A Creative Life
“This is the true joy in life, being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one. Being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it what I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.”
Words & Photography by Karen Miles
Karen Miles is the owner and creative director of French Consul – a handcrafted linen homewares label inspired by the French farmers' 'grain sack' stripe and all that it represents about creating a beautiful, meaningful life. Karen’s work is infused by her love for all things French, a desire to support artisan-made, and her family heritage—a creative mum, her dad’s British heritage from Lincolnshire, and her nan, Edna Lasslett, who ran her own store fashioning gowns for fancy ladies in a time when very few women-owned a business.
I grew up in a sensible suburban home but surrounded by highly creative women. I’m told as a three-year-old I begged my mother for dance classes, and I was always making something in the kitchen. Performing on a stage—ballet, jazz, tap, or musical theatre—is where I have always felt most myself.
If I wasn’t dancing and singing in my bedroom, pretending I was on TV, I was creating fashion looks with my fashion design centre toy, or making handmade chocolates or fimo jewellery. I can’t ever remember a time I wasn’t creating.
In high school, I then discovered a love for writing and after university, I pursued a career in magazines as a journalist and magazine editor. I also had two non-fiction books published. You would think producing homewares and journalism/writing would be such different professions, but I’ve realised I’ve just swapped paper for fabric, and magazine schedules for product production.
Production schedules were always such a challenge when I was first starting out. My business is three years old now and what I’ve come to realise is that there is no ‘one way’ or right way to estimate how many products to make and when. You can only ever make your best guestimates based on what you can afford to produce and the response you’re getting from sales. You can’t always predict the market, I think Covid 19 has taught us that.
When Australia first went into lockdown, everything just stopped, and it was such a disorienting and sad time for me. A lot of my satisfaction and self-expression comes from my work so I felt a little lost for quite some time. We also experienced increased delivery costs – my sewing team in Ireland couldn’t post stock to me in Australia as there were insufficient postal flights so every box needed to come via courier. Ireland also had to juggle multiple countrywide shutdowns. But on the flipside, I launched my new red grain sack stripe for Christmas 2020 and it ended up being my best Christmas yet. I think people really got behind supporting local small business and I’m so grateful for that.
A big dream of mine has been to restore a heritage property and launch a French-styled Airbnb. After purchasing a gorgeous 200-year-old sandstone Georgian cottage in Oatlands, Tasmania in February 2020, the Australian state borders shut due to Covid and we couldn’t get to the property for 10 months. That was a major blow. But we’re here now! Once borders opened, I was on the first flight down to Tassie from Sydney and I got to work hiring an amazing heritage builder and architect and creating plans for what will be a knock-down rebuild of some dodgy 1990s extensions, and restoration of the original rooms of the cottage. I’m completely engaged in every element, from flooring and window choices, to getting on the tools scraping away old paint, and discovering my latest treasure, a convict brick wall hiding under 1970s plasterboard. You can follow my reno adventures in Stories @frenchconsul and via @petitchateau_au
