met Elinor at an exhibition opening and when I saw she was looking for housemates, I got in touch. We met at The Burrow for a drink and started looking for houses, that was over three years ago!
Nel: That pretty much sums it up! I think the fact that we both had creative practices and were looking for a place where we could have home studios really helped with the connection. We also discovered we went to the same high school in different years, so it’s been nice to have that shared connection.
You both make work at home, what do you think makes for a good creative space?
F: I find that I need a calm space to think through ideas and a clear workbench to spread out while making a piece. I take lots of breaks in the backyard, it’s definitely important for me to step away every few hours and reflect on where things are going.
Finn sitting at her workbench
Finn’s studio
Closeup of Finn’s works in progress
N: I love to have natural light in the studio, and a connection to the outdoors is very important to me. I will often be mid-sewing and realise I’m frozen, just staring out the window, thinking through the next idea. There are lots of moving parts in making a garment and my dream studio definitely has a lot more space, but I’m very grateful to have a dedicated space at home. I’m always whipping up something new in my free time.
Nel in her studio
Nel working on her sewing machine
Closeups of pieces in Nel’s studio
What’s a favourite, stand-out feature of your home?
F: My studio is probably my favourite place in the house, it’s where I spend most of my time with my dog Daphy. I love that there are windows to the garden and that it has the original built-in shelves from when it was used as a rumpus room.
The shelves in Finn’s studio
Finn looking out the window that leads to the garden
N: I love how open our house is, it was definitely built as a family home and while it’s not large, there is a lovely natural flow from room to room. There are elements of timber and brick throughout the house which gives it a lovely cosy feel, especially in winter. It always feels like I’m home when I step through the front door, like a big hug.
Left: The covered patio, featuring a cactus garden made by Jacob and one of Nel’s signature Bloom cushions. Right: Nel standing in the doorway of the living and dining space
You’re both dedicated creatives, what originally drew you to your choice mediums and what keeps you coming back to them?
F: The enchanting visual qualities and possibilities for processes [of glass] are endlessly exciting to me. I’ve always been obsessed with playing with shape and colour combinations and I love that when making glasswork, I can revise and re-shuffle compositions until it feels right.
Glass beads and sheets of glass ready to be broken into different sized pieces
Finn’s collection of multi-coloured glass shards – she uses a waste-free practice, turning every offcut into a new piece
Finn picking through the larger shards
N: When my sister and I were little, my mum made most of our clothing and I definitely think that had a big influence on me. I can still remember the excitement of being measured up for a garment and the wonder in the process of the final piece being made. I’ve always loved clothing and getting dressed. I love the way clothing can influence our experience of space and often can either make or break a day. I like creating with the idea that I can bring joy to people through clothing.
Left: A poem in Nel’s studio. Right: the bookshelf in Nel’s studio.
Nel’s tools
What’s inspiring you both lately?
F: My Saturday morning market trips always spark ideas. I love the dense environment of colour and texture and the kitschy craft stalls. There is something very intriguing to me about aesthetic objects and arrangements that are made outside artistic intent.
Left: Finn’s order wrapping station. Right: closeup details of Finn’s studio shelf.
N: At the moment, I am finding myself very inspired by shape and movement. The ability to move freely in clothing can make or break a garment, and I love playing around with and contrasting big shapes and slim-fitting items. I’m also feeling very inspired by colours at the moment, particularly the way they interact with each other.
Left: Fabric in Nel’s studio. Right: Nel’s garments.
Nel’s working moodboard
How do you like to use your space when you aren’t working?
F: If I'm not in the studio, I’ll be cooking, throwing a ball for Daph or napping in the hammock outside. I really try to prioritise rest. It helps that I’m a homebody and reading or watching a film after a day in the studio and a walk around the neighbourhood is heaven to me.
Left: The backyard. Right: Finn wrapped up in the Dugong Mango cotton blanket.
N: I am loving sitting on our little front deck at the moment. It's currently getting the most glorious winter sun throughout the day and it's the perfect spot to warm up in the morning, or have an arvo nap. My partner Jacob and I are very social beings, so we often end up having friends over. The house has so many separate spaces for entertaining which is a lot of fun.
Closeup of the sunny front deck
Meanjin (Brisbane) seems like it’s starting to gain a bit of recognition as a place for young creatives. What do you love or think is special about our city?
F: I definitely feel that! I think creatives who live in Meanjin are generally really open-minded and down-to-earth. In the past few years, so many new platforms for artists to share their work have opened up with huge encouragement for local creativity without elitist exclusion of medium or distinction between art and craft.
N: I definitely have a big soft spot for Brisbane, and I’m so glad to see it getting some of the creative recognition it deserves. I think the creative community tends to be less pretentious and more easygoing than some cities, which I really love. I also love how green it is, especially around where we live. We are lucky to live in a city that feels so surrounded by nature.
Is there anything you’re working on that we should keep an eye out for?
F: Currently, I am experimenting with glass processes that allow me to make new work from pieces that didn’t reach completion. I’m really enjoying patching together fragments from my accumulated cast-offs. I will be bringing some of these pieces to a market event at Vacant Assembly on June 17th!
N: I am working on a new mini collection featuring a different colour iteration of my mesh pieces, and some new styles that I’ve had in development for a little while. I’m moving a bit slower at the moment and making sure that I have every base covered before I launch, but it will definitely be launching in the next few months. You can see a sneak peek of the new work in my studio.
Nel working on a new piece from the mini collection
Closeup of Nel’s work in progress
Finn, we know you have not one but two Seljak Brand blankets! What’s your favourite way to use them?
I always make my bedroom a little sanctuary, full of lovely things and comfort. In the cooler months, I have my Indigo blanket at the end of my bed. The wool layer on top definitely locks in the warmth and Daph is always curled up on it. My Gather blanket is so nice around the shoulders when I’m out in the yard or making tea in the morning. I also love to pack it with me when I take time away at the beach or bush.
The Indigo blanket on Finn’s bed
The Gather blanket in Finn’s studio
Nel with the Cockatoo Lemon blanket
Finn with the Dugong Mango blanket
Closeup of the Cockatoo Lemon blanket
Finn showing off the Dugong Mango blanket
Nel showing off the Cockatoo Lemon blanket
Nel’s work is stocked at Nook and Meanjin’s beloved Practice Studio. Get your hands on Finn’s work on the Lawn Bowls website or find pieces stocked around the country at Jolie Laide, Pinky’s, Open House, Artisan, and more!
]]>Loop Growers is a closed loop farm using cafe yields to make compost rich enough to grow veggies that is then sold back to the cafes. We love the Loop crew and have already featured them on our blog.
So we cut up one of our Dancing Daisies blankets (it sports different colours to the final design as it was in the yarn test phase) and got composting! The plan? To see how the blanket decomposed in two environments, a worm farm and a commercial compost pile.
Our co-founder Sammy went out to Loop in mid-February to work with farmers Alice and Phil, and intern Brodie, on building the commercial compost and ensuring the blanket was prepped for its composting journey. Here’s what building a commercial compost and a thriving worm farm looks like.
The commercial compost
Building the commercial compost was a fascinating process with many stages and materials.
First we collected a few wheelbarrows of last year’s compost:
Then we collected other materials from around the farm to enrich the compost. Here’s some ash collected from the firepit:
And some decomposed leaf matter from the creekside:
We also collected some manure:
Other materials were worm juice, freshly cut green matter and seaweed...
Then we prepared the wire cages for the compost to go in:
Next, it was the blanket’s turn (and our 100% organic cotton label) to be readied for composting:
And even though it felt strange, that meant cutting the blanket up:
We cut it in half so we could use one half for the commercial compost, and one for the worm farm, and then into strips:
Then we used chicken wire to create a cage for the blanket halves so we could easily dig it out of the compost to see its progress:
This is the blanket ready for composting:
Then the building of the compost itself began:
We layered fresh cut greenery, with manure, soil, ash, creekside wet matter, juice from the worm farm, and even eggshells, all the while hosing it down:
We dug sticks vertically into the compost to assist in aerating the composting:
And then it was time to put the blanket in:
And before we knew it, it was covered with the rest of the organic material:
Finally, we wrapped the compost in tarp to encourage as much heat as possible, and composting to occur faster. The temperature in a compost such as this will reach upwards of 60 degrees celsius.
Next it was time to do the worm farm…
The worm farm compost
The worm farm at Loop is in a couple of old bathtubs. Usually, the yield is processed (washed) on top of this so the excess water is used to keep the worm farm moist. Nothing at Loop is wasted and we love that!
The worm farm at Loop
Alice turned over the worm farm to show me the worms. In the foreground is half of the Dancing Daisies sample blanket, cut up and ready to compost!
We placed the test blanket in the worm farm and covered it with worm farm compost:
You can see the worms in the soil ready to start eating the wool fibres in the blanket:
Then we covered the worm farm with damp hessian sacks and then shade cloth to protect it from the sun.
And now we wait for the composting magic to happen!
Inside the Hatch & Make studio
Hatch & Make is a small studio tucked away in the rolling hills of Wurundjeri Country, also known as Yarra Valley, about 50 kilometres east of Melbourne. The outfit is run by a team of textiles experts (who we’ll hear from towards the end of this article!) whose mission it is to develop and manufacture premium knitwear in systems where waste is eliminated and nature is regenerated.
Using only 100% natural products and Responsible Wool Standard yarn, with a view to use Australian-grown regenerative wool, Hatch & Make is a driving force for the industry to follow suit. The team develops high-quality products designed to last with the knowledge that what they make can be recycled and even composted at the end of its useful life.
Working with high tech equipment to innovate knits while looking out to vistas of abundant greenery is a constant reminder to align with nature’s systems.
The view from the Hatch & Make studio
Machine knitting is a bit like 3D printing – in both cases a string of material is layered following a pattern in order to achieve a certain shape. You only use the material inputs required to make the final products, and in knitting, produce almost no yarn waste.
Hatch & Make use machinery in a flexible production model where high minimums aren’t necessary to create efficiency in running the machinery in the same way industrial weaving equipment requires. It means you aren’t left with sizeable pieces of offcut fabric, that is extra yardage required to set up the machinery, or an oversupply of fabric the client didn’t require.
Machine knitting at Hatch & Make begins with a design file, which is fed into a knitwear computer program that indicates how every loop in the fabric is formed to create the overall knit structure. Yarns are then loaded onto the knitting machine, which uses the computer file to produce the knitted fabric.
Paul, the knitwear technician, working with the computer program and Sammy checking out the knitting machine
The machine selects yarns as dictated by the program and knits one blanket at a time. For us, working with Hatch & Make has allowed for an interactive and iterative design process because we can create single units, making tweaks in between versions. When we weave with industrial weaving looms, we have to produce dozens of units at once, so structure and design experiments are costly!
A test version of our Dancing Daisies design almost seems like it’s ‘printed out’ from the machine
Because the knitting machine is limited in width, sometimes joining is required to create a piece of fabric wider in dimension than the machine itself. This is when the linking machine comes into play, bringing together panels by carefully guiding them through a round, needled mechanism linking with a thread to create a larger whole.
Karina at the linking machine learning how to bring together two sample panels
Finally, sample pieces of fabric are compared to the original design to assess product dimensions, design ratios and colour accuracy. The samples are also analysed with performance in mind – how strong is the fabric, how stretchy, soft and cosy does it feel?
We also wash the samples to catch any shrinkage and to ensure the finishes and edges are durable. Once samples look, feel and perform as we wish, it’s time to put the blankets into production on the very same machinery used for testing!
