take a ball of thread...

Inspired by Yellow!

2011-09-12T23:27:00.001+10:00

Earlier this year I was inspired by a bunch of lemons that Lauren sent as a garnish on a parcel of materials to make a great big wacky neckpiece! I guess this is where my work started getting bigger...

Lemon Fantasy Neckpiece, 2011; Fake Lemons, Freshwater Pearls, Jade, Glass

If only the image would post the right way around...

sneak peek...

2011-09-12T23:22:00.000+10:00

I have been a busy, busy lady this year making, making, making (and not blogging...) My work has undergone a bit of an evolution over the past twelve or so months and I will try to catch it all up on here so that where it was and where it is now make some sort of visual sense. Anyway, here are some recent pieces. My work is getting bigger, bolder and more gestural and I am enjoying exploring colour (as usual) alongside texture, weight, movement and form. I have been doing lots of visual research into traditional jewellery from the Pacific and South East Asia, the Middle East and Africa as well as the plant life I encounter on my daily walks.

This neckpiece is part of my new body of work for Unnatural Tendencies, the latest instalment in my collaborative jewellery adventure with Lauren Simeoni which opens at Fingers in Auckland on October 3. You can read more about what we have been up to this year on our unnatural, naturally blog... I have been a little better at keeping that updated (sort of...)

Kirsch Neckpiece, 2011; Garnets, Artificial Plant Foliage, Wood

Length: 3 metres

Bushy Neckpieces, 2011; Artificial Plant Foliage, Wood

Deflowered Lei, 2011; Artificial Plant Foliage (Indian Wedding Garland), Plastic, Wood

Deflowered Garland, 2011; Artificial Plant Foliage (Indian Wedding Garland), Wood

Length: 5 metres

Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor

2011-09-12T22:54:00.000+10:00

The exhibition Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor - 100 Women 100 Brooches 100 Stories curated by Kirsten Fitzpatrick opens at Artisan on September 29. I was invited to make a brooch for the sailor Kay Cottee. This was an exciting challenge and a lovely pairing, as I grew up on Pittwater where Kay was based and was a keen sailor as a teenager around the time of Kay's solo circumnavigation of the globe...

There's a peek at my brooch on the invitation image below!

LUCKY CHARM. Making Good Fortune Happen

2011-03-31T22:17:00.001+11:00

I am sure that not one of us is unaffected by the recent devastating wrath wreaked by mother nature in Australia, New Zealand and Japan.

The amazing Natalia Milosz-Piekarska has organised a charity auction of contemporary jewellery with all proceeds going to the Red Cross Disaster Relief and Rescue Fund.

Visit LUCKY CHARM. Making Good Fortune Happen to bid online for some truly amazing work by some awesome jewellers!

The Box Project

2011-03-17T11:55:00.000+11:00

Following my adventure in Blue, I was invited to participate in an exhibition called The Box Project curated by Jasmine Matus. A group of makers were each posted a box of diverse, random materials and asked to use them to make jewellery. You can read all about the project and the other wonderful makers at The Box Project blog.

Here is what was in my box:

Hmmmmmmmmmmm.... what to do?

I wasn't so sure about the ceramic bits and thought about crushing them with a hammer and then mixing the bits with epoxy to create elements for the work. Easier said than done when massively pregnant! So, I set them aside and thought about what to do with the rest. Firstly I gathered all the materials I had that were the same or close to the colour of what was left - greys and yellows. Then I set about playing! Here are some of my working models:

I thought about working with wood and making a series of brooches initially, but then thought about working with perspex - my favourite production work material. Perspex made its first foray into exhibition work with the Blue exhibition and I thought it might be good to push this along...

I particularly enjoyed using the electrical cable, which I pulled the wire out of, and the 'o' rings which I eventually cut up.

Here's the finished work:

connect, 2010, Electric Cable, Rubber 'O' Rings, Acrylic, Freshwater Pearls, Agate, Jade, Glass and Plastic Beads, Fine Silver

(You can't see it here, but the back of the neckpiece also uses the electrical cable casing to go around the back of the neck.)

Here is my artist statement:

A box of plugs, holes, cables, seals and connections. Yellows and greys.

Thoughts of things passing through; currents, energy. Things held in place; secure.

The need to connect with these materials was exciting and challenging, what to make of them? There were limitations and little room for play and experimentation - what was in the box instantly took on a particular value… (I played with the materials anyway).

The final piece uses some of the 4 different materials contained within the box and responds to others by referring to their colour, function and form. Plugs, holes, cables, seals and connections.

Participating in The Box Project was a fantastic, if challenging experience. A huge thank you to Jasmine for inviting me to take part and for the amazing job she did curating this exhibition from the get go to the catalogue and end results on the gallery wall.

