Sunday 28 July 2013

RMIT Gold & Silversmithing Auction 2013

The 2013 RMIT Gold & Silversmithing Auction will be held Wednesday 7 August at Mercy Bar above Craft Victoria. Come along to bid on some fantastic work donated by RMIT students, lecturers and Melbourne jewellers.



The work can be previewed before the auction at the auction blog.

I'll be donating these enameled Pathways earrings:


See you there!


Wednesday 24 July 2013

The Brunswick Patchwork Bed Bed Project Part II: The Patchwork Headboard

It's always nice to sleep in your own bed. But it's immensely satisfying to sleep in your own bed - that is, the bed you made yourself. The Brunswick Patchwork Bed Bed is finally complete! After some delays due to bad weather and being busy working on other things, I've finally finished the patchwork headboard.


I thought the headboard would be the easy part, since it didn't need to structurally support anything, but in fact it offered a whole new set of challenges. The plans I used were Ana White's Reclaimed Wood Look Headboard, only mine is made of actual reclaimed wood, found in the hard rubbish collection along with the wood for the bed itself. The original plans called for eight planks running the entire length of the headboard, while I wanted to use smaller pieces to create a patchwork look. The first challenge was getting the patchwork panel to fit together. Luckily I used to be an avid Tetris player.

Designing the layout, with wood from discarded beds and other headboards, pallets, and miscellaneous found wood

Once I worked out the basic layout, each piece had to be marked with its place, since the space limitations of my flat meant it all had to be put away at the end of the day. 

Then it was time to hone my handsaw skills. 

Monday 22 July 2013

Invitation to The Design Journey



The Design Journey is on at Arbor from 1-31 August, with an opening reception Thursday 1 August from 6pm. Part of the Craft Cubed festival, The Design Journey explores eight Australian jewellers' design development and working processes, exhibiting the journey along with the work.

You can also follow the journey online at the Arbor website: throughout August, the work and images of each artist's design process will be featured in an online exhibition. Design stories will be featured on Arbor's blog weekly. You can see some of my journey toward understandings of place and home through the observation of ordinary places in Brunswick here.

Wednesday 17 July 2013

Workshop: Building Jewellery Benches

Are you a jeweller without a jewellery bench? Or maybe you're just excited about building things by hand? Come along on Saturday 17 August for the workshop I'm running with the Urban Bush Carpenters on Building Jewellery Benches and Work Benches. The workshop will run from 10am at CERES and will finish by 2pm.

Participation is for a $5 donation, which goes toward the UBC's costs for tools, screws and other materials.

You'll learn the skills to build a jewellery bench or work bench by hand using simple hand tools and found timber. Together we'll build a bench (or two) on the day, and should someone want to take home what we've built, we ask for an additional donation towards materials.

In this workshop we'll work together as a group to learn the basic building and woodworking skills you'll need to build your own bench. If you're a jeweller and you want to get started on your own bench to take home, bring a piece of found wood such as a discarded tabletop, to use as your work bench top. While we're working together to complete one bench, we can also cut your bench top to size and shape on the day.

Wear sturdy, closed-toed shoes and weather-appropriate clothing as the workshops are run outdoors. Don't forget a bottle of water! For more information on UBC workshops visit the Urban Bush Carpenters website.

For more information on this workshop email me.

Seams, Seems Symposium

 This Friday 19 July Monash University is hosting the Seams, Seems Symposium in association with the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). Speakers include Dr Robert Bell, Senior Curator of Decorative Arts & Design, National Gallery of Australia; Visiting Artist Professor Robyn Quigley, Head of Jewellery & Metalsmithing at RISD; Visiting Artist Associate Professor Tracy Steepy, Jewellery & Metalsmithing at RISD; Katie Scott, Director of Gallery Funaki, and more.

Symposium registration is $25 including lunch, morning and afternoon tea.


The exhibition Seams | Seems is on at MADA (Monash Art & Design) Gallery from 17 July - 20 August. The exhibition brings together twenty makers from MADA and RISD, curated by Marian Hosking and Robin Quigley. Opening night is Friday the 19th at 6pm, following the symposium. 



Tuesday 16 July 2013

Unnatural Acts at Artisan

In Brisbane over the weekend I stopped in at Artisan to see some of the satellite exhibitions on now as part of the JMGA conference. In the window until 3 August is Unnatural Acts, an exhibition curated by Lauren Simeoni and Melinda Young examining the relationship between natural and unnatural. 

image from exhibition media

Ten jewellers (including the curators) were sent a bag of unnatural plastic items - a selection of fruits and flowers - and asked to create a small collection of jewellery from the contents of the bag. 

The result is an exciting diversity of forms, ranging from the literal to the unrecognizable. If you can't get to Artisan to see Unnatural Acts, images from the exhibition's showing at Velvet Da Vinci in San Francisco can be seen on the Velvet Da Vinci website

There are two other jewellery exhibitions on now at Artisan: Regine Schwarzer's Mineral Manifestations explores the crystalline structures of rocks and minerals through combinations of crushed quartz and enamel, and Bench showcases the work of four emerging Brisbane jewellers working in a collective studio. 

Road Trip, on now at Gallery One of Artisan, is a thoughtful exhibition of colourful dresses made from textiles printed with the images of travel photographs, by Ann-Maree Reaney and Jill Kinear. The exhibition is divided into road trips in different parts of the world.The American road trip dresses utilise forms inspired by the 1950s, when the glamour of the road trip was at its height, and offer a Feminist take on the promise of freedom and adventure offered by the idea of the road trip in works such as Kerouac's On the Road

All the Artisan exhibitions run until 3 August. 

Tuesday 9 July 2013

New Pathways

A new pair of Pathways earrings on their way to Studio 20/17 today!


Monday 8 July 2013

The Design Journey

My work is going to be featured in The Design Journey, an exhibition coming up in August at Arbor. The Design Journey is a satellite exhibition of Craft Victoria's annual Craft Cubed festival. In the spirit of this year's Craft Cubed theme, A Better Blueprint, the Arbor exhibition will look at the designs and idea development behind the works exhibited: each work will be displayed along with the sketches, images, and tools that went into its making.

Here's a little look at some of the ideas behind the work I dropped off at Arbor over the weekend...



Come to Arbor in August to see the full story!

More details will be available soon. 

Friday 5 July 2013

From the collection of Mel: Peaches and Keen

I thought I'd share some of the beautiful works by other artists in my very modest collection. First up: the whimsical Cactasaurus Rex by Melbourne jewellery and graphic design duo Peaches and Keen.


And on the right, a lovely hanging plant by Zoe Yule

Tuesday 2 July 2013

Participation and Exchange: 15th Biennial JMGA Conference

Participation and Exchange, the 15th biennial Jewellers' and Metalsmith's Guild of Australia (JMGA) Conference will be held in Brisbane from 12-14 July.




The conference includes three days of speakers, including Laura Bradshaw-Heap (UK), Peter Deckers (NZ), Tricia Flanagan (HK) and many others. If you've been following the Save TAFE campaign, be sure to check out Melissa Cameron's talk on How to become an Artist Jeweller: A Community Case Study, which will compare the Australian jewellery education system, including recent changes and loss of funding to TAFE, to Melissa's recent experiences in Seattle, USA.

Delegates can register for one, two or all three days. If you don't plan on going to the conference itself, there are also workshops, two conference exhibitions, and a number of satellite exhibitions around Brisbane.