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The cork tiles on my childhood bedroom floor taught me early what a pleasure cork is to live with. My father worked in flooring for his entire career and installed those tiles himself. He’s still an advocate. After retiring, Mum and Dad travelled to Portugal to visit a cork forest where cork for the tiles he once sold are grown. They brought me back a cork fan.

At the time, I was Fashion Editor of Sunday Magazine at the Sunday Star-Times, and that fan inspired one of my weekly columns – on cork accessories. While researching it, I learned that cork is harvested only from the bark of mature cork oak trees. The bark regenerates, the trees live for around 300 years, and they’re harvested every nine years.

I’ve always used cork around the house – as coasters and table mats – but plain cork shows marks over time. I began painting the coasters in simple block colours, then added patterns. They instantly looked better and wiped clean. Patterns hide wear, but they also speak to my love of colour and print. I’m drawn to a painterly and imperfect finish – clearly handmade – but also one of a kind.

My husband and I moved to Whanganui as an experiment. We’d married there in 2016 – our friends hosted our wedding in an old fire station – but relocating wasn’t part of the plan. Now in Whanganui, I do many things at once. I work best in focused, organised bursts, where the process or the outcome makes me feel good. The common thread for all my projects is curiosity

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