iNana2.0

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.

End-of-the-day Celluloid Earrings

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!

Boomerang Swingers

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.

Biscuit Fever

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.

Foaming Nanas

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.

Possum goes beserk and destroys eggcup collection

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.

Back 2 Skool Suckers

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.

Christmas With Nana Mouskouri

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

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.

Nautical Week 2: I love crappy ship paintings

From the Wrecker collection. Or really the Accordian collection curated by the Wrecker. He started collecting these dodgy ship paintings (I did worry about the symbolism - was he preparing to leave?) and I had to hide most of them they were so bad. But these I like.

I love the blue one with its thickly applied impasto paint- you can almost imagine the assembly line heirarchies of palette knife wielders over brushworkers. It is a great bathroom painting. Foggy and mysterious. The yellow/green one tones rather nicely with the lounge and gives the living room a touch of the exotic east.

Thanks to Handmade Life whose velvet painting collection gave me the idea to blog this.

Beware of the Man-Bunny

Happy halloween.

It's a shame that a bloke can no longer dress up as a white rabbit and play tea parties with children without us cynically wondering whether he has a current blue card. I wonder if children are any safer in this climate of moral panic. The only people who seem to be having a good time of it are the suburban vigilantes, tabloid media and fear-mongering politicians.

Best Banana Cake Ever

It has been a weekend of activity at wrecker central. Mr Accordian has bought a new instrument called Hammond and has been filling the air with melodious meanderings and I have been going silly in the garden and kitchen. So today I am publishing a coupla wrecker recipes.

BecNana Cake

Don't you hate it when you walk into a room and someone has a bigger banana than you? This happened to me, believe it or not, when I had a recent banana harvest and then saw some other cheatin bananas on steroids at the Ekka. How demoralising.

Left with a heap of small manky looking bananas getting riper by the day, I knew I had to take some action.

You will need about 10 finger-sized drought dumps (bananas) or 2 normal ones or one banana on performance enhancers.
1. Peel the nanas and cut out the bad bits. Let the wrecking begin- you may choose to use a fork for the smashing.
2. Put 125g butter (not margarine for heavens sake) and 3/4 cup of dark brown sugar (the one with a hint of molasses is best) in a bowl and beat until fluffy.
3. Add 2 eggs, one at a time beating in until mixture goes mousse-like.
4. Add the smashed bananas.
5. Add 1 & 3/4 cups - 2 cups of self raising flour.
6. Mix lightly with a slosh of milk until combined.
7. Add a handful of chopped walnuts. You could also add pecans or dates.
8. Bake in a cake tin in a moderate oven- 160degrees c. for 1/2 - 3/4 hour until golden brown on top and cooked in the middle.

Melodius Meandering Mulberry CordialMy lovely friend, Tipi-Laura gave me a little mulberry bush years ago and it is now a colossus.
Thanks Laura.

Normally the fruit bats get most of the harvest and spray our house and car in purple poo. Making me glad we chose to paint the house in 'mulberry desire' anyway and that Mr Accordian bought a car in the same colour.

I don't really like to eat mulberries on their own because of the stalk but have made sorbet with them and now cordial, inspired by the Cascade Rasberry Cordial (yeah okay it's red cordial) we are addicted to.

You will need a bowl of fresh picked mulberries.
1. Wash the berries and put them in a saucepan and cover them with water.
2. Add a cup or so of fine white sugar and peel of half an organic lemon - use a vege peeler.
3. Simmer for one hour mashing the berries every so often.
4. Strain and cool. Pour into a bottle and refrigerate.

Drink with soda water, ice and garnish with mint for a cool summer drink. Add gin or vodka to taste... Arrange your extra mulberries in a Shannon Garson native violet dish and take in Mr Accordian's melodious meanderings.

Nana Mouse

Yippee I finally finished my Nana Nana Nana work and handed it in last week. I was so relieved to be taking a break from vinyl fumes, I forgot to photograph some of the final pieces but here are some Nana Glasses and Nana's Nana Beads made from same The Delightful Nana Mouskouri record that has been causing all sorts of problems at MoB Workspace.

