Wendy Louise

I began collecting vintage jewellery and making original pieces as a teenager in Brisbane.I moved to Sydney taking my pieces to markets at Balmain and Paddington and sold \"Punk jewellery\" to local fashion designers. I saved to travel through the UK and Europe, buying vintage, making jewellery and having stalls at Camden in London. When I got back to Sydney I set up a tiny studio in King St Newtown where my handmade crowns and headpieces became popular with local designers for bridal and evening wear. My pieces were chosen to support Powerhouse\'s Audrey Hepburn exhibition and the National gallery\'s \"The Queens Pictures\". I created pieces for several Belvoir St performances, Suddenly Last Summer and Hamlet with David Wenham and Richard Roxburough and for film and TV productions including a fantasy scene in Sci Fi Farscape. Stores at the Ritz Carlton in Double Bay and Sydney\'s Sky Garden followed where most of my work was client based and for couturiers like Alex Perry, J\'Aton Couture, Mariana Hardwick, Angelina Baccini and London\'s eclectic Basia Zarzicka in Chelsea. Several years ago I relocated for family reasons back to Brisbane. I then discovered millinery and was hooked, I\'ve studied both at TAFE and with some of Australia\'s leading milliners. Currently I am working from Belle Folie in Ascot, a studio I share with couturier Rebecca Cobbing. I make hats, headpieces, jewellery and various accessories for bridal, fashions on the field and historical re enactment and performance or whatever comes my way.