Obsessive Compulsive

In a business where tradition can squelch creativity, it is often difficult to introduce fresh ideas. But for Wellington-based textile designer-maker, craft enthusiast and educator, Genevieve Packer, surrounding herself with what inspires her is the key to her creative license.
A year ago, Genevieve who is best known for her distinctive wallpaper designs, and her art director husband who works for a local video game development company, traded inner-city apartment life for a home across the harbour in the bush haven of Eastbourne.
Thanks to her artistic husband, not to mention a large collection of around 500 different wallpapers that have been collected over the years from auctions and Trade Me, Genevieve is never short of creative stimulation.
Originally hailing from the Hawke’s Bay, Genevieve holds a Bachelor of Design majoring in textiles as well as a Masters in Design from Massey University.
In her height of the creative hub, she taught at the Wellington Massey University campus in the textile design department. For eight years she held this “luxurious” position – so described due to the constant flow of stimulation her students provided. However, teaching with all its benefits, was never something the imaginative fully intended to do and she made the choice to leave in order to pursue other openings that were presenting themselves to her. Opportunities that have included her recent two year stint designing textiles for costumes for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey film. 
“The all-consuming project was a completely different discipline to teaching,” she explains. “It was an amazing industry filled with creative people that were so inspiring. I’ve always been reasonably clued-up on the textile industry in New Zealand so I was amazed to find all these people in a different field that had all these incredible skills. Because they’re not producing products or exhibiting work they aren’t so much in the public domain.”
Her design practice explores New Zealand's national identity, material culture and overlooks everyday things… alongside an obsession with repeating pattern. She has a multi-disciplinary approach to contemporary craft-based design, which covers a range of materials, hands-on and digital processes and techniques.
“My ongoing interest is in New Zealand’s national identity and how we choose to represent and portray ourselves, not only to foreigners but also to ourselves. I also have an interest in our material culture and our natural history that are used to evoke our senses. For my Masters, I looked into how I could take motifs that had been commonly used in New Zealand’s souvenir industry and use them in a way that was a little bit different. One of the examples was the fantail and how it is commonly portrayed as a static image with its tail open. Anyone who has experienced meeting a fantail knows they are anything but static birds. They are cheeky critters that dart all over the place and you are lucky if you can get a glimpse of one sitting still. I subsequently designed a pattern named aerialantics that featured darted tail feathers all over the place.”
Whilst also dabbling in jewellery, Genevieve’s practice comprises of three strands that all stream into one another. The first is one-off projects that may result from collaborations or an exhibition. These permit the creative to try out new things without the worry of commercial constraints. “This work is fun and incredibly self-indulgent.”
The second strand is products. These are often results of further developed projects or exhibition pieces that filter down into a more commercial output. These include textiles, jewellery and paper products. The final strand is services, which sees Genevieve conduct freelance design and the odd workshop or kids craft workshop.
With so many avenues of work, time management is essential to this designer’s success and production.  
“I’m currently in the works to get a new line of textiles out so I’m juggling samples to show stockists to generate orders whilst continuing to fill orders from previous collections. Plus I have all the other jobs that I have on the side. Traditionally my work is dictated by whatever is due first. It’s not the easiest of roles to take being self-employed. It’s a lot of fun. I can pick and choose what I want to do and I love the variety it offers.”
In her most recent work, Genevieve has created pattern using chipped Crown Lynn, and her jewellery inspiration has been taken from the 'fresh produce' fruit and vege boards seen on our road sides. Also new to her range is Dead Set which was inspired by bird skins from the natural history museum at Te Papa.  
www.genevievepacker.com