Contemporary stitch imagineer, Mae Finlayson, is a contemporary textile artist calling Australia home once more. Swapping her native Melbourne for the bright lights of London 15 years ago, she received her Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Fine Art Textiles from Goldsmiths College – University of London, and completed her studies with a Masters in Constructed Textiles at The Royal College of Art.
“While still at college and for a time after graduating, I worked for the genius hat makers Bernstock/Spiers who designed the topless straw hat that Kylie Minogue wore on her first ever album cover. After college I had my own clothing label for a while and also made costumes and one off fashion pieces for exhibitions and ad campaigns,” Mae said.
“One of the best jobs I had was helping to develop a vintage fabric and print archive that we exhibited and sold at international textile trade fairs such as Premiere Vision in Paris and Direction in New York.
“Although I LOVE fashion, an equally huge passion for me is creating art works that combine print and stitch and weave and knit - and during 2008 and 2009, before returning home to Melbourne, I had two solo exhibitions and began teaching creative stitched textiles.
“I'm lucky enough to have craft skills that people want to learn and even luckier that I love teaching them. I am currently teaching textiles at the School of Visual and Performing Arts at the Academy of Arts in Inveresk, Launceston.”
Mae’s art work has been featured in International Textiles magazine and showcased on renowned fabric forecasting site WGSN, Mae uses drawing and print, colour and texture to create visually striking ‘craft with concept’.