When Claire Falkiner lost her job as a textile designer just days before the Christmas of 2013 (and two weeks after her husband lost his!), she decided to look at it as a blessing, not a curse.
Seeing it as a time to get creative, she picked up her paints and started designing. And the end result was a large artwork of a colourful headdress. โI didnโt really like it and shoved it straight under my bed,โ explains Claire. โBut then my friend came over and saw it poking out and said: โThat is awesome!โ I said: โYou can have it if you want?โ So she framed it and I saw it in a different light. Then one of her girlfriends wanted one so I made one for her.โ And as they say, the rest is history!
Now working under herย business Merci Perci (named after her too-cute rabbit!), Claireโs work is stocked in stores across Australia. Her headdresses are of particular success, with the brightly coloured, pattern crazy one-offs being made from paper.ย โThey take me about four-to-five hours to complete, from marking out the design on watercolour paper, to painting it — I use acrylics and gouacheย depending on what I want and then I use Posca pens and watercolour โ to cutting it all out and then mounting it. I mount themย onย foam core to make themย three-dimensional.โ
Inspired by aย photo she saw of a man from Papua New Guinea, Claire immediately fell in love withย the colourful headdress he was wearing. โPapua New Guineaย have some of the most incredible birds in the world and the tribes make these beautiful brightly coloured headdresses from their feathers. I wanted to buy one, but they’re hard toย get yours hands on, soย then I thought they’d be cool to be made out of paper.โ
Alongside her headdresses, Claireย creates little angel and monster artworks, which are in the same style only smaller. However, it is her latest venture she is particularly excited about, withย her artistic style being transferred to textiles in the form of a cushion range.ย โWith my textile design background I thought I definitely needed to create someย cushions. Theyโre all very brightly coloured and heavily patterned which is what I like to do. Most of them are made from 100% Russian linen, however thereโs a limited edition range that are linen on the front and leather on the back. I have a gorgeous soft silver leather and a very small amount of gold.โ
Yetย Claireโs not stopping there, seeing more big things for Merciย Perciย in 2015. โItโs currently a bit of aย pipe dreamย but the next thing I want to do is a collection of ceramic art plates. I thought how nice would it be to bring back those nana plates on the wall but in cool patterns, and also have them be functional.โ
With it not being all that long ago thatย Merci Perciย was just a passionย sideย project, Claire still cannot believe it is herย full-time job! “I never thought it’d go anywhere, but rather saw it as a funย excuse to get my paints out again. Butย nowย it hasย actuallyย become something. It still blows my mind!โ
For more information visitย Merci Perci andย Greenhouse Interiors.