Tex, the large ginger from next door was very unhelpful though entertaining during the ordeal. He is pictured reclining on top of the sharp brass wire pins I was preparing for the 50 brooches.

The stuff on my cat website has got it all wrong in forcing cats to have stuff put on them. What is it with cats that they always have to sit on what you are making, reading, paying attention to? If televisions were a horizontal surface, I'm sorry to say that our cat would be permanently attached to it.

I wonder if Nana Mousekouri likes cats. Maybe she prefers mice.

Looking forward to hitting the bottle again now:

Nana Challenge

Can you spot the Impostor Nana in the 51 Nana Mouskouris (click image to enlarge)? Well there is it least one imposter in this collaged google image search.

My top secret Flash Trash work made from old vinyl records centres around the fact that 2007 will be the 50th anniversary of Nana Mouskouri's professional career. 50 years and she's never converted to contact lenses or a side parting. You've gotta admire that. Harry Belafonte tired to bully her in the '60s not to wear glasses on stage but she dug her clunky heels in. She made glasses cool. Geeky before her time, she paved the way for all of us short sighted dorks.
She was my first role model as I have said before and although my first glasses at age 14 were heavily influenced by my John Lennon period, the second pair were pure Nana. The sales assistant informed me at the time that they would remain in fashion for at least 18mths. This surprised me as I was unaware that they were currently in fashion and I intended to wear them for at least 10 years like my previous frames! Unfortunately though, the huge weight of the large glass lenses and the onset of a permanent headache meant that my 3rd and current pair are rather more conservative. However, innovations in lightweight plastic lenses may mean that my fourth pair, to be chosen very shortly due to more to vanity than failing eyesight, may well go back to my Nana roots.
You can be assured that I will never, never succumb to contact lenses, which are surely the work of the devil and not to be trusted by us neo-luddites.

Geek Week 6: Coastal nerd shortage

During a recent trip to Point Lookout I was alarmed by a geek shortage that surely must be threatening scientific research. Those expecting to find people surfing, swimming, fishing, not wearing very much clothing even for a chilly day would not have been disappointed. However, those looking to find the usual cluster of nerds perched high on a windy rocky outcrop roped off from the public with ‘do not disturb’ signs, clipboards, number clickers and binoculars counting humpback whales were totally let down. And that includes me.

It is one of my favourite winter holidays to watch the official whale watchers do their stuff. It is all to do with the oh-so cute way that they square their backs and grind their teeth to all the annoying questions from lingering tourists.

Now its not like there weren't any whales going past either. Mind you, maybe they’ve relocated the whale count to the sushi train. Spare a thought for the whales though- after all, they are headed to Hervey Bay to be chased around by Mimi MacPherson while trying to give birth. That's no picnic. Some of them may well prefer the slow mercy of the harpoon. And if Aussie scientists cannot even be bothered to count them, let the Japanese scientists have a go.

So I had to console myself with collecting beach plastic and once again I was upset by the tides of change. A luddite really does not like progress. And that is what appears to have happened. I always used to find a few treasured and weathered plastic soldiers/Indians/cowboys among all the beach plastic, funeral flowers, pumice, used condoms and syringes in the flotsam at South Gorge but this time came up empty handed. Children must have changed their patterns of play since I last noticed. Did someone say they are all indoors eating cheezels and blasting away the enemy on their megastations instead of playing civilised wargames with plastic figures in the great outdoors? And those prissy-pants clean-up-Australia-do-gooders have been at it again, picking up all the plastic flotsam and moving it to their secret locations. I must say I find it all very upsetting.

The Bear is Dead

On the weekend I spent some happy hours op-shopping in Tenterfield, birthplace of our nation and Peter Allen. They now have a motor inn named after him so it seems they have come to terms with his sexuality. Anyway, after discovering a pair of lovely old cardigans in beige and green, I realised that next to them, my old mauve fake fur coat was looking a bit shabby. I remembered our precious time spent together.

We first met in a mini-skip outside a church in Paddington in the early 1990s. The poor coat had been left for dead. Being one of those pathetic individuals who cannot help but peer into dumpsters before walking past them, often with arms full of loot, I claimed the sorry pelt as my own. After a few careful repairs and a bath in wonder soap it was fully returned to service for another chance at life. O happy day.

