Shadowlands... work in progress

Work in progress for some new Shadowlands pieces... I spent a happy afternoon yesterday cleaning up some yummy silver castings taken from some of my favourite pieces from the ever expanding artificial plant foliage stash in my studio... 43 sprues cut off and only one broken saw blade, I reckon that's pretty good going!

Once more with love

I have been invited by Simon Cottrell and Suse Scholem to participate in a fun yet challenging exhibition titled Once More with Love... A group of jewellers from around Australia are making work with reclaimed jewellery for the exhibition which will be shown in Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney.

The premise for the exhibition is wonderful - people were asked to donate their no longer loved jewellery in exchange for tokens (to be redeemed at the exhibition). The donated jewellery has been distributed amongst a group of jewellers who are set the task of using it to make new work (as sustainably as possible). I was sent a big bag of blue things, mostly beads. The funny thing about his project is that although I predominantly use reclaimed materials in my practice, being given them, rather than choosing them makes for tricky times!!! As I have found with previous projects with similar roots - such as Unnatural Acts, the exhibition Lauren Simeoni and I curated for Velvet da Vinci (soon to be seen at Craft Victoria!) and the Box Project curated by Jasmine Matus - the going is tough sometimes but the rewards are rich! The challenge, inspiration and new directions offered by working in this way are beyond amazing and have a resonance long beyond the time of the project!  

It has taken a lot of playing with the pieces and ruminating to break the seal and start making work for this show. Here are some images of piece number one in progress...

My work is usually quite organic and my collection of materials is so random, yet there is a perverse order at play in the colour selection I have been sent... I decided for the first piece to reflect on this idea and work against my natural grain, using square-ish beads from a (turquoise?) necklace to make a grid on a square - order from the randomness.

In keeping with the brief I am mounting them on a piece of mirrored perspex cut from a scrap I inherited a while ago, its surface has been emeryed back to create a subtle glowing surface. Initially the beads were mounted with fishing line...

...but I got half way and decided it wasn't working out - so I have started again, stitching and knotting each bead in place with silk thread. It is taking FOREVER... and working within a square to the square grid is doing my head in - although oddly I prefer to work in a gridded sketchbook (ignoring the grid usually!)

The finished piece will (eventually) become a pendant strung with fine tubular silver beads from another of the pieces in the bag.

The Once more with love website will launch soon and I can't wait to see what other poeple have been given and are making too!!!

Getting my unnatural on.

Lauren and I have started getting back into the unnatural groove in preparation for our Unnatural Activities show at Craft Victoria in October... I am having fun planning and playing with some bits Lauren sent me (originally posted about here). They are tricky little petals these!

Woven inspiration - Women with Clever Hands

Some images from the current exhibition at Object Gallery - the beautiful Women with Clever Hands curated by Louise Hamby.

Texture in the garden

I collect succulents, I love their colours and textures (and the fact that they are easy to propagate and hard to kill!)

Workshop time! objectLab at Sydney College of the Arts

Sydney College of the Arts is hosting a fabulous series of week long jewellery, glass and ceramics workshops from 2-6 July under the banner ObjectLab. 
I am teaching one of the workshops. It is called called 'unnatural jewellery' you can learn more about it here, however the basic premise is:
To explore and challenge approaches to making, focusing on the theme 'Unnatural Jewellery'. Participants will be encouraged to experiment with and deconstruct a variety of found materials whilst developing and working to a theme...

It will be lots of fun, come along and play! 

yasuaki onishi: reverse of volume

This is amazing!

yasuaki onishi: reverse of volume RG at rice gallery

Glue and plastic never looked so good. Watch the video...

Sunset series

Here are the finished works in the Sunset Series... again, these are at Pieces of Eight.

Melinda Young, Sunset Earrings, 2012, Coral, Wood, 925 Silver, Acrylic Paint

Melinda Young, Sunset Neckpiece, 2012, Coral, Carnelian, Agate, Jade, Howlite, Glass, Plastic, Artificial Plant Foliage, Wood, Acrylic Paint, Silk Thread (Front View)

Melinda Young, Sunset Neckpiece, 2012, Coral, Carnelian, Agate, Jade, Howlite, Glass, Plastic, Artificial Plant Foliage, Wood, Acrylic Paint, Silk Thread (Back View)

Melinda Young, Sunset & Blaze Neckpieces, 2012, Coral, Carnelian, Agate, Jade, Howlite, Glass, Plastic, Artificial Plant Foliage, Wood, Acrylic Paint, Silk Thread

Melinda Young, Sunset & Blaze Neckpieces, 2012, Coral, Carnelian, Agate, Jade, Howlite, Glass, Plastic, Artificial Plant Foliage, Wood, Acrylic Paint, Silk Thread

Melinda Young, Blaze Neckpiece, 2012, Coral, Carnelian, Howlite, Glass, Plastic, Wood, Acrylic Paint, Silk Thread (Front View)

Green Shield

One of the results of inspiring, golden sunny afternoons spent in the park - Green Shield neckpiece (now at Pieces of Eight...)

Melinda Young, Green Shield Neckpiece, 2012, Jade, Aventurine, Tourmaline, Glass, Plastic, Sequins, Wood, Acrylic Paint, Silk Thread (Back view)

Melinda Young, Green Shield Neckpiece, 2012, Jade, Aventurine, Tourmaline, Glass, Plastic, Sequins, Wood, Acrylic Paint, Silk Thread (Front View)

New work at Pieces of Eight

The lovely folks at Pieces of Eight have featured some of the new pieces I recently sent them on their blog along with some lovely words and images - Thank you!

Click here for a look!

...and here's a sneak preview...

Lines

Shades of grey

Sand and sea

Here are the Sand and sea earrings and neckpiece all completed and ready to send down to Pieces of Eight in Melbourne. I am quite happy with this new work and even after using wood predominantly in my exhibition works for the past few years I have developed some new ways of working with it in these pieces which has resulted in some subtle shifts in surface quality. 

Melinda Young, Sand and sea Neckpiece, 2012, Turquoise, Freshwater Pearls, Jade, Howlite, Glass, Plastic, Wood, Acrylic Paint, Wax, Silk Thread

Melinda Young, Sand and sea Earrings, 2012, Glass, Wood, Acrylic Paint, Wax, 925 Silver

Melinda Young, Sand and sea Earrings, 2012, Glass, Wood, Acrylic Paint, Wax, 925 Silver

Melinda Young, Sand and sea Earrings, 2012, Turquoise, Freshwater Pearls, Wood, Acrylic Paint, Wax, 925 Silver

Melinda Young, Sand and sea Earrings, 2012, Turquoise, Freshwater Pearls, Wood, Acrylic Paint, Wax, 925 Silver 

Melinda Young, Sand and sea Earrings, 2012, Turquoise, Freshwater Pearls, Wood, Acrylic Paint, Wax, 925 Silver

Melinda Young, Sand and sea Neckpiece, 2012, Turquoise, Freshwater Pearls, Jade, Howlite, Glass, Plastic, Wood, Acrylic Paint, Wax, Silk Thread

Temporal jewelling

Today the young studio assistant and I made some temporal stone jewels.
We collected, sorted, arranged... then swept it all away!

A day for purplish pinkness

Funny how different colours pop out at you on different days. Today it was all about noticing the purplish pinky things in the neighborhood...