Creative Collection: Labour Of Love

Sydney-based sculptor Carol Crawford redefines the boundaries of beauty by shaping the way we see the world

- Harriet Sim Styling Sandy Dao

Like all the best holiday romances, Carol Crawford’s love affair took shape in Italy, in the rustic mountain-top town of Volterra. “I brought a piece of rough alabaster stone home in my suitcase,” explains the sculptor, who works out of her studio in Sydney’s Surry Hills. “I carved that first stone intuitively, keeping the integrity of the stone. I still do exactly the same thing now, only in a slightly more refined way.”

Carol came to sculpting later in life, although her distinct eye for form and beauty was nurtured from an early age. Her mother was a trained opera singer and her father, a “deep thinker”, was one of the pioneers of the Australian textile industry. “My parents were immigrants from Europe and sole [WW2] survivors of their families, bar one,” says Carol. “[They] gave me the space to dream and make my own way in the world.”