Life in your hands - Art from solastalgia

Life in your hands - Art from Solastalgia opens at object gallery in Sydney this Friday with an exhibition tour and artist talks on Saturday 17 November. Come along and see this beautiful and moving exhibition.

Divine Decadence opens next Tuesday at Pieces of Eight

Divine Decadence opens next Tuesday 20 November at Pieces of Eight. I'm beyond excited that they have chosen to use some of my work as part of the exhibition collateral!

The other images that I have seen of work in the show look amazing... I am already seriously coveting Alida Cappelletta's stunning enamelled earrings and Pennie Jagiello's work too!

Thanks also to Pieces of Eight for taking such a great image of the work!

Craft Punk Workshops at the Powerhouse Museum in December!

On Saturday December  1 and Sunday December 2 I will be teaching some Fakery Finery workshops as part of the Powerhouse Museum's latest instalment of  Craft Punk Workshops which are under the seriously sweet banner of 'small offerings'.

Come and have some festive faketastic flowery jewelling fun with me! You can book here

Fingers Group Show 2012

Last year one of my jewellery dreams came true when Lauren Simeoni and I showed our exhibition Unnatural Tendencies at Fingers Gallery in Auckland. 

I had admired Fingers from afar since my student days at Sydney College of the Arts where the Fingers Gallery poster (seen below) was prominently displayed. Every single day I would stop and look at this poster and get lost in it... admiring the visual feast of amazing work by the gallery artists. This poster had such a massive impact and influence on me in my journey as a maker and so to actually get to visit Fingers for the first time in 2009 was a hugely big deal and THEN to be able to show my work there with Lauren in 2011 was just such an amazing and unforgettable experience.

I am so delighted to have been asked to be a part of the Fingers Group Show this year - another major 'moment' for me is being shown as a part of this incredible group of makers represented by Fingers. Thank you Fingers, for making my jewelling dreams come true.

Here are some of the works I made for the Fingers Group Show 2012. You can view the catalogue for the entire exhibition here. 

Life in Your Hands - coming soon to Object Gallery

Life in Your Hands - Art from Solastalgia continues its tour - next stop my home turf and I am delighted that the lovely folks over at Object have used my work on the invitation! The exhibition opens at Object Gallery on Saturday 17 November 2012. A beautiful exhibition not to be missed... can't wait to see it in the stunning, tranquil surrounds of Object Gallery! 

On now...

Here are some snaps of Lauren Simeoni and my latest jewelling adventures on now (until December 1) at Craft (formerly Craft Victoria) in Melbourne. We have installed two exhibitions in Gallery One. 

The first, Unnatural Acts, is a group exhibition which we originally curated for Velvet da Vinci Gallery in San Francisco last year. We are so delighted to bring the show to Australia too - it features the work of an amazing line up of makers: Anna Davern, Caz Guiney, Bridget Kennedy, Natalia Milosz-Piekarska, Sim Luttin, Kath Inglis and Mark Vaarwerk. All were sent the same bag of strange fake foliage and fruits/veg and asked to respond to or make something with the contents. The results blew us away, some inspiring, beautiful, thought-provoking and funny work. You can read more about it at our unnatural, Naturally blog.  

The second exhibition Unnatural tendencies features new work by Lauren and I, continuing our unnatural adventures together. The brief we set ourselves for this incarnation of the exhibition, aside from shared materials and making some collaborative pieces, was to respond to the wonders of Adelaide and Sydney's inner suburbs and the joys of spring! We worked out that this is the seventh unnatural exhibition we have held and this marks the third anniversary of our unnatural exhibitions. It has been a beautiful journey! 

You can read more about both exhibitions and also the stunning exhibitions in Gallery Two by Phoebe Porter and in Gallery Three by Anna Davern & Lucy James here.

Grateful thanks to our opening speakers Zoe Brand and Kevin Murray; Debbie Pryor and all at Craft for their support and these super images taken by Lily Feng. 

Coming soon to Pieces of Eight

I have just posted these earrings and neckpieces off to Pieces of Eight for Divine Decadence their Christmas exhibition extravaganza. The lovely ladies at the gallery sent out a little bag of treats and a recipe to inspire our making for the exhibition. I love working this way - responding to a brief and this brief was as if they had been peeking at the colours floating around in my head and on my bench!
I was SO much fun making this work and a great thing to come home to get stuck into after the excitement of making for, installing and opening unnatural Tendencies and Unnatural Acts at Craft two weeks ago.

Flesh petal

Around the neighbourhood and on the bench

It's all a bit pink still!

Workshopping at Northcity4

Lauren and I will be presenting an unnatural jewellery workshop in Melbourne next month hosted by our wonderful friends at Northcity4.

Coffee love at Studio 20/17

I have work in the upcoming exhibition For the love of coffee curated by Zoe Brand at Studio 20/17. 

Anyone who knows me well knows that I need to be appropriately caffeinated with two cups each and every day or I don't function.  So it's quite an appropriate exhibition for me! I thought long and hard about what I would make in response to such a ritualised addiction in my life and came up with a response to beginnings, thoughts and conversation. An opportunity to do some painting - a place to start and make some simple threaded work as a response - a string of thoughts. Here are the pieces:

A place to start.

The beginning of the day.

The beginning of a friendship.

The beginning of an idea, a thing.

A string of thoughts.

Conversations.

Fuel for making. 

For the love of coffee features work by Vernon Bowden, Karen Thompson, Erin Keys & Regine Middleton, Mary Hackett, Alice Potter, Bic Tieu, Linda Blair, Nina Baker, Barbara Cotter, Elizabeth Shaw,  Melinda Young, Regine Schwarzer and runs from 2 - 13 October at Studio 20/17 with opening drinks & artist talks on Saturday 6 October from 4 - 6pm. 

Some floral inspiration...

Some beauty from our trip to Vanuatu earlier in the year. Have been enjoying observing these trickle into my new work. 

On the street and on the bench

More pink...

In the pink!

Oh, hello pink my old friend, it's been a while since you have graced my bench so vividly!
Another sneak peek at some pieces for the new unnatural exhibition at Craft Victoria in October.
(I had some expert help).