Walking into Susan McArthur’s studio feels like stepping back in time.
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Fur and feathers, ribbons, lace and flowers create a kaleidoscopic and colourful display of hats of all varieties.
The gentle smell of liquorice tea wafts across on notes of opera to the open door.
Burnie-based milliner McArthur’s first memories of delight at hats go back to her very early years.
“From the time I was a toddler I had to have something on my head … I’ve just always loved hats and always worn them,” she said.
“I had a great-great-aunt who was a milliner in the 1930s and ... as a child I used to visit her and her house was fascinating, full of hats a boas and all sorts of gorgeous things we were never allowed to touch.
“It was a dark, gloomy sort of house and all the hats gave it colour and life.”
When, in 1990, McArthur met a milliner her course was set.
“She lent me a hat block and said, ‘Take this hat block home and just experiment’, and so I did and I brought back what I’d made and she said, ‘You're a natural keep going’,” McArthur said.
“That’s what gave me the confidence to keep going and I've been making hats ever since.”
McArthur draws inspiration from everything around her, “You look at the garden, sculptural form, different design aspects and in architecture as well, any shape that appeals to you.”
Not many would admit to it, but McArthur laughed as she explained how her freezer is full of dead birds – kookaburras, forest ravens and even a black swan.
They are just one source of materials she uses in her hats, along with fabrics from op shops and bought supplies.
“People give me feathers all the time, local people give me feathers, roadkill,” McArthur laughs.
“Some of it’s roadkill, but they are washed and cleaned and frozen to kill all the bugs, so the feathers are treated before they are used.”
Millinery is a passion that has evolved and grown with McArthur, who still delights in what she does.
“It makes me feel alive and feel happy, when I’m working and I’ve got opera music in the background I’m in heaven, it’s just beautiful,” she said.
“It’s addictive, you cant stop. There’s not a day that goes by that I’m not stitching something.”
McArthur can be found ensconced in her cosy Burnie studio, Studio 4 Susan McArthur Millinery, from Wednesday to Saturday, where she will likely welcome you with a flourish and a cup of tea – served of course in fine china.
Her designs have travelled all over the world, from catwalks in Dubai to the royal enclosure at Royal Ascot, but McArthur is happy to stay in Tasmania creating.