Meet Jude Lockhart

OMG where to start? Before Surface Pattern Design presented itself via Instagram, I was like a boat adrift for fourteen long years.

In mid-2011, I lost the wonderful (maternity clothing) business I’d spent six years building, and had to file bankruptcy—the harshest version, the kind that wipes the slate clean but also wipes out your credibility. No partner, no support, no resources. Just me, set loose in a life that suddenly felt very unfamiliar.

I’d built that business after my marriage ended, determined to stand on my own two feet and create an asset for my future. Losing everything at 57 yrs old was a crushing blow. What followed were nine years without a home, living on almost nothing, unable to work full-time because the emotional blow and shame had left me completely hollow.

For 18 months I hid my wounded self on the remote tip of K’gari, (Fraser Island) in a brother’s empty house. While there, minus everything I’d previously used to define myself, I learned what actually matters. My motto became: 'I’m not what I have, and I’m not what I don’t have.'

When I finally returned to the mainland, I maintained my dignity the only way I could, through house sitting. It took many years to rebuild enough confidence to work again, even casually. When a year-long contract for a job I enjoyed ended, I was suddenly unemployed once more, but at least I’d managed to save a small emergency fund, thanks to all the house sitting.

Then in 2018, the unthinkable. My eldest son passed away at 33. If I thought losing everything financially had been devastating; losing my child was beyond words. Suffice to say profound grief rearranges every molecule of your life and at its worst, feels like it’s shredded every cell of your body.

Two more years passed. Then came the 2020 Covid lockdowns and house sitting evaporated overnight. Dear friends took me in for three months, followed by an offer of priority government housing in July that year. At last, the ground shifted.

With a secure place to live and access to the age pension, I dipped into freelance copywriting for a while. I was good at it but it never felt like home. So I wandered back to clay, my first love from decades earlier. I felt resistance in both of these endeavours. I didn't understand why but listened to my gut. I quickly realised pottery wasn’t feasible in a one-bedroom apartment, though I still love to make hand build pieces and play with patterns on clay.

Being fully creative eluded me until a sponsored post about Pattern Week appeared on my Instagram in early 2025. I signed up and everything changed.