THE ARTISAN BEHIND THE ATELIER

Hi, I’m Amanda — a designer, maker, wanderer, and lifelong collector of beauty. I grew up in Brisbane, but some of the most formative pieces of my childhood were lived far from home — in Melbourne and Port Fairy, where I spent long, lingering holidays with my grandmother by the ocean. The salty wind, the changing southern light, the creak of old floorboards, the stories hidden in weathered cottages… all of it shaped the way I see the world. Those early trips taught me to love spaces with soul — places that held history, mystery, softness, and time.

 

As I grew older, that seed of wonder travelled with me. I wandered through the world with curious eyes, falling in love with Parisian streets, Italian cathedrals, chapels glowing with candlelight, ancient stone walls, artisan workshops, and the quiet majesty of buildings that had held lives for centuries. Churches in particular moved me — the way light spills through stained glass, the hush of a vaulted ceiling, the way you can almost hear the echo of devotion in the air. Those places taught me that architecture can be spiritual… that spaces can speak. That sense of poetry — of the sacred living inside the everyday — found its way into everything I began to create.

 

When I eventually settled in the Byron hinterland, I poured that inspiration into my own home. My Eureka cottage became a living diary of materials and memories: salvaged weatherboards, pressed metal, reclaimed church windows, antique tiles, cut glass, copper taps, marble offcuts, hand‑blown baubles, and leather pieces I stitched at my kitchen table. Every corner whispered a little story. My home, later featured by The Design Files, became the truest expression of what I love — beauty made gently, slowly, by hand.

 

Over the years I’ve worn many creative hats: TV producer, interior designer, maker, leather artisan, forager of forgotten objects, founder of small labels, mother, dreamer. I designed accessories, including my Nancy Kirby bag — named in honour of my grandmother, the woman who taught me the magic of seaside mornings and the importance of looking closely at small, beautiful things. What has always stayed constant is ... creating is how I breathe. It is my language, my anchor, my way of honouring the world.

 

Hermitage Saint Esprit gathers all the threads of my life into one quiet, luminous space. Inside the chapel at Hermitage Saint Esprit, I’ve finally found a home for the kind of beauty that moves me — French‑provincial softness, Italian soul, cathedral calm, the gentle hum of craft. Here, I guide others through what I’ve spent a lifetime learning: how to make with intention, how to slow down, how to let your hands speak the truth your heart already knows.

 

When you join me in the atelier, we're not just making a bag. We are stepping into ceremony. Into presence. Into the quiet joy of working with materials that remember where they’ve been. Into the magic of creating something that feels like a tiny piece of your spirit made visible.

 

My hope is that when you leave the chapel, you carry with you not only what you made — but also the feeling that something inside you softened, expanded… and came home.

 

Welcome to Hermitage Saint Esprit. I can’t wait to share this creative journey with you.