Rebecca the Wrecker

Swamp Cartography work is filtering out

2011-07-06T08:55:00.010+10:00

Swamp Cartography jewellery: cuttlefish cast and etched recycled sterling silver, etched copper and brass, beach pebbles, nylon

Since the opening of Swamp Cartography at Gympie in February I've been busy making new jewellery from this range to send around to stores. I've now stocked Pomme in Victoria, Sturt in NSW and Artisan in QLD with the above pieces. I'm enjoying making them and in teaching cuttlefish casting and etching workshops I have been freshly inspired by all the wonderful things that students have dared to try. Sometimes I wonder who is the student and who is the teacher! They come up with all sorts of interesting and strange ideas that I have learned to encourage because they often have fabulous results that defy my conservative expectations.Wallum Glass Pendants- resist painted and diamond point engraved by Shannon Garson these depict delicate Leptospermum flowers and Forked Sundews on our subtle palette of recycled and new sandblasted glass.

Shannon Garson and I have also sent off our Glass Wallum Pendants (above) to these places as well.

It has been a slow start to the year with one thing or another and I am still getting used to life on a bush block away from services that you take for granted in town.

Solar Studio launch - casting dirt to mark the opening of the big shed

However, we have just built a fantastic solar powered studio for my partner Russell Anderson with promises that mine will be next. I can't wait to move out of my dingy southwest facing garage which has few advantages in winter. Somewhere in the middle of all that a baby is expected to appear in October so construction timelines, not unlike my waistline, could get a bit extended!

Stormy weather

2011-01-31T10:53:00.000+10:00

There is a severe thunderstorm warning issued for parts of the south east.
A thick band of storms...

Torrential rain and flash flooding. People are advised to take shelter.
I wonder what is beyond that thick wall of water falling from the sky?

Did I see a glimmer?
Rain easing.

Scattered showers.
Sun Ah.

Underneath the storm is like walking under a waterfall into another world.

These 4 brooches about storms sweeping across the Wallum were created during the recent floods when we received about half a meter of thundery rain in 4 days and the side of the hill slipped away. Making them was difficult, the first batch lost to rising waters and when I was seperated from my etching bath for way too long. After that I was too careful with the etching and achieved conservative and boring results. Despondency.

So I pretended to be a risk taker and put the bath in the hot sun which had finally emerged. Forgetting about it, I discovered these rugged results some hours later. Weathered brooches. Eroded by the torrents of rain and beaten by the sun. Plucked to safety minutes before total disintergration.

Botanical Gardens

2010-12-08T13:24:00.002+10:00

Due to a wash-out last weekend we cancelled our YDM stall because did not want to sit in the rain all day and have no customers. However we have found indoor premises for a show at the lovely Mt Cootha Botanical Gardens this weekend! Take that rain!

It has been such a wet year - in my new home in the clouds of Maleny we have had asylum seeker froggies hopping under doors and through windows at night to get out of the rain so you have to be careful where you step! You know it's wet when the frogs can't take it anymore!

HANDMADE PORCELAIN AND JEWELLERY

Because Shannon and I got rained out at the Young Designers Market last week we'd love you to come to our special Christmas event in Brisbane, undercover!

Our work will be on sale at the delightful Richard Randall Studio Gallery in the Mt Cootha Botanical Gardens this Saturday and Sunday 10am - 4pm.

SUNDAY SOIREE
Drop in on Sunday afternoon for a mocktail and some lovely cheese and biccies with Shannon and I and Bettina Palmer, who has kindly invited us to exhibit.

Where: Richard Randall Studio, Mt Cootha Botanicial Gardens
(on the left as you drive in to the garden carpark)

When: 10am - 4pm Saturday December 11th and Sunday December 12th

Soiree from 1-4pm on Sunday afternoon
--

Rain Rain go away

2010-12-02T10:39:00.001+10:00

I'm sharing a one-off stall with Shannon Garson at the Young Designer's Market this Sunday. So if you are in Brisbane you should come along and support us! If you can't make it, perhaps you might pray to your deity for decent weather!

We'll have some of our new Swamp Cartography work there as well as some glass jewels, porcelain and other great giftage.

Little Stanley Street South Bank
10am - 4pm this Sunday 5th December

Robur Wedding Rings

2010-11-12T15:18:00.010+10:00

I just married sculptor and mechanical extraordinaire Russell Anderson, and moved to acreage near Maleny.

We decided to make our own wedding rings and we wanted something that reflected our shared love of botany and the natural world and combined my jewellery skills with Russ's skills in 3d modelling. So we used rapid prototyping techniques and designed them (really Russ did all the slaving and swearing at the computer) and had waxes produced and cast in 18 carat yellow gold.

The original image was taken earlier this year during a visit to Cooloola National Park where a particular Robur Banksia (Swamp Banksia) caught our eye. Russ was able to overlay the image onto a model of the ringshank. On the morning of the wedding foul curses could be heard as I hunted though packing boxes for tools to remove the sprues and sharp edges from the castings in my brand new studio!

For a process so digital and printerly, the rings are satisfyingly heavy and tactile. Though the contour lines of production betray the method of manufacture, they echo the serrations of the banksia leaves and evoke cuttlefish patterning.

New Studio in the Treetops

2010-11-01T16:48:00.002+10:00

When waking up to this inspiration in the mornings, it is important to have a jewellery studio with a great outlook.

With this in mind, I have set up temporary digs in our garage which has the luxury of space and concrete floors, a step up from my previous studio. And I can watch the lizards and snakes basking on the gravel as I swat away at the relentless march flies (in the ointment).

As we are on stand alone solar power, I have to take care to only use heavy consumption power tools on sunny days or in the mornings on wet days. Not too difficult as I hate working at nights!

Now I can safely say that in my creative practice not only is all the silver I use recycled, but all the power is solar.

Expect to see some new shoots.

aussie pride

2010-10-20T10:56:00.000+10:00

As the Australian sense of irony takes flight like a winged iced vovo, laminex boomerangs spin back to hit us in the neck.

Some recent works on show at Marks and Gardner, Australian Icons Exhibition.

"Once we found American flag-waving distasteful and 'over the top'. Now we try to out-wave, without having experienced the trauma of a terror attack on our soil to justify such displays of national pride and defiance."

Anne Summers, challenging the adoption of 'Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oi, oi, oi', as our international anthem, Radio National. Noice.

Intimate Landscapes

2010-06-24T14:01:00.003+10:00

I have some work in a Redlands group jewellery/metal show coming up soon and also a piece selected for the Waterhouse Natural History Art prize in South Australia.

Lucky me!

Growing things

2010-06-09T13:30:00.000+10:00

Shannon is correct in saying that art like Wallum takes a long time to grow. Of course there is some that obligingly pops up like mushrooms overnight, but this is definitely not of the fungi variety. Maybe I am using the wrong fertiliser. I won't go into what makes mushrooms grow so well under commercial conditions but I'm sure you are all familiar with the substance.

I guess if these were any kind of fungi, these would be the tiny wild ones that may or may not pop up under decaying leaves and branches by their own unfathomable whim. Which leads me to suspect I have been inadvertently clever in not tidying up the rich litter layer that is my bench as it has finally produced some results.
These little leptospermum flowers scratched into ashphaltum coated silver plate by Shannon have been sitting on my bench mocking me for months, too precious to commit to. Visitors say 'what are you going to do with those?' I mutter expletives under my breath. But now I have a much more polite answer.
I think patience is a great virtue and one that is good to have when dealing with acid. Like gloves. They were etched very slowly over days in a very weak brew of nitric acid so the detail is superb even though the etch is shallow. I'm thinking of starting the slow etch movement. I'm sure it will make my practice even more lucrative and in this age of conservation it is probably time to start dissolving precious metals alot more slowly.

So after procrastinating for ages, I cut them out, soldered posts on the back, drilled some holes and made this necklace. It is very simple. Why I couldn't do that earlier I will never understand.

Tidy up

2010-05-06T15:27:00.004+10:00

Running out of oxygen in my cylinder meant no more soldering today. I made myself clean my bench so it looks more aesthetically pleasing than the usual ugly mess incorporating dead moths and gecko leavings.

Silver and Porcelain Impressions

2010-04-30T09:49:00.006+10:00

I made these pendants and earrings in collaboration with Shannon Garson for our project.

The little silver sticks are cast in cuttlefish bones which is why they have a slight wavy texture. A straight stick is also used as a catch.

Etching flipflops

2010-04-26T19:26:00.003+10:00

A new necklace from Swamp Cartography. Made from photo etched silver sheet and Stradbroke Island pebbles. I imagine the pebbles were formed millions of years ago from bits of mountains long worn away. They weathered off and travelled down to a giant river valley now known as Moreton Bay. Masses of river rocks were tumbled along in its surging waters getting knocked about and polished and eventually sinking in sand and mud. Iceages came and went. More recently they were dredged up by the pacific swell and deposited at my toes on a beach on an island.
While this geological drama unfolded, plants, animals and people were evolving on the appearing and disappearing landforms.
In my necklace each piece of silver can flipover like a pebble in the surf . Different plants and combinations are revealed: wallum banksia, bracken fern, coral fern, pouched coral fern, twigrushes, reeds. Strange looking plants with prickly foliage. Each time the necklace is handled it changes with the flipflopping of the silver.

Midyims and Nujigums: Navigating by the Flowers.

2010-03-18T12:20:00.002+10:00

Midyims (top) and Nujigums (below)

I've been thinking about the different ways we use maps and navigation techniques to get around the wallum and find various plants. Recently I was walking around the backroads of Cooloola National Park with my technology savvy companion who relies on GPS to get around town and bush. You can see contour marks, roads, compass and where you have been on this gadget so it makes it quite difficult to get lost unless the batteries run out. Luddism makes me triumphant when this happens! I am wary of such technology, preferring an old style paper map, a fairly good sense of direction, some visible landmarks and a 'solar derived' notion of north. But all these devices, new and old, while setting out to 'close the distance' also seem to somehow put a distance between person and landscape so that you can pass through a place without knowing or feeling or being there.

Shannon and I were at Peel Island last month walking through cypress and eucalypt forest with the National Parks ranger looking for a narrow slither of wallum . Peel is quite flat and I lost my bearings soon after leaving the road. As Shannon related, we were being carefully guided so we found the open wallum fairly directly. We made our observations, took our photos and the snakes kindly let us though. Then we took a 'short-cut' back to the road through a dense and high fern, peat and melaleuca forest which required us to push through with our whole bodies. Evidently the forest had regenerated after fire more quickly than our guide anticipated. For a brief moment we had that feeling of being lost. Everything looked the same. Forest stretched as far as we could see in all directions and every few steps the false floor of the peat layer gave way and we fell through to the true ground like Alice in Wonderland. But we did feel that we were really 'there', wherever 'there' was.

This experience led me to ask Shane Coghill, traditional owner how he would navigate when landmarks are not easy to see. He related how pathways to significant sites are told in stories and it may be years before this knowledge is called upon. And when it is, there is considerable pressure to find the site, with knowledge concentrated in a chosen few to keep the sites safe. In what would probably sound like mysterious metaphor to me, the story might describe the patches of midyims and nujigum (pronounced midge-ims and nudge-ims) and their delicious berries along the way. Knowing the plants is important and the seasons too, as deadly snakes are associated with these species at certain times of the year. Children are warned off the delicious fruiting midyims (now fruiting) for fear of the death adder which hides under foliage, tempting berry-eating wrens with a protein hit by wiggling its tiny worm-like tail. And the tell-tale blue staining on a child's mouth will alert a watchful parent if they have been spending too long feasting on Nujigums where red bellied black snakes are found.

