intriciate collages

SPRING
SPECIAL
Tell us a bit about Succulence?
Succulence is a little bit of this and a little bit of
that. We’re a small studio based in a gorgeous
seaside village on the Mornington Peninsula
in Victoria with koalas in the garden and the
beach at the end of the road.
Sustainability is at the core of what we do.
Our family is passionate about sustainability
and we live and breathe it every day. The large
majority of the materials we use have had
former lives – each piece has a story which
we make reference to on our product labels…
“I once was a wine bottle”, “I once was a
beer bottle”, “I once was a house stump” etc.
And of course there’s usually a good dose of
greenery thrown in too.
Tell us about yourself and your
background?
Now there’s a question! My journey to
Succulence has been a winding road with lots
of diversions.
I completed a Bachelor of Education in Visual
Arts in the early 90’s focusing on wood and
textiles. After a few years of teaching Art,
Design and Technology Studies, I headed
off overseas and spent 13 years away from
Australia.
During that time my love of the outdoors
took me on my first diversion. I worked in the
Outdoor Education industry with children for a
lot of years. I ran sailing centres in the South
of France, living in a tent on the beach for six
months of every year. My creative sensibilities
were never far from the surface and I still think
my tent had the best interior design of any
other on site! I spent ten years living between
France, England and Wales, immersed in the
outdoor world, followed by several years living
in a small Alpine village in rural Switzerland.
Soon after, I struggled for several years with
Chronic Fatigue and my world and everything
in it was turned upside down. I was unable to
work, particularly in the high energy industries I
was used to. After a couple of years I reached
a period in my illness where I knew that I
needed to start feeding my creative soul again
in order to aid recovery. The local college was
offering Diplomas in Floral Design, and even
though I had only a passing interest in flowers,
it was a reason to force myself up and out of
the house. On day one, I fell in love and knew I
had discovered a new passion.
What sparked you to create your business?
On returning to Australia a few years later I
found myself back in the outdoor industry,
doing flowers on the side. After a number of
years I encountered another period of illness
which was a complete game changer.
With a recent ‘sea change’ move and a young
daughter about to start school, I knew it was
the ‘now or never’ time to give the designer/
maker thing a go. A workaholic by nature, I
no longer had a desire to work long hours to
line someone else’s pockets at the expense
of missing out on my daughter’s early years. I
wanted to be around to take her to school and
to collect her at the end of the day – that was
by and large the driving force behind my latest
adventure. In 2012, with my partner’s support,
I took the leap and haven’t looked back.
What processes are involved in creating
your pieces?
I work with a number of materials so no day
is ever the same as the one before. One day
I might be pouring concrete, the next cutting
glass, the next propagating plants and the
next scavenging for wood.
Some days – and these are the ones I love
– I wake up with ideas bursting to get out
and everything that I should be doing gets
pushed aside. I get a head full of ideas and
I’ll spend hours making and breaking things,
testing designs and playing around with
whatever I have in mind. It’s from these hours
of converting my muddled thoughts into
‘things’ that dozens of ideas either die a death
of practicality or survive the cut! Our Bottle
Garden range is the culmination of hundreds
of cut wine and beer bottles over a twelve
month period before we refined the look,
shape and feel that we were after.
continued on next page >