Photograph - Sepia. Portrait of a baby,wearing a white lace outfit, placed on a fur looking rug.Bartlett Bros. - Sandhurst.person, individual, baby portrait, photograph. unknown family. portrait of a baby.

“Between the devil and the deep blue sea!” is a special work to me for different reasons. It was my first experience ever working with textile, and it was my first major artwork that I made and exhibited in Australia. I moved to Australia in 2011 and lived in Perth for 5 years before I moved to Melbourne in 2016. I didn’t have a chance to make many artworks when I was living in Perth and it was mainly because I needed to work full time in order to afford the living costs. Melbourne was totally different though. I moved to Melbourne after I was awarded Australian Postgraduate Award (APA) to study my PhD at RMIT University. This was a fantastic opportunity for me, not only because it helped me financially, but also because it gave me the opportunity to develop my practice and research experience. Being new in Australia and Melbourne though, I needed to familiarise myself with the art community in Australia and find ways that I can introduce myself and present my art. I knew that exhibiting in Australia will be challenging and I thought I can start with looking for opportunities like group shows and awards. The Wangaratta Contemporary Textile Award was the very first one that I applied for and it was definitely a great starting point for me. It gave me the confidence to look for other opportunities and that my decision for working with the material and methods that I had no previous working experience with, was a right one. Between the devil and the deep blue sea! is about a dilemma. A dilemma where on one side there is all the memories of the past, home, family, and friends. Everything that was once a life and now is only a memory. There is the threat of death, terrorism and violence and there is no hope for a better future. On the other side, there is a better chance for staying alive, but there is nothing clear about the future. Where you go and what you will be called; A terrorist? Or someone that is there to take the jobs and money!? We are watching the news and seeing tragic accidents happening all over the world every day, but what makes us indifferent to the suffering of others was something that I became interested to learn more about it. From the beginning of my project, I was interested in discovering more about the notion of indifference and that came from my own position as an observer. I am an Iranian living in Australia. On the one hand, I am observing wars and conflicts in the Middle-East from a distance and on the other hand, from not much a distance! I am living in Australia with a great distance from the Middle-East in terms of the geographical distance and the differences in socio-political situations. On the other hand, and despite Iran’s current safe situation, there is no guarantee for a stable peace in the future. Being not here nor there, I am an observer who won’t be in peace in peaceful Australia, and can’t feel the depth of the pain for people living in war-torn countries such as Syria and Iraq. The indifference phenomena can be studied from different disciplines, however, there can not be a simple and unique explanation for its cause. Regardless of different explanations for the causes of the indifference, what I am most interested in is to explore the ways I can show the “indifference” itself. For this, I seek to focus on my simple interpretation of the phenomena, which in my mind is “seeing tragedy, not tragic.” In other words, whether the indifference is caused by information overload, or distance from the sufferer for example, people don’t feel the pain and can’t understand the conditions others in pain are experiencing. Based on this explanation, the focus of my artworks is to depict and highlight the contradiction between the pain and the indifference. In my art practice, I often use colourful and attractive materials in combination with a visual language that reference to the aftermath of tragic events of wars, to provide a symbolic representation of indifference in the form of an artwork. This is my artistic approach in explaining the notion of “indifference”, that can illustrate my ideas around “seeing tragedy, not tragic”. to give voice to my own concerns and position as an Iranian artist, I am interested in utilising visual elements from traditional arts of Persia and the Middle-East. In selecting rugs and fabrics that I use in my artworks, the weaving quality is not my concern. Moving beyond this, I am looking for features which express and underpin concepts such as antiquity, resistance, simplicity, and peace which sit in stark contrast to the terrorising and militant image of Middle Eastern people portrayed by the mainstream media. Nowruz (Persian New Year) 21 March marks the Persian New Year and the first day of spring in Iranian calendar. It’s the time of the year when all Iranians and many other Farsi speaking nationalities (Afghans, Tajiks, etc.) celebrate together. My wife and I are planning a trip to Iran for the new year holidays and it would be our first time to celebrate the new year with family and friends in Iran since 2011. It is believed that Nowruz has a long history of around 3,000 years and is rooted in Zoroastrianism, an ancient Persian religion that predates both Christianity and Islam. Every year Iranians celebrate this very special event at different times and it’s because the exact time of the new year depends on the exact calculation of when the length of the day and the night are equal. There are many things about the Persian new year to be excited about and sitting around the Haft-Seen table (7sin) with family is with no doubt the most exciting one. Haft-Seen is a set of seven symbolic elements beginning with ‘S’ in Farsi that Iranians arrange them together to decorate a table that family sit around and celebrate the beginning of the new year. The most common items found in Haft-seen decoration are: Sabzeh: Wheat, barley, mung bean or lentil sprouts growing in a dish, Samanu: Sweet pudding made from wheat germ, Senjed: Dried Persian olive. Seer: Garlic Seeb: Apple Somāq: Sumac Serkeh: Vinegar Sekkeh: Coin that symbolise health, wealth, abundance, etc.Wangaratta Art Gallery Collection, Acquired with the assistance of Robert Salzer Foundation.A used Persian Rug that has had a motif of two heads and an explosion hand-stitched onto it.mohsen meysami, textile, rug