So this awareness, with an intimate understanding and embodiment of the spirit of the land makes it possible to find places without paper maps or high-end GPS equipment. That there is more going on than the graphical representations of contour lines is both fascinating and mysterious to me and presents a new way of being here/there.

It is this kind of mapping and the creative journey that I think of when rolling the words "Swamp Cartography" around in my head. I hope that the jewellery, ceramics and glass works that we create will have the immediacy of notes taken along the way.

Twig Impressions Experiment

2010-02-11T16:28:00.009+10:00

Working on the Wallum Project and teaching a cuttlefish casting workshop at the BIA I have been inspired to venture out of my happy little comfort zone in cuttlefish casting by making impressions of these leptospermum twiglets from the Wallum. Inspired by what the students dared to do in class after informing them that "it probably wouldn't work but give it a go anyway", I found I was able to get quite delicate impressions in the cuttlefish bone. These castings are only 5cm long, to give an idea of scale. I also pressed some of the tiny tea tree seed cases into the cuttlefish, closed up the mould and poured molten scrap silver from the crucible to make these 2 pieces of double sided sheet: The castings are relief style owing to a brass sheet inner cutout mold. And the cuttlefish pattern shows its wavy texture in the background. Quite appropriately too I would say, as the cuttlefish bones were all found along beaches adjacent to Wallum/heath coastal areas like Kangaroo Island and Bribie Island.

Wallum Etch

2010-01-08T15:16:00.003+10:00

For the full story go to the Wallum blog.

My Favorite Things: Porcelain, Jewellery, Cheese

2009-12-01T11:23:00.006+10:00

I'm popping up in Maleny this weekend with some tasty and nourishing jewellery for the

Shannon Garson Porcelain Studio Sale

Begins....Saturday December the 5th 9 am

23 Cedar St Maleny

featuring ...Jewellery by Rebecca Ward & catering by Cedar St Cheeserie

Studio open for the month of December.

Be there early or I'll have eaten all the cheese!

I want to

2009-10-22T06:22:00.001+10:00

And we shall. Though the mode of travel will be surface based. Today we are heading to North Stradbroke Island for 4 days to work on the Wallum project.

I'm looking forward to working with Shannon more intensely than is possible during short trips. Amongst fieldtripping we will do some experiments with clay and molding. And on the Friday we are being guided by Shane Coghill from Mookin Bibonmari Aboriginal Tours and will learn about the indigenous Goenpul culture of the island and visit some wallum areas.

And in between all the hard work I hope to get in a few swims and sleeps to recover from a busy time working and teaching!

Earthing Pebbles

2009-10-14T16:15:00.005+10:00

I made a pebble rainbow on the floor but could never really do these worn beach pebbles justice in a piece of jewellery. But that doesn't stop me from trying.

These Pebbles in a Pebble pendants are for new UK stockist Serena Hall Gallery in Suffolk and Framed in Darwin, Australia. I'm hoping that twirling the timeless pebbles will help to earth people in opposite hemispheres. Or at least give them something to do while caught in traffic.

iNana2.0

2009-10-06T07:23:00.008+10:00

Months of R&D has resulted in the release of iNana2.0. Let's hope it lasts longer than the ill-famed snack of a similar name since disapproval was expressed at the highest levels .

CNC (computer numerical control) routing is scary new technology for a neo-luddite to be messing around with but I was lucky to have a spirit guide into this strange twilight world in the form of bubble-mage, Russell Anderson and the sexy CNC machine that he built. It just merrily zooms around tracing out the shapes with a drill-like bit while you watch closely to make sure it doesn't go beserk. It certainly beats cutting out the shapes with a jewellers saw! And the time I save on cleaning up the edges can be spent ingratiating myself with the Nana Mouskouri fan club. The shapes (3 different styles of Nana eyewear representing the length and breadth of her career) still get pressed onto 4 different kinds of glass (sparkle, Japanese floret, tarando and starburst) and all the other bits are handmade so don't think I have completely gone to the darkside. I'm just dipping my toes in.A reworking of my nana pins, these nifty summer accessories now sport new slimline stainless steel pins and reinforced bridge. We cut out my latest Nana 100%s from the White Rose of Athens (sung in German) LP. Four of these 12 (Edition No. 14) are already heading off to Athens for a customer over there who has dined with Nana herself at a restaurant in the nations capital! It gives me the shivers just thinking about it.

I've also make snack size versions of the Nana 100% brooches. I will have them all at Brisbane Finders Keepers market although if you want to buy one via mail just drop me a line and you can make your selection.

Wallum Hakea

2009-09-02T20:04:00.007+10:00

On a recent trip to Tin Can Bay and Rainbow Beach I found a forest of Hakea actites and a story to tell. On one side of the road, vegetation was struggling along with old dry woody seedpods and fine needly sheoak type leaves. They'd been heroically carrying the heavy lumpish pods at least a year. The other side of the road was all but wiped out by a scorching fire. In this monotonal landscape of burned sticks, the Hakea pods had opened up to reveal a surprisingly rich interior. The seeds were well protected in these tough old pods just waiting for a fire hot enough to open and release them onto a scorched earth. There they will have little competition and can proliferate in the fertile remains of their ancestors. Sex and death in a nutshell.

Shannon Garson and I have just been awarded an Arts Queensland to explore the Wallum and create new jewellery, porcelain and glass work in response. See our new blog.

Louvre Lovers

2009-02-04T10:47:00.006+10:00

Still in Beta testing but with Valentine's day (a great day for louvres) on the horizon I made this louvre-lover bracelet. It moves like a snake and looks a bit like an army of processionary caterpillars cruelly joined into a circle marching towards certain starvation and death. Not that these comparisons are at all metaphorical.

Louvres, much like lovers, are great when they actually work. When the louvre-lever moves easily and opens to let in the cool breezes or closes tight to shut out the storms, burglars and mosquitoes they are indeed a pleasure to have around. But too often the mechanism corrodes and they either shut out the cool breezes or let in the storms, burglars and mosquitoes. Sometimes when panes are missing they cunningly manage to do both. People then opt for the short-term paneless solution: louvres are removed to be replaced by hideous fixed aluminium framed windows and air-con units to speed our headlong march towards aesthetic extinction.

Fortunately this means I've plenty of lovely louvres, more than a decent girl has any right to have. It makes me wish that jewellery made from the goddamned stuff was more popular.

The naughty pee

2009-01-20T07:45:00.001+10:00

Come and sea the naughty pee

It may not be your cup of tee

but drink with me and you shall see

How much fun a pea can bee.

More pea poetry here.

Nibble story. *Nibble (by Shannon Garson and Rebecca Ward) @ ADORN, a group ceramic jewellery and glass exhibition of leading Australian makers opens
Friday 6pm -9pm the 23 January 2009, the show runs until Saturday 7 February.

Venue: Fusions Gallery, 483 Brunswick Street, Fortitude Valley. PH: + 61 7 3358 5122

Marianne Huhn button brooches

2008-12-14T17:51:00.006+10:00

These are some brooches I made using 3 gorgeous Marianne Huhn porcelain buttons owned by Shannon . I spent ages looking for her online before I realised I'd missread her signature on the back of the button - Huhn not Kuhn!

Marianne says of her work "I wanted to build on the idea of containment in our lives. I used maps and borders in our landscape and houses and the roles they play in our lives, to speak about the pots function of containment." The buttons certainly fit well here then containing people as they do in swathes of cloth. I also love the translation into buttons of these map fragments- so you can glance down at your coat to get your bearings. It makes me think of the cloth labels we had to wear as children in the first week of school with our name and grade on it.

Anyway I get to keep one. I bags the one with 17 on it (my childhood street number). I know there is always a room for me at number 17 - or so mum threatens! They are made with rubber, st silver and stainless steel. I'd like to say that the rubber discs are a well thought out reference to the streetscape graphics on the porcelain but they were just some bits and bobs I'd collected from Reverse Garbage which happen to conceal the hinge of the pin.

Fabulous Students

2008-12-12T21:19:00.011+10:00

My BIA Intro to Gold and Silversmithing students had their final exhibition last week and they made these wonderful pieces ( I was very proud and loved what they did with the etching):Pierce Hirth: Matchbox Cover (etched pattern on side) sterling silver, sterling silver match, paper clip and ring pull, florin set in sterling silver

Melody Chen: Motif 1 (sterling silver, gemstone beads, freshwater pearls). Based on Chinese design motif.

Kristina Sinclair: Three etched pendants and 2 rings. Sterling silver (some oxidised).

Fiona Kurnadi: Paisley Brooch and Hairpin. Sterling silver.

Diana Jamieson: Etched Necklace. Sterling silver (etched), laminex, neoprene.

Ross Carew (who actually did my Found Objects in Jewellery course): Driftwood Pendant. Found driftwood, sterling silver, neoprene.

I'm so lucky to have this arts community on my doorstep. I especially realised this when I popped down yesterday to get these photos and the place was a-buzz. Linda Beck, ceramics tutor was having a studio sale and I picked up this wonderful sexy new teapot and swapped some fresh eggs for their yummy Ashgrovian honey...

BIA classes for summer semester and next year are now online...

the night of the termites

2008-12-01T21:10:00.003+10:00

I went to bed early to escape
dealing with
a foolish fancy involving at least one woodenhead and a large quantity of sand
so missed the night of the termites.
but when i awoke
the floor under windows, doors, openings
was drifted with tiny transparent wings
their bold and reckless flight
reaping similar rewards to my own.

Made By Hand @ Kelvin Grove - Sneak Peak

2008-11-25T17:30:00.009+10:00

Some of the lovely things on sale this weekend:

Threads Revisited - vintage glass beads, sterling silver, pebbles Uboat- Sterling silver, pebbles, 18K and 24K gold

Sea Jewels Necklaces - Recycled window glass, sterling silver

Drifter Ring- sterling silver (cuttlefish cast)

Drifter Earrings - Sterling silver, NZ beach pebbles

*MADE BY HAND @ KELVIN GROVE URBAN VILLAGE* Brisbane

Fine Porcelain (Shannon Garson)

Contemporary Jewellery (Rebecca Ward)

FRIDAY 28 November 4pm - 8pm
AND
SATURDAY 29 November 9am - 3pm.
Venue: Shop R5b, The Village Centre
cnr Musk Avenue and Caraway Street
Kelvin Grove Urban Village
Undercover parking available via Ramsgate Street (free on weekends).

Cash and cheque payments only please.

For information
Phone: 07 3861 0157 or 0411 213 610
Email: rebeccawardjewellery@optusnet.com.au

East, West, South Rings

2008-11-13T16:12:00.006+10:00

A few weeks ago I had a studio visit from Sue Clement from Pomme, a fantastic gallery on Mornington Peninsula that stocks my jewellery. She was taking the time to visit her QLD artists and turned out to be as lovely in real life as in email! She also gave me heaps of excellent advice about my work, delivered in such a charming way that it did not raise my hackles at all! While looking at the mini Pebbles in Pebbles (each around 2.5 - 3cm in diameter) she popped one on top of her finger and said "Have you ever thought of making rings out of these?" "I don't normally make rings", I nearly blurted but it looked so nice on her finger and she does have some experise in retailing jewellery so it started to penetrate my consciousness...

