My Favorite Things: Porcelain, Jewellery, Cheese

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!

The naughty pee

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

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.

the night of the termites

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.

Bookclubbing 30th

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!

A Boy Turns 50

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!

Happenings

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

The Windbag Award

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!

Separation Jewels

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 ....

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!

Home again, home again

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.

Tea For Three

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.

Mr Mcleod's Lucky Strike

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

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.

Holiday

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.

Toast

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

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.

New shop opens in BrisVegas!

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.

DadArt

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.

Nautical Week 4: Happy 60th Birthday Mrs Wrecker!

Today is the day that my wonderful mother, Mrs A. Wrecker to you, turns 60.
I know, hard to believe with my youthful looks.

Here she is both as a darling beach baby and later as madame lash at the WHITE CLIFFS OF DOVER, her favorite stomping ground as a young lady. This is the flimsy nautical connection I am going to make- in fact both shots are taken at the beach, mum's favourite spot to flaunt herself in a succession of teeny weeny bikinis and floppy hats and visors during the 70's and 80's, much to my small-minded embarrassment. Though not as much embarrassment as when she did bikini clad gardening in our suburban front yard in Brisbane. In fact, Mrs Wrecker never misses a chance to soak up the rays that she has been deprived of during a grey English boarding school childhood though blessedly she has now converted to a one-piece.

Mrs Wrecker is where I got my sense of fair play and determination as well as my great body! And she probably had no idea at the time, but the macrame years were very formative for me and I have fond memories of visiting craft shops and trying to get her to buy me all sorts of materials while her focus would have been more on the next owl or plantpot holder.

Although I seriously let her down on the netball court and generally showed the sporting prowess of a wet sandwich, my competitive sporting mum continues to take pleasure in whipping 18 year old boys on the squash court. What she does off the squash court is her own business.