From the Betty McPhee sewing collectionHooked metal arm attached to a wooden handle for hooking wool through canvas or hessian to make a rug.handcrafts, equipment

Textiles, cream coloured square crocheted knee rug with 7cm fringing on all sides. Old box 75.textiles, domestic, square crocheted knee rug

Note from collector- "For more than 100 years blankets were made all over Australia in over 100 woollen mills. My aim, is to preserve 100 examples of these wonderful pieces of history. Ten years ago I started collecting the iconic Onkaparinga travel rugs, so that on movie nights at home there would be plenty to go around. Everyone had their favourite; even the cat had his own – a small red tartan one. Keeping an eye out for those travel rugs at op-shops and markets, collectable stores and bazaars, led to noticing vintage blankets. I'd never really thought about them before or paid much attention though of course I had grown up with them at my grandmother's. When I discovered my first Laconia cream blanket with blue stripes, my eyes just went gaga. Well that was it, I was hooked and since then over 500 blankets have passed through my hands. These common, everyday items, found in all households for so many decades, were traditional engagement gifts. Pairs were prized wedding presents turning into family heirlooms. They were fashionable dressers of beds, givers of warmth, bestowers of security and reliability. The comfort found in these objects resonates with almost all of us; we grew up with them ourselves or fondly recall them in a grandparent’s home. There is no modern replacement with the integrity of these old blankets, many of them now older than most of us. They are romantic, sensible, special, familiar, nostalgic and nothing else feels so appropriate in so many situations. No offense to the great Aussie doona, but from hippie to hipster, at a music festival, picnic, campsite or couch, a vintage blanket is something coveted by all. This industry that employed tens of thousands and must have been such a huge contributor to the economy is almost completely lost now. Blanket Fever is an ode to everything that came before: the land, the sheep, the shearers, the hands, the mills, the weavers, the designers, the distributors, the department stores. To the grandparents that gave them, the people that received them, the families that kept them; thank you. I’m passionate about my collection of Australian blankets manufactured in mostly Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania from the 1930s to the end of the 1960s. The collection has blankets from each of these four decades representing the styles and fashions of their time and includes dated advertisements which help determine the eras the blankets are from." "Most admired of the Bride's presents" (bride and bridesmaids with blanket)"Most admired of the Bride's presents" /Warrnambool Blankets and Rugs/Warmer Wool from Warrnamboolblankets, blanket fever, wool, advertisement, warrnambool, australian women's weekly