After a few different design ideas I came up with the above trilogy. They are East, West and South for the colours of the pebbles and where they were collected (East=Orange=Katiki Beach; West=Grey=Okarito Beach; South=Green=Orepuki Beach).

For sale at Made By Hand starting on Saturday!

Bookclubbing 30th

2008-11-11T18:44:00.007+10:00

I was recently commissioned to make these 9 commemorative brooches for my mother's bookclub. They've be going for 30 years! Each brooch is cut from a piece of wavy cuttlefish-cast sheet and has a freshwater pearl dangling. Because of my inability to control the casting process very well (I get the shakes around molten metal!) some of the books are thicker than others. Much like in my mother's bookclub. The books, not the ladies! Everything from vast sweeping sagas encompassing the lives of 5 generations across 4 continents to racy Jilly Cooper's to Janette Turner Hospital's tales of life in our pig city.

It has to be said though that conversation in bookclub rarely turned to books. 10 or so boxes of them sat there in the middle of the room providing a convenient excuse for a girly get-together just in case they were challenged by a disgruntled husband. There were much more interesting things to talk about than literature, high or low. Life of course was the main topic of conversation as these women grew careers, families and later grand children and compared notes on all of the above.

We used to love it when mum hosted bookclub. We hid under the covers while the ladies cackled, chomped and gulped their way through the evening's program of news, tasty nibblies and vino. Dad beat a hasty retreat to wherever it is that Dads go in these situations. Although our suburb was dry so it couldn't have been the pub.
So if you see anyone wearing one of these pins, you'll know what secret society they belong to!

Made By Hand x 3

2008-11-04T08:41:00.005+10:00

You are invited to Made By Hand.
Porcelain artist Shannon Garson and contemporary jeweller Rebecca Ward have created a very special exhibition sale for 2008 with an emphasis on individual, classic, environmentally-aware porcelain and jewellery.
There are four different times spread over three venues leading up to the end of the year.

Made by Hand @ Maleny Studio Sale

Saturday 15 November
9am - 4pm
Venue: The Studio
23 Cedar Street
Maleny

Made by Hand @ Kelvin Grove Urban Village

Friday 28 November 4pm - 8pm &
Saturday 29 November 9am - 3pm.
Venue: Shop R5b, The Village Centre
cnr Musk Avenue and Caraway Street
Kelvin Grove Urban Village
Undercover parking available via Ramsgate Street (free on weekends).

Made by Hand @ GoMA
Gallery Store Christmas Design Market

Saturday 6 December
9am - 5pm
Venue: Gallery Store forecourt
GoMA - Gallery of Modern Art
Stanley Place, South Brisbane

Cash and cheque payments only please.

For information
Phone: 07 3861 0157 or 0411 213 610
Email: shannongarson@yahoo.com
www. shannongarson.com
www.rebeccawardjewellery.com

Toto, I have the feeling...

2008-10-08T07:50:00.000+10:00

Opening this Friday night and including jewellery by Rebecca Ward and Eleisha Nylund:

'TOTO I HAVE THE FEELING WE'RE NOT IN KANSAS ANY MORE .... a lively and diverse exhibition of works from more than twenty artists employed at Brisbane Institute of Art. The exhibition opens at 6.30pm on Friday October 10. Exhibition hours are Monday to Friday 10.00am to 4.00pm, October 6 to October 29.

I've been enjoying teaching at the Brisbane Institute of Art which is handily located around the corner. At the moment I am teaching 2 x 18 week Intro to Gold and Silversmithing classes. We are doing etching for the next 2 weeks, not using nitric acid but ferric chloride (copper/brass) and ferric nitrate (silver) - these are not as hazardous as nitric! I am also taking some short weekend classes coming up. I believe there are still places for people with some jewellery experience avaialable in the Jewellery/ Found Objects weekend course 1 & 2 Nov ...

A Boy Turns 50

2008-09-30T18:05:00.012+10:00

A two-sided pendant for a friend of mine. Well it's actually for her hunky I-can't believe-he's-turning-50 bloke who likes to mess around with Studebaker engines.

1. I found this quite wonderful sketch of a souped-up studebaker engine below by a drawing blogger, Zeke Miller:2. Fused it with my rekindled love of Road Killed Metal ( I can feel a new range coming on):

3. Got me some texture- rough manly texture from bashing silver into the road (confounding the postman) and the top texture from rollerprinting stamped/scratched brass:

4. Finally I snuk in a 22 carat gold dome for Mr Heart of Gold, rivetted it all together, did some extra detailing and oxidising and brass brushed.

I was quite chuffed how it turned out- hope he likes it!

Green media

2008-08-15T08:17:00.007+10:00

Peppermint Magazine - 1st issue out now

A new Brisbane-based green fashion magazine printed on 100% recycled paper has just been launched and some of my shark shard jewellery is included. Peppermint Magazine can be bought online here.

Also I just discovered another cool new green shopping blog Growing Up Green posting my neo luddite range.

Longreach Trip

2008-08-07T08:55:00.009+10:00

Longreach metal dump.

I've just returned from Longreach, in the heart of QLD where I gave a course in Contemporary Jewellery as past of the 40th School of Creative Arts for Arts West. It was a remarkable experience- a 4-day workshop teaching students with a range of abilities how to incorporate non-traditional materials with more standard jewellery-making techniques.

The students were different from city students. For a start they were very, very strong. "Tighten the clamp," I said to the tall genteel-looking Sue from the 70 000acre property. Next thing, SNAP and she'd broken that heavy cast iron g-clamp just by tightening the wing nut! My half-round pliers met a similar fate in the hands of a sapphire miner. This was a man who had no use for hand moisturiser preferring to repair the cracks on his fingers and thumb with super-glue, so I should have been warned! After that my mantra became "gently, gently": these people had a dangerous affinity for heavy tools.

One of the highlights of the trip was visiting my student Cayley's farm where she showed off her orphaned joeys, emu chick and the amazing bottle dumps and metal dumps on the property. There was hours of fossicking to be done but the sun was slowly setting- my eyes were drawn particularly to the solarised amethyst glass. It was the introduction of manganese as a decolourant to the flux (most common during 1870's - 1915 and later between the wars) that gives it the purple colour. Some of it started off as clear glass but exposure to many years of hot baking sun has turned it ever more purple. Back over the years, standard practice on a property was to gather the rubbish every so often and haul it off to a different spot each time and dump it on the surface. So Cayley's place is dotted with these dumps that she keeps finding. While this seems unacceptable in a culture that prefers to bury its huge amounts of waste like it never happened, exposure to light and air is essential for many organics and plastics to biodegrade and that some cities are starting to allow this to happen after munching up all the waste first and putting in in rows to compost.

A visit to the cemetery was another highlight, especially to the keeping place of indigenous remains only just recently returned to country from museums and universities all over the world. Fellow tutor, Judy Barrass pointed out some poignant memorials on the gibber marked pauper graves: wheel hubs and dustbin lids filled with cement and stamped with homemade lettering tools with messages like "we miss you" and "ernie our old mate". These seemed to encapsulate the sentiment of the people and the strong thread of self-reliant craftsmanship that runs through the bush. I also noted that these cement memorials seemed to be holding up better than some of the marble headstones.

Meeting people who came from all around western QLD and hearing about life on the other side of the great divide was refreshing and humbling. I was reminded of the reasons we are living so high in the city: because in the big backyard of the state the fat of the land and minerals are being stripped out with little of the profits seeming to find their way back over the range. I keep wondering when the bubble will burst.

2008-07-18T11:15:00.006+10:00

Some more Longshore Drifter jewellery making its way north and me collecting the greywacke and schist pebbles at Okarito Beach. Thanks Wayne for the photos of Okarito.

These tiny Okarito pebbles were collected during my last trip to NZ. When we 1st arrived at Okarito Beach which is renowned for its alpine views, a big storm had been through and instead of Alps, we found Falps- F for foam. This kept Wayne busy with the camera for some time chuckling away at his pun.

Okarito is a sad place for me and it was difficult making these pieces, even after a year. But as photos help me remember, the morning after the terrible storm, the weather cleared and the alps revealed themselves as I took tea on the beach and managed a smile. And there were the lenticular clouds, lenses of icecrystals, always forming in the path of turbulence. Or in the case of New Zealand, always forming!

You Boats

2008-07-12T17:44:00.005+10:00

This is a new brooch to go up to Umbrella Collective show at Kick Arts. Made from Orepuki pebbles, cuttlefish cast silver, 18 and 24 K gold. The little word flipper says LOOK and FIND. The U in 24 K gold refers to U boats or my pun, You Boats: the way we carry our baggage in bathtub like vessels on perilous journeys to nowhere very much but the stuff we hold precious is beautiful and interesting and often gets us sunk along the way.

So it is a "Look and Find U Boat". I was thinking of the German U boats (underwater submarine type things) suicidally sunk in Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands North of mainland Scotland at the end of WWI. Sunk by the Germans rather than letting the Brits get them, they are now the worlds largest reserve of non-radio active steel as they were submerged before the nuclear age and the steel is protected by being underwater. Now they are harvested for space exploration. How do I know this? Well I once took a tour of the Orkney Islands with Mad Uncle Mike who filmed the entire thing in real time.

End-of-the-day Celluloid Earrings

2008-06-27T18:11:00.005+10:00

Recently a client bought to me a lovely old but fragile and broken celluloid fan.
It is not unlike these end-of-the-day fans found here.
Like end-of-the-day glass, end-of-the-day celluloid is when all the scraps were melted up together in crazy swirly patterns. I have no idea how old the fan is but the material smelled strongly of camphor when I was cutting it. the earrings are fitted with 18 carat gold fittings which sets off the bright rich tones beautifully I think!

Happenings

2008-06-16T19:29:00.005+10:00

The Fox Went Out on a Chilly Night : Shannon Garson (porcelain) Rebecca Ward (jewellery).

A quick update as the nights grow cold and I take care to lock up the chickens from foxy-loxy.
There is exhibition and public program running at QUT Art Museum at the moment called

craft revolution
june 5 - july 13

With a story about us (the Umbrella Collective) on the Craft Revolution blog

Kylie Johnson is having a table at the market night this wednesdayJune 18th selling a small selection of umbrella collective work which includes some of mine.

I'm stressing out this week as my students at BIA have their graduating show opening this friday night at 6:30pm - the pressure is on as hardly any of them have finished their final pieces!