Measuring a few early-stage sample pieces of knitted fabric well before going into production
The team at Hatch & Make have extensive fashion and manufacturing experience and are experts in knitwear development. We spoke with Kirri-Mae at Hatch & Make about the expertise each team member brings to the project. Kirri-Mae says,
‘From decades in the industry, Dave, Nige, Paul and I bring extensive experience across textiles and fashion. We also work with a deep and applied understanding of sustainability and what it means to operate within, and toward, a circular economy. In the Hatch+Make team we bring a real balance to each other! Creative big picture thinking, problem solving, hand skills, day to day building of systems and efficiencies that are crucial in manufacturing... between us we have it all covered.’
The team at Hatch & Make are working toward better outcomes for textiles in Australia
We also asked Kirri-Mae what the team hopes for in regards to the future of wool and textiles manufacturing in Australia. She says, ‘More businesses like ours hopefully! We want to see more of a shared load of responsibility across the value chain when it comes to working toward better social and environmental outcomes. We'd love to see a renewed energy in and excitement for local manufacture – there is such an important connection between design and making to create beautiful, sustainable products that stand the test of time.
More specifically thinking about the future of the industry and knitwear, we see natural fibres, in particular wool, as having real potential for a measurable positive impact on the carbon cycle and climate change by building better systems to eliminate waste, enabling resource circulation and regenerating our natural environments.’
Wurundjeri Country aka the Yarra Valley is a special place to produce and we’re proud to be working alongside such experienced folk committed to breathing life into Aussie manufacturing and more responsible methods of production.
Ending on a high! We took a wee wine tour near the studio.
]]>Natural fibres reduce harm to the environment
We’ve long aspired to find or develop a recycled yarn that’s made of 100% natural fibres. Currently, the industry relies on polyester or polyamide to spin recycled wool fibres together, which become short after ragging the waste. But as well as relying on petro-chemicals for their creation and their pollution potential, poly-blended fibres can limit the end-of-life recycling options.
Monofibres enhance recycling capabilities
Monofibre garments (that is, made from 100% of one material) and more specifically natural monofibres (like 100% cotton or 100% wool), are the easiest to sort and remanufacture, and maintain their value for longer. For this reason, we were drawn to exploring responsibly farmed wool as a potential fibre source for Seljak Brand. As a brand that has exclusively worked with waste, we felt we needed to dig deeper into the whole lifecycle of the wool fibre itself to continue our work in pushing the industry toward better textiles solutions.
Alternatives to the current industrial agricultural system
Industrial agriculture – including the process of growing many natural fibres like wool – is resource intensive. Sheep need a lot of land, water and food, and are responsible for expelling methane gas into the environment. There’s evidence that wool farming has lead to increased emissions, soil degradation and decreased biodiversity from land clearing. Animal activists have also long railed against the practice of mulesing, which is cutting excess skin folds on the backside of the sheep to prevent fly-strike. There are definitely some dark sides of wool production, and many complexities to address.
However, there is a growing movement of farmers who practice sheep farming that 1) ensures The Five Freedoms are respected, and 2) enriches the ecosystem rather than degrading it. It’s called regenerative sheep farming and it's a growing movement in Australia and around the world.
Meanwhile, a small knitting studio on Wurundjeri Country, aka the Yarra Valley, called Hatch & Make entered the scene. We identified an aligned vision in circularity with the understanding that farming in the right way is one of the great tools we can unlock to solve the climate crisis.
The Hatch & Make studio sits on Wurundjeri Country, also known as the Yarra Valley
Hatch & Make source non-mulesed merino wool that aligns with The Five Freedoms. Because Hatch & Make’s products are 100% wool and contain no poly components (i.e. plastic fibres), composting products made at Hatch & Make could be possible, returning the nutrients stored in wool back to the earth. This is a theory we tested last year by decomposing a blanket at Yandina Food Waste Loop.
Close-to-zero waste knitting
Until now, Seljak Brand has only worked with woven fabrics, that is, blankets made on looms in long rolls of fabric. Hatch & Make offers a new opportunity by machine knitting, which is a bit like 3D printing – you only use the material inputs required to make the final products produce almost no yarn or fabric waste.
The classic innovation process
We originally set about looking for a 100% recycled wool yarn that we could knit into blankets. But the recycled wool we found wasn’t strong enough to knit on an industrial machine, the yarn shredding apart as it was knitted to create big holes.
Using recycled wool yarn on the industrial knitting machine produced large holes
As we continue to research Australian-grown regenerative wool and its ability to be blended with recycled wool, we decided to work with Hatch and Make on our first 100% new wool knitted blanket.
The Dancing Daisies blanket is a luxurious, ultra soft blanket for kids to use for comfort, warmth and play. The artwork on the blanket is inspired by the personhood of plants, of paper daisies and their response to rain, and is a joyful expression of play and movement.
The Dancing Daisies blanket for kids is knitted with 100% responsibly sourced merino wool
Because every product we make must have a closed loop solution, we currently have a Dancing Daisies blanket sample in the compost system at Loop Farm just outside of Meanjin (Brisbane) to test its viability for composting at end-of-life. We’ll collect the soil from the compost test and send it to a lab to analyse soil health, using the same methodology as our composting test from last year. These findings will be available on our website. Ultimately it means Seljak Brand can close both industrial and biological loops with our closed loop blankets.
The Paper Daisies blanket is perfect for the playroom or getting out and about
Regenerative farming is an umbrella term that encompasses approaches to farming that “improves the resources it uses, rather than destroying or depleting them,” according to the Rodale Institute. Techniques that differ to conventional methods of farming include less tilling (or the turning over and ripping up of the soil) to improve organic matter in soils, use and rotation of cover crops (never keep the soil bare) to reduce erosion and increase soil nutrients, planting a diversity of plants and crops, and reducing use of fertilisers and pesticides. For sheep farming, there is the additional aspect of rotational grazing to allow pastures to recover.
Charles Massey on his farm among native grasses, including kangaroo grass. Image: Soofia Tariq
The case for regeneratively farmed wool shows potential with success stories of increased productivity and biodiversity on farms around the world. If you want to learn more, we’ve particularly enjoyed the following resources:
Seljak had the privilege of visiting Matt’s new home which he shares with his partner Freya and their dog Nacho. We got a special tour of where the musical magic happens, in his colourful gnome-core home music studio, a cosy, whimsical space lined floor to ceiling with instruments big and small.
What started as Matt’s solo project, the Obscure Orchestra, is in his own words “a curious world of intricately crafted experimental music, made with world instruments and rethought everyday objects”. It has since transformed into a large collective of musicians who play at the intersection of art and activism, where the ensemble challenges the traditional barriers to entry and the outdated conservative formality of classical orchestras. The project’s foundation is based on community-minded inclusivity, composed of 20+ BIPOC, First Nations, disabled, non-binary and trans artists. Merch from The Obscure Orchestra shop is not-for-profit, with all funds going to refugee and asylum seeker organisations supporting those in detention or resettling into community.
We chatted about Matt’s DIY renovations, the new neighbourhood they call home, community, creativity, and what’s next for MHOO (Matt Hsu’s Obscure Orchestra).
Matt's studio
You just moved into a new space with your partner Freya and set up a home studio, tell us about some of your renovations!
Yes, we were in Highgate Hill for a decade and loved it, but we did sneak off to Sunnybank a lot on weekends, where Freya says is the only place she feels completely relaxed in Meanjin and where I spent my childhood. It’s a crazy diverse, organically arising Taiwan Town… now a broader Asia Town.
In making the music studio, I thought back to music studios I’ve been in, that are these dark industrial bunkers with maybe a random neon light accent, and I could never handle being in them for too long. When I got a chance to make my own, I wanted it to feel like a treehouse, with lots of bright dappled light and grown materials.
Freya suggested plywood which I immediately loved. It has minimal timber waste, lasts long and is beautiful, so I measured them up, got them cut to shape, and installed them. It’s perfect, it gives the room warmth, a bit of soundproofing, and a canvas to do whatever on.
All my instruments which used to be in baskets or strewn around our Highgate Hill sharehouse, now all have a spot and look so cute together!
Matt’s DIY plywood walls and his myriad of instruments
How do you make your environment one you can be creative in?
I love being outside, gliding around on my bicycle or swimming in the reservoir, so if I need to work indoors, I like to have a piece of the outdoors with me. On top of the plywood walls, I found this huge gorgeous fallen branch in Yugarapul Park, hurried back with a saw, and hung it in the studio with percussion bit-and-bobs-and-bells.
Instruments dangling from the salvaged tree branch and the Seljak Lune blanket filtering light from the balcony window
I also wanted to put a subtle stamp of my Taiwanese heritage in the studio in amongst the treehouse feels, so there’s Fu paper charms and textile art from my Taiwan artist friends LOOPY!鹿皮, monk dolls from Tibet, and Studio Ghibli and Lupin III figurines and Noren curtains, because I’m a bit of a weeb, haha!
Custom Noren curtains hanging in the doorway
Is there a favourite feature or special part of your new home that stands out to you?
Honesty, the best part is being so close to grassroots Asian pop-up markets, crafts, food and culture. The Asian grandparents going on their daily stroll, children running around flipping back and forth between English and their home languages, that intense BMX track where toddlers do backflips on tricycles in Macgregor.
We love getting tea at Mountain River Patisserie, picking up a donut from the Korean food truck at Yimbun Park where our dog Nacho can play, getting breakfast at Fry Chicken Master in Market Square, battered mushrooms from Hot Star, so many noodle and bento places, and Freya’s obsession, bubble tea from Machi Machi or Gong Cha. It’s unbelievable how much good food we’re surrounded by — it just feels soooo good that there’s no vague, appropriative overpriced ‘fusion’ restaurants, just POC-run mom and pop owned affordable, authentic eats.
Tell us about gnome-core!
People were asking me about what kind of music we (the Obscure Orchestra) make, and I was really struggling to explain it. Okay, so it’s like folk, world, experimental, bedroom pop, contemporary-classical but also punk and hip-hop, and then alternative. It just got really confusing and I just really thought about what the essence of the thing I wanted to capture, and it’s this cute, playful thing, like a bunch of gnomes making music and so I was thinking “gnome-core” sounds kinda cute!
Matt with his beautiful carved harp and out on the balcony
Nature seems like a big source of inspiration for you, as a recurring theme throughout the Obscure Orchestra discography with tracks like Mycelium, Ant Dance, Birdsnest Hair, Runes Dans Le Sable (Runes in the Sands) and Tap Water. What’s been inspiring you lately?
That’s really astute! I think nature is an absolute balm and should be a necessary part of everyday life, so I think it inevitably seeps into my music. Playing music is so elemental in itself, it’s air, breathing, rhythms and cyclical repetitions, I think they go hand in hand. It’s ironic that I gravitated to a hobby (and now profession) that requires me being inside to record for long stretches, which I think reiterates why I sought to make an as-close-to-outdoors feeling studio as I could.
Lately, I’ve been really interested in the joy of mundane everyday things, stuff that is important but overlooked, things that children talk about, like their favourite food, favourite colour, their best friend, the simple joys of life, which give a little respite important but heady complex issues. I’m also really inspired by relationships and community. I spent all of 2022 working at 4ZZZ as their Community Engagement Coordinator, so the question of what makes a community has been sitting with me, and will come out in some way in my next pieces, I’m sure.
Matt sitting in his garden on the Dune blanket
Matt with his Kalimba
In your 2022 QMA acceptance speech you said that “no artist is a solo artist” and that “we can’t thrive without the communities of support we have around us.” What does community look like to you?
I absolutely stand by those words, I couldn’t do any of this without my friends and loved ones. They may not always be in the studio with me, but they share their stories and worries and moments of joy, and that encourages me to keep going at my thing, and inspire themes and ideas.