Note from collector- "For more than 100 years blankets were made all over Australia in over 100 woollen mills. My aim, is to preserve 100 examples of these wonderful pieces of history. Ten years ago I started collecting the iconic Onkaparinga travel rugs, so that on movie nights at home there would be plenty to go around. Everyone had their favourite; even the cat had his own – a small red tartan one. Keeping an eye out for those travel rugs at op-shops and markets, collectable stores and bazaars, led to noticing vintage blankets. I'd never really thought about them before or paid much attention though of course I had grown up with them at my grandmother's. When I discovered my first Laconia cream blanket with blue stripes, my eyes just went gaga. Well that was it, I was hooked and since then over 500 blankets have passed through my hands. These common, everyday items, found in all households for so many decades, were traditional engagement gifts. Pairs were prized wedding presents turning into family heirlooms. They were fashionable dressers of beds, givers of warmth, bestowers of security and reliability. The comfort found in these objects resonates with almost all of us; we grew up with them ourselves or fondly recall them in a grandparent’s home. There is no modern replacement with the integrity of these old blankets, many of them now older than most of us. They are romantic, sensible, special, familiar, nostalgic and nothing else feels so appropriate in so many situations. No offense to the great Aussie doona, but from hippie to hipster, at a music festival, picnic, campsite or couch, a vintage blanket is something coveted by all. This industry that employed tens of thousands and must have been such a huge contributor to the economy is almost completely lost now. Blanket Fever is an ode to everything that came before: the land, the sheep, the shearers, the hands, the mills, the weavers, the designers, the distributors, the department stores. To the grandparents that gave them, the people that received them, the families that kept them; thank you. I’m passionate about my collection of Australian blankets manufactured in mostly Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania from the 1930s to the end of the 1960s. The collection has blankets from each of these four decades representing the styles and fashions of their time and includes dated advertisements which help determine the eras the blankets are from." Let it rain, let it blow... (lady in bed)Let it Rain, Let it Blow…/Warrnambool Blankets and Rugs/Warmer Wool from Warrnambool blanket, blanket fever, wool, warrnambool, advertisement, australian women's weekly

The floor covering in the living/dining room was originally seagrass matting as seen in the Strizic photographs of 1959 and 1963. This was replaced after the Boyd's saw a large cream rug floor covering at the Shelmerdine's house and liked it. It was purchased from Myer. In 2007, that rug was found to be moth-eaten and treated and put into storage. Now a similar rug of the same size has replaced the rug purchased by the Boyds.Cream wool with fringeswalsh st furnishings, robin boyd

Part of a collection donated by Miss Edith Elms via Chrisy Northcott. Lady probably early 1900's going on a visit by buggy.Woman in large hat and long dress covered by check rug sitting in a pony trap, on a grassy paddock with tree to left.local history, photography, photographs, transport, horse & buggy, sepia photograph, san remo

Large square rug with floral motif in circular pattern. Square border and corners. Base colour beige with multicoloured flowers.No visible markingsmanchester, furnishings, rug, floor, flowers, textile

Laminated copy of b/w photograph of CRTS (Commonwealth Reconstruction Training Scheme) students seated on the ground with rugs and bags.On reverse, "C.R.T.S. Students Burnley 1948."crts, 1948, jim newell, commonwealth reconstruction training scheme, recreation

The Manor House Rug was designed by Brinton's Carpets in 1990 exclusively for the National Wool Museum. The design is based on an earlier design from Brinton's UK Persian Rug Archive Library. This Manor House Rug sample was woven at the National Wool Museum on the 1910 gripper type Axminster Jacquard carpet loom. The rug is made from 80% wool and 20% nylon, the internationally preferred blend for high quality, long lasting carpets.Red, green, blue, black, cream floral patterned carpet sample with jute backing.axminster loom, carpet, sample, rug, wool, national wool museum, brintons

Cabinet Portrait of Baby Girl. She is sitting on a furry rug and wearing a lacy dress and holding a rattle. 10434 written on the back.Charlie Farr, Maryboroughphotograph, portrait, baby, cabinet portrait of baby girl, charlie farr maryborough

Photograph - black and white, portrait of a young child (baby). Wearing a white lace baby outfit, placed on a fur looking rug.Bartlett Bros. - Sandhurst.person, individual, baby portrait, photograph. unknown family collection. portrait of a baby.

