tractorgirl
Contemporary Craft & Design Blog
In-person workshops
for Linocut and Surface Pattern Design
Hey there!
Welcome to my little corner of the world. I ADORE great design, and write occasionally about things that take my fancy. And, I’m a great believer in people making a living from what they love. So, please go and check out these artists – you can purchase directly from them.
Please note: Sometimes, artists choose to close their shops/change their business names/move elsewhere, and as such, I cannot be responsible for any broken links you might find in these articles.
If you need to contact me, you can email me – info@tractorgirl.com.au
Thanks, Julie
Vision & Inspiration
THIS is what I’m talking about.
Aren’t these things lovely!?
Colour, pattern, texture. And the well-made object.
You can read all my blogs below, or feel free to click on one of the buttons to dive into a particular area of interest.
Photography + Craft : Clemens Wirth
Clemens Wirth swears he's not a wizard despite his red hair. But I have my doubts when I look at his miniature moving dioramas and think about what has actually gone into making them. I think they're incredible. An Austrian filmmaker and artist living...
The crafted object : Su Blackwell {papercut}
Su Blackwell : papercuts In secret forests small creatures lie low and trees whisper their stories to each other through their leaves and branches. Light plays games of hide and seek with shadows as solitary wanderers search out their destinations. Birds sing quiet...
Surface design : Brie Harrison
Brie Harrison is obsessed with her garden. So it's no wonder that her patterns are filled with bright, happy, colourful flowers. Oodles of them, in clear, scandi and folk-inspired shapes. She is also obsessed with pattern. She received a degree...
Hot or Not? Wire Wrapped
Opinion : Wire wrapped jewellery has to be one of the most abused methods of construction known to metal craft. The plethora of ugly, misshapen abominations I endured while searching for good examples to show you meant that I searched through FIFTY PAGES on Etsy...
Photography : Matthew Ling
Matthew Ling loves a good illusion. When he was 8, he was given a disposable camera by his dad to take on a school trip to France. "I saw a postcard of the city I was in but shot from the air. I thought if I took a photograph of the postcard I could trick my folks...
Photography : Beata Czyzowska Young
Beata Czyzowska Young has a message for young photographers. "Expensive camera and expensive equipment is not gonna make you an artist... some of my most popular and most rewarded photos have been taken with a simple point and shoot camera. "The thing is, when you're...
Surface design : Marina Molares
Born of a Spanish father and American mother, Marina Molares spent her childhood travelling the globe with her parents. Absorbing a world of customs and cultures, she grew and grew until she became too big for the earth so she built her own cosmos, and filled it with...
The crafted object : Mark O’Brien {cardboard}
Mark O'Brien makes chickens. From cardboard. And cars, guitars, robots and shoes... The Manchester-based illustrator who graduated from Leeds Metropolitan University with a degree in Graphic Arts chooses to work in cardboard for its accessibility, and...
Opinion : 3D printing and craft
Just how do 3D printing and craft fit together? Is it just a matter of using a virtual image or scanning in what you want and shoving a copy of that thing out of the printer? Or as many copies as you want out of the printer? And how is that craft? {click image...
Precision and surprise : the 3D printed jewellery of Cinnamon Lee
Cinnamon Lee's first encounter with 3D manufacturing technologies was at the Australian National University, while she was undertaking her Visual Arts degree. ANU had just acquired an FDM rapid prototyping machine, and she took to it immediately; she...
Surface design : Carolina Abarca
Carolina Abarca once had a career as a research scientist. After shifting countries several times in a few years with her husband and young family, she decided that being involved in research was problematic. "Every time we moved it was more difficult to advance my...
The crafted object : Sim Luttin {jewellery}
Australian jeweller Sim Luttin grew up wanting be an inventor. Time spent watching things being created by her grandfather tinkering in his shed and her scientist father had a profound and early influence on her. "I was encouraged to do things in a more labour...
Surface design : Tim Colmant
When I asked graphic designer and pattern maker Tim Colmant where his inspiration came from, he replied "The Memphis movement, past, present and future." And so it is. Flat colours in brights and pastels, meandering lines, dots and chunky shapes cover his surfaces -...
The crafted object : Sandra Bowkett {ceramic}
Sandra Bowkett is one of those artists that the more you find out about them, the more in awe you are of them. Sandra is a ceramicist living in pristine woodland near Tallarook in central Victoria with her partner, producing cups and bowls in porcelain...