Community can be accidental or purposeful, but I feel like a common thread between a well working one is trust, and I’m so lucky to play with people in Obscure Orchestra that I absolutely trust and adore. They’re all amazing musicians in their own right, so MHOO feels like a little support group where we can share our music and life triumphs and struggles and thoughts.
Largely, Obscure Orchestra has been musicians playing songs I’ve written, but this year we’ve had the opportunity with shows at Museum of Brisbane and GOMA to improvise a bit more, which has given my orchestra friends space to create and compose in the moment. That’s made me really happy to see.
Any person can welcome you into a room and simply say the words “this is a safe space”, but it takes intentionally creating a culture and effort in keeping it alive — and I’m really grateful for this little space and community called Obscure Orchestra that we’ve carved out for ourselves.
In an ABC Radio Brisbane interview you said that the goal of diversity isn't to separate people and that it’s really about finding common ground, while celebrating our differences. What do you believe music’s role in that can be now?
I think music and the arts in general have a crucial, very tangible function in how we relate to each other. There are important conversations about identity and equity for example, that people might not seek out – people may not go out of their way to learn about nuances of another culture or educate themselves about ableism and read a 10 minute article, but they will seek out entertainment. Entertainment is something that shapes culture, characters and artists that people use as exemplars for themselves, media that allows someone to feel represented.
So, besides just feeling really good and soundtracking our lives, music has a function to help us express those core overlapping human experiences we all have, even if it’s silly stuff like eating chips or funny bad dates, and also dig a bit deeper into the nuances and differences that make people unique, and show those differences as something beautiful and worthwhile, rather than scary, off-putting and ‘not for me’.
What are you hoping to see from MHOO in the near and far future?
I’m a slow life, take my time, kind of person. I don’t like to force anything to happen too quickly, too hungrily. Though, once I have an idea I’m really excited about, I’m all in, and carefully craft it in my corner at my own pace until it’s done. That’s the way I write songs, and the way I put the orchestra together.
So, my long term hopes are to keep this family of musicians together, safe and happy and fulfilled, and have some short bursts of big activity. I’d love to do some travelling as an ensemble, try writing and recording music collectively, rather than solo-braining it as I mostly have been.
I’d also love to compose the soundtrack to a film! Something that matches the spirit of this project, something like a Studio Ghibli film would be a dreeeeam.
Is there anything you are working on at the moment that we should keep an eye out for?
Yes! We’ll just have done a live soundtrack at GOMA Cinémathèque when this comes out, but next up, I’m composing the music for La Boite Theatre’s next main stage show The Poison of Polygamy, it’s a page-to-stage adaptation of Wong Shee Ping’s trailblazing novella that traverses the opium dens of 19th Century China to goldfields of colonial Australia. I get to dig into vintage Asian and Australian themes and motifs, and unpack some of my own dual history through the process.
One of the gem moments I’m also looking forward to is the orchestra reuniting with First Nations artist Sachém to mount an absolutely epic concert called The Bigger Picture at QPAC. That’s going to be a spectacular night of BIPOC excellence, hip hop, Indigenous theatre and dance. I can’t wait.
I’m also working on new Obscure Orchestra music, with an eye to a second album!
Matt wrapped in the Lune blanket
How do you use your Seljak blankets?
Freya already had a Dune blanket and she loves using it on the couch and taking it to cinemas! She’ll throw it over Nacho and have a laugh at how much he looks like an Irish maven looking solemnly over a cliff face at the roaring ocean.
I think the Lune will wander around the house being very flexible! As a curtain for the studio, on a lap in winter, for picnics, and little chair forts!
Nacho snuggled up in the Lune blanket
Follow Matt Hsu’s Obscure Orchestra on Instagram to stay updated with all their upcoming events and stream their music on Spotify!
As an ancient fibre, wool has been utilised by humans for millennia. In Australia, Merino sheep were first introduced in 1797 from royal Spanish flocks. However, further selective breeding by farmers produced much finer wool, now associated with authentic Australian Merino. Australian wool has and continues to play a tremendous part in fashion internationally. Australia is one of the world’s largest wool exporters, responsible for producing around 25% of the global market’s greasy wool (the raw unprocessed wool shorn directly off the sheep), with 71.6 million sheep shorn countrywide in 2021 to 2022 alone. Over the past 200 years, Australian woolgrowers have made significant advancements and continue to strive to make wool more sustainable.
Unlike synthetic fabrics that are manufactured from petrochemicals, wool, as an active fibre, reacts to changes in your body temperature, keeping you cool when it’s hot and warm when it’s chilly, making it an excellent year-round option! The ‘wicking’ ability of wool refers to the merino fibres which are capable of absorbing and evaporating large quantities of moisture, so that it is lightweight and warm, fast drying, breathable, insulating and resistant to odour. The naturally antibacterial quality of wool is due to its natural oils, which also make it difficult to stain. Merino wool’s natural elasticity, which can stretch and return to its natural shape, also makes it less wrinkle-prone than other fabrics, meaning it requires lower maintenance and travels well. Learn how to clean and care for your wool here.
Research has revealed that wool, specifically Merino, is a highly effective UV light barrier, outperforming all other fabrics. This is because it can absorb radiation throughout the ultraviolet spectrum, unlike linen, nylon, viscose and cotton which all absorb limited UV wavelengths.
Wool is also flame retardant and a naturally fire-resistant fibre due to the material having less oxygen than fire requires to burn. This means it will not melt or stick to the skin if fire reaches it, making it a common part of a fire safety kit. In 2021, Seljak Brand experimented with creating a wearable fire blanket for Melbourne Design Week and Friends & Associates’ exhibition called A World We Don’t Want. The design reimagined fire Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) by patchworking old blankets in response to Australia’s 2019/2020 Black Summer bushfires.
The Playing with Fire Blanket modelled by George Levi and photographed by Sophie Vaughan
Merino fleece is the softest wool, with flexible and ultrafine fibres (where a single fibre is about half the diameter of a single human hair). It responds to your body’s natural movements, bending and flowing as it brushes against your skin. More sensitive than other fabrics, Merino doesn’t itch or irritate the skin because its organic hypoallergenic qualities reject bacteria, dust mites and mould. This makes it a good option for those with chronic skin conditions like dermatitis and eczema.
The Seljak Brand Pyramid blanket
Because of wool’s ability to be remade, it has become the most frequently recycled and reused fibre, something we love being a part of. You can read about how Seljak Brand uses recycled wool and other fibres here. As an organic material, wool is biodegradable and through decomposing can return its nutrients to the earth at the end of its life. Wool is being integrated into gardening, agriculture and horticulture by organisations like Wild Valley Farms with applications as fertiliser and soil enricher, that make use of the shorter lengths of wool that are ordinarily discarded.
Seljak Brand endeavoured on composting one of our 100% wool blanket samples, to determine an end-of-life solution for old blankets that are beyond saving and found that 100% wool blankets can be composted within a natural closed-loop system. Read more about our composting findings here.
Seljak Brand wool blanket sample after 6 months in commercial compost (left) and home compost (right)
In 2020, Australian menswear brand M.J. Bale and Kingston Farm's Simon Cameron pioneered the first carbon-neutral wool farm trials, successfully reducing methane emissions from livestock to undetectable levels. As one of the world’s most progressive wool producers, Simon Cameron approaches wool growing through the macro lens of biodiversity conservation with regenerative agriculture practices. These ethics encompass the management of both animals and land.
The partnership ensures Simon can continue his work protecting the future of Kingston and Tasmania’s biodiversity with large-scale initiatives including; tree planting and revegetation, the protection of indigenous grasslands and threatened local flora and fauna by breeding platypus, wedge-tailed eagles, Tasmanian devils and spotted-tailed quolls. Simon has committed to a standard of respect for his animals he deems the ‘Four Freedoms’ which include; “freedom from hunger, thirst and malnutrition; freedom from discomfort, pain, injury and disease; freedom to express normal patterns of behaviour; and freedom from fear and distress.”
M.J Bale’s campaign shot in Kingston
In short, wool really is an unmatched material. It's naturally versatile and high-performing, and being at the forefront of innovation it has an exciting future ahead!
As a low maintenance year-round option that travels well, wool is perfect for using at home on your couch or in bed, or on-the-go for picnicking and camping. If you feel like you’re missing out on some wool in your life and want to invest in a closed-loop, built-to-last blanket, check out our guide to help navigate the different ranges we offer and choose the perfect Seljak Brand blanket.
Holly’s Reverence collection. Images by Kelly Geddes
What was the industry like when you started designing and making jewellery, and how have you seen it evolve?
When we were studying fashion, fast fashion was on the rise. I saw a gap in the market for high end hand-crafted jewellery. I was seeing either a lot of tacky costume jewellery or mainstream makes from Wallace Bishop, and it was when handcrafted was still hippy-ish. I was inspired by Karen Walker’s jewellery range at the time, who is a New Zealand-based designer, but I wanted to do locally-made Aussie iconography. I was lucky to have parents that studied jewellery making and they helped me start making my own. Thea Basilou of one of Brisbane’s best boutiques at the time, Blonde Venus, could see the unique approach and she picked up my designs before I graduated!
Holly crafts many of her pieces by hand. Image by Alycia Rubulis
I was taught by my mum but picked up short courses in diamond setting, wax carving, cold joining, and more, as I continued to learn on the job. Mum’s still on the team, and now we're an Australia-wide brand. Since launching, there have been countless entrants on the market which is a sign of how people have come to value locally and sustainably made jewellery.
Let’s start with materials and where they come from. The jewellery industry is rife with sourcing issues and there’s lots of opacity in the supply chain. How do you navigate that?
The key materials we work with are sterling silver and all carats of solid gold which we source from recycled metal supplies in Australia. We source pearls from Australian pearl farms, ethically-mined precious gems through local suppliers and sapphire beads through fair-trade suppliers in India, which support women in domestic violence situations, whom I’ve worked with in person. I also buy second hand gemstones to be re-facated and second hand gold jewellery to melt down and re-use. We now also source lab-grown diamonds so we’re not mining the earth for these.
Emeralds, pearls and metals are sourced ethically both in Australia and overseas. Image by Kelly Geddes (right)
There is a lot of privacy and secrecy in the precious stones industry, which is why I like to salvage that which is discarded or seen as less-than-luxury by the industry at large. My customers appreciate a more organic aesthetic, and via the process of upcycling and recycling I can tell the story of beauty in imperfection and the transience of nature.
How did circularity come into your awareness and what role does recycling metals and other materials play in your making process?
Based on my upbringing and environment I was always respectful of materials and where they came from. I grew up on the Sunshine Coast and the proximity to nature and way of life instilled in me an environmentally conscious mentality. That, and watching my parents make things by hand. I was sewing clothing at 8 or 9 years of age, candle-making, potato-printing and all those hand-on creative activities.
So upon launching my brand, many of my approaches were a given including buying recycled metal and recycling metals, melting some of it down in-house. When the metal becomes molten it looks like a puddle – from there we roll it out into a sheet, and create new wire and unique shapes.
Making in house means you can more easily care for, repair and extend the life of the products you produce. Image by Dylan Pukall
In educating customers about the value of metals and stones (precious metals don’t lose value, only increase in value), we started to take custom orders re-fashioning old jewellery and offering repairs, replating and recycling services to extend the life cycle of our (and other!) jewellery pieces.
What is your design philosophy and how is this reflected in your aesthetic?
Hand-making has always been really important to me. At fashion school, everything was hand-lined and hand-seamed and I would painstakingly match all the tartan lines in a perfectionist, pedantic way. Keeping traditional craftsmanship alive is my passion, and timeless design and quality making prolongs product lifespan from the outset.
