Beyond the Bale feature

Beyond the Bale issue 58, March 2014. Check out the online version HERE

A Life in Wool

Wool

Shearing Shed

Lifestyle

The air is full of dust, suffocating heat glaring from the land and the structures built within. The dogs bark and the men shout along with the regular buzz of engine and clatter of sheep. The space is dotted with wool, a pungent smell of lanoline and ammonia sweep the floors. The workers are a flight of activity, movements repetitive and precise, amidst the disarray of tin, machine, pipe and wood.

The shearing shed stands as an iconic representation of Australia, a building in which poems have been inspired, stories shared and life shown at its most raw; where stress is high, work is hard and anything can happen. The shearing shed is the heart of the Australian sheep farm, whatever the heart may be enduring.

My work is an encapsulation of the character of the shearing shed in an expression of the workmanship, ideologies, lifestyle and culture of the Australian sheep farm. The garments are inspired by the architecture, the work clothes and the human value of the shed to create a level of sensibility toward and celebration of culture of the Australian wool producer.

The Language of Dress~ Hats and Bags

I have just finished Semester One of my final years studies at Curtin. One of the Fashion Unit for this semester was 'Language of Dress' which exists as a research unit for our final collection development. My concept stems from my background and experience of farming in WA. My research included wool as a fibre, the process of natural dyes and rusting, the use of my own constructed wool felt.

The first part of the Unit was the explore the idea of 'accessories' and their relationship to the body. My exploration into this lead me to the use of wool felt in hats, something I now aim to further develop for my final collection runway show in December.

And so continues my love of felt in each of the garments shown above. I am obsessed with wool as a sustainable and dynamic fibre as well as a product which supports the Nation. Whether I have come to love wool on my own, or it was the nagging from farmers I know to promote wool (or a bit of both), my collection will be all encapsulating of wool and the life that surrounds it~

Fit, Form and Function; [And long hot days...]

[And long, hot days recurrent]

“And long, hot days recurrent”; bringing the importance of the Australian wool industry back to the masses….

“And long, hot days recurrent” is the 6^th line of the 4^th stanza of the poem Shearers by Australian poet Henry Lawson. It talks about the journey of shears as a person themselves; but also shows the essence of the shed in which they spend their lives. “and long, hot days…” relates to the lifestyle of anyone who works with sheep while the word “…recurrent” links back to a simple time when the Australian Wool industry was the most important sector of the country. 

In a nation that ‘rides on the sheep’s back’, the shearing shed is an iconic representation of Australia’s journey ‘from the humbleness of the pioneer to the grandeur of the wealthy grazier’ (Sowden, 7). It represents the ideologies, the workmanship and the vigour that is the Australian sheep man. The sheep shed is a place for tending to sheep but also a place for people. It is from this one building where poems have been inspired, stories shared and a lifestyle shown at its most raw; where stress is high, work is hard and anything can happen. For me it is the heart of the farm- whatever that heart may be enduring.

What is fantastic about the shearing shed is that while the processes and architecture may have changed, the basic characteristics have not. I am inspired by the stories, poems, memories and legends of the wool shed from its humble beginnings to the present day, as a true representation of Australia.

I have chosen to look at the sheep shed from an overall perspective, although researching each area specifically in the progression. This is so I would be able to represent what the shed means to the individual workers, as well as what it means, or should mean, to the nation.

The Garments

- Structured, yet natural in form to relate to the hand crafted sheds

- Organic forms/ fabric and fibre is at one with the person; flowing around the body, seeing the body through the fabric etc

- An importance on wool specifically such as hand-made felt; relating to how important wool is to a sheep farmer.

- Inspired by the forms of the architecture of the sheep shed and the way it promotes the movement of air for heat control

- Subverting the suit in design, but also taking some points from the garments worn by shearers today and traditionally

Wool in a Life; a material investigation

“Wool in a life”

Coming from a farming background and currently studying fashion, I am fascinated by wool and the extreme life-cycle it undergoes. I conducted a material investigation exploring techniques such as Nuno-Felting and creating 3D forms in felt. I used atypical elements found in the shearing shed such as discarded wool sweepings, dirt, rusty objects and bark as a way of forming colour and texture which speaks of the beginning of the cycle of wool. My aim for this project was to portray the remarkableness of wool in its processed state,  as well as the beauty in the natural and the dirty which may even compel this component to be ‘fashion’, so continuing the cycle.