About Us

Sue first started her craft/art journey many years ago (too many to count).  She and a friend decided they were going to make their first million at market stalls around the local area. They started decorating terracotta pots and had making a fortune in their sights. Well, it wasn’t meant to be. Sue then drifted away from the pots and moved her sights onto floral art and like the terracotta pots this wasn’t for her.

With encouragement from her husband Sue looked around for another platform and stumbled upon folk art painting. On arriving at her first-class Sue declared she wanted to paint roses (the hardest item to paint)! With perseverance and determination Sue soldiered on, attending classes weekly and picking up a paint brush at her every available minute, and two years on and many hours of practice she had created her own style and was able to paint roses freehand. 

After mastering the roses and attending multiple painting workshops, Sue looked into differing painting techniques. She came across a lovely lady by the name of Kai Rahnel and moved into painting more life like animals and scenes. Sue loved painting farm yard animals and it wasn’t unusual to go to house and discover a new piece of furniture transformed into a barnyard scene. These included several fridges with chickens and hen houses, back doors with cows and medicine cupboards with a duck!

After discovering a love for these new techniques Sue took up a new challenge of teaching. She ran weekly classes and several workshops for both adult and children. Throughout these years she developed many long lasting friendships and keeps in contact with many of these ladies today.

Sue became increasingly busy with her catering business and had a two year hiatus where she didn’t pick up a paintbrush at all. But in true style the itch became too big again and she resumed her painting and teaching and this time around adding judging at different shows to her repertoire. She also decided to go a little further with her teaching and attended road trips to more remote areas of N.S.W to teach in areas where teachers are a little hard to come by.

These days Sue’s painting passion has moved a little sideways. She has moved to upcycling and giving various items, (not just furniture) a new lease on life and a second chance at being loved! These items include mannequins that need a new style or books that have been bought back to life as a decorative item (see pictures in the Gallery section).   

In 2019 she decided to broaden out again and became a stockist of a brand of chalk paint called Artisan Paint Company- an all Australian made, decorating paint .  Again, it wasn’t in Sue’s nature not to share her new love so she continued with her Facebook Page ‘Second Time Round NSW’ offering advice, suggestions and tips to anyone who wanted or needed help. She also returned to teaching, offering 1 on 1 workshops where she visits people in their own home and work on correct techniques of upcycling furniture.

Throughout the years Sue and husband Neil (often with an array of family and friends) travelled extensively across South Africa where of course, she had to stop at every craft store she found and was able to discover many new and exciting items. It was in one of her many trips she discovered a transfer company who carried 32 beautiful designs and she decided she had to have them! After months of communication and waiting anxiously for her shipment to arrive, Sue is now the sole distributor of Hokus Pokus Transfers within Australia! Now she has diversified yet again offering wholesale availability to stores across Australia and retail availability for ladies like herself who want to give their pieces a chance to have their own second time round!

Sue is always more than willing to chat, answer questions or offer advice on upcycling, paint or brushes and of course her latest love, the Hocus Pocus Transfer range. Feel free to contact her via email, sue@secondtimeround.com.au or on her mobile 0407 918 593.