Finally I have some work in a sustainable fashion and jewellery exhibition for June-July at Brisbane Square Library,
on level 2
266 George Street
Library & Customer Centre
Brisbane City Council Library Service
Ph: + 61(0) 7 3403 4166

All at sea

2008-05-28T15:35:00.002+10:00

Driftin' by Dan Hicks (excerpt)

Sittin' in the shade of a tree
That was meant for me
A little tired from sun and
Sittin' there to feel the breeze
And the memories
I let my thoughts go runnin'
No major discoveries
I just let myself ride
Why was I so at ease?
I can't decide

Sittin' 'neath the tree idly
That was so shady
I let myself envision
Thinkin' of the dreams
And the scenes I could see
For me
And what was my decision?
I knew that the sun was out
But how long would it shine?
Soon closing in, no doubt
But I had time

And I'm driftin'
No, no direction
Chasin' thought after thought
Driftin'
Into reflection
And I don't want it to stop

A Glamorous Occupation

2008-05-22T09:32:00.007+10:00

Above: Longshore Drifter Choker with textured cuttlefish castings and Orepuki pebbles.

I recently visited Kangaroo Island for a week and stayed with family at Vivonne Bay- a glorious beach on the Southern Ocean. I had a wonderful time exploring the coastline, playing with the kids and veging out in the gentle southern sun.

Above: Wrecker collecting cuttlefish bones - photo: Roy Ward

There were plenty of big fat cuttlefish bones for me to collect for my casting and plenty of room in my backpack for them after I'd emptied out the pressies for my rellies. Most of the fragile bones survived the trip back on a budget airline with my wintery clothes packed all around them though you can imagine the smell of 50 or so damp, barnacle encrusted cuttlefish and how that may permeate ones woollens!

Now I don't normally smell too good when I step off a plane after travelling all day and I was hoping that neither man nor beast would get close enough to be overcome or aroused by the vapours. All I can say is it's a testament to the olafactory disabling symptoms of hayfever that my friend actually stopped the car and picked me and my backpack up from the airport.

Of course the stink continues into the home studio with the casting process which subjects the cuttlefish to temperatures 800 deg+ and I thank the stars that my flatmate also suffers from hayfever. Maybe I wish I did too.

Walk up Eildon

2008-05-11T19:34:00.008+10:00

Pill Hill

Above: The concrete crust
bottles smashed
their messages lie
sometimes
the crow crows

Below:
Dark fluids
swirl and elude
seeking an opening

to flood

the fish fishes.

Between:
You and I
brittle concrete
the shell shells.

Boomerang Swingers

2008-05-06T14:56:00.016+10:00

I've been slack with the online stuff lately - busy, busy me. Yep I've been busy with lots of new activities.

Including teaching at the BIA, wholesale orders, avoiding my new computer which though finally out of its box and plugged in needs software installed before I can do anything, visiting friends & family, enjoying life etc. But now that I have commenced 3 mths long service leave from my Uni admin job, I'm running out of excuses and finding time for some new designs.

Like these Boomerang Swinger and Retro Swinger earrings made from recycled laminex (contemporary) and sterling silver that I gave birth to last week. Despite the pointy geometry you'll be glad to know it was a quick and easy labour and the pairs of twins are doing just fine.

I love these 50's boomerang shapes that you see in architectural details of bridges, houses, carparks and on barkcloth and laminex/formica of the era and reproductions of today. It seems boomerang patterns have quite a following among the lovers of retro as a basic google/flickr search reveals.

Above is the rather wonderful and in the process of being lovingly restored Boomerang House courtesy of Boomerang Thang who did not mind me using his photo: "in true boomerang style, I say, give it away and it will come back to you". So long as it doesn't hit you in the head I reckon.

The Windbag Award

2008-02-03T20:08:00.001+10:00

Recognition at last for the amazing Florence Forrest.
The Windbag Award.
Made from a schist pebble from Windbag Creek, st silver, 24 ct gold.
You rock Florence!

Qantas Inflight Mag Feb 2008

2008-02-02T09:29:00.000+10:00

This came out yesterday and I've been fielding requests for the Famous Bullet Cuff. Eeek - one of the major problems with recycling is running out of a specific type of material and not being able to get on the phone and reorder. So it's back out to the rifle range for me as soon as I can convince someone to drive me there- a bit too far on the old push bike!

If anyone is travelling on Qantas, please tear out this page for me.

Count Me the Stars

2008-01-31T20:58:00.000+10:00

This sterling silver necklace made from my recycled silver scrap (a genuine Wrecker piece) is a commission for a dear friend, Kylie Johnson. Little did I know when I first met Kylie nearly 30 years ago that she would become a published poet and successful artist. Although I probably should have guessed from all her crazy drawings and letters.

We both grew up in the same street and did Junior Red Cross together with Kylie's talented and artistic mum who was such an inspiration to us. Reconnecting with Kylie in recent years through mutual friends and joining the Umbrella Collective has been wonderful.
Kylie's gorgeous book, Count Me the Stars, published by Murdoch Books is being launched tomorrow night at GoMA, Brisbane. The necklace that the glamorous author will be wearing is inspired by the book cover art. The book is printed on 100% recycled paper just as the necklace is made from my melted down silver scrap. I was so happy with the way it turned out as I was trying to capture the essence of Kylie's artwork and fuse it with my own approach. It makes me so happy and proud to be part of this celebration.

Congratulations Kylie! And great work on the new website and blog! We knew you'd join us in the 21st Century and it was well worth the wait.

New Years Day Frags

2008-01-02T17:25:00.000+10:00

Squally showers


Damaging gale force SE winds possible
near the coast,
while winds inland will be fresh
and gusty and also from the SE.

Battered past fragments wait under the SheOak
Turned over exposed
New years eve recycling
Champagne wastes on a beer budgie
Blown curlywigs obscure the path
While we approach.
the next
moment, day, year
never to arrive.

MoB Workspace Studio Sale 2007

2007-11-27T08:00:00.000+10:00

Get on down to City Hall, Brisbania on Thursday and Friday for this:

You won't regret it. And it is the last one I'll be in after leaving the space earlier this year.

Flatliners in Deep North

2007-11-21T06:19:00.001+10:00

Flying Pig

All you need is love

Frutti Tutti Cowboys & Indians

I created this selection of Flatliners for the Toy Box exhibition at Kick Arts Shop in Cairns. Opening Fri 23 Nov and continues until Sat 29 Dec. Xmas shopping preview with discounts Thurs 5-7pm.

The melty men were Policemen, Cowboys and Indians. They couldn't take the heat of our deep north.

Now I am Bound for here this weekend for some chillaxation.

What's on the beer fridge this week?

2007-11-16T08:02:00.000+10:00

Lovely Liana and her knitwit bangles and knitwit friends Bibi Locke and yours truly in MX Magazine yesterday.
Circulation 500 000.
What can I say?- it is such a pleasure sharing the limelight with Liana especially when you have to make like Elton John with her wares. And you can really tell how much she loves having her photo taken. What a babe!

Delightful Things for Christmas 2007

2007-11-15T08:33:00.000+10:00

The Umbrella Collective is a bunch of artists united by friendship. Our annual Christmas sale is on this weekend. Come along if you are in Brisbane! Preview of work for sale here.
saturday 17 november 2007
9am - 2pm

delightful things direct from the artists

st francis theological college
233 milton road milton
entrance via baroona rd

parking available
cash or cheque only

umbrella collective
www.umbrellacollective.blogspot.com

ARTISTS:

florence forrest
flying star toys

shannon garson
porcelain

kylie johnson
paper boat press

liana kabel
plastic girl jewellery

rebecca ward
jewellery

Wrecker in Sunday Age 11/11/07

2007-11-13T09:52:00.000+10:00

Some nice things were said in this article. Mine is the bullet cartridge cuff. The rest is Liana Kabel's and some Haul billboard bags.

Thanks alot to my ex, WJK for taking the beautiful and HUGE photo of Liana's earrings. One day I will be able to forgive your treachery! Maybe after watching back to back Eckhart Tolle DVDs for a week. Or a 100 years.

Sunday M
11 Nov 2007

*conditions apply

2007-11-08T11:19:00.000+10:00

*conditions apply

I really crack myself up sometimes.

Get these crafty characters at this:

The Nibble Project

2007-11-02T09:09:00.001+10:00

Here is a sneak peek of the project Shannon Garson and I have been working on, launching 17 Nov at Umbrella Collective. Porcelain, silver and gold are worked together in delicate designs to remind you of food, nurture and love.

The fox went out on a Chilly Night (because the fox has to feed his family too!) and Nest series:

The fox went out on a chilly night,
He prayed for the moon to give him light,

For he'd many a mile to go that night,

Before he reached the town-o, town-o, town-o,
He'd many a mile to go that night,
Before he reached the town-o.

Balanced Diet Baby Cakes and Cinderella rings and Eat Ya Peas Series:

Attach of the Vovos and 100s and 1000s brooches:

Arc Biennial + more

2007-10-28T17:46:00.001+10:00

I am so proud to be included in the exhibition, To be confirmed that is on now at QUT Art Museum, Gardens Point, Brisbane as part of the Arc (Art Design and Craft) Biennial. To see my work among such an excellent overview of the contemporary scene in Queensland is a great honour. There is even a proper catalogue for the show- see above and click to enlarge. The show is on until 2 December and if in Brisbania is a good opportunity to get out of the humidity and see some though-provoking and engaging new art.

There is a Jewellery Party as part of the Arc program Thurs 15 Nov 5-7pm where you can buy our fabulous wares.

I also have swag of products in a fantastic new book that is out this month variously titled Cool Hunting Green (Aus) , Cool Green Stuff (USA), and Green Hunting (UK out in 2008) by Dave Evans who I met at the Arc Biennial, a lovely chap. A couple of the pages are scanned below:

Oh the irony

2007-10-12T22:50:00.001+10:00

City North News 11/10/2007

Separation Jewels

2007-10-11T10:39:00.000+10:00

Brooch: Blair Smith.

There are engagement rings, wedding rings, toasters and parties galore when couples get together. But when you separate you suddenly have half the property, half the friends, distressed children (not true in my case fortunately) as well as a broken heart and ten million forms and paperwork changes to deal with. After being in a relationship for nearly 16 years, it is surprising how much lives become intertwined and pulling apart all the tendrils, emotional and practical, can be fraught. But worth the effort in some cases, including mine.

When the cracks could no longer be ignored and we were travelling in New Zealand earlier this year, I purchased a piece of jewellery, the choice of which must have come from the knowing and truthful part of me, as my conscious mind was still stuck firmly in the sand of a relationship that we'd long grown out of. The work is by Blair Smith, renowned designer-maker who I'd worked with at Shed Workspace, Dunedin.

I chose the piece simply because I liked the composition and the strange poetry of its lines and construction. Laboriously handsawn from his own-made ingot it reminded me of Blair's attitude- never afraid of hard work. Heavy metal old-school industrial approach to construction fuses with a graphical intelligence switching between 2d and 3d forms. Like Blair, a bit rough around the edges but strong and true. Some tiny air holes revealed in the centre of the ingot where he'd sawn. Bold tool marks from the saw, file and pliers. Decorative scratched surface that is more about an aesthetic than construction. A strong springy pin and catch. Silver very bright and tarnish proof, though stamped 925 (925 parts silver to 1000 parts) - I believe Blair makes up his own alloys containing a much higher percentage of silver. That's how they do things in New Zealand.

Try as I might though, I could not find the pun he usually hides in his work that so often seduces the wrecker part of me. Al I knew was that I had a powerful emotional and visual response to the piece that just kept growing.

