Sarah Stamm
Most of the people who find themselves about to read this article will self identify as a creative, but that doesn’t mean we know how to actually articulate the essence of what it means to be a creative or how you become one. If, in fact, you become one at all. Perhaps you either are or you aren’t. Sarah StAmm certainly is and in this piece we dive deep into her work, her life and we dig for the gold that is defining what it means to be a ‘creative’.
Words by Alice Armitage Photographs by Claira Jade Whipp
Sarah Stamm describes herself as the maker of treasures. After spending most of her career working as an interior designer, Sarah now spends her days in complete creative freedom making one off, often textile based, pieces where Sarah embraces all her creative experiences to craft things for our homes that are designed to be easy to live with. Where Sarah’s deep understanding of what people want in their homes is reflected across all of her creations.
While it’s taken some time for Sarah to find herself where she is now in her creative journey, she’s always been exploring ways to express her curious nature and desire for making things. “I grew up very simply in Albury, NSW and we didn’t have a lot. When I was a really good girl mum would take me to the newsagent and buy me colouring books. Sometimes it had attached to the front a little white plastic paint tray with little blobs of the hardest, crappiest paint possible. Those hard hard little blobs of colour and then a plastic little paint brush. You’d rifle through the packets to find the paint brush colour that you wanted. You’d have this hard hard paint and this terrible quality paper, you’d paint the picture and it would bleed through to the page behind it of course, but to me that was the biggest deal. I used to get a class jar and fill it with water and tip it on the red bricks of our house because when it was stinking hot the water would evaporate really quickly, making the most marvellous patterns. It was like an experiment to see how quickly it moved, until I dropped the glass jar and cut my foot and that put a stop to doing that. But in everything I did it was about patterns, or about the way I could see things.” This long held process of Sarah’s is arguably the essence of what it means to be a creative person, when your exploration and learning leads you to the realisation of how those patterns, those colours, those experiences could be applied to something else and having the desire to make that ‘something else’ come to life.
Like many other country kids, when Sarah finished school it was a natural progression to leave for the big city, but it took Sarah a moment to find the shoe that fit her best. Spending some time in Canberra, Perth and Melbourne before finally landing in Sydney. Where a job at David Jones changed the trajectory of Sarah’s expansive thinking. Working as a store assistant and private shopper, Sarah’s eyes were opened to a different kind of life, the life of the rich and famous. “It was just the best experience! I was working behind the scenes with corporate clients, so I got to work with the rich and famous and celebrities and things. I just basically shopped for them on their credit card, their David Jones card which was great fun. I would be on the phone to a corporate customer or you know James Packer’s assistant, or it could be anybody and they would say, “We need this now!” I would know all the backstairs, the underground tunnels, all the quick ways to get to everywhere. I would just basically go up to the counter and get served really quickly because they knew what I was doing. It was great fun as a 21 and 22 year old, I mean what a fantastic job! It was really good fun! It taught me a lot though, it taught me a hell of a lot! It was probably really the first time I was exposed to successful people that have worked hard, that have got themselves a certain lifestyle or even born into it. It was the first time that I was probably at the cold face of seeing that and it opened my eyes, it opened my mind to the possibilities and it broadened my world.” And while Sarah went on to study Interior Design, making a very successful career from that trade, it’s undeniable that these experiences living and working in Sydney in her younger years lifted the veil on what was possible for Sarah. Supporting the notion that if being a creative is to create as an expression of who we are, then all of these experiences form a much more colourful person, a more textured life that allows for much more interesting and intricate work.
While it sounds as though Sarah had a grand old time during her early days in Sydney, and she certainly did, her hard work and sheer determination should not be understated. “It was hard, putting myself through those courses and having to work all day and then get on a bus with all my art gear and get to. I mean I didn’t have a car and my parents certainly couldn’t afford to buy me a car. I was carting folios of work, models that I’d made, you know interior design models of buildings. I had to jump on a bus and get myself to college and work at night, because I couldn’t afford to just study. I had to work at the same time.” Sarah went on to work for a roster of different Architectural and Design firms in Sydney but when Sarah’s young family started to outgrow the little Whalers Cottage in North Sydney that Sarah and her husband had renovated, her family decided it might be time to make the move back to the country. They fell in love with a block of land near Beechworth and set about building a home.
Opening a small boutique Interiors studio in Beechworth became Sarah’s full-time gig. Which grew from strength to strength, in its height employing a dozen local women, having an eight month waiting list for design clients and occupying the largest commercial floor space in Beechworth. Then, as it often does, life happened and Sarah’s mum was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Leading Sarah to shut up shop, prioritising her family. “I closed the store, locked my ego inside when I left and started looking after loved ones. The silver lining to that story is that I went back to that core of me, to all these little things, all these little patterns and little blips that have formed this creative person. I went right back to who I was and just started making from the heart and I’ve never been happier. You remind yourself that you didn’t really need a lot to be really happy. That’s when I
understood what ego is too, ego serves us at certain times in our life. We need that gung-ho attitude to fight the fight and get through, but I think we get to a point in our lives where we realise we don’t really need that anymore. That sort of cut throat, bulldog energy.”
In a lot of ways, it can be a defining moment of success. When you’ve allowed yourself to do the really hard work and you’ve engaged in the hustle culture that doesn’t serve you anymore and you’re able to make this shift into a different space in the way you live and work and as an extension of that, to have created a lot more space for creativity and making. When you’re able to move into a different space where your primary concern can be your creative desires. When you’ve established yourself enough to allow financial drivers to no longer dictate what your work looks like. Something Sarah has also been able to achieve from the profile she’s built [if you aren’t familiar with her instagram account - I’d suggest checking that out]. This support for her work has meant Sarah can make what she wants and offer it for sale, knowing it is something her audience will have an appetite for. Which has seen Sarah find a blissful place, where she creates for the sake of creating, having built enough of a community around her work that people want the things she makes. “This is the first year I’ve been creating and not taking any commissions, I simply create something and then offer it for sale. What that has given me is complete creative freedom to make what I want, when I want and how I want. I’m not constrained by anything and that’s only because I have worked really hard for the last eight years, since closing the shop, to build up an audience that now trusts and appreciates my work. Approaching your creations like they’re art, thinking of yourself as an artist also helps frame this mentality I think.”
Having a sustainable approach to all aspects of her creations is another remarkable element of what forms the intricacies of Sarah’s practice. “I’ve got a huge collection, so many fabrics. When you’re an interior designer you also get given a lot of fabric. Fabric, samples, lengths and rolls left over. I’ve got cupboards and cupboards and rooms full of fabric. I haven’t thrown out any scraps for eight years so it’s a completely zero waste project. I’ve even got the off cuts of backings. I keep every single piece and it’s all being reused.” Which sees Sarah find a dynamic purpose for her vast collection of materials. Sourcing inspiration and allowing for a truly sustainable method, whilst em- bedding the added benefit of being very financially viable.
It seems Sarah has lived many lives and achieved many things but she still has some big dreams on the horizon for herself and her work. “I’ve got this real hankering to be exhibited. I would like to see one of my beanies there with a plaque next to it. I’d just like to change the narrative of how we view all kinds of creative work and what is considered art.” A sentiment that’s hard to disagree with. “I hope in achieving that for myself I can play a role in creating that opportunity for other artists as well. This is wearable art that I make, wearable, functionable art in a sense and somebody needs to take a leap and expand the thinking on what’s exhibited and how we value that work.”
If you’re interested in seeing more of Sarah’s work you can head to her page, Salisbury and Maude.
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