Sea Jewels Therapy

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

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

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

Back 23 May 2007

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.

Fabulous Foam

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

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.

Lepidoptera Week

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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