I still spent ages choosing between it and a few other shortlisted brooches and earrings as I listened to the conflicting voices of heart and mind. When I told David McLeod of Shed of my final selection, he told me something quite surprising. The piece actually says "9/10". Now that I know this it is hard not to see it. A reference to the old adage "Possession is 9/10s of the law" Blair apparently made it after going through a similar chain of events that I was to begin 3 weeks later when Wayne and I made the decision to separate. Suddenly I loved the piece even more although it unsettled me greatly and I tried to shrug off the strange set of emotions that were assailing me at the time.

Now the piece is cherished completely and along with David McLeod's unlit, dead and really dead matchsticks, the perfect jewellery to wear on settlement day- tomorrow.

It is not surprising that the separation of possessions should be one of the areas where many separating couples come unstuck and one of the areas we had to steer through carefully. Maybe because we are taught not to feel things directly but through objects, these become much more significant than the particles they are made up of. Or maybe we need these objects to help us to feel properly - in our unenlightened state they help us to work through our issues as we get to some truth or in some cases a story that pleases and bolsters the mind and can unleash all sorts of destruction and chaos.

Separation is a life passage that so many people have gone through before but also a transition that some discontented people spend a lifetime avoiding so I am grateful that I was able to get to where I am now. Sometimes it feels like a personal failure, society seems geared to keeping unhappy couples together for all sorts of reasons but mostly I feel proud of both of us and positive about my present and future.

1, 2 ,4 ,8 ,16 ,32 ....

2007-10-02T07:38:00.002+10:00

Mitosis Charm.

The number sequence is 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 etc. The exponential growth of splitting cells. The power of 2s. The heavy silver bauble is like a splitting ovum, that first moment of conception. A fusion of a scientific approach to fertility and something more intuitive, like a sympathetic magic for our time.

A gift for a friend who has been helping me in the last few months.

I hope it works. The last two people who were given them now have lovely babies. The other person who has one doesn't but then she is 55 and more in the market for grandkids so fingers crossed for her in that department!

Hoopies

2007-09-21T09:25:00.000+10:00

Hoopies are named after the giant Hoop Pines (Araucaria cunninghamii) that built Brisbane. Descendents of these magnificent trees still loom, most noticable in the evenings, silhouetted against twilight skies on crowded inner city streets.

Above: Photo of Hoopie at Elidon Hill reservoir by Wayne Kington, Copper etching, Rebecca Ward

But today’s built environment is constructed from all sorts of other new materials which are cheaper to produce, sometimes ugly and at other times quite attractive and interesting to the human bowerbird. So my hoopies range is made from the bits and pieces you might find on a modern-day building site: coke bottle lids, rubber washers, plastic, paper, laminex, and bits of old hardwood left from what was demolished beforehand. The circular hoop shapes are still evident though as an echo to the once magnificent hoop forests of our region.

I am putting hoopies in a show coming up soon at MoB Store- The Summer Collection - opening Wed 3 October 5:30pm - come along (RSVP 3403 4355 Mon 1 Oct).

Biscuit Fever

2007-09-07T19:33:00.000+10:00

It's no secret that I have been drinking alot lately.
Tea that is. I seem to have the other under control at the moment you'll be glad to hear. Coffee never solved anything.

The tea thing is rather good I must say but always nice to have a bit of a nibble on something with the tea. I've never been a biscuit snack sort of a person but of late the bikkies are enjoying a bit of a craze in wrecker central. When one runs short of father's famous shortbread, then one must resort to machine-made store-bought snackage, something which would never have penetrated my former unprocessed diet of brown rice sprinked with brussel sprouts. But when tragedy strikes, desperate measures must be taken.

It was a sympathy pack of Kingstons delivered to me by one of my oldest friends that caused me to slip into the deep shadows cast by the bikkie aisle of the supermarket. I have become quite partial to the "Little Schoolboy"biscuits which have suddenly appeared in this shadowland of tempatation. Imported from France they probably are probably a major contributor to global warming but I cycle to the shops to buy them so that must count for something.
The 45% cocoa really hits the spot for me. And the idea of nibbling on french schooolboys- well that is quite a European thing I imagine.Then there is also the iced vovo, which was the inspiration for a range of earrings that I make from recycled glass. Well really I made them and then I thought "By crikey they remind me of iced vovos for some reason well they are the right colour and texture but iced vovos are so straight and these are so curvy swingy they are essence of vovo in their swing music kinda old-fashioned and vovoistic way". Profound.The Vovos have also inspired some of the Nibble Project with Shannon Garson which features such reverent reproductions of said Vovo in porcelain. It is a lonely friday night so I felt compelled to purchase some vovo and compare to the french schoolboy and I'm sorry to say that the vovo is not so great. It sucks a bit I'm afraid I think they may have cut some corners with ingredients and manufacturing as I'm sure it was much better in the 70s and 80s when I was a child and not allowed to eat them. Damn those hippy parents. I would trade my perfect teeth for a 1970s vovo anyday. And now that I've eaten all those bikkies I really don't feel like my leftover lentil soup for dinner.

Home again, home again

2007-08-13T22:27:00.000+10:00

I've just reorganised my home studio and consolidated the wrecking into one address. This means I've moved out from MoB Workspace where I've been for nearly 4 years. It was sad to leave my lovely studio buddies and mob friends. I was the last remaining founding member but it is time to let the new team steer the space into new waters.

My split with Mr Accordian has bought about other changes as well with him moving across town and me taking on an extra day job on Wednesdays. I'm still hoping to devote as much time to my wrecking as ever though. And working from home will also give me a chance to enjoy the spring wildflowers in my garden.

In other earth-shattering news I have joined facebook at the behest of David Ellison, a fellow Griffarian whose facebook photo circa 1977 spoke of a troubled past. I had to know more.

Sea Jewels Paddling North

2007-07-30T07:05:00.000+10:00

Recycled glass Sea Jewels have been going beserk in the top end so I just sent another batch of necklaces to Framed- the Darwin Gallery.

Life is slowly getting better after the shock of breaking up with my long-term partner and I will soon have the energy to face making a new range of pebble work. At moment it feels good to clean out and reorganise my home workshop.

Tea For Three

2007-07-22T19:20:00.000+10:00

Cups of russian caravan tea and Dad's famous shortbread on gorgeous mix-matched handmade pottery as the afternoon sunlight trickles through the leaves in my garden. I thank my family for helping me clean out and reorganise my life and enjoy the beautiful life after a bad start to the day.

I gathered together my favourite pottery for a special tea. As Simon Suckling, who made the blue cup and saucer told me that it is better karma to break pottery after having used it than to break it having never used it, something that Shannon Garson who made the teapot and milkjug is also reminds us of.

Tea, family, neighbours and friends help you get through the hard times and I thank them all.

Saint Fran

2007-07-03T14:41:00.000+10:00

Congratulations to Fran Crowe whose 1st solo exhibition is now underway.

Fran says "I am walking to collect 46000 pieces of litter from my local Suffolk beaches - 46000 because this is the average number of pieces of litter per square mile of ocean worldwide according to the UN. I have been walking since last September and so far I have collected over 41000 pieces, most of which I have just installed in the Babylon Gallery in Ely (where I am 2007 bursary artist). I think it makes a shocking but fascinating viewing which I really hope will engage people with some of the issues to do with marine litter and the state of our oceans. " I've been following Fran's work for some time on her website and love the way that she gets an environmental message out there with humour and a cheeky challenge to her audience. And I think she has come up with a perfect excuse for long walks on the beach and cannot help but feel a bit envious that did not think of it first!

The results of her project are not only backed up with scientific data detailed on her website but they are so very aesthetically seductive!

I know all the beach plastic is bad but I cannot help but love it at the same time for its worn edges, eroded textures and washed out colours that tell of all sorts of adventures at sea.

Here are some favourite beach plastic specimens from my personal collection:

Surface Paradise

2007-07-01T20:20:00.000+10:00

A need to escape from Brisbania led me to beg fellow Umbrellaist and good friend Shannon Garson to accompany her on a weekend ceramic workshop at the Gold Coast Potters Association. She was more than happy to have me along as she was touching on jewellery making in the workshop and adorable little Pearl, her 4mth old baby was also coming and in need of occassional distraction and cuddles (not that I got much of a look in with 15 or so clucky women at the workshop).

Shannon demonstrates her leaf tattoo painting style in sepia watercolour.

Shannon generously demonstrated many of her surface decoration techniques (slip trailing, watercolour-like brush work, shellac resists and sgraffito) as well as expertly throwing some tricksy southern ice clay and demonstrating the turning of the drying pots. While I have no intention of getting into ceramics myself, I gained plenty of useful knowledge during the workshop and enjoyed meeting the lovely ladies from the Potters group who were so appreciative of Shannon's tuition.

Top: Throwing

Bottom: Shannon with Anne

We also publicly showed for the very first time our collaborative project: Nibble. Shannon has created some delightful tiny porcelain pieces which I have turned into rings (below), necklaces, earrings and brooches with st silver and gold. Shannon was initially inspired after making a gift of porcelain miniature food for a child's dolls house and we have always wanted to do a collaboration together. Giftmaking often inspires me too as I try to make something different from my usual to suit a specific person and this often leads to a whole new tangent! Much of the Nibble range is about food and nurturing: there are peas in pods, eggs in nests, iced vovos and pumpkins. More photos of it on this site in a review by participant Anne Mossman and we'll be publicising it more soon. Any suggestions on where and how to exhibit it are most welcome!

Above top: rings from the Nibble collection
Below: surface decoration equip, workshop participants

Sea Jewels Therapy

2007-06-17T18:16:00.001+10:00

It is ages since my last posting - due to some personal upheavals that I am going through. At times like these I may not be good for much else, but can take refuge in making my recycled glass sea jewels earrings. Simple designs, soft edges and such happy bright colours all lined up and ready to send off to MoB Store in Brisbane, Pomme in Victoria and Framed in Darwin.

Wellington

2007-05-31T07:51:00.000+10:00

The highlight of visiting Wellington is never going to be the weather unless you fancy gales and horizontal rain - that must be why they have such excellent galleries and museums. In fact, we did not defrost until we daytripped out to the Kapiti Coast with Uncle Ron (right) to visit Uncle Ken (left).
Top: Alan Preston, jewellery made from greywacke road base and paint
Middle: Blair Smith, Visible panty line
BottomLeft: Shelly Norton: jewellery made from plastic shopping bags
Bottom Right: Genevieve Packer, Craft Terrorist

My favorite museum was the Dowse in Lower Hutt which presented a beautifully displayed Alan Preston survey exhibition (love his road base pieces) and contemporary jewellery/craft from the collection on display upstairs.
Much of the jewellery had probably been collected from the 2 excellent jewellery galleries in town, Quoil (shame on them for not having a website going) and Avid. Quoil was my favourite because the staff were so friendly (I'm easily won over by nice happy people) - and they also have some wacky plastic work by Lisa Walker and Shelly Norton that Plastic Girl would have enjoyed.

Return to Oz

2007-05-27T22:13:00.001+10:00

I have returned.

8 kilos heavier and not from all the butter and cheese I ate- but from the pebbles spread over 2 backpacks. Fortunately with no hassles from customs.