Now, some have said that it resembled an old bear who went into the forest to die. This is rather a generous description perhaps. Others would postulate that it had been mauled by dingoes, pecked by galahs and buried in a scrub turkey mound during the wet season circa 1991 - back before the pace of climate change stepped up and we still had wet seasons. Whatever the case, the name of the jacket was coined : "the (Paddington) Bear". For like its English namesake, the Bear was not without a certain charm and it seemed to go with all of my other clothes. Which certainly says something about my wardrobe.
It is true that the Bear and I shared the best of what life has to offer. Together we traveled far and wide- New York, London, Prague, Dubrovnik, Montenegro, Naples, Canberra. Weddings, parties, banquets, the Bear was there. Life was never so much fun if I left the bear behind.

I remember when its lining disintegrated. Sometimes when I put it on, my hand came out of unexpected openings or disappeared into strange places like it had found a portal to Narnia. This was beginning to cause problems in our relationship and I noticed that my friends started to avoid me when I would wear the Bear. Status Anxiety won out. Yes, we've been through alot together. But now it is time to move on. It is a quality of life issue for the Bear. Not just myself. So this morning I began the ritual to prepare the Bear for burial. His beautiful mauve eyelike plastic buttons, strangely situated on the outside of each frontal pocket were harvested for memento mori. And the 'Up the Creek without a paddle' resident brooch unpinned for the final time. I usually cut up my old clothes for household rags but that does not seem right somehow for the Bear. Does anyone have any ideas for a fitting farewell? Maybe a winter solstice fire ritual. Or do I find him another mini-skip to turn the tale full circle?

Uncanny Nana

My recent excursion to Toowoomba Dump not only exposed me to the different cultural practices and customs of the Toowoombonian peoples, but also catapaulted me back to my early childhood. All it took was the discovery of an LP record entitled 'the delightful nana mouskouri'. I was instantly transported back to my early years when, to unwind after a long day spent toiling in my father's carrot fields, I would don my long string of wooden beads and dance, dance, dance away to Nana Mouskouri, my rock idol. For a moment then in those grim years of survival in New Zealand's bleak south island, I WAS Nana Mouskouri. Maybe I still am.

My Spiritual Homeland: the Toowoomba Dump

Last week I spent an exhilarating day amongst the inert industrial waste at Toowoomba Dump, 200km west of Brisbane. Why, you might ask? Well I had the great fortune to be one of the 14 Flash Trash artists to be selected for this fun outing and the subsequent challenge of creating artworks from our findings. And boy did i find some stuff. Lots.

Firstly, we saw this vermillion elephant. Driving along the Warrego Highway is not for the faint-hearted. They must be so far inland that the differences between a fish and an elephant are no longer important.

Do not stop the car.

Do not try the seafood.

We got to the inert waste facility which was no garden of eden but not too stinky either. I found a few odds and sods and then I saw this bit of polished granite sticking out of the compacted soil. I kicked myself for not bringing a spade but managed to dig out a bit of it to reveal a gravestone with names and dates 1902-1977. Loved and Remembered. Yeah right...

A healthy reminder of mortality and our insignificance!

And another one: 'God's Great'.
God is Great? Not quite. 'God's greatest gift:rememberance'. hmmm.

Finally selected some vinyl at the Lifeline dump store. Can't wait to get my saw into 'em.

We rolled back down the range, windows wide open to combat the deadly fumes coming from the back where something toxic we'd collected was outgassing with avengance. We stoped for toasted cheese onion and tomato sarnies at the 'Cruise Inn', bottom of the range. Yumm. Pure happiness. I felt renewed.

Mothers and Daughters Challenge

Can you match the beautiful mothers with their beautiful MoB Workspace daughters????

If you can, send us an email mobworkspace@yahoo.com.au with your answer in format M1=D1, M2=D? etc and YOU could Win WIN, WIN!!
Something really good.
That we made.
Wearable.
We promise!!

It would be helpful if you could tell us if your ears are pierced! Photo of prize coming soon.

*relatives are excluded from prize winning!
*winners announced Monday 15 May and correct answer published
*happy mother's day!