profile : tara badcock paris + tasmania

Tara Badcock is a Tasmanian Textile Artist & Designer whose home base is in Northern Tasmania, close to where she was born & raised. After several years living & working in Paris & Europe within her design identity, Tara Badcock PARIS+TASMANIA, Tara has spent the past eight years consolidating and building upon her strong reputation for unique art textiles and is fast becoming recognised nationally & internationally, with store launches in locations such as Tiger & Peacock in Melbourne, Anthropologie in New York, & recent exhibitions in Norway, Sweden, Sydney, Melbourne & Evandale. 

Do you have a day job, if so what is it? 
My textile/embroidery practice is full-time and I work that around being a mother, and finding some time to work on my Graphic Design practice which brings in extra pennies!

When did your business begin and why? 
Tara Badcock PARIS + TASMANIA was born one spring day in Paris in 2005, while I was seeking ways to alleviate my homesickness for Tasmania, marrying it to my Design identity which evolved in Paris during my three years of residence there.

Inspiration/design aesthetic? 
Themes of beauty and utility, cultural identity, social and collective memory, and personal experience form the basis for individual pieces I create, which range from artworks, home-wares (cushions, elaborate curtains and wall panels), fashion, accessories and my ongoing TEACOSY* REVOLUTION project. Through a combination of textile manipulation, stitching and hand embroidery techniques, I seek to connect with deeply ingrained human traditions of communicating both grand and worldly ideas, as well as private and intimate concepts, rendered in cloth.


Designers you admire? 
Manon Gignoux, Nathalie L’Ete, Arthur Bispo do Rosario, Alexander MacQueen, Sara Fanelli, Henrik Drescher, Karl Lagerfeld, Sibella Court, DROOG Design. And these artists are continuously influential: Lucien Freud, Vanessa Bell, Virginia Wolf, Vita Sackville-West, Andy Paiko, Cathy Cullis, Alice Kettle…

What is your favourite part of Tasmania? 
Gosh…all of it!!! Its such a diverse little island and I love the different parts of it for very different reasons…I love the road from Conara to Nile because the landscape looks like the unspoilt vistas in Glover paintings of Van Diemen’s Land. I’m always hoping to see corrobories, and always see the kangaroos bounding over fences!

What do you love about what you do...and any little gripes or niggles? 
An artists’ profession is really a calling and so it never feels like a job, even when I’m sewing at 3am and my body is aching all over and my eyes hurt…I’ve gone at my embroidery work so intensively over the past eight years to establish myself and my work in the world, that I’ve become very fast at what I do, which is great and yet means that I can set unrealistic deadlines for myself! I want to employ someone to help me now that I have the work for this, so I’m on the look out for someone with the passion and commitment for this kind of intricate work, and who enjoys it, most importantly!


What can our lovely customers expect to see you exhibiting? 
Lovely customers can expect a range of hand embroidered cushions and accessories and a small quantity of clothing designs, as well as a new range of more affordable printed textiles featuring images of some of my artworks and previous designs for home-wares and clothing. They can also expect to see some sale items from previous collections and a more elegant display of my work…cushions displayed on items of furniture, etc…and also my happy, smiling face!

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Want to see who else will be at our April event? For more interviews with our exhibitors check out our look book.