Sorry to begin by stating the obvious - it is terribly difficult to write about oneself!

Do I let my readers in on allllllll the gory details, cheery pick (see what I did there!) the highlights and achievements? Write in the third person (just another of my personalities, actually), sprinkle with humorous anecdotes? Or, carefully craft something that will surely endear me to you, hopefully long enough for you to explore my website, buy my wares and come away believing I am a highly intelligent and talented human?!

I think at this point, it is enough to say that I have been travelling down the winding road of making things for a long time.  My first love was music - a friend, confidante, muse and vehicle for expression of all that I couldn’t say any other way. I studied piano from the age of 7.  Added violin and clarinet at high school and taught myself to play guitar.

I performed in an amateur musical or two and on coming to Australia, worked the islands as a soloist then occasionally dipping my toe into band life singing and playing keys, bass or uke.

Community choirs became my home away from home in the late 90’s.  I sang with one choir for 15 years or so and towards the end of that time starting leading my own. A highlight was self publishing a songbook of original compositions for community choirs. Right up there with singing for the Dalai Lama during a private audience (yeah, that’s right!) as a volunteer in a choir for marginalised people, The Transformers - Brisbane’s Choir of Hard Knocks. We rocked.

Alongside all of this, I became the mother of three amazing sons, travelled over overseas, that is, further than over the ditch (def. “ditch” -stretch of ocean between New Zealand and Australia) and ran little side- hustle businesses.  I studied and got a diploma in counselling and small business management, divorced, spent more than a decade on my own co-parenting my kids, partnered up again and ran another business that was at once satisfying, amazing and THE most exhausting undertaking ever. My love and gratitude to Dave for all that The Green Owl was and wasn’t.

Post exhaustion, while recovering from it really, I took up making again.  I left choirs and band life behind and started making macrame, crocheted my way through Covid lockdowns, wove baskets and Inkle loom bands, took up silversmithing and carving.  Cross stitch and carving stamps are my most recent dalliances.

You see, I love making things.  To be more precise, I love to know how something is made and have a turn. When my hands are busy and my mind creatively engaged, I am content. I feel productive, have something to show for the whirring of my overactive mind and I’m learning all the time.

Creativity is key.  Without this I am nothing.  Sounds dramatic I know, but truly….  We are borne of divine creative intelligence, the essence of which courses through our veins.  We each have our own unique expression of this and it is not confined to the realm of the arts. Every movement, gesture, thought, word is a radical act of creativity. I for one, can not get enough of it. And I wish that for others too which is why I created the What If? Cards for Creatives. Prompts that ask you to pause and reflect on you as a creative being and your processes. Find out more about these gems.

Enjoy your time with me, here.  Take a look around.  Get a feel for who and how I am.  I hope you like what you find but more importantly, I hope that my version of the intangible made visible ignites a spark that inspires you to STAY KIRIOUS.

Arohanui, Kiri