The Crafted Object
Making things with your hands sets up dialogues – between the materials and you, between you and the stories you imbue into the piece, and between the eventual owner, their history and what meanings they overlay onto that object. It’s a beautiful dance.
And it’s never just about the technical skill required.
The crafted object : Pamela Tang ~ clothing
Pamela Tang confesses, "My addiction for hoarding too many materials began when my mum ran a fabric business many years ago." But I reckon that's OK now - what she makes that fabric into is wonderful. Focusing on linen, wool and silk, she constructs...
The crafted object : Karen Richards ~ textiles
I must admit I am mesmerised by the textile works of Karen Richards. I first came across her through another artist friend of mine (Vicki Mason - you can find my interview with her here!), and was just a tiny bit amazed by the breadth of her practice, and the...
The crafted object : Andy Singleton – papercuts
You KNOW I love a great papercut. Andy Singleton produces remarkable things out of his studio in Wakefield, England. His large-scale paper sculptures are breathtaking and awe-inspiring, not only for their beauty, but also for their scale, their technical skill, and...
The crafted object : Margaux Lange ~ jeweller
I heart Margaux Lange's work. I love how it uses repetition of forms to create new textures and shapes. I love how it extracts elements and puts them into new contexts. I love how it uses juxtaposition to create conversations, to question ideas and to inject a sense...
The crafted object : blingiebot – 3D printed jewellery
If you ever have the opportunity to go see a 3D printer in action, DO IT. I was lucky enough to catch one in action when the Questacon Science Circus came through town, and it is the most gobsmacking bit of tech I have seen in quite a while. The tech itself has...
The crafted object : Claire Baker {ceramics}
The patina of age, delicate patterns, fragments from life and fragments from memory. Claire Baker's ceramics are curiously intriguing, whimsical and just a bit theatrical. Inspired by the darker side of Victoriana, and in particular, Miss Havisham's wedding...
The crafted object : Natalia Milosz-Piekarska {jewellery}
It was a few years ago in Melbourne that I first came across Natalia Milosz-Piekarska's luminously coloured jewellery. I was intrigued by her painted surfaces and tactile shapes; her very organic forms reminded me of some kind of mysterious, shy yet friendly sea...
The crafted object : Marianne Anderson, jeweller
Marianne Anderson loves books. Working her way between historical and technical sourcebooks and her own sketchbook, she teases out ideas of traditional ornamental forms and what makes them meaningful. Glasgow seems then the perfect place in which to base...
The crafted object : Jess Dare {jewellery}
Jess Dare's work sits in that eloquent space between complexity and simplicity. Her colour palettes are clear and bright, her shapes are deceptively simple, and her compositions have an easy sense of balance. But it is the subtle touches of visual texture that...
The crafted object : Meredith Woolnough – textiles
Meredith Woolnough's textile works are just so goshdarn beautiful. Inspired by nature and old lace, it is their intricacy and fragility that draws me in, and it is their vibrant textures that hold me there. It is the ephemeral nature of...
The crafted object : Fi Hocking – nuno felt
Fi Hocking is a feltmaker and artist living in Eumundi, a lush little piece of hinterland on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland. Earthy richness is a hallmark of Fi's felting too - layer of colour upon layer, with little embroidered details and textures that are...
The crafted object : Leigh Martin ~ knit
Leigh Martin loves plants. In fact, she admits she is obsessed with them. "My education, career, and artwork revolve around this love, and there are few things that I love more." Except perhaps knitting. While she has been knitting since college (mostly garments and...
Milestones!
***UPDATE: Winner is announced below!*** As some of you might know, I hit a big milestone on my Facebook page - 1000 likers!! I'm a bit in awe that there are so many of you that like my work. All of what you see over there are things that I've made...
Colouring my day : White Chalk
I hope you've been enjoying this musical interlude, while I've been concentrating on other things for a short while. This is the last in the series featuring music + colour, I'll be back on Monday. Julie x * White Chalk : PJ Harvey I could not leave...
Colouring my day : Underwater Love
Yes, Underwater's not a real colour, but it is evocative of a certain section of the spectrum. And this track is so seductively good, I couldn't go past it. Smoke City : Underwater Love * {Sandra Darling via here} {Sivan Royz via...