The Box Project was shown at gaffa gallery during October 2010 and this year it travels to Thinkspace at Masterworks in Auckland and The See Here in Wellington, New Zealand

Here's a picture of my work in the exhibition at gaffa:

Into the blue...

2011-03-11T22:35:00.000+11:00

So, I promised that I would catch up on the past six months (and more) of what I have been up to with my work and I have made a start. Here's some more...
Blue was a group exhibition I was invited to be a part of at Object Gallery in July/August of 2010. Nine artists working in diverse media were invited by curators Kylie Johnston and Annette Mauer to respond to a phrase or saying associated with the colour blue. I was given the phrase 'Into the blue...'
The other artists in the exhibition were: Nicholas Jones, Brenda Factor, Honor Freeman, Lucille Martin, Mel Robson, Gerry Wedd, Brenden Scott French and Emma Davies - a stellar line up of amazing makers that I am very proud to have exhibited with.
Here are some images of my work in progress:

Here are a couple of the first pieces I made, they are brooches - acrylic paint on marine ply with semi-precious stones and freshwater pearls.

I very much enjoyed exploring paint with this work, but I also used it as an opportunity to try new things:

And revisit current themes using blue materials...

Here's some writing about my work and the experience of working with Blue!

Fascinated by the potential for unexpected narrative, my exhibition work has a carefully considered use of colour and often a sly, subversive sense of humour. I am inspired by architecture, the landscape, the social condition of the body and my everyday surroundings, which also frequently provide materials for my work. I have a particular interest in re-presenting the natural state of the body and many of my works have an unsettling plasticity or tactility, a response to examining internal images of the body. I use the written and visual language of the abject, the body and frequently explore the vernacular for the titles of my work, which operate alongside colour and material to re-create the interior and exterior landscapes of the body in my jewellery.

Much of my work is characterised by a monochromatic approach to colour in either individual works or groupings of pieces. I am most commonly drawn to warm colours – reds, pinks, browns; for their conceptual resonance in relation to my use of material and form and preoccupation with the body or unnatural re-presentations of nature as a source of inspiration. The colours of the body and its interior, the earth and blooms are my comfort zone, their warmth assists me to speak my visual language.

For me, blue has always been a colour whose coolness speaks of other experiences outside of making. It is the vastness of the sea and sky – a colour that is about being in the actual landscape rather than inside, at my bench making. My work is intimate; it speaks of intimate spaces and thus tends to look to the detail, the minutiae – rather than the vast, the unknowable mysteries of the world at large. Blue is a ‘big’ colour.

In this venture ‘into the blue’ I re-worked the materials and forms that commonly inhabit my practice - in blue. The result is work that seems to look outward rather than inwards, the colour seems confined by the scale of the work. Elements that once spoke of the body’s interior secrets now appear the have plunged to the ocean’s depths – flowing with the tide or soared into the sky – flirting with the clouds.

The use of blue as a constraint is also interesting in terms of the materials I have been drawn to, although they are my usual artillery of paints, wood, stones and plastics. Suddenly the blue speaks loudly of histories, of cultural value – the material resonates more loudly because of what it is and what it means. A fake blue flower – an impossible bloom in nature, lapis lazuli, ultramarine blue paint, thread dyed indigo blue - each has its own story to tell…

Installing the exhibition was interesting as I was seven months pregnant!

...and of course the thread works required their usual grooming once installed!

and a bit of a haircut!

Here are some installation shots of the work in situ at the gallery taken by Object:

At the end of this experience of working with blue I have learned to be more open to different colours and embrace them... this is lucky as the next exhibition adventure, The Box Project required even more tenacity when it came to colour!

A collection of my blue pieces are now available at Pieces of Eight in Melbourne.

The Art of Engagement

2011-03-06T20:00:00.001+11:00

Last year some of my most favourite New Zealand jewellers curated an exhibition featuring the work of some other most favourite New Zealand jewellers! It was held at gaffa Gallery in October, sadly I was indisposed and didn't get to see it, but the lovely ladies sent me the fabulous exhibition catalogue.

Here is a description from the Touch, Pause, Engage blog:

Curated by Kristin D’Agostino and Raewyn Walsh, Touch, Pause, Engage, invited a diverse team of fifteen New Zealand jewellers to submit inventive and inspired works. Although many of the makers’ practices focus on different issues and are expressed in a wide range of forms, the side is fit and game ready. The roster is comprised of talented individuals with varying skills, strengths and experience, but who all share in common the goal of pushing the experimental aspects of their jewellery practice.

