Maree Caplin

Although born on mainland Australia, Maree has made Tasmania her home. Her studio is situated at Wilmot, on the road to Cradle Mountain a magnificent World Heritage area. She draws inspiration from the unique nature of this very special place.

 At a very young age she was introduced to sewing after being given a hand crank machine to play with. Her mother, a seamstress, discouraged Maree’s desire to draw pictures with her machine, insisting that machines were for making clothes. Maree went on to successfully designing and manufacturing clothing but always had a desire to draw with her machine. Having a background in garment design and construction has enabled her to be a very versatile artist. Her studio doubles as a classroom for a loyal group of students who are learning traditional piecing and some textile art but unintentionally she has specialized in portraying nature scenes with an emphasis on foliage, fur, feathers and fins! This is a reflection of her love for all things wild and natural, She uses free motion techniques such as thread painting, collage appliqué, and photographic fabric in her work. None of her work is done using a digitized embroidery machine. All embroidery is done free motion (hand guided) on either a Pfaff or Bernina machine.

She shares her studio with Kira the quilting Keeshound and her long term partner Robert who both lovingly accept her mental lapses when she has journeyed to that inner creative place where she  works out how to recreate that animal, plant or place ,with fabric or thread..

 “My hope as a teacher is to inspire and encourage the artist within each student to explore and challenge their creativity, I hope each of them get us much pleasure from mylessons as I get from creating it.,

Enjoy! “

           Maree Caplin