Here are some pictures from the interior of a marvellous old villa we stayed at in French Pass. Actually it was so grand from the exterior that I thought it must be a private residence and we first showed ourselves into the little shed nextdoor! The house was built by sheep farming settlers, the Webbers who have now moved into more modern accommodations nextdoor while the old residence is converted into a backpackers: big draughty rooms with odd assortments of furniture from different eras, a modernised kitchen and this rather wonderful old linoleum 'rug'. I love these old linoleum patterns ( here and also Betty Jo- jewellery made from it) and this one that imitates the persian rug using some early mechanical printing that looks real from a distance up up close like a pixelated image.

Detail of 'rug':

Mr Accoridan teased a haunting melody from the decomposing old piano (blogged here)- due to the lack of recent tuning and missing notes, possibly the only tune that could have been played!

Gone Fossicking in NewZealand

2007-05-02T06:32:00.000+10:00

Back 23 May 2007

Foaming Nanas

2007-04-25T10:47:00.000+10:00

It will be no great surprise to many of you that Nana and I have become very close over the last year. Very close indeed. Something which has meant that she has really been able to open up to me, and visa versa.

In one of our recent conversations she mentioned a very personal problem she has been experiencing. It concerns her trademark glasses.

They have begun to foam. Yes, foam.

You can see the transition from the mid to late stages as the virus makes it increasingly difficult for Nana to see. The ravages of this illness are set to take their toll on Nana, who has sold more records than Celine Dion and Madonna combined, but we pray that it will not affect her forthcoming show at London's Royal Albert Hall.

We cannot explain why it has been happening and it is something that has Europe's finest pathologists baffled and scared. Could we be experiencing the beginnings new viral pandemic? Fortunately it has not jumped from Nana into the general population but as we know, with viruses it is only a matter of time before the mutations cause this devastating leap to occur.Seriously though, before you make the switch to contact lenses, these new works do come with a warning for members of the Nana Mouskouri fanclub: MAY CONTAIN TRACES OF NANA. They are made from old vinyl records and were a few experiements from my NANA range of pins that got a little overcooked. Recycled for the Fabulous Foam exhibition. Each has a certificate of authenticity signed by the artist herself.

Fabulous Foam

2007-04-25T10:19:00.000+10:00

Have you ever noticed how the invitations for shows I'm in all seem the same? Well the reason for this is that I design the damn things for free! And the reason they look the same is that I have no graphic design training and only a small box of tricks in my photoshop repertoire! But as we are often reminded by our arts organisations, beggars can't be chosers so I get stuck with me!

This show, Fabulous Foam organised by Dan Cox opens next friday and I originally wasn't going to be able to put work in - running out of time etc. However, I made a supremo effort and have some truly special pieces for it. Rules are that it has to consist of 80% foam. Yay!

JMGQ presents:

FABULOUS FOAM

May 4th - May 30th 2007

Brisbane Square Library
Brisbane Square
(Opposite the Treasury Casino)

Opening: Friday 4th May 5pm - 6:30pm
phone: 07 3403 4166 email: info@jmgq.com.au
www.jmgq.com.au

ARTISTS
Miriam Carter Dan Cox Renee Dillon Branka Doncevska
Clare Dyer Kylie Gartside Elizabeth Gray Hannah Kelly
Kath Kerswell Bibi Locke Sue Preston Elizabeth Shaw
Joan Teo Rebecca Ward Patsie Wishart Susie Woodhouse

Mr Mcleod's Lucky Strike

2007-04-23T23:28:00.000+10:00

Above: David Mcleod's Matchstick Brooches- st silver and red gold

At this end of this week I’ll be winging across the Tasman to find out what has been happening since I was there last in 2003. I intend to construct extra large pockets in all of mine and Mr Accordian’s clothing to maximise pebble collecting capacity!

I will also catch up with David Mcleod, Dunedin jeweller and sculptor who I did a mentorship and residency with. His beautiful stone, bone and shell work with Japanese alloys drew me at the Jewellers and Metalsmiths conference in 2000 and I was lucky to be able to work with him for the 3month mentorship and afterwards in his collective studio, SHED. I’m looking forward to hearing about a new 3d gallery in the pipeline that he is involved with and seeing he new directions in his practice.

David’s latest work uses matchsticks as concept and material - matches can be interpreted in all sorts of different ways. As shorthand symbols of transience, survival, safety/danger, warmth, light and sustenance. Destruction and a chaos; disposable, stored energy. He has remade matches in sterling silver and red gold (above) as well as many other materials and also used the burnt matches themselves:The piece that inspired the collection was a paua shell inlaid box made from matchsticks – I suspect he picked it up in one of his favourite second-hand shop haunts. David is one of those people who cannot walk past a secondhand shop without stopping for a look-see.

Matchstick crafted objects remind me of prison art. Constructed by desperate men with time on their hands for repetitive, tiny work that is not highly valued by society, though gaining recognition by collectors under the banner of Tramp Art. I appreciate the wrecking aspect – the pointless and nihilistic activity of going through matchbox after matchbox lighting and discarding matches. Then the rebuilding into decorative objects expressing some scaled-down emotion - hope cloaked irony? Maybe part of a deeper need just to create and build that comes out in odd ways when suppressed. Tinderbox was an apt name for the show he presented last year at Quoil Gallery.

The ownership of materials, native to New Zealand and introduced through colonisation and their adoption by different cultures is explored in the flag-like brooches. It picks up on a theme resonant in NZ contemporary art here as in Ralph Hotere’s work exploring the British Union Jack flag that we cannot seem to move past in post-colonial Down Under.

As a gift, I can imagine these matchstick brooches ($75AUD) will be ideal markers for women or men (yes boys, these would look great on a lapel) celebrating significant birthdays and events and am already taking orders for them from Brisbane friends! I wonder if he sells them in matchboxes. I cannot wait to see one close up so I can find out what tricky hinge and catch mechanism he has worked out! And I want to team one up with one of my Flatliner firemen pins!

Save the Wayneforest

2007-04-15T20:38:00.001+10:00

It seems that global warming means that more than our effluent lifestyle is under threat. One of our most fragile and rare ecosystems is endangered: the Wayneforest. Deep inside this unique habitat you will hear the wheezing of accoridan alternating with the sound of one hand clapping as the Wayne switches between music practice and deep meditation. Current drought conditions have caused leafdrop and insect attack in the Wayne habitat and this (below) may soon be what I see when I look out the back window: Where is Wayne? I can't even find Wally.

The solution?
Effluent. We need your pee.

Lepidoptera Week

2007-04-04T09:35:00.000+10:00

I thought I would join Shannon Garson on her Lepidoptera week celebrating butterflies and moths.

As I had spent most of the weekend trying to eradicate the moths that had been steadily chomping through my woollen jumpers over the summer, I felt I owed it to the furry menaces to write something positive. And it is not the moths themselves that eat your clothes - most moths barely eat at all and some don't even have mouths and digestive systems. The moths exist for one reason only- to reproduce and it is their 100s and 1000s of offspring that do the damage.

I am fascinated by casemoths and have based some jewellery designs on them in the silver earrings and glass shard necklace you see above. These are the little agoraphobic grubs that build their homes out of twigs, lint or whatever comes to hand. If you find them in the garden they may look like a bundle of twigs which suddenly comes to life as the grub inches along only poking its head out when it finds something juicy to eat. They always have perfect camouflage as they make their cocoon homes out of whatever is in their immediate environment. I found the one above on my mailbox. The silly thing was no longer camouflaged and had been eaten out by ants. It really should have used junkmail for its cocoon.

A friend told me a wonderful story about casemoths. She used to keep peacocks and had a large box full of their beautiful tail feathers stored under her house for some time. After she had liberated the peacocks (that is another story), she went foraging for the feathers as she rather missed the noisy, smelly birds. All that remained were the stalks of the feathers and hundreds of beautiful jewelled casemoths what had made their cocoons out of the feathers!

Another example of these resourceful creatures is a casemoth found in a bushire devastated forest that another friend presented to me. The little grub had no sticks or leaves to make its cocoon out making do with little bits of charcoal so that it resembled a victorian mourning jewel made out of shiny jet.

The behaviour of casemoths which hide and protect their vulnerable bodies is rather like the way we wear clothes. Only the bravest or stupidest of us shed the cocoon and run around in the open drawing attention to our predators! I cannot think of any other creature that makes a structure to walk around in and protect their soft grublike bodies. Come to think of it, I think casemoths might be our closet cousins so we really should stop killing them and learn to share our clothes nicely!

Possum goes beserk and destroys eggcup collection

2007-04-02T18:20:00.001+10:00

A deranged possum destroyed my egg cup collection, delivering a blow to ceramicists worldwide. The nasty egg-stealing home invader made short work of the cups that had taken years to collect from auction houses and dealers.

Though I have to admit it is giving me some new wrecking ideas.

Foxy loxy is now guarding the survivors from indigenous wildlife attack.

Mangrove monday

2007-04-02T16:48:00.000+10:00

I finally joined Shula in her Mosaic Monday.
Photos from my flickr favourites, credited below:

1. Waiting for the tide. Mangrove roots, Brisbane River, city reach., 2. Push the button., 3. Mobile Homme, 4. giant rabbit- artesina italy, 5. Circle., 6. drug tower, 7. Timber decking Southbank Parkland, 8. aluminium shadows, 9. Flotsam and Jetsam, 10. one, 11. saussisses à ongles, 12. circular pathways, 13. fog 006, 14. pin, 15. three, 16. colony

Giant Metal Baby Meltdown

2007-03-18T19:09:00.000+10:00

This is what happens when giant metal baby goes up against the police and fire brigade with his monster heat gun in downtown Wreckerton.

Introducing the new range of super cute flatliner pins, smaller than the earlier edition made from army men figurines. I've been experimenting with all sorts of new spacemen, construction workers, cowboys and indians, hunters and natives but and these flat cops and firies are my current pick. I bought out Giant Metal Baby (a cast brass armyman/baby crossbreed that I prepared earlier) to promote the new flatsies.

Funny thing though that the process of melting the figurines accentuates existing phallic characteristics (guns) and creates new ones in abundance with their arms, legs and heads starting to look rather rude. Or are my eyes playing tricks? Perhaps I am just a bit influenced by the Queen's tasty treatise on the topic. Judge for yourself:

Boys toys reverting to type in wrecker oven.

Whatever the case, the huge commercial potential in phallic flattened figurines means I won't be staring down the barrel of imminent financial ruin for much longer.

Cuttlefish Flotsam

2007-03-13T21:02:00.000+10:00

Cuttlefish bones are strange things- like little riderless surfboards they beach themselves obligingly for passing budgie fanciers. The growth layers of calcium in the bone are also useful for jewellers as moulds for casting molten metal into. The result is a wavy texture and a stinking pong as the bone smoulders and burns. The effect is well worth the stench though as it is serendipitously reminiscent of ripples or low tide patterns in sand or mud. I use this technique my range of Longshore Drifter pebble jewellery. Longshore drift is the ocean current that moves sand, flotsam and jetsam generally northwards up the east coast of Australia but also swirling around in big eddies that double back. We end up getting us all sorts of treats on the waves from near and far including sea beans from far north QLD and plastics from asia I like to think or at least passing ships! I 've heard of one beach up north that has only left footed thongs/flip flopsam and another around the headland that has all the right footed thongs. The ocean is an amazing sorter of flotsam.

