Merino sheep inspire original artworks for three sisters
3.Little.Sheep is an evolving small market and creative business run by sisters Florance, Miranda and Ivy McGufficke, taking inspiration from their family’s fine wool Merino sheep enterprise.
All talented artists, Florance works with Elders Stud Stock in Dubbo while Miranda is studying animal science and Ivy is studying business marketing at the University of New England, Armidale.
Having grown up on a Merino sheep property near Cooma, NSW, inspiration was never far away, and the girls use their own designs to create a range of unique art works, cards, tea towels, socks, gift tags and bespoke handmade ceramics – all handmade and designed by them.
3.Little. Sheep will be exhibiting for the first time in the Country Lifestyle pavilion at Henty.
“We are excited about making the journey to Henty – we have always heard about it, but it has clashed with shearing or ram tagging so we never got to go,” Miranda said.
“We will have our original range of art works as well as our seedstock cards, high quality linen tea towels, our new range of socks and art works featuring cowgirls and horses.
3 Little Sheep is something the three women enjoy doing together and they like sharing their love for farming, rural life and sheep with customers.
“We were always encouraged to be creative, use our hands and imagination – dad (Alan) is very handy on tools and mum (Michelle) had always done market stalls, whether that is making belts or selling handmade date loaf,” Miranda said.
“When we went away to school the art facilities at Frensham were amazing with a gallery next door and our art teacher being top shelf, so being exposed to a lot of different mediums starting us thinking how we could utilise our passion for making things.
“That is when we started selling our ceramics, water colour artwork and etchings – a beautiful thing about art is it is so versatile and that’s why we started printing our original art works onto top quality cards, tea towels and socks.
“We wanted to get our art to more people at an affordable and ever lasting level. We all love spending time with each other, and we are lucky to have a support network with mum who is the core of our logistics. The business is a beautiful family moment where we can travel around the country together.”
3.Little.Sheep was born in 2011 when the girls were pre-teens and producing ceramics and mixed media.
“We kept developing the business, marketing through a lot of different outlets and found what else we could do as side projects,” Miranda said.
The family farm is south of Cooma and supports the Greendale Merino stud and commercial flock.
“A beautiful thing about our art is we can take inspiration from driving around the paddock and helping in the yards and shearing shed. We occasionally have a hefty mob of poddy lambs and their antics in the paddock are the inspiration to our bouncing sheep artworks,” Miranda said.