What is your private passion and how did it develop?
I’ve been doing embroidery, needlework and crochet for most of my life – I started back when I was in primary school. My mum is an amazing embroiderer and lace-maker, so it just kind of came naturally that she would teach me some of these skills. The things I make can’t compare to the masterpieces she produces, but it’s really lovely that we have this shared interest. Even now when I go and visit, I’ll take a piece of work with me and we’ll spend the evening chatting away as we stitch. I remember when I was growing up, each year we’d take some of our work to enter in the local agricultural show. Needlework, in general, seems to be considered a bit of an “old lady” hobby (which I totally don’t agree with!) so the show stewards were always surprised to see a teenager bringing in work to exhibit. Picking up a ribbon and a bit of prize money was always pretty cool.
What does it involve and how much of your time does it consume?
One of the nice things about these crafts is that you can do different projects depending on the time you have. A small crochet centrepiece or a little piece of cross-stitch can take me as little as a few hours to finish. Then there are the bigger projects that can take months or even years. I think my record so far is a quilt I started when I was in high school, which took something like 15 years. I finally picked it up again a couple of years ago and finished it off. It can be hard balancing work, family, parenthood and all the other demands of life, so it’s handy to have a hobby that you can put down for a while (or even 15 years) and just pick up again from where you left off. There’ll be times when I don’t pick up a needle for months, then other times when I’m working on something every evening. I’m also not the best at just sticking to one thing, so I tend to have multiple projects on the go. Right now I have three different projects in various stages of completion – maybe my resolution for the New Year should be to finish them off?
How does this passion enrich your life?
It’s really quite relaxing, almost meditative, to sit quietly stitching away. I’ve never been that great at sitting still, so having something to keep my hands (and mind) busy is good for me.
It’s also extremely satisfying to finish a project, and see this work of art that you’ve created from scratch; there's a real sense of achievement. I also enjoy making gifts for people – I think there’s something really special about receiving hand-crafted presents, and it makes me happy to gift them to others.
What (if anything) does this personal passion and your enjoyment of it bring to your working life?
I guess having this hobby from a young age has taught me patience and perseverance, both of whi
ch come in handy at work. I quite literally have the patience to stab something thousands of times – and that level of patience is handy when it comes to doing repetitive lab work. People often think of science as very clinical and analytical, but it’s also quite creative. Sometimes my work and hobby do collide. For instance earlier this year I made some crochet models of the SARS-Cov-2 virus (the virus that causes COVID-19), one of which was promptly claimed by my son. He called it “Viro” and still sleeps with it every night. I think mixing science with art is a great way to help people visualise and connect with different concepts, including teaching my son about a pandemic.