I also like to design with materials I have in the studio before I source from anywhere else. I draw from old collections and pieces I’ve bought from a second hand gemstone market. This way I have to think more creatively, asking myself, ‘how can I make this new and ingenious?’. I’m buying less, but am creating better value, which is a more sustainable business practice in itself.
Holly on the polishing wheel. Image by Dylan Pukall
I am endlessly inspired by nature, and that which is naturally occurring. So I find the process of making itself inspiring. For example, I might have an idea but it’s in the process of shaping it into a real thing that might take me down another path. Not being attached to the outcome is important, and the process of hand making is obvious in the piece, like the Wabi Sabi series of rings and earrings.
What was it like to move from Sydney to Noosa? I’ve heard you say your creativity boomed upon moving!
Yes, after living in Brisbane for 9 years, I was Sydney-based for almost 5 years, moving back up the coast mid-2021. Reconnecting to nature after working in the middle of the city was incredible. For me, nothing is as healing as a barefoot walk in the bush or floating in the ocean.
Holly’s latest collection, El Agua Magica is an ode to the ocean and the origin of her jewellery making skills, Mexico. Images by Taylah Golden
Upon coming home, I felt grounded and renewed, connecting back to myself and even my childhood, which is where the collection El Agua Magica came from.
Holly wielded a chainsaw to create this reclaimed wood collage wall for her shop
I also had space and time to learn how to use a chainsaw, sourcing local harwoods from scrap yards to continue my sculpture practice. We opened the store in Noosa in October last year and it gave me a sense of girlpower to fit out my own store with my own woodwork, in the form of wooden lamps, mirrors, shelves and a wooden collage wall. The store has our two workshops attached, so we make almost all of our jewellery here in Noosa, on view to the public.
How does making locally allow you to implement circularity into your business model?
Our Noosaville shop is in a creative hub which includes a brewery, barber shop, surfboard factory, jujitsu and movement studios, shared office spaces and an art gallery. These businesses share accounting services and even staff. One of the barbers is going to come work with us! He’ll be starting on the polishing wheel and we’ll teach him in between haircuts.
Together we exchange knowledge about what’s working and support one another to grow our businesses together. We also have other local makers and designers in store, like ceramicist Tess Miller, Woven Palm locally made shoes, teas and incense, and of course Seljak Brand blankets.
The workshop can be seen from the retail space, with includes the work of local designers as well as Holly's own
Working locally reduces carbon emissions, allows us to work with other local suppliers and employ our own staff. In building strong ties with people in the community we create a more resilient local business network overall.
Clare Kennedy is an architect and the founder and director of Five Mile Radius, a design and manufacturing studio based in Meanjin (Brisbane). Five Mile Radius is inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s socio-environmental philosophy of regionalism, whereby building materials are sourced within a five mile radius of the building site, and the value of materials reflect the specific environment, landscape and people local to the area. Five Mile Radius creates striking designs from low-carbon bio-based materials and recycled construction scrap that divert waste and utilise pre-existing resources. Their profits assist in their ongoing material research.
Alongside their architecture practice, Five Mile have a succinct product offering exemplifying their design philosophy. Five Mile Radius Telegraph Stools are crafted from decommissioned timber power poles sourced across Australia. Annually, 200,000 poles are replaced because a portion of the poles become waterlogged, and despite the rest being reusable, 80% are scrapped due to a lack of recycling incentive. This is where Clare and her team come in. These stools are handmade by splitting each log section to form two stools, minimising timber waste in production and allowing them to stack as a pair. The surface is then charred, using the Japanese shou sugi ban (焼杉板) technique and finished with a natural hard wax oil for durability.
Two stacked Telegraph Stools
The Waste Terrazzo tables, which have become a staple of Five Mile Radius, are available in brick, tile and stone variations. Waste Terrazzo is handmade from construction waste salvaged from building sites which are mixed and poured into reusable moulds. Upon curing, the concrete is then hand-ground, stripping back a layer to reveal a unique terrazzo finish. The table tops rest on reclaimed blackened steel frames making them suitable for outdoor and indoor use.
The Steel base of the Waste terrazzo and Concrete Overpour tables
We spoke with Clare about her vision for sustainability in the built environment, the story behind the conception of their Waste Terrazzo table and the future of Five Mile Radius.
What does your vision of sustainable architecture and design look like?
It’s about understanding things from a life cycle approach. Where does it come from? How can I honour it through its use? How can I be conscious of what will happen at the end of the building's life? In short, that’s our approach but there are a lot of nuances to that and that’s what we are working through. It’s trying to match the resource to its use so that things are lasting as long as they need to, so they are hard-wearing, durable and also have low embodied energy.
Deemed by architect Frank Loyd Wright in 1927 as a “mongrel material”, concrete, while ubiquitous, still seems like such a polarising material. What first drew you to working with it and led you to developing your staple Waste Terrazzo table design?
I guess he means that it's a mongrel material because you are digging up three different finite resources. It’s so many things at once and they’re all extracted, they’re all mined. The processes involved to make concrete requires huge amounts of energy and resources, so immediately it’s something you identify as a culprit of climate change. When it comes to the built environment, we are cognisant of that, but then on the other hand, there’s nothing like it. It’s incredibly strong, it’s relatively easy to work with, it has good thermal properties, good fire properties, so its performance is really high. We’re aware that there isn’t really a construction industry without it. That's the theoretical basis for Waste Terrazzo but the actual opportunity just came from an art commission where we were asked to make a public artwork. At that point in time we were thinking about concrete and became aware of the sheer volume that was being wasted in the city, every day. And so we just thought this is such a high embodied energy resource, how can we make sure we do use that surplus in a meaningful way? And that’s where Waste Terrazzo was born.
It wasn’t really intended to be something we continued to do, it was just for this one arts project. But it was popular and allowed us to grow our workshop, and continues to allow us to grow our workshop. It has become a mainstay of the practice and kind of what we are known for, but parts of it were slightly accidental. We intended to be an architectural studio and suddenly we’re a concrete supplier but it’s here to stay and we love what it’s done for our studio.
Five Mile Radius's Aesop installation, design and fabrication product display for three Queensland Aesop stores (2021)
Having had a hand in so many varied architectural, interior and installation projects Five Mile Radius’ distinctive style and sleek minimalistic designs crafted from hardy construction waste have such range and translatability. What do you hope for the future of Five Mile Radius?
I think broadly speaking we hope to grow. There will be a big push this year on skilling up and tooling up in our workshop, so we can continue to work with more and more architecture studios to become fabricators for them and design custom pieces for their projects. We are hoping to see ourselves more as a collaborative engine for the design community of Meanjin that can help transform construction waste into all sorts of things for buildings. So we are really hoping to push on at our workshop. We also have a few bigger architecture projects like a pub and a few commercial jobs that should allow people to see our theories tested on a much larger scale, so that’s what people will be seeing from us this year, bigger projects and more prolific making.
Can you share anything that Five Mile Radius is currently working on?
One of our great clients is Matso’s, a large brewing company from Western Australia. We are redoing a heritage-listed pub on the Sunshine Coast and adding a big extension for them out the back. It will all be made out of recycled materials sourced from the demolition we are doing on-site. So that’s an exciting large-scale project that allows us to roll out our theories. We are taking it all the way down to the furniture... redoing all of their furniture in our workshop, re-finishing it and sending it back looking new. We are very excited about that project because it brings us right up to the architectural, almost urban planning scale, and all the way down to the furniture scale. We also have a few new products coming out around the March/April period that have been a long time coming. We are looking forward to showing everyone the materials we are working with, which is awesome. And just looking forward to getting heaps of work done!
Each year we reflect on how our work contributes to the vision for the kind of world we want to live in. We’re extremely proud to be part of the effort to transition to a fairer, cleaner fashion economy, as waste reduction and modern slavery become national agenda priorities. There’s no doubt the shift must accelerate, but this year we can say it’s well and truly underway.
The Seljak Brand team: Lilybelle and co-founders Sammy and Karina
Impact from January 1st 2022 to now:
Our Activities:
Practice Studio showcases the work of emerging local designers who produce seasonless collections, transcending the frenzied trend-driven state of the fast fashion industry. Practice Studio also offers repair and alteration services in-store for both new and well-loved clothing, which can be arranged through their online booking page.
We chatted with Kat to learn more about Practice Studio’s conception and evolution, her journey as a designer championing sustainability and the shifting landscape of fashion.
Practice Studio’s retail space
Having a combined workroom retail space is such a transparent approach to fashion design and retail and has the power to remove the smoke and mirrors of a traditionally opaque industry. How did the idea for the business come about and how has it evolved?
The concept of a combined workroom/retail space was actually something I started thinking about while I was still at uni. At QUT we had a core unit on fashion and sustainability which really quickly made me aware of the fast-paced, wasteful and globalised nature of the industry I was heading into. One of the overarching problems I saw guiding consumer attitudes towards clothing was a complete disconnection from the process of design and production.
To me the idea of bringing customers back in direct contact with how things get made seemed like the most logical solution to addressing this issue. Suddenly clothes take on that human element again; the sheer brilliance of a good design becomes apparent and both the time and skill level required to produce a garment are laid out in front of you.
Practice Studio’s workroom
Practice Studio really embraces the contemporary seasonless, limited-run and made-to-order model of fashion. How do you think this approach influences us to be more mindful both as consumers and creators?
This model makes sense for us as we’re exclusively stocking work by local and emerging designers, who are, in turn, working within their means to meet demand as their labels grow. For designers, starting small and wearing all the hats at once (patternmaker/accountant/ machinist/marketer) is a great way to learn just how many areas of your brand require a thoughtful approach. And for customers, again it’s that relationship with the faces behind the brands that make you aware of the true value of a garment. Being able to order something made specifically for you is another way of connecting with the design process and developing a meaningful relationship with what you own. Rather than feeling like you have a copy of a mass-produced product, you become instinctively aware of how much work has gone into making that item. The whole pace of fashion slows down to the point where a conceptually-rich design can be seen and appreciated as a work of art, and a customer can connect with the fact that they are directly contributing to the ongoing success of an individual designer/brand.
Clo Love pictured wearing Meanjin-based Katalyst label
Practice Studio has become such an influential force in the Meanjin fashion landscape over the past three years. The act of maintaining garments, through mending, repurposing and re-selling has become common, if not trendy. What does the future of Australian fashion look like to you?
I absolutely love how mainstream the act of mending and shopping second-hand is becoming! It’s just exactly what we all need to be doing and I’m stoked to be able to help build momentum for it. At the studio the demand for alterations and repairs is consistently high, which is not something I expected when starting out. And with the growing success of bricks and mortar resale spaces like Swop and intuitive online platforms like Depop, I don’t see things slowing down. I think – particularly through social media – we’ve all become so much more educated about the impact we can have as consumers (and IMO that mindset shift is now here to stay). From reducing our individual environmental footprints, to demanding more from the brands we’re giving our dollars to, to making caring cool, we’re heading towards a slower and more sustainable system. That said, I do think there’s still a place for certain mass-produced items. But I foresee a more balanced distribution of approaches to production and consumption in the future, where those brands leading the market are also necessarily accountable, transparent and ethical.
Sewing in the Practice Studio workroom
Practice Studio has worked with so many talented up-and-coming local designers, and participated in local fashion events. How are fashion and community linked for you?
Fashion and community are linked for me in the most enriching of ways. For me personally it has been the most joyful and unexpected side effect of starting a retail space (which was essentially more of a philosophical experiment to begin with). I love being that bridge between passionate people who either create, or love supporting, innovative design. There’s something way down deep that you share with someone else whose creative work you admire and at Practice I basically get to play Cupid, and watch people fall in love with each other via these intermediary objects. I think that being a designer myself helps me understand how much it means when someone gets and appreciates what you’re doing. A sense of community is also really important for designers who have an opportunity to connect with each other rather than feel like they’re working in isolation. It’s always fun to get together at events and check in with each other, and get feedback on whether you’re doing it ‘right’. On a local level everyone’s really breaking new ground so we’re learning as we go.