One of my all time favorite plastic beaches - Sunken Reef Bay on Hinchinbrook Is- has entire television sets washed up on it as well as all manner of plastic domestic items. You can create a virtual lounge room with all mod cons for your campsite that is better than the real thing. It gave me a taste of the coming apocalypse, tonnes of broken and non functional consumer waste lying around while we inexpertly tried to catch fish for dinner. It was quite difficult to leave this place but I knew I'd come to blows with the prissy clean up australia mob if I stayed.

When I cannot get to the beach, as it is hardly on my doorstep, I find solace in Presley's scans documenting all the flotsam he finds in San Francisco's Bay area. These studies are a constant source of inspiration as he transforms the detritus he finds and others would ignore into astonishingly beautiful compositions.

Pebbles are calling

2007-03-05T20:14:00.000+10:00

A new release of pebble jewellery is now up for grabs in my online shop. As my stocks are all but exhausted, I am planning another raid across the Tasman to visit the promised land.

In my forthcoming fossicking expedition to I have to decide which beaches to visit. Orepuki Beach - Tae Waewae Bay in Southland gets blasted by icy winds from the southern slushipole. The pebbles are rounded and polished by the thumping waves along the beach. It has an astonishing variety of rocks including delicious argillites, deposited by the now degraded Waiau River whose main flow has been diverted so that bucket loads of hydroelectricity can be made to smelt Australian bauxite into aluminium. No wonder the Kiwis hate us so much.

Okarito Beach. On the wet and bleak west coast where forest meets sea and you get the occassional glimpse of inland alps above the clouds. Keri Hulme wrote The Bone People here. The pebbles are grey, schist with the very rare greenish piece of nephrite. The beach is wild and woolly. The people are wild and woolly. And there are real kiwis on the beach at night snorting bugs.

Katiki Beach. On the East Coast right next to Highway 1. A gentle stretch of beach with fossil shells and eroding coastline. Whenever I am there, there is sun peaking through a veil of fine rain and Mr Accordian waits in the car.

Mmmmm, can't wait.

Wrecker Tax Time

2007-03-02T08:51:00.000+10:00

It's tax time again I'm afraid so I'm up to my ears in receipts and spreadsheets.
These are the sorts of sums I'd much rather be doing:

(Especially the bit you you have to eliminate the contents of the gin bottle)

Modamuse

2007-02-27T07:09:00.000+10:00

The lovely and talented ladies at Modamuse are selling a range of my recycled glass jewellery in their online store and have done the cool promotion you see above.
It's well worth a look to browse through all the yummy items from nearly 20 fabulous Australian and NZ designers that could be yours after just a few mouse clicks!

Act Now

2007-02-20T07:45:00.000+10:00

Visiting the local shopping centre as one does from time to time in search of tucker, I noticed this illuminated advert in the dingy undercover carpark near the travelators. At first I was attracted by the beautifully photographed retro styled swimming pool with army men and razor wire but then after I decoded its message, I was impressed by the shock value of this kind of a ad. Especially in a location where you normally find ads for hair products or junk food with all the visuals aimed at encouraging excessive consumption.

Kudos to Act Now I say.

They seem to be an organistion like Get Up but with a youth focus though I cannot find much anaylsis about them online.

Flotsam Drifters

2007-02-19T17:33:00.000+10:00

I've been having fun with flickr post-holiday, documenting some of my fave flotsam found, including Mud Island Baby. Also found the wonderful widgets to fidget with via Marta.

Holiday

2007-02-11T18:42:00.000+10:00

Just went for a brief holiday with the Accordian at Stradbroke /Minjerribah Island where you can still find some of the old fibro beach shacks to stay in while listening to the wind in the she-oaks.

You give love a bad name

2007-02-03T17:33:00.000+10:00

Love Letters jewellery decorating one of the anthems of the 80s that I think I might have once rollerskated to. This one goes out to Dan and Poppilina.

You give Love a Bad Name - Bon Jovi

An angel's smile is what you sell
You promise me heaven, then put me through hell
Chains of love got a hold on me
When passion's a prison, you can't break free

You're a loaded gun
There's nowhere to run
No one can save me
The damage is done

Chorus:
Shot through the heart
And you're to blame
You give love a bad name
I play my part and you play your game
You give love a bad name
You give love a bad name

Paint your smile on your lips
Blood red nails on your fingertips
A school boys dream, you act so shy
Your very first kiss was your first kiss goodbye

You're a loaded gun
There's nowhere to run
No one can save me
The damage is done

Chorus:
Shot through the heart
And you're to blame
You give love a bad name
I play my part and you play your game
You give love a bad name
You give love a bad name

Tag Dag

2007-01-30T18:29:00.000+10:00

I've been tagged by Mel Robson.
Liana and Florence also copped it from Mel. That means we have to write a list of 6 things about us not mentioned before in our blogs. I didn't have much left so bear with me.

1. I once dressed up as a Giant Red Blood Drop to promote the Red Cross Blood Bank. Kylie Johnson can verify this - as I seem to remember she managed to avoid the whole shebang. When I look back at the hideous photos (I had a particularly bad case of teenage acne) I'm not sure I persuaded anyone of the merits of blood donation and may well have done the opposite. Now whenever they call urgently for donors, as the world's ugliest pox-ridden blood drop of all-time, I feel personally responsible for the dwindling blood stocks.

2. Though ovo-lacto-fisho vegetarian, I do occasionally treat myself to a strip of crispy smoked watermelon or a slice of the delicious salty fruit from the pepperoni vine.

3. I used to be a venturer scout. Sharing a tent with 4 other pubescent girls and their many and varied cosmetic products accounts for my allergies to aerosol deoderants, perfumes and hair sprays. That is why I stink so bad and my hair defies any logical explanation.

4. I woke up on Xmas day and my eyes were stuck together with conjuntivitus gunk. I couldn't have been happier though as my highly infectious and unattractive condition permitted me to lie in bed and read outdoor murder mysteries all day long. Once I'd managed to get my eyes open that is.

5. I watch 'Neighbours' every night if I can. I just have to know the crazy antics of Toadfish (is he dead yet?- i missed a few episodes), Stingray, that devil Paul Robinson, stupid Susan and that sleazebag Carl and all the other ridiculous, completely unlovable characters. So anyone calling me between 6.30 and 7pm weeknights will get short shrift indeed.

6. I'm very susceptible to peer group pressure. Otherwise I would have ignored this tagging game. However the tag stops with me. Unless anyone wants to be tagged? Are you up for it Simone?

Back 2 Skool Suckers

2007-01-27T22:20:00.000+10:00

Of the current 2 retail crazes I'm finding the back to school stationery festival far more enjoyable than the nationalistic flag frenzy of Straya Day/Survival Day, whaddeva you want to call it.

Could it be a touch of schadenfreude knowing all the little Dick and Doras are finishing their super fun holidays and going back to boring old school to learn multiplication tables and John Howard's new history curriculum? Nah. It is just that I like to celebrate stationery. Before wrecking it. Today I got this rather spiffy giant pencil shelving unit at the local thrift store. It just happens to match Texta velvet touch me pencil pins quite well. Colour me happy Mr Squiggle.

Toast

2007-01-20T15:29:00.000+10:00

I don't eat my crusts. Never have, never will.
You can't make me.
Not even when you tell me people are starving in africa.
That the world is running out of food, water, arable land.
So don't even try.
I'm saving them up to string together and enter in Contemporary Wearables Competitions.

Photos of Ayumi's delicious monkey-learning-to-count-crusts plate taken for her Pots in Action page.

Education is the Key

2007-01-20T14:56:00.000+10:00

Now there is a right and a wrong way to wear a tape measure.

Looking through a particular magazine post Xmas, I was searching in vain/vainly for an article about MoBWorkspace we'd been hoping for. What I did find was plenty of articles about the businesses who'd taken out adverts, often on the same page and a bunch of ads using tape-measures in entirely the wrong way. It really disappointed me, I thought we might have moved on from this.

Doesn't everyone know by now the correct way to use a tape measure? In a Liana Kabel Measure Up brooch of course. It was on Boing Boing for heavens' sake! Get a ber-loody edumacation!! Plastic Girl, you have much work to do.

Choking Hazard All Ages

2007-01-13T18:56:00.000+10:00

I'm always on the lookout for new plastic army men to wreck as the right kind for my flatliners are no longer manufactured. So I came across this rather shocking set of Great Beige Hunters with firearms and Noble Natives with spears and axes in the toy section of my local bargain basement store. I tried to remember what century it was. Admittedly, I am inured to the 'cowboys and indians' sets that you still find on the shelves which are probably just as bad, but I have never seen anything quite as revolting as these. Fortunately they do come with a choking hazard warning. They just got the age limit wrong. These toys may cause choking in decent persons of all ages. If they have an upside, it is that there is at least a female figure included in the set - albeit as "nature-woman-in-bra-with-disproportionately-large-feet-and-hands".

I also found this rather wonderful construction set of yellow and red blokes. Though disappointingly no female role models here, at least there are no guns and genocide.

Lake Manchester

2007-01-10T14:26:00.000+10:00

This break we took a day trip to Lake Manchester, a favorite haunt and not an ugly desolate dam like most in our area but one surrounded by bushclad hills. It is one of the quieter places around, built before WWI and it retains the industrial ornamentation and solid dignity of engineering from that time - built to last by craftsmen with quality materials. The nearby picnic ground has been abandoned by family picnickers (they are all at the airconditioned shopping malls) with barbeque areas morphing back into cow paddocks and picnic tables being reclaimed by strangler figs. I once went to a Robert Moore show of paintings in the local hall, the lake being subject matter for some of his works on canvas and fibreglass so I remembered what a great venue it was with it's french doors and wide verandahs.

We had to negotiate a council worker spraying poison on weeds through a firehose but we made it to the dam wall without respiratory failure. The tide had gone out nearly 20metres straight down, exposing the dam floor and bits and pieces of wrecker treasure. Mr Accordian was able to take the photos above and some audio files of the soundscape while I foraged and watched the turtles. We also found an abandoned walking path with overgrown stairs and stone path edges leading up a nearby conical hill with views out to Ivory Rock. The only other people around apart from poison man were a couple of old boys reminiscing about their glory days abseiling down the dam wall, a carload of bogans tearing up the dusty carpark and a surveyor. The surveyor (never a welcome sight in my books) was taking measurements for the dam wall to be raised 5 meters. We wondered if council was also planning to increase the rainfall. It does not seem to have occured to them that we might have hit population capacity for our water supply.

Anyway, this means that another piece of our industrial heritage gets the chop along with half a hill and the decayed ambience that makes this place to special.

I once did a series of brooches and necklaces about the disappearance of grand old industrial machinery inspired by a Glen Willard photo of a locomotive engine. The brooches use elements of the machinery which I copied in silver and fragmented with a similarly fragments printed sprig of rosemary on patinated copper. Perhaps the enduring work of artists and craftspeople can help to document what is vanishing and to sooth souls weary of a modern built environment built shonkily with cheap materials and torn down every 20years or so to be rebuilt in the even crappier style of the day!