Colouring my day : Golden Brown
Continuing on with my short interlude, I've got some more beautiful craft, surface design and photography, themed around songs with colour in the title. I hope you enjoy my selections. Julie x Golden Brown : The Stranglers The Stranglers are...
Colouring my day : All Neon Like
As you might know, I'm taking a kind of mini-break from the blog - but not disappearing completely. For the next little while, instead of full interviews with artists, I will be sharing a bunch of beautiful craft, surface design and photography, themed around...
Colouring my day : Purple Haze
As you might know, I'm taking a kind of mini-break from the blog - but not disappearing completely. For the next little while, instead of full interviews with artists, I will be sharing a bunch of beautiful craft, surface design and photography, themed around...
Colouring my day : Fade to Grey
Hi, I'm taking a kind of mini-break from the blog - but not disappearing completely. For the next two weeks, instead of full interviews with artists, I will be sharing a bunch of beautiful craft, surface design and photography, themed around music (thanks Annaig for...
The crafted object: Helga Matos – woven textiles
Helga Matos was born in Brazil and grew up in the Amazon Rainforest. With such an incredible backdrop to her childhood, it is no wonder that it has greatly influenced her creative work. She says it is a constant source of inspiration for her woven textiles. She...
The crafted object : Melinda Young ~ contemporary jewellery
Melinda Young loves plastic flowers. Not for decorating her dining room table with, but for pulling apart, for discovering what wonderful elements they are composed of - here, a pile of yellow stamens, another of green spiky seedheads, and over there, a pile of...
The crafted object : Ann Jenkins {tuizui} : jewellery
Ann Jenkins and her husband are are enthusiastic gardeners, and live in an idyllic-sounding spot on an island off the coast of Maine. There, they tend their organic vegetable and ornamental garden, as well as working as estate gardeners for others in the summer...
The crafted object : grrl + dog {Denise Litchfield}
Pattern on pattern on texture, overlaid with fragments of vintage remnants, each piece bearing hints of its previous lives. Stitched and buttoned, soft and secretive containers of memories made and still to come. Denise Litchfield (aka grrl + dog)...
The crafted object : Sandi Pierantozzi ceramics
The sweet and chunky ceramics of Sandi Pierantozzi look like they belong to Alice, in her house somewhere in Wonderland. Clear, bright pastels in many hues sit side by side on the pieces, which are often decorated with simple, all-over textured patterns that...
The crafted object : Jaime Jo Fisher
If her work is anything to go by, inside Jaime Jo Fisher's head is a swirling mass of elipses, bubbles and textures. Monochromatic assemblages of darkened silver are punctuated by glass beads, vintage velvet and found objects. Textures and details abound; I can feel...
The crafted object : Anna Davern
Cultural identity - what makes us who we are, and how we respond - is a constant source of fascination for Anna Davern, contemporary jeweller and artist. Driven by notions of heritage and of Australian-ness (whatever that might include), her work is sometimes...
The crafted object : SeiZo Soares – jeweller
The sculptural jewellery works of Brazilian SeiZo Soares are unmistakeably masculine. Muscular and bold, their organic forms are reminiscent of surrealist paintings, incredibly tactile, rich in texture and detail. SeiZo's love of wood is at the forefront of...
How-to : Choosing your materials for jewellery – Part (ii) – non-precious metals
This is the second part in my How-to on jewellery metals, and this one's about the common non-precious metals used in jewellery. I've written it with the beginner-jeweller in mind, because I am absolutely passionate about excellence in craftsmanship, and that...
The crafted object : Helen Britton
Helen Britton is a collector of trinkets and a maker of note. All those plastic and glitzy reinventions of the precious and rare, fresh from fleamarkets and places more humble fill her studio - a treasure trove of the banal awaiting reinvention themselves. She...
How-to : Choosing your materials for jewellery – Part (i) – precious metals
This post has been prompted by something I've seen several times recently that makes my toes curl and my ears cringe - the wrong metal in the wrong place. Yep, it's one of my pet hates. I'll tell you more about why later. While you CAN make jewellery out of...