These folks are all kinds of awesome and incredibly inspiring in both their jewellery practices and also the activities they get up to, from the regular geek meets (one of which Lauren Simeoni and I were lucky enough to be invited to last year) to fantastic projects like Subliminal Infiltrations. Passion and humour!

This year Kristin and Raewyn have curated a home game The Art of Engagement featuring the work of 15 Australian jewellers to show at Objectspace in Auckland during February alongside the original New Zealand 15 who showed in Sydney last year. I was beyond chuffed to be invited to participate alongside many of my favourite Australian jewellers! here's the piece I sent over to play:

Flow, 2010, Sewing Thread, Coral

Tiny Studio Love!

2011-03-02T15:24:00.000+11:00

Last week Pieces of Eight featured my studio as their 'Workbench of the Week', this week my dear friend Michele Morcos, an amazing artist who has an absolutely beautiful blog: TinyTrappings, has featured my studio as part of an online project she is working on called In our hands...
TinyTrappings charts Michele's inspiration through her gorgeous photographs and insightful writing as well as showing work in progress and finished work. My house is full of her work, from several beloved paintings to a collection of sketches and small works she has given me over the years as birthday cards; her work gives me so much pleasure every day!
Michele came for a visit last week to meet the new studio assistant for the first time and while she was here she took some pictures of my studio and asked me some questions for the second instalment in her In our hands... project. I am so delighted that Michele wanted to feature my studio and think the finished post is so lovely. You can read it here. The first instalment of In our hands... featured our friend, the awesome ceramicist Honor Freeman, also well worth a read!
Michele also has a wonderful online store and an online gallery devoted to her art practice - both are a must to visit!

Michele Morcos, Journey To The Source, 2010, Mixed Media on Paper

Thank you beautiful lady xxx

Pieces of Eight's Workbench of the Week...

2011-02-28T21:22:00.000+11:00

Last week the swell folks at Pieces of Eight really sent lots of loving my way. Not only was one of my works the Piece of the Day on Monday, but they also invited me to be their 'Workbench of the Week' visit their blog for more pictures and a little description of my studio. Thank you Pieces of Eight!

Pieces of Eight's Piece of the Day!

2011-02-26T15:02:00.006+11:00

The lovely folks at Pieces of Eight Gallery in Melbourne chose one of my works to be their 'piece of the day' this week. Thanks guys, I loved being Miss Monday!
Visit the fabulous Pieces of Eight blog to read the post and also to see other pieces of the day. I love that the gallery are doing this and look forward to it every day. It gives such a wonderful insight into the collection and is super for us non-Melbournites to be able to see so much of the gorgeous work at the gallery...
The Sunny neckpiece below belongs to gallery owner, amazing jeweller and all round wonderful lady Melanie Katsalidis. It is made from hand spun sewing thread, slightly thicker than the ones I normally use and polyester cotton, which gives it a lovely rich texture, it has lengths of glass beads stitched into it.

A belated introduction to the new studio assistant!

2011-02-21T16:35:00.000+11:00

I can't believe it is six months since my last post! That is terrible...

Here's my excuse:

Busy with a bit of a collaborative project... I hope you understand!

I have been slowly getting information together to fill in the yawning gap on this blog and hope to start posting regularly again soon...

Craft Australia survey

2010-08-07T20:41:00.000+10:00

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

2010-05-12T13:23:00.006+10:00

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

2010-05-02T11:00:00.003+10:00

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

2010-04-30T22:25:00.004+10:00

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

2010-02-08T13:12:00.002+11:00

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)

2010-01-05T14:06:00.000+11:00

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.

Pecha Kucha!

2009-11-22T23:31:00.002+11:00

I am speaking about Take a ball of thread... at Pecha Kucha on Thursday 26 November at Red Rattler Theatre 6 Faversham St Marrickville. There are a bunch of interesting people speaking and as always should be an interesting and inspiring night!

I spoke at a Pecha Kucha in early 2007 before I started Take a ball of thread... and can safely say that the experience was one of the catalysts for starting the project. Speaking about my practice for Pecha Kucha (and editing it all down to 20 slides with 20 seconds of words per slide) meant I needed to address where I had been with my work and in turn, it made me realise where I wanted to go with it - although it was some 6 months after this that the pink ball of thread came into my life...
I am excited to have the opportunity of a return appearance! I hope that it will give me the much needed impetus to get the ball rolling again (with apologies for that terrible pun...)

Precious Pendants

2009-11-22T23:06:00.000+11:00

One of my pieces is currently on show in the exhibition Precious Pendants at Object gallery. It is a great privilege to be included in this exhibition alongside so many amazing makers including some of my jewellery heroes.

