Margaret Oppen

Margaret Oppen born Margaret "Daisy" Arnott (1890 – 1975) was an Australian artist, correspondent and embroiderer. She founded the Embroiderers' Guild branch in New South Wales. Her letters to her mother have been published as "Letters from Daisy".

Life Oppen was born in 1890 in Newcastle, New South Wales. Her mother was "Polly" Mary Eleanor, (born Dixon) and she called Margaret, "Daisy".

In 1924 she was cutting blocks and one of her woodcuts appeared in Art in Australia that year. In the following year her lino-cuts were in the Younger Group of Australian Artists exhibition in Sydney. She returned to Australia in 1934/5 with her husband, Hans Oppen, and their two children.

Oppen went to study again in London at the Royal School of Needlework and she joined the Embroiderers Guild. When she returned to Sydney she led a group who decided to open a branch of the guild in New South Wales. With permission of the guild's patron, Queen Mary, the branch was formed in 1955.

In 1967 she was teaching in evening classes as part of the Embroiderers' Guild of N.S.W. Summer School.

Death and legacy Oppen died in Sydney at the Royal North Shore Hospital in 1975. Every two years the Embroidery Guild of New South Wales has an open competition that is named in her honour as a founding member. In 2023 the prize was $500. The letters that she wrote home to her mother have been the basis of a limited publication titled "Letters from Daisy" created by members of her family.