Caroll was born in Austria and was encouraged creatively as a child.

Caroll

She draws her inspiration from an
"innate need to be practical and from what I see out of the corner of my eye".

Box Lid free machine embroidery

She likes to explore random patterns, form and line, and generally works in colours drawn from the Earth.

Caroll's textiles generally fall into the "more is more" category, where shifting colours, textures and patterns invite close and sensual engagement.

'Invitation to an Open Garden' section from an award winning quilt

She has lived in Canberra since 1960. In the mid-1990s, she began' working in a variety of textile areas, including felt making, silk and leather as well as machine embroidery and embellishment.

'Castle in the Clouds' whipstitch on hand painted silk bits "Ilove my castle in the clouds - one can climb up to it"

Her work has been included in numerous exhibitions in Australia and overseas.

Bridal Piece

Bridal Piece description

Timely refers to 'things of the moment' but also to 'things of another time that have again became pertinate and fashionable'. This is a word very suitable to cotton - it is timely. This ensemble is made from first class 100% cotton organza, at once sturdy but delicate, displaying an old fashioned charm in a thoroughly modern style. The permissible 10% of fabric other than cotton I have used for pure silk lining. The design the garment's embellishments is based on the cotton plant. The history of the plant also repeats the timely theme.

'View from Booroomba Rocks' section from a four piece wallpanel in silk

Booroomba Rocks - artist's description

Booroomba Rocks not far from the Honeysuckle Space Tracking Station near Canberra, are one of the marvels of the natural countryside in and around the ACT. A gigantic cliff face of great rocks, falling deep into a tree filled valley behind Tharwa.

A small section of the sweeping views from the top of this cliff face has been used to forŪ the centre piece of this panel. Silk painting, layering techniques, and machine embroidery were used.

Around this. a frame of semi-three-dimensional features invite to wander among the 'Rocks', which are those so very typically Australian huge and ancient boulders, interspersed with unruly gumtrees, shrubs, and grasses. The ramble takes one to the very edge of the cliff face.

A third frame of heavily machine embroidered silk paper was added to contain the whole.

Techniques used: Silk painting, silk paper making, fabric manipulation, layering, 3 D work, machine and hand embroidery, overpainting.

'Beyond the Portcullis' mixed silk media

"I have often thought that our busy time consuming lifestyle is what amounts to our own portcullis. We drop it before and/or behind us so that we may only be able to glance briefly at our own surrounds while we rush from problem to crisis, and passers by are more shadows. We have made ourselves into prisoners of haste, nearly blind and therefore poorer."

Shawl with 2 piece embroidered garment

'Bygone Yass'

'Bygone Yass' from a newspaper report -

"That's when I found this gem - Jim Field's cottage in Laidlaw Street," Caroll said. "It stood there, derelict, in its small piece of overgrown ex-garden, literally falling to bits, but with striking paintwork on door and windows in very good condition. It was to my eyes still very beautiful. I fell in love with it, and I was very lucky to have seen it then and taken pictures.

"That was the piece of work I was going to produce, named 'Bygone Yass'. An apt title as sadly the cottage was shortly afterwards knocked down."

'Bygone Yass' detail

Describing the materials and techniques used, Caroll said "I felt only the subtleness of silk would do justice to this lovely piece of nostalgia. So it was created from numerous layers of different silks, hand painted of course. These are Dupion silk, Habutai and organza. The material for the outer frame is satin backed Dupion Silk; this though was shop bought. Lots of machine stitching layering, overstitching, more layering, more overstitching went into the making which was deliberately done on a very lightweight stabiliser without a hoop, so that puckering would occur and so enhance the derelict look.
"Various other free machine embroidery techniques were also used."

Painted teabag piece