Take care of your weather beacon or you will perish

2006-12-21T06:17:00.000+10:00

The MLC Weather Beacon has been controlling Brisbane's weather since 1958. Though since the Hitachi takeover a couple of years ago, people have been noticing that the bulbs are not being replaced. And now the new Brisbane City Council building has obscured the beacon from being able to transmit it's weather instructions. Hence we are sitting in a rain shadow and quickly running out of drinking water. To heighten awareness of this issue, I have created weather beacon brooches - available from MoB Store. Your choice- sunny or rainy, sterling silver with swarovksi crystals twinkling away like the real thing.

There is plenty you can do about the climate crisis besides buying my jewellery. Why not join in for Lights out for Xmas?

This Xmas eve, give the earth a present by switching off your electricity. Unplug whatever you can in your house. Decorate the tree by candle light, sing carols, tell stories, take a stroll through the neighbourhood, spend quality time with family and friends, but without electricity and greenhouse gas emissions.

At 7pm on December 24, join with others in your neighbourhood, state and around Australia in creating a voluntary rolling blackout as a protest about our government's inaction on climate change.

Tell others that your are switching off for Christmas Eve. Brought to you by the Walk Against Warming Coalition (Ph: 07 3217 8693) and supported by Friends of the Earth - Brisbane.

Xmas at Chez Wrecker

2006-12-19T09:45:00.000+10:00

You might think from this photo that a wrecker xmas is all about decorating the bunya pine with Florence Forrest origami Xmas decoartions while Mr Accordian plays a piano tune.
Well it's not. It is about struggling to finish the JMGQ newsletter, fighting for computer time with said Accordian, trying to finish commissions and really late orders, not having posted ANY xmas packages to friends/family interstate/o-seas, not having done ANY xmas shopping, eating too much haloumi and making myself sick and waking up with the dreaded lergy. Yeah it sucks alright.

Go away XMAS.

Why I Heart Librarians

2006-12-14T15:31:00.000+10:00

You may not think it, but this necklace is the jewellery of choice for one sassy librarian I know. Nothing surprises me when it comes to librarians and their desire for personal adornment. With rockstar librarian Nancy Pearl in BrisVegas, (love the action doll), I thought it timely to discuss the topic. During a past life spent working in libraries and even growing up in library culture (father was a librarian) I have been able to study them and develop my own market research theories. You've basically got your 3 archetypes - I'll ignore the male variety as the population sample is too insignificant for analysis - Buffy's Giles is really all you need to know here.

Lifestyle Librarian. A passion for books, knowledge, databases, cataloguing, internet etc.
Navy cardigans and sensible shoes are the unofficial uniform here. These come in 2 main categories:
a) Conservative on the outside while groovy on the inside proving once more that you can't judge a book by its cover. These ones are politically and socially enlightened and may surprise you with their dance moves. They are a good market for brooches - on their navy cardigans and small neat earrings with strings of beads.
b) Conservative on the outside, conservative on the inside - somewhat of a stereotype I'm afraid and definitely a minority group in the throes of extinction. These are the ones that perhaps should have gone to police academy but somehow wound up in library school. Noted for an overzealous approach to enforcement of library rules and lack of sense of humour, they have no use for unecessary adornment which only gets in the way when they have to tackle misbehaving library patrons.
Liberated Librarians. These are the stylish and/or geeky ones out to prove that being a librarian does not exclude one from excercising the personal expression of weirdness. Who knows what they do in their spare time but don't be fooled by the strange garb and hair colour- these ones really know their stuff and are the prime target for contemporary jewellery and designer/unique clothing. From afar they resemble flocks of brightly coloured parakeets chattering away and sharing information and style tips. Anything goes and they like to outdo their colleagues - something that the savvy jeweller can use to their advantage.
Lipstick Librarians. Avoid these women. You can normally hear the approach of their trashy stilettos (*clik*clak*clik*clak*) although they may engage stealth mode on carpeted surfaces. They are generally to be found in sections of the library called 'Corporate Services' and are characterised by an all consuming lust for power. If you do see one approach, the best course of action is to ward them off with dusty printed matter which acts like a form of kryptonite, weakening their powers. As potential jewellery clients, don't bother. These women have no class and are only looking for ways to conspicuously display their power and status.

Christmas With Nana Mouskouri

2006-12-10T12:42:00.000+10:00

I tell you, it broke my wrecker heart. Listening to this beautiful LP record of Nana's Xmas songs in the knowledge I was about to put it to the blade. Big fat tears rolled down my cheeks as Schubert's Ave Maria began to play. It was definitely not your usual Xmas musak I can tell you. Very light on the falalalala-ing. Heavy on the love, compassion, longing. Which is why I have decided to share it with the world in a wearable format. For only $50 you can own your very own little piece of it, quite literally. Go to my purchasing page and you will understand.

There are 12 brooches in this very limited edition, each one is named after one of the 12 memorable tracks on the album and each is sold with a certificate of authenticity containing a fragment of the original record sleeve.

And if you do want to buy the original uncut version you can get it on cd it here. I think I may have to succumb.

Thanks to Felicity of Mullumbimby who found this very magical record in an op shop down there.

Lucy Goes to Manhattan

2006-12-06T22:47:00.000+10:00

My Lucy Goes to Manhattan range of neckalces, earrings and bracelets is inspired by the dazzling lights and Art Deco skyscrapers of Manhattan. I imagine a young girl chasing her dreams into the big smoke. The series was first began as an ironic gift for blue eyed innocent girl called Lucy joined the cultural drift from Brisbane to Melbourne a few years ago. As far as I know the metropolis has not yet gobbled her up!

The Lucys were launched in Glam-r-Us, and available in MoBStore from last thursday and have been walking out the door with some very glamorous ladies and popping up at gala events around town.

Made from sterling silver and Swarovski crystal.

New shop opens in BrisVegas!

2006-12-02T06:02:00.000+10:00

Plastic Girl and I took the art world by storm last night as guests of honour at the galah opening of Brisbane's super new GoMA, Asia Pacific Triennial opening and the revamped QLD Art Gallery. Arriving in our pumpkin coach from the suburbs we joined the thronging celebs - a veritable who's who of Brisbanian society. I could definitely see why we'd been invited.

Was it fun? you bet.

Did we drink alot of bubbly? oh yah.

Did we sit in the drought effected dry water feature eating noodles and chatting with Barby and Mal? mmm noodles + jewellery talk...

Did we walk straight past the Art to get to the GoMA Store to check our product and all the cute stuff to buy? maybe.

Were we disappointed? No way!

But the real breaking news of the night was from ceramicist Mel Robson that she has started a blog - she told me what it was called - after a german biscuit/substance but the bubbly seems to have wiped it (along with other stuff I am sure) from my mind. So hopefully she'll leave a comment and tell me!

Other news:

New outlet Pomme in Victoria has my Threads Revisited and Sea Jewels- love this gallery website!
Jewellery party this Sunday at QUT Art Museum 2 -4. An opportunity to stuff ya gob with yummy cakes, buy jewellery directly from myself and Liana Kabel and see some live Wrecker action. I'll be selling domestique themes: Neo Luddites, Flatliners, Bombay sapphire Sea Jewels/shardies, Hoopies and Nana Mouskouris.

Umbrella Day

2006-11-28T06:59:00.000+10:00

Before I became involved with the Umbrella Collective (we had our fabulously successful inaugural fair on Saturday - see photos above), I had no idea what bunting was. It was discussed rather intensively at one of our planning meetings and I was left scratching around in the dark trying to figure out what they were all talking about with such passion! Because I did not own up to ignorance in the beginning, I did not feel I could confess my lack of understanding later in the conversation so it was not until I got home and did a google search that I discovered what it was all about. Buntings are the gorgeous flags (see above) that Kylie J made to decorate the buildings with. Not quite the same as the plastic ones used to decorate a car yard. They looked great with the gorgeous signs she made as well.

It was a really great day- thanks to everyone for helping especially the volunteers - we love you! More Umbrella Events coming soon!!!

DadArt

2006-11-25T06:23:00.000+10:00

Well that was the BESTEST BIRTHDAY EVA!

The highlight, apart from my mother singing happy birthday to me on the phone (all the way through) was that I received another piece of original DadArt. This year, a self portrait. The man is caught in the teddybear frame of domestic trivialities - a powerful allegory for the modern male. Where to next for masulinity begs the question? Previous examples of DadArt in the Wrecker collection are the Duchampian inspired Dysfunctional Toast Rack (for bread found in the bottom of supermarket bags) 1998 which takes aim at the sickening debauchery of western civilization and the The Mango Pup, 1996 an obvious woof in Koons' direction and self reference to Dad's own New Zealand origins.

I usually love it when people make stuff for me and this year was no exception with such talented fronds. I got my very own Majic Cat Tangram from Florence Forrest:

And from multiskilled plastic girl, some fab new STRIPEY knitwit chunky knit bangles and a nautical themed b-day cake (delicious - did not taste like plastic at all!). Now I have 8,9,10mm set of nauticals and am ready to set sail on a a new year of Wrecking.

Wrecker Birthday

2006-11-24T09:49:00.000+10:00

On this day one year in the early 1970s the baby Wrecker slopped into the world, baby hammer in hand ready to take on the mean streets of Papakura.

The flame trees always remember Wrecker birthday. This one planted outside the front door never fails to draw comment from a landscape architect friend.

LAF (incredulously): IS that an Illawarra Flame Tree you have planted there?
Us: Yes
LAF: do you realise how big they get?
End of converstation.

Then later, out on the backyard

LAF (incredulously): Is that a Blue quandong emerging from the Wayneforest?
Us: Yes
LAF: Do you REALISE they grow to 40 metres?

What can I say? We are jungle people.

Delightful Things Preview

2006-11-23T20:23:00.000+10:00

I've been going bananas trying to make sense of all my jewels for the Delightful Things Umbrella Collective craft fair on saturday. I don't know why I thought I would not have enough work! At the moment it is all on my bed waiting to be priced and put into some sort of order. Unfortunately I have been at a xmas party this arvo and am in no fit state to do it though it must be done in order for me to go to sleep so there was a strategy here at least! I am drinking coffee and psyching myself up for a long night ahead.
Here are some of the promo cards I've made for it:

Nautical Week 5: Sea Birds

2006-11-17T08:53:00.000+10:00

Coastal Birds toys: Florence Forrest

Photos of Birds: Wayne Kington

Sandgate artists Florence Forrest and Rachel Arthur have collaborated to create a wonderful Coastal Birds series of soft toys. They are available (unless they are all sold out which I suspect is a strong possibility!) until 25 November in the Furry Friend's exhibition in Surry Hills, Sydney.

Florence has interpreted the evocative drawings and paintings of Rachel's so cleverly. It is of great releif that she promises to work on the series more in 2007. They capture so well the pelicans and segulls that Wayne Kington has photographed on a recent trip to Amity (shark) Point at Stradbroke Island (thanks Wayne). The mother of pearl sky is a strong feature of the landscape in Moreton Bay and the soft toys bring to mind the pearlescent watery light.

Heading Out After the Storm: Rachel Arthur

And thank Florence for showing me the work of Rachel Arthurs. I am particulary drawn to this painting (oil and graphite on printed cotton) above. I love fishing boats and tales of the high seas and am reminded of the little ditty Dad used to sing to us:

You shall have a fishy
In a little dishy
You shall have a fishy
When the boat comes in.

Dance for your mama
Sing for your papa
Dance for your mama
When the boat comes in.