6 coloured photos of the Rhyll Craft and Flower Display showing displays of plants, flower arrangements, crochet rugs, food and local peopleRhyll Craft and Flower Display Nov 1st 1986rhyll hall, craft, betty liddle, rhyll - local identities

Campsites along the road leading to the Halls Gap shops.The photo shoes tents and cars amongst the bush beside a dirt road. Three people can be seen sitting/reclining on a rug in the right foreground.recreation, camping

'Retsol' brand travel rug produced by the Returned Soldiers and Sailors Mill, Geelong. Retsol rugs were one of the specialities of the RSS Mill. This one was owned by Mrs A.T. Lucas who gave it to Running Stitch.RETSOLtextile production, textile mills, returned soldiers and sailors mill running stitch group, retsol rugs, running stitch collection, blankets, lucas, mrs a. t., geelong

Black and white photographic proof of girl toddler seated on rug wearing check dress white cardigan white shoes and socks Lakes Entrance VictoriaBulmer Gift Salon Pty Ltd Lakes Entrancefashion, children, studios

This rug sample was woven at the National Wool Museum on the 1910 gripper type Axminster Jacquard carpet loom. The rug is made from 80% wool and 20% nylon, the internationally preferred blend for high quality, long lasting carpets.Orange, cream, green, red and black patterned carpet with jute backing.back: [handwritten] 2/57axminster loom, carpet, sample, rug, wool, national wool museum, brinton's

The Orchid Tables were on display as part of the Ten Years of Dowel Jones exhibition at the National Wool Museum in 2024. The exhibition label reads: Sitting just outside this exhibition in the National Wool Museum is a 1910 Axminster Jacquard Carpet Loom. This loom was operating at Brintons factory in Geelong from 1960 to 1975, and then at the Melbourne College of Textiles, until it was donated to the museum. In the 1990's the museum commissioned an exclusive pattern called the Manor House Rug. Based on earlier designs from Brintons UK Persian Rug Archive Library, the museum continues to make this rug through the expertise of Loom Technician Michael Farquhar. The Manor House Rug features a central medallion with floral pattern. Working with illustrator Beci Orpin, and referencing Margaret MacDonald & Angair's book 'Orchids of the Anglesea District', we identified regional orchids. By a process of removal and addition, the original floral medallion was replaced with local species as decorative motif. Ten Year of Dowel Jones presents three altered Manor House Rugs, each with different orchids tufted in wool and placed in the centre of each rug. The rugs have been attached by cotton thread to three table frames at different heights to create the Orchid Tables.Three tables consisting of powder coated steel frames, with a woven carpet top. The table tops are made from wool with a jute backing, and feature a red, green, blue, black and cream floral design with an orchid in the centre. Each table is a different height.dowel jones, ten years of dowel jones, national wool museum, axminster loom, carpet, manor house rug, orchids, anglesea, design, art, furniture, beci orpin, brintons, geelong, melbourne college of textiles

2003 Australian Trotting Grand Prix Horse RugHorse Rug won by Sumthingaboutmaori for winning the Australian Trotting Grand Prix at Moonee Valley in 2003White, Green & Gold background with Green & White writing, Gold fringing & edgingFront Top: Moonee Valley / Australian Trotting Grand Prix / Melbourne . Front Bottom: Australian Trotting Grand Prix / Moonee Valley / 2003.harness racing, rug, horse rug, moonee valley, australian grand prix, 2003, sumthingaboutmaori, r healy, ric healy, bryan healy, br healy, gavin lang, g lang, b healy, r mcd healy

Rug was made on National Wool Museum Brinton Axminster Gripper Loom by Brintons Carpets Geelong Staff prior to the visit of Queen Elizabeth. On the afternoon of 28/4/1988 Queen Elizabeth was presented with a similiar rug but latex backed and labelled.weaving, axminster

Part of a collection of three blankets donated by Emily McNeight.Purple, brown, cream and blue blanket with tasselled edging.label: Laconia / Travel Rug / 127 x 182 cm / Made in Australia / ?2186 / PURE NEW WOOLwool, blankets, laconia mills

Rug hook, part of Margaret Scarlett's collection of sewing implementsMetal shaft with hook and latchet attached to wooden handleMade in England|Neilhandcrafts, woolwork

Needle case is part of a collection of sewing tools donated by Betty McPhee.Green mottled leather wallet style case containing sewing needles of various sizes. Includes 5, 4/8, 6 rug, crewel, darners, chenille.handcrafts, equipment

Murray Comrie Collection. Names of some subjects handwritten on card. This photograph is an original print. Monochrome photograph of a group young men, posed together with a makeshift backdrop behind them. Two at front are seated on a fur rug and holding a football between them.tarnagulla, sport, football, youth, teams, radnell, duggan, goltz, theobald, abbott, harwood, spencer