Pieces by Meanjin-based brand Bulley Bulley shot in the Practice Studio workroom
Throughout your journey so far, both as a designer and a small business owner, what are some of the positive changes that you have identified in the industry?
I think our level of interconnectedness online, for all its flaws, is also responsible for a huge amount of positive change within the industry. There’s so much two-way conversation happening now between brands and customers which is powerful when used effectively. Brands really have to be accountable to their customers and in return are rewarded with an unparalleled level of loyalty and insight that can help them refine their products, avoid waste and maximise the efficient use of resources.
A reworked up-cycled design by Practice Studio
Kat, you have previously worked in costuming. How has that experience influenced your practice?
Most of my experience in costume was as a maker, which is where I got my introduction to alterations. You’d work on garments with huge seam allowances and adjust them to fit different performers, or be handed suits that needed cuffs and shoulders moved. I learned from people with a keen eye for detail and feel quite lucky to have been trained under their watch. In opening up the studio, I was able to transfer some of those skills, and adapt and problem solve for things I hadn’t seen before more easily.
Why have you chosen Meanjin/Brisbane as Practice Studio’s home?
Beautiful Meanjin! Someone from New York once told me that Brisbane was where it was at for creatives in Australia, and at the time (I was planning to move to Melbourne) I kind of just looked at her blankly, a little stunned. But she went on to say that we’re still so young… Brisbane isn’t saturated or competitive in the way that other, more established, cities are and there’s room to actually explore a creative practice here. There’s less judgement from peers and more of an all-for-one, one-for-all attitude because we’re still building a scene. I think that’s so true and I’ve really fallen in love with this dorky, sweaty, Ibis-run town now. I couldn’t imagine starting anywhere else!
Designers Joash Teo (left) and Thomas King (right) working in-store
Practice Studio has recently opened up a secondary studio and gallery space, designed specifically to explore ideas surrounding clothing and the body in greater depth. They currently have an artist in residence investigating the significance of waste materials generated during the design process. Artist and shoemaker Joseph Botica will be presenting their work What Remains on November 11 and all are welcome.
Practice Studio’s gallery space
Follow Practice Studio to stay updated on their upcoming projects and events.
A Carnaby’s (left) and Baudin’s (right) black cockatoo. By Keith Lightbody from Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Recovery in Western Australia
With the screech of the black cockatoo, we look up into the sky and expect rain. In Southeast Queensland, that is. Perhaps it is for this reason black cockatoos signify change and transformation. And maybe it’s their powerful wings that represent joy, freedom and travel, too.
Animals have reflected emotion and inspired creative expressions in peoples all over the world for millennia. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, animals can be totems that are spiritual emblems linking people to creation time, all living creatures and the land.
Red-tailed Black Cockatoo in Port Douglas, QLD, by David Clode (left) and illustration by Elizabeth Gould of the Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo found in Southeast Australia (right)
We wanted to express our care and concern for those very same creatures through art… in the form of blankets.
Glossy Black Cockatoos are charismatic, like most other birds, and very loyal. They choose a partner for life, and will return to the same ‘home’ tree throughout their lives, even if others are abundant with food. Home (and food!) is a She Oak, and it takes 200 years for the hollow to form that the cocky will actually nest in. At 50cm high, with various yellow and red markings around the tail and face there are a variety of subspecies to get to know.
Glossy Black Cockatoos by David Cook
The mother will lay one egg every two years, nesting for around 90 days in the hollow, and the baby remains dependent for about a year. A very social bird, black cockatoos are usually seen in pairs or small groups.
The Glossy Black Cockatoo specifically is listed as ‘vulnerable’ in Queensland (Wildnet Species List, Queensland Government) and other species of black cockatoos are ‘endangered’, ‘threatened’ or ‘vulnerable’ in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia.
Black cockatoos are in danger of population decline mostly because of habitat loss due to development. Where do the cockatoos find their food, shelter and families when their home tree is destroyed? Black cockatoos are also the target of illegal poaching and shooting.
Glossy Black Cockatoo Conservation group on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, building hollows to replace those lost
Many movements and organisations have sprouted around Australia to protect these birds and their habitats, like the Sunshine Coast’s Glossy Black Cockatoo Conservation advocacy group or the Kaarakin Conservation Centre in WA.
Jill Haapaniemi's capture of both the Lemon and Black Cockatoo blanketsDugong by Bernd Neeser
The dugong has long held a strong place in the imaginations of people, with cultural and spiritual significance in Japan, Australia and West Africa. From the order Sirenia (sea cows), dugongs and other similar creatures have inspired the mermaid mythology, and are thought to represent the healer, the seductress and fertility. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, animals can be totems that are spiritual emblems linking people to creation time, all living creatures and the land.
Animals have reflected emotion and inspired creative expression in peoples around the world for millennia. It seems fitting to express our care and concern for those very same creatures through art, and for us that comes in the form of blankets.
Dugongs are plump and have a flute-like tail similar to a dolphin. Around three metres long and with a weight of about 400kg they come to the surface of the water to breathe through nostrils at the top of their snouts.
Dugongs live in tropical and subtropical shallow coastal waters near the Queensland/New South Wales border, Shark Bay in Western Australia as well as other parts of the Indian and Pacific oceans. Because they’re long ranging creatures, population numbers are shared across national borders.
Dugongs feed on seagrass, sucking it up like a vacuum. Although they’re quite solitary creatures, they communicate with others by ‘singing’ in chirps, whistles and barks that echo through the water. The babies are already about 1.2m long and weigh 30kgs when born, and suck their flippers if they need to be nursed!
Dugongs are threatened due to loss of habitat from coastal development and industrial activities, as well decline in water quality, and getting caught in fishnets and struck by boats. Recent flooding in Southeast Queensland affected dugongs as their seagrass meadows were smothered with sediment.
The dugong’s status is ‘vulnerable’ according to the Wildnet Species List by the Queensland Government and listed on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), of which Australia is a signatory.
In Australia, the Great Barrier Reef Foundation helps to protect dugongs and their habitats and the Dugong and Seagrass Conservation Project covers South Asia and Africa and the Pacific Islands by introducing sustainable fishing practices among other actions.
The Dugong Lime blanket
In our Dugong blanket design, we were inspired by the rounded silhouette of the solo dugong and their fluted tail, and the sunny waters dugongs call home. This dugong plays freely under a tropical sun.
Maya and the Dugong Mango blanket
In a culture of hyper-consumption, we believe that taking time to mend and repair rather than discard and replace, is a radical act, a relaxing and meditative activity, and a powerful vehicle for self expression.
“Once a regular chore, mending clothes has become a lost practice as replacements are cheaper, free time scarce and domestic skills forgotten in favor of digital technologies. As a result, mended scars are rarely found in garments anymore.”
- Aïcha Abbadi (2017) Mended Scars article in Address Journal.
Visible mending has recently gained more attention through trendy social media accounts and fashion hype, but it’s not a new concept. The ethos of 'make do and mend' stretches back over thousands of years. Repairing one’s garments using purposefully visible techniques is a far-reaching, all-encompassing philosophy and antidote to consumption that extends beyond just patching holes in your clothes. In the spirit of radical stitchery we’ve pulled together a selection of visible mending practitioners and academics that are inspiring us. We’ve also added a few resources to enrich your own visible mending journey. So let's explore this wonderful world!
Celia Pym is a prolific artist whose work from 2007 onwards has explored themes of damage and repair. Celia’s medium of choice is a sharp needle, yarn and a pair of scissors which she uses to investigate evidence of damage, exploring the ways which repairs draw attention to points of weakness, and areas where cloth is thin or worn down. Rather than camouflaging these sites of damage, Celia often uses contrasting or bright colours for mending, to highlight them further. Celia believes darning is “small acts of care and paying attention” and that in fact, mending is a collaborative dynamic with damage, where “the damage, in a way, does the work for me.”
Check out Celia’s website and Instagram for more information about her work.
Jane Milburn has been a slow clothing advocate for a decade, responding to fast fashion’s destructive excess by developing the Slow Clothing Manifesto. Jane is a trained agricultural scientist, sustainability consultant and founded the Textile Beat in 2013, a purpose-driven business promoting a slow clothing philosophy and a holistic approach to dressing that is sustainable, ethical and creative. It's rooted in the belief that the art of dressing well is reflected in the values we choose to wear, which extend beyond appearance. “We believe in ethical, sustainable choices that don’t harm people or the planet. We want to know the story about where clothing comes from and we believe in care and repair, refashion and restyle of existing clothing using simple sewing skills.”
Jane is also the author of Slow Clothing: finding meaning in what we wear, and The Process of Mending which are both wonderful resources for those wishing to dive deeper into slow fashion.
The completion of a Permaculture Design Course in 2020 and a Permaculture Teaching Course in 2021 led Jane to appreciate the way Slow Clothing aligns with permaculture’s ethics of “people care, earth care and fair share”, as well as how the 12 permaculture design principles can be translated to our own wardrobes.
Check out Jane Milburn’s website and Instagram for more information about her work.
“We can't mend the world with a needle but, honestly,a bit of stitchery helps.”- Dr. Kate Sekules on Mending as Metaphor.
Dr. Kate Sekules is the author of Mend! A refashioning Manual and Manifesto and an academic with a PhD in material culture and design history. Dr. Sekules works to create a global taxonomy of mending and a Directory of Menders, which you can now apply to be included in. This directory is primarily for hand sewn visible mends, however those who do alterations, utility mends, mending by machine, or invisible mending are also welcome. Kate says the idea is to “inspire you to mend with verve and nerve and glaringly obvious thread (or have someone do it for you)” and to “value and preserve what you already have. Because mending is a radical act.” Kate states that “despite learning how to sew properly” she “always preferred making it up as I go” and that in essence is what visible mending is all about... “there is no wrong way. If it works, it's correct.” Kate states that visible mending is accessible for anyone who wants to try their hand at it, whether or not they have sewing experience.
Dr. Kate Sekules’s Top 10 Reasons to Visible Mend
Before and after And Our Faces…visible mend.
Closeup details of Punk Dress visible mend.
Kate is also the founder of Refashioner, a highly personal platform for rehoming special vintage pieces where “nothing is "pre-owned". It's all owned.” Encouraging people to “tend and value what's in our closets”, each listing is accompanied by the name of the previous owner, following the ethos that “old clothes aren't worn out, they’re opportunities!” She has inspired us to reframe our mending approach to a process of co-design. “Co-design with the damage makers: the moth, the mouse, the nail and splinter, the splatter and ripper and plain old time.”
Check out Dr. Kate Sekules’s website and Instagram for more information about her work.
“Repair is (re)becoming a first thought, rather than an afterthought. As the understanding of sustainability and our impact on the planet grows, philosophical conversations of hopeand change are happening.”
Dr. Bridget Harvey is an academic, writer, activist designer and practising multimedia artist, whose work often utilises found objects, materials from ceramics, to wood and textiles. From 2013 both her visual art work and independent practice has focused on multidisciplinary repair. Dr. Harvey’s work uses making to critically interrogate what we make, how we make and why that matters, particularly “Why repair?” raising the question of “why not? and why and when did we stop?” She investigates methodologies and concepts through craft to generate “new understandings and adding meaning.” While an Artist in Residence at the Victoria and Albert Museum from October 2018 to July 2019, Dr. Harvey began to “unpick the relationship between repair and the museum” documenting the residency through the Repair-Making the Museum booklet.
