It was early on while attempting to pursue a career in film and television that Anna did some short courses in life drawing and jewellery making, and pretty soon worked out that her desire to make ‘things’ outweighed her desire to make films. However, she admits that an element of story telling still informs her practice. With a practice that straddles visual arts, jewellery, fashion and education, she now works in a shared space at Northcity4, part collective jewellery studio and part education centre based in Brunswick (more about Northcity4 in a minute).

The broad range of Anna’s work is driven by ideas first, with techniques chosen on their ability to best express that idea. Rocks is a series inspired by fashion, with large images of gemstones printed onto metal; Reef is a series inspired by the treasures of the sea and includes semi-precious stones, gold and silver, and found images. In her exhibition work, she often chooses to use collage as a method of storytelling, so she tends to find and use imagery which is then cut up, rearranged and represented to express her ideas.

 

 

Leilani is one of her most recent brooch pieces, and her current favourite. “She is a response to a quote about Australia by an Estonian and will be in an exhibition by Australian and Estonian jewellers responding to other quotes collected by the curator, Claire McArdle. The quote is “The most freaky animal in the world lives in Australia – platypus. Mammal who has beak. Plus they have teeth. Tail of a beaver. Have a weird sucker. Male ones have a poison dart on their left leg. They lay soft eggs. Just freaky.” – Liilia.” Anna explains, “My Leilani is a welcoming totem. She wears a hula of teeth.”

She loves jewellery for many reasons, and brooches in particular (I do too – they’re always up front; bold and succinct). “Jewellery is the perfect vehicle for people to express their individuality (or lack of it) and the brooch is a perfect signifier with which a jewellery wearer can express their identity.”

 

 

Anna studied Jewellery and Object Design at Sydney college of the Arts in the early 90s, where she got a broad exposure to both the concepts and techniques of contemporary jewellery. “I moved to Melbourne almost immediately after graduating; I grew up here as a child and always felt that Melbourne was home and I was drawn to the community of shared studios that didn’t seem to exist in Sydney.”

 

 

 

Now she is one the co-founders of Northcity4, along with Katherine Bowman, Ali Limb, Romani Benjamin and Caz Guiney. Anna explained to me how it all came together. “At the end of 2010 I had been working from the same studio in Flinders Lane since 1995. We had a year left on our lease, but new owners and the increasing desirability of the location meant that we were looking at the doubling of our rent and having to put up with hideous “improvements” to our beautiful old art deco building. Loss of funding at NMIT meant that I had also lost my teaching gig.

“At the time, I had a conversation with Ali Limb and I was probably complaining about all the things I mentioned above.

 

The next day she rang me with this IDEA. It sounded exciting and it sounded like something I had always wanted to do but didn’t know it.

“Her idea was to set up a shared co-operative type of studio that also involved developing an independent, active and sustainably focussed community. She spoke about the possibility of a space where people can take their work seriously but also help each other to obtain a really lovely work environment, and maintain flexible work lives, to find a warehouse in Brunswick or surrounds and run workshops and seminars and community projects and potentially attract interstate and international speakers and artists in residence.

“And two and a bit years later…. here we are! Northcity4 is an incorporated association so we run as a non- profit organisation with a commitment to supporting Melbourne’s contemporary jewellery and small object making community. We have 9 fully tenanted affordable studio spaces for long term tenants and a project space which can accommodate 3 artists who want to undertake projects of up to six months (this might include residencies, working towards exhibitions or simply making the transition from study to shared studio). We have comprehensive cultural and education programs running the gamut from beginners jewellery classes to professional development workshops and conceptual development workshops with visiting artists.

We have this great warehouse in Brunswick with a vegie garden and ongoing community cultural projects including our ‘gate’ project where we invite artists to decorate the facade of our building.

We want Northcity4 to be a place people can feel comfortable to come together to talk, engage, discuss, debate, and to learn and make.”

Anna says this has been the real icing on the cake for her – “being involved in this fabulous   community of Melbourne jewellers, artists and craftspeople.” And she loves her space. It is “messy and disorganised and full of stuff. Lots of fun and like being back at uni where I share a working space with up to 8 other people who I think are fantastic and we share thoughts, ideas, frustrations, tears, successes and lots and lots of laughter at the lunch table.”

In amongst all these surroundings, her favourite place is “my bench and my bench peg. A jeweller’s bench peg takes on the individual marks of the person who works at it and it is the most important part of my bench.” I couldn’t agree more – isn’t it beautiful?