The Falling Leaves collection of Australian-made, commercial quality, sustainable textiles and wallpaper is the result of 12-months research into sustainable materials and manufacturing in Australia and is the result of my project Making Place: Wallpaper & Textiles, supported by a Brisbane City Council Creative Sparks Grant.

I wanted to produce a range of sustainable home furnishings, manufactured locally, while connecting people to place by making links between the objects we use as ‘place-makers’, in this case wallpaper and textiles, and the world in which we live.

Metaphorical connections and intersections are evident in the lattice-like design, assembled from a deconstructed damask-influenced pattern, which builds up and falls away and builds up again. It’s the connections, both individual and collective, that we make with place that give us a sense of belonging and create our (hi)stories.

The wallpaper is printed with water-based and metallic inks on FSC paper and finished with a matt varnish for wipe-ability. It was important to work with Australian manufacturers to support local industry and a reduced carbon footprint.

The reversible, commercial grade textiles carry a Martindale rating of 40,000+ and comprise 70% bamboo and 30% Eco wool. They are finished mechanically, not chemically and are also produced locally.

The Falling Leaves collection was photographed in an abandoned and decaying heritage-listed Queenslander, to partially transform the space through a process called ‘making place’. By using wallpaper and textiles to re-inhabit one of the rooms in the house the project examined ‘belonging’ and our collective ability to make a sense of place for ourselves in the world.

The large format photograph was then exhibited at Artisan’s Ivory Street Window Space, Brisbane with the Falling Leaves collection.