Dr. Bridget Harvey’s Jumper to Lend, Jumper to Mend #2, #1 (2015, 2014) Woollen jumpers, yarn.
Check out Dr. Bridget Harvey’s website and Instagram for more information about her work.
The Golden Joinery are a non-commercial, collaboratively developed clothing initiative and brand, started by the Dutch Painted Series fashion collective. They're inspired and named after the Japanese art of visible ceramic mending using gold, Kintsugi, which translates to golden joinery. The Golden Joinery facilitates workshops and has created an interactive game in which a kit of materials is sent to you to host your own visible mending session. They hope this approach can assist people in “celebrating the story of your garments with golden scars” where “a second layer is added, putting into question the monopoly of fashion labels.”
Golden Joinery game submission from Marlo Janssen, Netherlands (2020).
Visit The Golden Joinery Website and Instagram for more information about their business.
Have you been inspired by these incredible examples of visible mending practices and have a cherished garment or item with a tear, hole or a stain that needs mending or revitalising? Well, Seljak Brand has partnered with Artisan, Queensland's peak body of craft and design, to establish a series of online workshops about repair and circularity, to assist you in adding value and life to your beloved garments. Whether it be a blanket, a pair of jeans or a beloved jacket, you can create unique patches that not only grant your stuff a second life, but make your clothes unique and personal in the process, adding both material and immaterial value.
Check out the workshops here, to learn how to patch with free-style embroidery and how to utilise a traditional blanket stitch, while also learning fundamentals of circular design.
Check out these links below to dive even deeper into the practice of visible mending…
The Galley of Modern Art (GOMA) is hosting a visible mending workshop for teens aged 13-18 on the 28th of September. Inspired by the Chiharu Shiota exhibition, whose work explores the ways commonplace objects can “hold emotion” and “emit human evidence”, where clothing is one of the most intimate examples. This workshop asks “what do we do when those objects break?” in turn offering the chance to reconnect and bring pre-loved garments back to life with visible mending techniques instructed by Dr. Sal Edwards, designer and maker.
Learn more about this workshop here and visit Dr. Sal Edwards’s website for more insight into their practice.
Meanjin/Brisbane based Practice Studio is a combined workroom and retail space, working to reconnect people with the value of thoughtfully-made garments by sharing insight into the design process. They offer repair and alteration services in-store for both new and well-loved clothing.
Learn more about their mending and alteration services here.
First established in 2015, the School of Sewing and Upcycling (SOSU) is a welcoming creative hub in Naarm/Melbourne’s inner west offering full and half day sewing workshops, as well as long-term courses. SOSU encourages students of all ages, genders and skill levels to attend, offering classes on how to mend and alter existing garments, believing that “sewing offers many ways to develop a creative and sustainable lifestyle.”
Check out The School of Sewing and Upcycling website and Instagram for more information on how to get involved.
Hopefully these resources have inspired you to begin your visible mending journey or to continue growing your visible mending practice, because there’s no feeling like fixing a special item of clothing you hold dear. We really encourage you to give your clothes a second life, save some money, divert so-called “waste” from landfill and express yourself!
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There’s lots of ways to repair and re-use old woollen blankets. And of course, if the right systems are in place, they can be mechanically recycled into new blankets. But if old blankets are beyond saving, and they’re 100% wool, then they can be composted within a natural closed-loop system!
Wool will naturally decompose in the ground as fungi and bacteria break it down, and even return valuable nutrients back into the soil. We were inspired to explore this idea further as healthy soil is not only a resource for healthy food, but a carbon drawdown mechanism itself.
So we embarked on an experiment to see what would happen if we composted a 100% natural woollen blanket. We took a wool blanket sample (50% recycled wool and 50% virgin wool) to the Yandina Community Gardens on the Sunshine Coast, which runs a local circular program called Food Waste Loop.
Food Waste Loop composts the food waste of eleven local businesses to create a high quality compost product which is sold locally as garden food
The Yandina Community Gardens were a great place to visit – beautiful water plants grow beside plots of vegetables, and the composting area smells of coffee grounds, which was unexpectedly pleasant. We were warned, however, that changes in the weather and types of food scraps can change the smell drastically!
Together with the Food Waste Loop team, we introduced half the all-wool blanket sample into a home compost system and the other half into the industrial compost system to break down over time.
Pat (left), Meg (middle) and Emily (right) play with the blanket before it gets cut up for the experiment
The samples were wrapped in chicken wire that could be extracted from the compost piles, to ensure we could document the break-down process.
Pat clamps the woollen blanket sample in between sheets of chicken wire
The commercial compost pile contains food waste from food businesses in Yandina mixed with straw and goat manure. It sits at around 70 degrees for a minimum of 12 weeks, allowing the microbes to do their work without the effect of bad bacteria. Every two weeks the compost was ‘turned’, or aerated.
The commercial compost pile is hot!
The home compost bin was filled with a mix of food waste (fruit and vegetable waste only) and carbon product (for example, wood chips or straw). Every week for the first five weeks, additional food scraps and carbon was added to replicate a home compost environment, and the compost was turned every two weeks.
Emily prepares food waste for the home compost
In the commercial compost, at twelve weeks, the material had become weak and able to rip easily, but was still holding together.
In the home compost, the material disintegrated with minimal effort. Some form was still visible at this point.
Week 12 decomposition in commercial compost (left) and home compost (right)
The sample in the commercial compost pile was completely broken down at 24 weeks, or just over five months.
At six months the sample in the home compost was still working away – it’s very weak and on track to decomposing but still holding some form. Wool is very strong!
Blanket sample in commercial compost (left) and home compost (right)
We sent a portion of the commercial compost that included the wool blanket sample to a lab to test if this final product met certain elements of the Australian Compost Standard in regards to minerals, heavy metals and pesticide contamination.
The test determined that the product can in fact be used as a soil conditioner, or food, to grow healthy plants. The product has balanced levels of important minerals such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, contains a whole suite of trace elements like zinc, copper and iron, and is an ideal source of organic matter.
Now this compost containing our decomposed blanket is being used to grow nutrient-dense food by the volunteers at the community gardens!
Before considering composting your woollens, make sure your blanket or garment can’t be used by someone else first. After all, keeping materials in use for as long as possible is one of the key principles of the circular economy.
If you’re ready to compost your woollens, think about the worms first! Composting worms need conditions to be moist, warm and dark so a 100% natural blanket is the perfect thing to lay on top of the worm farm.
Emily and Meg check on the worms in the industrial worm farm. As well as hessian, woollen blankets work in home worm farms to keep the worms warm!
If you don’t have a worm farm at home or nearby, the next step would be to incorporate your woollens into the compost heap. Be sure to cut down your garment or blanket into strips to allow it to break down faster. If you’re curious and want to track progress, enclose your wool in a chicken wire clamp as we did, so you can fish it out and check how it’s breaking down over time. While this trial was successful, we're not able to verify that other wool products will produce a compost product safe for growing food (due to dyes etc).
Not yet. Currently Seljak Brand blankets include a component of synthetic fibres like polyester and polyamide, which is used to bind the recycled fibres together and create a strong and durable yarn, and plastic cannot be composted.
We are aiming to operate in biological, as well as mechanical, closed-loop systems, which is why we’re scoping opportunities to use all-natural products in the future.
Beautiful tropical water plants at Yandina Community Gardens
]]>Elisa Jane (Leecee) Carmichael is a Quandamooka woman and artist who honours her saltwater heritage by incorporating materials collected from Country, embracing traditional techniques, and expressing contemporary adaptations through painting, weaving, and textiles.
Leecee Carmichael with baby Ira
For our very first artist collaboration we commissioned Leecee, a dear friend of many years, to create an artwork that we could together transform into a blanket design. Please welcome the Gather blanket!
“The weave of the Gather blanket brings together the many threads of a gulayi (Quandamooka women’s bag) which loops and diagonally knots ungaire (freshwater swamp reeds). Gulayi have supported daily life for millennia and were used to gather shellfish from the shorelines of Minjerribah and Mulgumpin (North Stradbroke and Moreton Island). Our Quandamooka waters are alive, nurturing and sustaining us with ginyingara (oysters), eugaries (pipis) and quampi shells and many other precious freshwater and saltwater food sources. Today, on Country, we gather to weave and feast from the dabiyil (waters). Quandamooka djagan marumba (Quandamooka Country is beautiful).”
– Leecee Carmichael
Leecee's original artwork and the Gather blanket
Leecee is a descendant of the Ngugi people, one of three clans who are the traditional custodians of Quandamooka, also known as Yoolooburrabee—people of the sand and sea. Quandamooka Country comprises the waters and lands of and around Moreton Bay in south-east Queensland.
Aunty Sonja in the Quandamooka waters and with her grandbaby Ira
We photographed the blanket on Quandamooka Country with Leecee’s mother, the master weaver Aunty Sonja Carmichael, and Leecee’s baby, Ira.
Aunty Sonja with her grandbaby Ira
Pictured here is the first gulayi that Aunty Sonja wove
Aunty Sonja has revived the Quandamooka loop and diagonal knot weave, which wasn’t passed down from her mother’s generation because of colonisation.
“Our Quandamooka weaving practices were interrupted as a result of colonisation. Cultural practices were forced to stop. I didn’t grow up weaving. It has only been in the last 10 years we have learnt and connected with the precious weaves of our ancestors through research, yarning, workshops and visiting museum collections.” Leecee says.
Ginyingara (oysters), eugaries (pipis) and quampi shells
Together with Leecee, the pair now use their woven practice in significant artworks that are housed across the country in museum collections, but also in vessels they use every day, like Ira’s baby basket.
Like our other Design blankets, Gather is woven in Lithuania with yarn spun from reclaimed woollen jumpers in Italy. It was our privilege to work with Leecee on a blanket collaboration and the Gather blanket is a special addition to the Seljak Brand range. Shop the Gather blanket here.
Beautiful Minjerribah bushland
]]>Lou and Amelia welcome us in for fresh home-baked bagels
We visited the dreamy treehouse of Lou and Amelia, partners and co-founders of Sunshine Coast-based creative studio Ebb & Flow. Lou and Amelia started Ebb & Flow in 2015 after living and working around the world, and bought their lush home in 2016, in tucked-away Verrierdale. In deciding to combine their skills and lifestyle into one that was values-driven and community oriented, they have not only created a beautiful home but nurtured the creative community in their regional area.
During the peak of Covid, they adopted the four day work week with the view ‘to simplify’. Inspired by their approach to work and rest, we spoke with Lou and Amelia about their philosophy around community and building spaces for relaxation.
Lou and Amelia scooped up the last of the limited edition Glow blanket. They use it for picnics and to catch rays outdoors
From branding and design to content creation, what is it about telling brands’ stories that is inspiring to you?
The decisions we make as consumers make a huge impact on our community and the environment. Brands we choose to support say a lot about us and what our values are. One thing we have learnt after decades of working in this industry is that individuals can make an impact by choosing to support brands that in turn support their community.
We love to look at concepts like social permaculture and closed loop systems. Once we start to dive into this side of business and brands it starts to get really interesting. We believe these communities which support each other can make a huge impact when it comes to the current issues we are facing as a society. These are the stories we like to tell and the brands we like to work with. We love to dive deep into understanding the heart of the brand and designing the experience around it. We also just love to go to the studio and make stuff!
Between you both, you've lived and worked in New York, Melbourne, Sydney, Wellington and Montreal – what made you choose to work and live on the Sunshine Coast?
We ended up on the Sunshine Coast kinda by chance. After years of each living and working overseas, Lou and I met once we were back in Australia. We spent months moving around the east coast of Australia, living out of suitcases, before we decided that we should create a home somewhere. We looked at Lorne, Northern Rivers, and Melbourne but we found the flow led us to the Sunshine Coast.