Photography : Blackcurrant Photography {Kell Rowe}
"I can spend an hour in a square metre of garden bed. I feel so driven to capture the tiny things that others ignore, it's almost a fear... what if nobody else ever photographs that plant? I have to make its life have been appreciated, if only for a moment." ...
Surface design : Julia Grifol
"Since I was a child I knew I wanted to be a designer. All my textbooks were filled with doodles, and I continuously imagined myself being a designer travelling all around the world. That passion and need to draw have been a constant throughout my life." ...
The crafted object : Britta Boeckmann {resin & wood jewellery}
Britta Boeckmann moved to Australia for love. When she got here, she fell in love all over again with its beautiful wood. Combining Australian native timbers with translucent resins and semi-precious stones, her jewellery looks a bit architectural with its bold,...
The crafted object : Chris Taylor {ceramics}
Looking at Chris Taylor's multi-coloured vessels I am reminded of layers of wallpaper in an ancient house. Pattern on pattern over paint, in colours that are both rich and muted. And just like wallpaper, layers on layers bring with them ideas of process, and each...
Surface design : Katherine Scarritt
Katherine Scarritt loves materials: wood, wool, acrylic paint. She loves how they feel in her hands, and is fascinated with how each material responds differently to various processes. More importantly, she is fascinated with how this affects the final product. "For...
The crafted object : Moshikoart {jewellery}
I was a bit stumped for words when I first spotted the silver and resin jewellery of Moshiko Boshe (aka MoshikoArt). "Bright" and "colourful" didn't quite do it justice. Based in Tel Aviv, Moshiko's work is kind of a wild hybrid between organic and...
Surface design : Mag-O {Angela Stevens}
Angela Stevens lives in Las Vegas. It sounds wild, but she explains, "It's a notorious vacation spot yet a quite peaceful place to call home." Perhaps the constant busyness does have some effect - Angela's patterns fill their space with energy, despite...
Competition! Digital Fabrics ‘Botanical Extracts’
Calling ALL Australian surface designers - especially those of you who love florals as much as I do!! Digital Fabrics is a print-on-demand business based in Sydney, which offers digital fabric printing onto a huge variety of fabrics in a range of sizes up to 1.5m...
The crafted object : Cardboard Safari
When Chris Jessee first interviewed Luis Rodrigalvarez to come on board his fledgling laser-cutting business building model kits for model train enthusiasts, Spanish-born Luis could barely speak English. Chris was dubious. But then Luis showed Chris his portfolio,...
The geometries of surface design : Claudia Owen
I love how Claudia Owen plays with colour. Starting with classic, elegant geometrics, she breathes new life into them with details in clashing, vibrant hues of hot pink, yellow, green and orange. Based in Canberra, Claudia first studied graphic design...
The crafted object : Your Organ Grinder (textiles)
I have long been fascinated by the curious felted viscera of Simmone Spring from Your Organ Grinder. Eyes, kidneys, teeth, brains, hearts, lungs, thyroid... Who buys them? Why? "I get to work with a lot of people who are ill or have had surgeries or have...
Surface design : RuseRoux {Yenty Jap}
One of the biggest challenges Yenty Jap has had to face was figuring out how to make a classroom full of kindergarten kids sit still long enough so she could teach them about the computer. Working as a graphic designer for many years, the kindergarten...
Opinion + Design how-to : There’s decoration and there’s decoration
There's decoration and there's decoration, and seriously, it's not just a matter of taste. What do I mean? I mean the thoughtless sticking on of stuff, just because "it's-popular-therefore-it-must-be-good" or even "it needed something, so I stuck a flower/bow/octopus...
Opinion : Hot or Not?
Yippee! SO excited about this new segment on tractorgirl. What I'm going to do is pick a current trend in craft and design, review it, and pull it apart to see if it's worth having as a trend. Whadya reckon? Be warned, the vagaries of my personal taste are bound to...
Photography : Pamela Pianezza
Pamela Pianezza dreams about pictures. The pictures she's done and could have done better, the pictures she couldn’t do, because she didn't have her camera, and pictures that obsess her so much that at some point she knows she'll have to go back to that place and try...
The crafted object : MarDeColorRosa {jewellery}
A long time ago, Montserrat Lacomba visited an island called Formantera, where she saw a pink sea. She called it "MarDeColorRosa". Now, she shares her time between her home and workshop in Girona, Spain, and the island, surrounded by her beloved...