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What happens when the thing you started doing for yourself quietly becomes the thing you want to build your life around?
In this episode of Designing Success, I’m joined by fibre artist Kasia for a conversation about creativity, business, motherhood, visibility and what it actually takes to stop treating your creative work like a little hobby and start backing it properly.
Kasia’s work began during motherhood as a way to slow down, process emotions and have something that belonged to her. There was no grand business plan. There was rope from the local hardware store, a dismantled broomstick, some YouTube tutorials and one extremely ambitious two-metre-wide wonky first attempt.
Which, frankly, is how some of the best businesses begin.
Fast-forward and her work has developed into a recognisable fibre art practice, with large-scale sculptural pieces, interior designer commissions, exhibitions, art prizes and collaborations — including work that has appeared on The Block.
But what I really wanted to talk about was everything that happened in between.
Because whether you’re an artist, interior designer or running any other creative business, there comes a point where being good at the creative bit isn’t enough.
You have to decide to be seen.
We talk about finding your own creative voice in an incredibly trend-driven world and why Kasia deliberately moved away from traditional macramé aesthetics to develop work that now feels unmistakably hers.
We get into the slightly murky business of pricing handmade creative work when calculating “materials + hours” doesn’t remotely capture the value of a one-of-a-kind piece — and how reputation, exhibitions, awards, experience and collectability begin to influence pricing as an art practice grows.
We also talk about collaborating with interior designers, creating bespoke pieces for difficult or oversized spaces, working with colour and scale, and why the best creative collaborations require the client or designer to give the artist enough trust and freedom to actually do their job.
And then we get into something I think almost every creative business owner needs to hear:
Nobody is coming to discover you.
At some point, you have to send the email.
Submit the application.
Enter the award.
Pitch the collaboration.
Post the Reel even though hearing your own voice makes you want to crawl directly into a cupboard.
Kasia openly talks about feeling awkward on camera, worrying about her accent and questioning whether she should be putting herself forward at all. But over the past year, she’s stopped allowing those things to be reasons to hide.
And unsurprisingly, opportunities have started appearing.
Not because she sat beautifully in her studio waiting for the art world to stumble across her.
Because she started knocking on doors.
We also talk about why the messy middle is often the most interesting part of your marketing. Your audience doesn’t only want the polished reveal. They want the experimentation, the change of mind, the process, the problem solving and the story behind what you create.
Connection is marketing.
And sometimes the most powerful business strategy really is just being a human being brave enough to say:
Hi. This is what I do. I think we could make something interesting together.
In this episode, we talk about:
- Turning a creative hobby into a serious art practice
- Finding your own visual language instead of chasing trends
- Pricing bespoke and one-of-a-kind creative work
- Why reputation and recognition influence the value of art
- Working with interior designers on commissioned pieces
- Scale, colour, tactility and using fibre art in residential and commercial interiors
- Why trust creates better creative collaborations
- Showing the process rather than only the finished result
- Getting comfortable being visible when you’d really rather not
- Pitching yourself for collaborations, exhibitions, awards and opportunities
- Building the courage to hear “no”
- Why waiting to be discovered is not a marketing strategy
- And the strange moment a creative business starts feeling suspiciously like another child you’re responsible for raising
Kasia also shares some of the exhibitions and group shows she has coming up, including West End Art Space in Melbourne, Forty Five Downstairs’ Primal Instincts group show, and Woollahra Gallery in Sydney, where she has been selected as a finalist.
This is such a good listen for anyone who knows they’re capable of more but is still waiting for some imaginary permission slip before they properly put themselves out there.
There isn’t one.
Send the email.
Apply for the thing.
Show people what you do.
And please stop assuming the impressive person on the other side of the DM is some terrifying untouchable industry overlord.
They’re probably just a person having a coffee.
Listen now to Designing Success.
You can find Kasia and visit her upcoming exhibitions below
Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize - https://www.woollahragallery.com.au/Artists/Woollahra-Small-Sculpture-Prize
Primary Instincts - https://fortyfivedownstairs.com/event/primary-instincts/
Biennale at West End Art Space - https://westendartspace.com.au/exhibitions_details/biennale-of-colour-and-light-2026/
Kasia on Insta - HERE
Visit her website HERE
Thanks for listening to this episode of "Designing Success: From Study to Studio"! Connect with me on social media for more business tips, and a real look behind the scenes of my own practicing design business.
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