The Sunshine Coast has always been a holiday destination for us so it's often surreal to stop and appreciate that we live here. When we told our friends and family that we wanted to start a design company on the coast, they all thought we were nuts. But thanks to our first clients and their referrals we have been attracting great brands and startups from all over the world.
"We love to throw blankets over us on cold mornings with a coffee", says Amelia
Not only is your studio in Noosaville a hub of activity, but you activate the warehouse next door (NextDoor is also the name of the space!) by renting it to local artists, performers and even restaurants. How do you see your role in creating community in Noosa?
Creating and being a part of a community here is really important to us. When we first moved to the Sunshine Coast we used to fantasise about the moment we were part of a community and I think that drove us to seek out the people that most inspired us. Not long after starting Ebb & Flow, we started the Noosa Surf Film Festival. This is purely a love project that was created to promote and support young creatives on the coast and show the non-competitive side of surfing. It has been hugely successful thanks to the amazing support of the surf and creative community here.
With these two projects up and running we really saw the value in creating a space where people can come together and create, then Nextdoor was born. Noosa attracts an amazing range of talented people and we are largely obsessed with them all. We do everything that we can to help support the community around us and they have been incredible in supporting us. We try to get involved and give back when we can by helping local not-for-profits, like Surfrider and SevGen, within the studio.
Rainbow bookshelf and local art! The artwork is by Kate Florence, who works out of NextDoor
Likewise, your home is such a beautiful balance of warmth, spaciousness and curiosity. What is your philosophy when it comes to making a house your home?
Our house is our sanctuary. It is where we can go to stop and recharge. It’s up in the trees, surrounded by wildlife and peacefully quiet. We are both more on the side of introvert and we spend most of our weeks in the studio with our team or with clients so when the weekend comes we escape to our home to reset. When we moved here we had no things, so it's been super fun building our lives from scratch together. Our home is made up of all our favourite things – art, music, film, food, books, plants and spaces for retreat and entertaining.
We have created memories here for 5 years and some of that is represented in things we have made, bought, received and collected. We also are looking after a little foster girl and our home has transformed into a space to accommodate her. And of course Hunter the dog brings all the love!
Because houses in Queensland are built to welcome cooling breezes in the summertime, blankets are all the more essential during winter!
You both do so much! How do you like to use your beautiful spaces to chill?
We read, listen to records, watch the birds, cook food, work in the garden, watch sunsets, do crosswords and jigsaw puzzles, have baths, drink wine, lie on the lawn in the sun, sit by the fire. Our favourite objects are probably the art we have collected and our record collection. We are part of a record club with our friends in Montreal and each month we buy a record for each other. It’s been a great way to explore new music and connect with them. Our home is full of art that we have collected over the years. We decided that the best present we can buy for each other is a piece of art that we can both enjoy. So each Christmas we buy a piece of art together. We really love to support artists in the community so a lot of our art is from local artists and friends.Wool is remarkably low maintenance and long-lasting for such a highly performing material. That’s why it’s worth taking care of.
As an active fibre, wool reacts to shifts in body temperature keeping you cool when it’s hot and toasty when it’s chilly. Its ‘wicking’ ability means merino fibre absorbs and evaporates large quantities of moisture, making it lightweight and warm, fast drying, breathable, insulating and odour resistant. Additionally, the natural oils in wool mean the material is naturally antibacterial and not easily stained. Wool is, in our opinion, totally amazing!
Protect and care for your wool items by paying attention to storage, maintenance and appropriate cleaning procedures. Here’s what to do to get the most out of your woollens.
How to wash wool without damaging or shrinking it?
Seljak Colour range Fig blanket airing out on clothes line.
Prolong the life of your wool garments and blankets by following these cleaning steps (they’re in order of least to most energy intensive):
Although they are machine washable, the best way to prolong your Seljak Brand blanket is to hand wash or dry clean your blanket.
What laundry detergent is best for wool?
When endeavouring to wash wool items, we recommend purchasing a detergent that is formulated specifically for use with wool. Woolmark lists a selection of suggested detergents. Kin Kin Naturals and Saba Organics are two Australian-made options.
Kin Kin Naturals Wool & Delicates Wash is our favourite wool detergent.
How to dry wool?
We strongly advise against tumble drying your wool blanket or garments – unless the care tag specifically states otherwise! Instead, air drying naturally will save time and electricity. Take care to avoid direct sunlight or heat when drying, as it could cause colour damage.
We recommend flat drying over hanging, as the weight of the wet wool may cause the item to stretch and become misshapen. Flat dry wool items by placing them on a clean colourfast towel, or alternatively use a drying rack if you have space restrictions. When placing washed items out to dry, use your hands to gently shape it into size, removing visible creases or folds.
Lay woollen items flat to dry. We used beach towels underneath this blanket!
You’ll need a sponge, white vinegar, baking soda and a brush vacuum attachment (a soft bristle brush will also suffice).
1. Shake out your woollen item to remove dust.
2. Apply a thin layer of baking soda over the soiled wool, this should soak up any residue and hopefully prevent the fibres from binding. Leave the baking soda to sit for at least 30 minutes.
A light dusting of baking soda on the soiled area acts as a scent neutraliser.
3. Follow by vacuuming up leftover residue with a brush attachment.
4. Next create a cleaning solution of one part white vinegar and one part water.
5. Lightly soak a sponge in your cleaning solution, squeezing out excess liquid, keeping the sponge just slightly damp.
6. Begin spot cleaning the impacted area with your sponge, gently scrub in a circular motion. Pay attention to not saturate the wool, which may cause the fibres to bind.
7. Place your wool on a clean flat surface to dry, cover with a dry towel to assist soaking up any remaining moisture and leave it for at least 30 minutes.
8. Wipe off the impacted area with a sponge dipped in cold water and gently wring dry. Again, try not to saturate the wool!
9. Place the item next to a dehumidifier or simply hang on a clothes rack or flat dry in a well-ventilated space. Following drying, it should be free from odour.
10. If the smell persists, try washing it following the steps from the How to wash wool section.
Hold the item taut and gently shave off the pills. Collect the cut-offs with a lint roller or adhesive tape.
How to store wool?
In warmer months, store your Seljak blanket and other wool items in a cool, dry place, out of the sun. A sealed plastic container is best (vacuum bags are okay but might take the spring out of your blanket). Ensure the blanket is completely clean and dry when packed away, as moisture can eventually lead to mildew, and moths are attracted to grime. Airtight sealing protects against moths, which will want to lay eggs in your woollen items. If you own a cedar or camphor chest, wrapping the wool item in clean dry cotton before storing also works well.
If you’d like to add moth deterrents for extra protection, try natural options like clove, cedar or lavender which will leave your blankets smelling fresher than mothballs! Note the effectiveness of these reduces as their scent diminishes with time, so finding the right storage solution is the first port of call.
Woolmark is another great resource we recommend visiting for wool maintenance tips and tricks that we haven’t covered. Love and care for your wool items and in the long term, they will take care of you!]]>
Rose Feely of Eucalypt Roses working in her Wurtulla Studio, 2020.
Revelling in the process of discovery, Rose Feely of Eucalypt Roses Design creates digitally drawn surface patterns that marry her love of botany and immersive art. While her designs follow a rich history of floral pattern design, Rose’s work invites viewers to look at remnant indigenous habitats with a sophisticated eye and compassionate heart.
Mistletoe and host Scribbly Gum, 2021, hand drawn digital surface pattern.
Each pattern tells a story of her beloved South East Queensland ecosystems, where she grew up and was based for the last 5 years. A pattern might feature symbiotic plants or plants that flower at the same time of year, or a flush of new growth following rain or fire. These patterns capture a moment in time, observing the flurries and relationships in our ecosystems’ seasonal cycles, honouring the complexity and profundity of Australia’s East Coast botanical biodiversity.
Rose has also worked in plant production for nearly a decade propagating tropical ornamental plants, aquatic plants and now Australian native cut-flower species. She also supports environmental advocacy and the conservation of remnant bushland. In 2021 she spoke as a guest presenter on the value and techniques of habitat gardening alongside Ian Lowe at the Sunshine Coast Environment Council World Environment Day Festival and she also consulted with the Seljak sisters on the beach protest artwork “Eye of the Future”.
Through decorative design Rose hopes to contribute to a richer Australian identity and sense of place by appreciating pre-colonial ecosystems through observation and low-impact engagement.
We caught up with Rose to learn more about the integration of her horticultural and artistic journey to educate people about their local and native plants and ecosystems.
How does horticulture inform your artwork. Or what comes first?
Art, plants, pattern! I wasn't always a native plant fiend. During my time at art school I was intrigued by the human sensations of awe and amazement and studied how I might share these experiences within a white-walled space. I then discovered the richest experience of abundance and the sublime was actually to be experienced alone in a forest. So I moved away from the constructed gallery space and went to find out more about all these millions of captivating green skinned friends. Eventually, I discovered the science of pulsating ecosystems and finally found the ultimate immersive experience.
Working between conservation and design, Rose's studio is always full of flowers, plant identification guides, conservation campaigns and dried botanical materials. Eucalypt Rose's studio, Buderim, 2022.
I continued exploring printmaking techniques as I enjoyed its inherent repeat potential. Between printmaking and growing plants, I found myself swirling in the perfect combination of inspiration because patterns in nature exist at every scale and every colour. In an applied sense, patterns in wallpapers, fabric and architecture are designed to swallow you whole, like a forest. To immerse your physical body and disrupt your sense of space and scale, lighting up your sensory system, triggering emotions of grandeur and euphoria.
Banksia Leaf Litter 2019. Hand pressed lino print on brown card. 115x135cm.
Conservation became a really important part of my practice as I learned about the complexity of South East Queensland’s biodiversity and the threat it was under from changing land use. The designs I create contribute to a discussion around decolonising our urbanised spaces to support habitats for local flora and fauna.
Eucalypts and Kangaroo Grass 2019. Hand pressed lino print on brown card. 115 x 115cm.
Why is pattern so important to you?Plant production patterns inspire Rose's wallpaper and fabric designs.
There's a deliberate message underpinning my work. I'm introducing the visual language of underappreciated Australian native ecosystems into a long history of European floral pattern design. I want to familiarise people with the shapes and forms of our endemic plant species, nudging them to start a warm and fuzzy relationship with these forms. Hopefully, you'll begin to spot these plants on your commute to work or get excited when you visit a native plant nursery!
Native Waterlily Flowers 2021, hand drawn digital surface pattern.
At the Designing for Country event last year in Maroochydore Traditional Custodian of the Gubbi Gubbi/Kabi Kabi people Lyndon Davis aptly put it when he stated, "You have to know it to know how to take care of it."
You’ve recently moved to Greater Western Victoria. What's it been like moving to a new bio region?
Gardeners will understand what a drastic change it is to move climatic regions, I’m sure. When ecosystems are as familiar as your circle of friends, uprooting yourself from subtropical rainforest to arid temperate woodland is a big change! It wasn’t the people I was nervous about meeting, it was the vegetation communities or ‘bioregions’. Would they fill me with the same magical inspiration that wet heath does? Would the dry landscape explode with shapes and colours and life like the coastal foredunes do? Would they welcome me and let me open my heart to them like riparian creek zones do?
Thankfully the answer is yes. We’re still in the early days of our friendship but yes there is colour and life! Not the same colour palette, which is as exciting as it is daunting, but personalities abound and it is these eclectic compositions of shapes and colours I like to capture in my surface pattern design. Thankfully I had my old friend, the Seljak Pyramid blanket (inspired by various mountains of the Sunshine Coast), to comfort me in the transition between my previous life and my new life in a small country town. I’m constantly surveying the humming relationships between different flora and fauna and how this story might be told through pattern.
