Maker: Chrissie Probett

Panel number: 543

Petition sheet number: Did not sign 1893 petition

Person honouring: Violet Pearl Martin

Relationship to maker: Grandmother

My creative Grandma, Violet Pearl Martin (nee Campbell), lived in Manly on the Hibiscus Coast and was known to bake beautifully decorated cakes, have some wins with her floral art arrangements, and do her knitting, among other pursuits. A visit to Grandma always included a tour of the garden where much was learnt. 

Pearl was born in Coromandel town in 1909, the third child of 10. She left home in her mid-teens and found work in a bakery in Auckland. There she met my grandfather, Cyril Martin. They married and went on to have six children. They lived in Milford while Cyril was working on the police launch Deodar, also in Dargaville, Coromandel, Ellerslie, and Okura - where they lived in a bus that Grandad added a couple of rooms onto. She had to leave the family in the care of Grandad and the older children when her youngest contracted polio and ended up in an iron lung. 

In my memories of Grandma she would invariably be wearing an apron with her hand knitted cardigan. She was a very economical person who saved buttons from garments when they had worn out, and unpicked lace for reuse as well as many other tricks that are now coming back into use. This, and the things she did for others in her family and the community, helped shape my panel for her. It showed me that you can be quietly shaping future generations without it necessarily being acknowledged in a big way.

Panel materials: The fabrics used in my panel are all reused, the pillowcase, the wool - given to me previously unused but from the 1980s, the buttons are reused and from Grandma’s old sewing desk (a converted dressing table ) they still had the old threads in them! The lace is also from Grandma’s desk and some had been previously used and has stitching holes. The fabric on the apron is from the hospice shop, as is the doily/ hanky in the pocket. The wool I used to make the felted flowers was leftovers.