Next Cecilia worked in a textile design company where her work was sold to Spain, Japan, USA and Germany. Each country has its own style. The Japanese like quirky and whimsical designs, the Germans like abstracts. In England she designed for Marks and Spencers and worked in London and New York. Every studio has a reference library and she came to know all the artists and their work.

On her return to Australia Cecilia started teaching part time at UTS Sydney and also wanted to start developing textiles in a fine art context. She applied for a grant to allow her to study new technologies and combine them with established designs.

Some of the results of that study were there for us to see and Cecilia wore a skirt made from fabric of her design. One facet of the study was a use of positive and negative space. Circles made from silk shantung were pinned on solvy then stitched by machine in a random fashion. Circles were digitally printed on cloth: on fine silk the print goes through to the reverse side. On hemp the digital image does not go through. The fabric has to be coated before the process.

During the restoration work on Government House, artists were invited to show their work with a view designing carpets, curtains etc. Valerie Kirk from Canberra designed the carpet, Liz Williamson designed the cushions and Cecilia was asked to design the lace curtains for the drawing room.

Cecelia had spent time with Rosemary Shepherd from the Powerhouse Museum who taught her bobbin lace. During one discussion on the definition of lace the following words were used, ethereal, white, see through, open work fabric where the pattern of the spaces are as important as the pattern of the threads. Bobbin lace is very mathematical. Once you can listen to a conservation and make bobbin lace you understand the technique. Cecilia designed the contemporary lace curtains over a period of time. She wanted to create a design which reflected the history, the quiet of the rooms and be timeless. The technique of Nottingham lace was chosen and using a collection of botanical illustrations produced by the Scott sisters, various native plants and flowers were incorporated into the lace design. They had wanted to produce the textiles in Australia but there was no workshop which could handle the work and so after a search, a Scottish mill in Prestwick was given the task. The mill weaves lace one and a half metres wide by a two metre repeat.

Cecelia brought along a length of the lace to show us. A very lovely, light fabric with designs of wattle and other native flowers scattered across it. For those members who were not able to attend the talk, perhaps you can go to Government House and see it there.