Wimera Flat Lay, 2022.
This table flat-lay is down by a river where the local cockatoos put on a good sunset show, local kids enjoy a long rope swing and I sit and tinker with the forms and colours I find scattered on the ground. It was nourishing and comforting to have a piece of Seljak Brand’s creative energy there with me.
Your practice has evolved from Lino prints to digital prints. What does a digital format allow you to express?
Traditionally, surface pattern design was created using different printmaking techniques which unfortunately requires cumbersome printing machinery that is rarely accessible to an individual practitioner. I decided to ignore these limitations and began hand pressing prints on the biggest pieces of paper I could find. I never studied graphic design and wasn’t professionally trained to manufacture wallpaper that comes with huge minimum print requirements. That didn’t deter me though, as I love working with an artisan craft, spending days upon days carving shapes from the Lino mat. The moment you finish pressing the print and peel back the carved tile from the paper is called the ‘reveal’ and this sensation beautifully matches the euphoria I felt observing biodiversity.
'Wildflowers' Lino Print series, Yaroomba Studio Sunshine Coast, 2019.
'Wildflowers' Lino Print Series, hand pressed lino patterns on brown card, 2019.
Eventually, the potential of vectors (where the image created can be scaled to any size) lured me in and at the same time digital drawing technologies were becoming far more sophisticated and affordable.
Ferns Regenerating 2021. Hand drawn digital surface pattern.
A standout advantage to the digital form of pattern design allows me to work quickly with a vast array of colours. Digital drawing technology responds really fluidly, allowing you to work on infinite scales while maintaining a hand-drawn quality. Being able to swap from colour to colour quickly and effortlessly has been a thrill.
Lake Grass 2021. Hand drawn digital surface pattern
Soon my designs will be available as wallpapers and fabrics!
Acacia and Hovea lino print hand pressed onto roller blinds, 2020.
Dr Anna Hickey advocates for a fashion industry that embraces everybody regardless of identity, gender, body or ability. She is one sixth of Meanjin’s The Stitchery Collective, is a public programmer at the Gallery of Modern Art and the model in our Passage blanket photoshoot. Not only do we love her for celebrating diversity and accessibility, we are inspired by the playful creativity she brings to fashion. We asked Anna a few questions to learn more about her work with The Stitchery Collective and how fashion can be a social act.
Anna with the Passage blanket and Portal, an artwork by Karina Seljak that fell out of the design process
What is The Stitchery Collective? Tell us about your involvement.
The Stitchery Collective is a design collective started in 2010 that creates artworks, public engagement and research about fashion. We don't make or sell clothing, but instead we are interested in all the other ways we experience clothing and fashion. I was one of the founding members back in 2010, and have been a key part of the 12 years (and counting) of work we have produced. I particularly help in the Public Programs we design for institutions and festivals. Our most recent Stitchery event was the 'Bowerytopia' party, which is the fourth in a series of radical dress up parties celebrating queer fashion icon Leigh Bowery.
Anna shot by Georgia Wallace from The Stitchery Collective’s Bowerytopia party portraits
Nick, Eden and Anna at The Stitchery Collective’s Bowerytopia
What does The Stitchery Collective celebrate?
The Stitchery celebrates the joyful, meaningful and rich ways that we all connect with clothing. Fashion often gets a bad wrap from the high-consumption and low-ethics world of the contemporary fashion system, but as many of us already know, our connection to cloth and the wearing of textiles is much more complex and nuanced than just 'materialism'. Clothing and textiles have memories, history and human emotion embedded in them. They are a unique creative product that every human is forced to intimately engage with. The Stitchery is really about exploring, in a more conceptual way, all of those lovely relationships and feelings we form around clothing. We might do this through dress up parties, workshops, public lectures, research papers, exhibitions, collaborations with companies, and interactive installations, and we love exploring in what ways these feelings can be shared amongst our community.
How can we make fashion spaces more inclusive?
Fashion has a lot to answer for when it comes to exclusionary standards, especially in visual culture. Fashion spaces can be more inclusive by promoting identities, bodies and imagery that actually reflects the real diversity of human life. I've always had the personal opinion (change my mind!) that if a brand relies solely and conspicuously on slim, young, able-bodied, eurocentrically beautiful and heteronormatively gendered white folk to 'sell' their garments or products, then they are either 1) lazy stylists or 2) uninteresting products. Every type of body has a place in fashion and in visual culture, and thankfully lots of brands are figuring this out. To become more inclusive, the people who are designing within fashion spaces need to keep pushing back on industry standards – from small brands through to high fashion houses. I personally love seeing so many great brands using a diverse array of models – it's so affirming to see myself and many other identities reflected in their beautiful campaigns! (Love your work Seljak!)
Anna Hickey wrapped up in our Passage blanket
What does sustainable fashion mean to you?
Sustainable fashion means a lot of things to me, but above all, it means an attitude to valuing and caring for garments and textiles. It also means meeting people where they are at on their journey – there will always be barriers to people accessing sustainable fashion, but I believe, when you can do better, you should. 'Doing better' means making informed and thoughtful purchasing choices, it means caring for your garments correctly, and it means taking responsibility for the whole lifecycle of a garment you purchase.
Anna wearing a dress she found at Swop and her pride and joy – vintage blue sparkly cowgirl boots
How is fashion and community inextricably linked?
Fashion is linked to community in so many ways because fashion has always been an important vehicle for identity. How we dress ourselves inevitably connects us to social groups but at the same time, defines us as individuals. Further to this, playing with fashion can help us to assert an identity we want to claim – a gender, a cultural background, a personality trait. When we are in tune with our own style, we use fashion to adorn our 'self', to connect to others, and even to live and breathe our values. This is important because it means that fashion can be a medium through which individuals and brands can try to bring about change, and that is incredibly useful in the current climate.
Anna’s signature boots side-by-side with the Passage blanket
Read more about The Stitchery Collective and follow @thesticherycollective to get involved with their future events.
]]>You may have seen blankets suspended on walls and wondered how such a perfect wallhanging is achieved. Well, we're letting you in on our little DIY secrets with an easy step-by-step guide on how to turn a blanket into a wallhanging, using Seljak brand as an example. Seljak Brand blankets in the Design range sport unique artworks, making them simple interior additions with great impact – both as throws and wallhangings!
The Pyramid blanket from the Design range
This guide shows you how to create a permanent hanging system to display a woven blanket on the wall, using either carpet square or magnets as a hanging system.
You will need to acquire a length of carpet square, as this will hold your blanket in place on the wall, without straining any individual part of the blanket. Most hardware stores have lengths of carpet square and some even offer the service of cutting it to your desired length. Be sure to double check the dimensions of the blanket that you are hanging (sizing information is available on each of our product pages). Carpet squares have nails ready to go for fixing to surfaces, so you will need a hammer to secure the carpet square to your chosen spot on the wall and a ruler or spirit level to ensure it’s not wonky.
Pick your spot on the wall and use your ruler or measuring tape to check that everything is straight and nail your carpet square into the wall. Don’t forget to pay attention while handling tools and sharp objects!
Hanging the Passage blanket using a carpet square
Hanging the Moontide blanket from the Rugged range using a carpet square
Once the carpet square is secured to the wall, carefully push the nails into the blanket to avoid snagging or pulling any of the fibres. Because the blanket is so evenly secured along the top, it is not necessary to add a carpet square to the bottom, so you can let the bottom of the blanket hang loose for a sense of ease.
Voilà, enjoy your new wall feature!
Securing the Moontide blanket to the carpet square
Both sides of the Passage blanket displayed on the wall using carpet square
Hanging your blanket with magnets is a great option to create a consistent and flat hang without needing to put holes in the wall. It’s important to note this approach is not suitable for people with small children or pets.
A blanket on the wall is a lovely way to bring a sense of warmth to a workspace
Materials you will need
Magnets can be bought at hardware stores or art stores and are about 1cm in diameter. Double sided foam-core tape can be bought in the same stores as well as stationary stores. Cut your foam-core tape into ten pieces about 1.5cm long.
Place foam-core tape at the top right corner, middle and top left corner of the blanket. Also place half-way down each side of the blanket. On top of each piece of foam core, place a magnet, which is the anchor for the blanket to be sandwiched in between.
Magnets sit on top of foam-core tape as an anchor
Place the blanket edges over each magnet and snap a magnet on top of the blanket to secure it down.
If you have more than 10 magnets, place evenly between those across the top, and you can even place one each in the bottom corners. This creates a flatter and more consistent hang. Of course, when removing the double sided tape from the wall, be careful as to not peel the paint off the wall below the magnet.
Enjoy your blanket artwork on display!
Magnets are a lightweight and stylish option for hanging textiles on the wall
The Lune and Dune blanket designs make beautiful wall hangings
]]>The Passage blanket, front and back
The newest addition to the Seljak Brand Design range is the Passage blanket, inspired by the architecture of waves.
It’s a response to the awe experienced when gazing at the surf, watching the tube-like shapes form in the water, and the feeling of surfing or swimming amongst the waves themselves. As things are always in motion, including a changing climate, it’s also a realisation of the swiftness of action needed to answer to rising sea levels.
View of First Bay, Coolum Beach, at sunset
Co-founder Karina’s artist statement says:
“Passage is an ode to the architecture of a wave, an experience common to the coastline of Australia. When a wave arcs, for a moment in time, there is space created. In this instant, decisions must be made about what to do. As oceans warm and sea levels rise, they must be made quickly. To ride a wave is a journey, and through its arc a window of hope can be seen.”
The original artwork for Passage was called Wave Room
From surfing in the morning to drawing in the afternoon, arches and swirls dominated the sketchbook pages, culminating in actual ‘wave rooms’. Exploring the tension between permanence and transition, Passage is in equal parts joy about what we have and grief for what we’re going to miss.
The ocean holds a special place in many-a-heart; swimming, fishing, surfing, snorkelling and sailing only touches on the sheer breadth of human interaction with the sea. And with around 80% of Australia’s population living on its coastline, it’s hard not to consider how water living might change as sea levels rise.
Exploring the structure and fluidity of a wave
Joelle Gergis, one of the lead authors for the IPCC report, featured on an episode of 7am soon after the report was published last year, and offered a perspective that illustrated what sea level rise could mean for Australia.
Gergis summarised that warming is at 1 degree celsius (over pre-industrial levels) and modelling says it’ll be at 1.5 degrees by 2030. The same modelling says that temperature increases will be somewhere between 2.1 and 3.5 degrees by the end of the century. Considering Geenland’s and the Atlantic ice sheets melt between 2 or 3 degrees, at high emissions scenarios, our shorelines are projected to retreat more than 100 metres by the end of the century.
You can use Google Maps to get an idea of what losing 100m of shoreline might look like in some of your favourite spots, from water encroaching on property to public walkways, ocean pools or that magic little (and very ecologically important) walkway between the carpark and the beach.
You can also check out Climate Central and Google Earth’s visualisations on rising levels in coastal cities around the world. It doesn’t include the effect of rising levels on island nations like Fiji, which issued climate-related relocation guidelines in 2018. And closer to home, the Torres Strait Islands are already facing the catastrophic effects of rising sea levels.
Swift climate action at the scale required to maintain shorelines means the transitioning from coal to renewable energy as soon as possible. Australia’s state and council targets are aligning to global targets of 1.5 degrees celsius, but our federal government is woefully misguided when it comes to climate anything – including preparedness for present and inevitable impacts.
With an election coming up, now is the time to use your voter power and demand climate action. Check out the Climate Council’s guidelines for writing an effective letter to your MP.