Delvene Cockatoo-Collins was destined to create wearable art. Her mother, Evelyn, taught her to sew at 12, on a sewing machine bought 40 years ago.
“I missed everyone terribly, I missed the place. I’m so grateful that family stayed. I knew that eventually, one day, I’d go back.”
Delvene returned to open a shop, sell hand-printed homewares, and exhibit on the mainland.
“Then I thought: I really should be wearing my prints, so I made a few simple box tops and wore one to a Redlands Chamber of Commerce about seven years ago. I had the second one on display – it was a dusty pink with a design of eugarie shells – and Kim Richards, our State member, bought it – and still has it. She was the first customer of my garments – and she was a great model!”
“I had a local seamstress run up batches of ‘commercial’ wearable art and they’d sell out so quickly that I was constantly disappointing people.”
“I find screen printing a meditative process. Once I’ve decided the colours and process I can just switch off. Sometimes for bigger shows I outsource printing; to take a bit of pressure off.”
Delvene’s designs earned stage commissions, including Capricorn, Dear Brother, and Dear Son.
“Stage costumes are a whole other scene – the costume has to work on stage and be durable enough for performances. I learned a lot from Natt Rayner, Queensland Theatre costume manager.”
She designed the 2024–2025 Broncos’ jerseys, a two-year commitment involving training visits, talks, and player island visits.
Delvene regards as “true art”, the exhibition one-off runway garments made from flat, pearly quampie shells, rushes, cottontree, ochre, clay and seeds, referencing cultural resources.
“It’s all sustainable,” says Delvene. “Quampie are a food source on the Island and the shells are discards,” she says; “I don’t use freshwater reeds in my workshops as they’re used by weavers. My dyes are natural made from banksia.”
Delvene is home from World Expo in Japan and is heading to USA for her third trip with a company that brings groups to the Island.
She now has a shop in Brisbane CBD, and two seamstresses to cope with demand. “I’ll give it 12 months, if it doesn’t work, I’ll go back to the Island. It’s a calculated risk, yet the way I work!”
Create Exchange is supported by Haymans Electrical, Queensland Art Gallery, Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA), Redland Art Gallery and Redland City Council.
