MARY BROWN DESIGNS FOR GOLDWORK EMBROIDERY

Mary Brown Profile

Mary graduated with a Diploma of Art Education from the Newcastle National Art School and Teachers' College in 1969 and for 25 years was a Visual Arts and Ancient History teacher in Catholic Senior High Schools. Her practice as a Visual Artist during those years included many forms of printing and painting, but in the 1990s she became increasingly interested in textile art.

In 2000-2001, she went to England to do the Certificated Course at the Royal School of Needlework. A few years later, The Royal School of Needlework asked her to write about her experience as a CC student and on her embroidery career since her graduation, which appeared on their website for some time. On her return to Australia, Mary eventually resigned from senior secondary teaching to set up her own embroidery design practice, specializing in goldwork embroidery at the beginning of her practice.

Mary is an accredited tutor and judge for the Embroiderers’ Guild N.S.W. Since 2007 she has been running a series of Creative Contemporary Embroidery workshops at the Guild’s headquarters each year, incorporating many embroidery techniques. She is absolutely committed to fostering originality and creativity in the work generated by Guild members. Mary teaches regionally for the Embroiderers’ Guild N.S.W. and has run workshops for the Victorian Guild, South Australian Guild and the Queensland Guild.

Effie Mitrofanis and Karma Victoria Baines invited Mary to be a mentor for the Proficiency Participants in 2009-10 and to revamp the Guild’s Intermediate Historical & Contemporary Embroidery Course. Mary redesigned this two year course to be an assessed course and she also introduced a comprehensive design process component into the course. She is now the coordinator of the redesigned Intermediate Course which has been running in 2011-2012.

In 2005 Mary was awarded a Highly Commended for the Contemporary Section of the Margaret Oppen Award and in 2010 was awarded 1st Prize for the same Award.

Express Publications have profiled Mary in their Cross Stitch & Embroidery Magazine twice and have published several of her designs in this magazine. Most of these have been at the request of the editor. Sally Milner Publishing contracted her to publish a book on gold work embroidery in 2005. Mary spent five months in the United States of America, Britain and Europe doing research work for her book. She made appointments with numerous museums and private individuals to closely examine gold embroidered costumes and textiles for her book. As many of the costumes and textiles in her book had not been published before, the museums were prepared to do new photography specifically for her book. The 208 page book, which is titled Goldwork Embroidery: Designs and Projects was released in Australia and worldwide in 2007. In the first half of the book, the reader is given a substantial history of gold work embroidery in Britain and Europe, plus technical information on the metal threads and how to use them. The second half features fifteen projects designed by Mary with visual and verbal instructions.

In 2006, Alastair Macleod, chairman of Hand & Lock, the prestigious embroidery firm in London, approached Mary to see if she would be interested in being the firm's liaison person in Australia during the preparations for its Prize Giving Conference at the Powerhouse Museum on the 5th November, 2007.) As well as liaising with heads of departments in Australian Universities and Colleges and with the Powerhouse team for Hand & Lock, Mary was one of the speakers at the Conference. As guest curator at the Powerhouse, she curated the Hand & Lock Exhibition which included archival material from Hand & Lock, Wendy Birch (nee Lock) and Catherine Walker (one of Princess Diana's designers) as well as the work by the three prizewinners.

In 2007 Mary commenced working as a sessional lecturer at the University of Technology, Sydney, delivering lectures and workshops in embroidery/embellishment to the 2nd year Fashion & Textile Design students. The Guild exhibited the work by Mary’s UTS students at headquarters in 2008 and 2010 and very recently in the Guild’s Beyond Imagination Exhibition. Mary was very involved with the collaboration between three UTS designers and members of the Guild in 2009. The embroidered works from this collaboration were exhibited in the UTS Tower during Fashion Week in 2009.

As far as her own creative practice is concerned Mary works samples for workshops, pieces for exhibition and for publication and has worked on commissions for Teknemodus (an architecture, art and design firm) and Macgowan Films.

Over the last several years Mary has travelled to the UK and to France to do research work on couture embroidery and the ateliers that serve couture and haute couture designers with the view to eventually publishing her findings on this subject.

Mary Brown Designs