BLAIRGOWRIE artist, Melinda Piesse, has taken home first place in her category at the Hand & Lock awards in London for her embroidered tapestry.
Her piece was featured in an exhibition among 24 other finalists from 5 – 7 November. Piesse won first place in the Open Textile Art category and received $6000 USD and an embroidery course, which she will undertake online at the end of January.
“The award means the world to me, having international recognition and the chance to exhibit my work internationally,” Piesse said.
Hand & Lock are a global ambassador for embroidery. The embroidery competition was established in 2000 and has entries from contestants all over the world.
Piesse applied last minute and forgot about her entry until she received an email letting her know her piece would be exhibited in London.
“I thought, ‘Oh, my goodness, this is amazing’,” she said. “And then I thought, how am I going to get the tapestry over there, because it’s quite large.”
She spent seven years working on the project, a hand-stitched sail which stands at five by three metres.
Piesse spent her early years experimenting with different forms of art and said she should have realised earlier that she was drawn to embroidery.
“My nana, Patricia, she was a very good embroiderer and growing up, I was surrounded by beads and embroidery,” Piesse said.
“Every Christmas gift was a little embroidery kit.”
She began the project for her Masters in Tapestry at Monash University. By the time she finished her research and degree, the tapestry was only half complete. She continued to work on it over the years and completed it in 2017.
“I was really a complete amateur starting out,” Piesse said. “But I just had this dream of this large-scale tapestry, which I decided to do in panels and stitch together to form a 17th century sail.”
The tapestry depicts the tale of the marooned survivors of the Batavia, which was shipwrecked among the Abrolhos Islands of Western Australia in 1629.
“It’s one of the most extraordinary stories, Australian stories, and quite a gruesome story,” Piesse said.
“What really kept in my imagination was this idea of this perfect exile in Australia, well before first settlements, in 1629.”
She said the tapestry tells a tale of murder and intrigue, treachery, courage, escape, revenge, and ultimately heroism.
Since the completion of her tapestry, Piesse has taught at Rosebud Secondary, is currently working at Green Leaves Early Learning and is now a mother to a six-year-old son.
“I’ve taken some time off, and I’ve done sort of quieter projects while having my son,” Piesse said.
“But he’s six years old now, so I’m ready to get back into my art and get out there again and this is a really good incentive for me to do that.”
First published in the Mornington News – 2 December 2025