Craft Australia survey

Do you have a creative Micro Business??? The folks at Craft Australia has recently launched Share Your Stories, a national survey for creative micro enterprises. The survey is designed to capture data about the contribution that creative micro enterprises make to the economy. According to Craft Australia, micro enterprises are amongst the fastest growing areas of business in this country.  The contribution to the economy generated by such industries is not well documented, even less so when it comes to creative industries. 

Craft Australia is the national peak advocacy organisation promoting Australian craft and design practice. The data from Share your Stories will be summarised and presented as an overall picture of Australian creative micro enterprises. This aggregated data will form the basis of advocacy activity that Craft Australia will undertake to promote this sector. 

To take part in the share your stories survey and give your feedback on what it takes to make micro a success, go to http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/MJGSXC2.  The survey continues online till 30 August.

I heart Craft Australia

I am looking forward to the May 2010 issue of Craft Australia's e-news as it will have a contemporary jewellery focus and roundup of the JMGA conference held in Perth 2010. Sadly I couldn't make it to Perth, so I'm very excited to read all about it...
I am a huge fan of Craft Australia, not only are they an amazing organisation in support of crafts people around Australia, but their website is a fantastic resource. Craft Australia have always been super supportive of my practice - so I'm going to give them a little plug!

Craft Australia publishes its free online newsletter, CA enews every month, the newsletters are a terrific way of finding out what is on around the country, you can read it at: http://www.craftaustralia.org.au/enews/ The subscription to CA e-news is free, you can subscribe at: http://www.craftaustralia.org.au/subscribe/ and there is an archive link to previous newsletters at: http://www.craftaustralia.org.au/newsroom/newsletter.php?id=index
This year Craft Australia is celebrating its 40year anniversary in 2010 (HAPPY BIRTHDAY!) and as part of the celebration they have set up a flickr page to showcase Australian studio craft and design. They continually uploading images to this site and a number jewellery and object images has been uploaded with many more to come... you can check it out here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/craftaustralia/

There is also the Craft Australia calendar, which promotes contemporary craft and design through publicising exhibitions, workshops, opportunities, conferences and trade fairs, it is a fantastic resource and way of staying in touch with what is happening: http://craftaustralia.org.au/calendars/about

Thank you Craft Australia for being so wonderful and here's to the next 40 years!

make believe

May marks the annual 'make' exhibition at gaffa gallery featuring work by a whole bunch of us who work at, or have worked at Object, Australian Centre for Craft and Design. It is always a really fun exhibition to be a part of and a great opportunity for us all to catch up on each others news and of course artistic endeavours of the past year. The exhibition is also a chance for some of us to step outside the comfort zone of our day-to-day practice and experiment with new media, materials and messages in our making.

This year I have been working on a fun photographic collaboration with Kylie Johnston which poses a tongue in cheek challenge to the catch cry of 'sustainability' that seems to permeate the creative landscape and social media. It seems to us that sustainability has become a fashion statement rather than a desire to actually be sustainable.

Our work is titled Sustainability... is it all make believe. Here is our little 'manifesto':
Sustainability has become a term that informs our choice of what to buy, wear, make, travel and communiacte in our contemporary lives. Are we in danger of over-use, to the point where it is a meaningless term? Have we made sustainability unsustainable?

Each generation has a catch-cry that reflects the ideas that were at the forefront of peoples minds... is this ours? And how will it look in 50 years... were we all hopeful of massive change under a slogan, or is it simply a soundbite? You be the judge... become an urban agitator and pose the question yourself.
And here is an image:

 

Some more thread work that isn't pink... and winter brooches

I have been busy making thread neckpieces recently. Some of them have been in response to and are currently being shown alongside Fiona Tan's Disorient work at the Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation in Paddington.  My work is presented there by Pablo Fanque.  Here is one of the neckpieces:

I am also working on a new collection of work for an exhibition at Object Gallery, curated by Kylie Johnston, that opens in August. It is called Blue. A group of 9 makers have been asked to respond to a phrase or saying related to 'blueness'. Mine is "Into the Blue", so into the blue I am going, with a collection of neckpieces and brooches using blue thread and semi-precious stones....  It is proving to be an exciting challenge as I am usually drawn to working with warmer colours! 

 

Here are some brooches that I have just completed for the Winter Brooches 2010 exhibition at Studio 20/17 which opens on Tuesday 4 May. 

There are some amazing artists in these exhibitions and I feel very privileged to have been invited to participate in them!

Fidelity

Fidelity is the title of a exhibition that opens this Thursday at the new gaffa gallery in Sydney. I am very honoured to have been invited to participate in the inaugural exhibition for the new space along with some of my favourite crafty peeps: Zoe Brand, Vernon Bowden, Kath Fries, Sean O'Connell & Andrew Lavery amongst many other amazing artists. 
The of collection work I have made is a bit of a hybrid of the thread pieces and the new work I have been making for the Unnatural, naturally project. It is a collection of brooches and neckpieces that play with notions of fidelity in terms of belief in material - all of the pieces are brunette, each has a component of brown sewing thread in different tones and thicknesses - which on some pieces is quite hair-like. 
Here are some of the works:

In other news, this time next week Lauren and I will be in Auckland installing Unnatural, Naturally at Masterworks Gallery! 

Happy New Year (and a new blog)

Happy New Year!


Check out my other project with Adelaide jeweller Lauren Simeoni on our new blog:
www.unnaturalnaturally.blogspot.com 


Stay tuned here for new pink work and information about my other exhibition projects.