Design and Art Australia Online

Weaver Marie Miller, who arrived from England in 1915, started weaving in 1945 and built up a network of clients all over Australia. Miller had lost her husband during World War II and turned to craft as a means of supporting herself and their children. She learnt the basics from Hilda Stephens at the Western Australian Women’s Association of Fine Arts and Crafts. From about 1948 she started to sell her work and soon had a network of clients all over Australia. She found it a convenient way to work from home and support her family.

She soon felt the need to see the world and improve her skills. In 1956, when the children were 'off her hands’, Miller spent twelve months overseas upgrading her techniques. She started at the London School of Weaving and then visited a number of European countries stopping eventually at Vera Sundahl’s weaving school in Stockholm. Here she worked seven days a week until she mastered all the techniques, particularly those of tapestry and carpet weaving. She had an inquiring mind and continued to study spending 1964 at the Banff School in Canada and in the 1970s spent time in Iran.

Much of Miller’s work draws on Scandinavian design tradition, which came into international prominence after the war. This clean-cut, functional style was seen increasingly in Perth homes and Miller, with her production of table linen, tapestry-weave carpets and shaggy Rya rugs, helped fill the demand. Her work was functional and suited perfectly to domestic situations where it was subjected to wear and tear. As she worked as a craftswoman rather than an artist-craftswoman, no work is held in public collections and very little remains.

About 1959 Miller exhibited with fabric printer Ida Ott Nilsen and potter Heather McSwain in a highly successful show at the Skinner Galleries. The prime movers of the show, which attracted print and television coverage, were fabric printer Ida Ott Nilsen and Heather McSwain. Nilsen, a graduate of Copenhagen Arts School, accompanied her engineer husband to Australia when his firm won the contract to build the Narrows Bridge. In Copenhagen she had worked at Den Permanente, the Danish design centre and in Perth she taught and exhibited. Miller, who had six looms of varying sizes in her large studio, exhibited fabric lengths, stoles, floor-rugs, luncheon-sets, scarves, serviettes, mats and guest-towels priced from five to twelve guineas. An unnamed reviewer in an undated cutting tells us that: “making fashion news among her exhibits are the rough textured wool skirt lengths in bold peasant stripes with matching stoles. Her striped rugs and eight foot long hall runners have earthy colours reminiscent of the famous Navajo rugs.” A check stole went on to win a prize in Melbourne. Miller, who taught weaving at the Western Australian Women’s Society of Fine Arts & Crafts, was three times president of the society and organized exhibitions of Western Australian work in Eastern States venues. An exhibition in Canberra in 1966 was particularly successful.

The open-weave-linen curtains she made were typical of Scandinavian work of the period. The plain pastel colours were occasionally given depth with a deeper tone or another colour. The main interest however was created by the open weave, which allowed the outside surroundings, seen through the open spaces of the warp and weft, to become part of the design. Tapestry woven for chairs was naturally much denser to withstand more intense wear and contrasted flat surfaces against a pile, restricting designs to subtle geometric patterns. The interest was created by highlighting the overshot-warp sections in a lighter shade and emphasizing the depth with a fine, silk thread.

On several occasions Miller demonstrated her craft on television. Channel Two made a documentary film about her in 1964. She continued to make her living from her craft until the late 1970s when she went into semi-retirement. Over eighty in 1988 she was fit and weaving recreationally for herself and her family. She died in the late 1990s. Her importance as a role model for others should not be forgotten.

Writers:

Erickson, Dorothy (Dr)

Date written:

2011

Last updated:

2011