My work in the exhibition is not one of the pink works - I am still having a little break from this project, but it would never have happened without it! I am really enjoying pushing and exploring the concepts and work from Take a ball of thread...

Pulse, Polyester/cotton sewing thread, coral, oxidised 925 silver

Hedges at home and abroad.

2009-10-27T23:10:00.000+11:00

Home again after a fantastic 2 weeks in New Zealand. So greeeeeen, so many beautifully groomed hedges and lovely jewels!
Here are some images of Unnatural, naturally installed at Metalab with the Lauren and Mel version of a well groomed hedge. For a lovely, generous review of the exhibition by the wonderful Michele Morcos on her gorgeous blog Tiny Trappings click here.
Tiny Trappings is where you can see Michele's exquisite paintings and read more of her wonderful writing about art and events and the things that inspire her.

a little rest...

2009-10-02T11:58:00.001+10:00

Unnatural, naturally opened last night at metalab. Lauren and I are so excited and proud of this exhibition! You can read some more about it on the metalab blog. I will post some pictures here soon, but until then it is time for the hardworking studio assistant and I to have a little rest...

unnatural, naturally

2009-09-26T18:33:00.004+10:00

Unnatural, Naturally my exhibition with Lauren Simeoni opens this Thursday October 1 at metalab. I am getting pretty excited I have to say. Today my Dad and I installed the backdrop for some of the work - a multi-layered diorama-style hedge made of plywood... it looks fantastic! A big thank you to Lauren's cousin Adam for making our beautiful hedge for us and to Dad for helping out with the set up today.

Here's a peek at the hedge being installed:

another sneak preview

2009-09-17T21:30:00.004+10:00

I have been a little quiet on the blogging front recently for all manner of reasons that life throws our way. But I am re-surfacing to show you another new work that will be included in the exhibition Unnatural, Naturally that Lauren Simeoni and I are having at metalab. The exhibition opens on October 1...

Although the majority of the work in the exhibition uses 'new' materials, I have managed to sneak a few pink thread pieces as well! Below is one of the other works from the exhibition...

Faded, Dyed Mother of Pearl, Jade, Coral, Artificial Plant Foliage, Marine Ply, 925 Silver, Acrylic Paint

michi love!

2009-08-07T13:40:00.005+10:00

I was very excited to open my email on Wednesday and find that the fabulous Michi Girl has featured my Take a Ball of Thread workshops!

The workshop last Sunday was so much fun with a great group of inspiring participants who all made wonderful and inventive thready jewels. The second one is happening this Sunday at metalab from 1 - 4pm - can't wait!

Sydney Design 09 - Exhibitions and events galore!

2009-07-19T11:51:00.004+10:00

The Take a ball of thread... workshop I am holding at metalab is on in two weeks from today! Find out more on the Sydney Design 09 website.

I am really looking forward to so many Sydney Design events this year including Cesar Cueva and Sabine Pagan's exhibition and Peta Kruger's exhibition both at metalab. Seeing the Knitted Convenience in all it's yellow glory at Taylor Square. Attending part of the Awkward Objects Symposium at Sydney College of the Arts and seeing the accompanying exhibitions at SCA and of course participating in the Alter Ego - the other I exhibition at gaffa gallery (we had an exhibition installation run through at the gallery yesterday and it is going to be such an excellent show! It is so exciting to see how everyone has worked with the brief).

But before all of this there is the installation and opening of Le fil (the thread) to look forward to at gaffa gallery! This is going to be such a beautiful exhibition...

Some other pink things, naturally

2009-07-19T11:43:00.003+10:00

I thought it would be fun to post a sneak preview of some of the pieces I am making for the exhibition I am in with Lauren Simeoni at metalab in October called Unnatural, naturally. We are both having a great time playing with some shared materials - namely artificial plants. These brooches are some of my favourites that I have made so far...

Cluster and Flutter Brooches, Freshwater Pearls, Artificial Plant Foliage, Marine Ply, 925 Silver, Acrylic Paint

Inspiration - what is jewellery?

2009-07-04T23:35:00.003+10:00

I was just reading Katherine Bowman's beautiful blog - she has posted a fantastic quote by just about my favourite jeweller EVER Warwick Freeman about what jewellery is. Read it here and enjoy!

I am excited to be going to Melbourne for a day-long jewellery adventure this Tuesday with some fellow jewelling nerds. One of the many exhibitions we will see is Warwick's latest exhibition at Gallery Funaki. So excited...

Spined Bloom

2009-07-04T22:59:00.002+10:00

Spined Bloom Neckpiece, 2009, Coral, 925 Silver, Cotton Thread

I have been making neckpieces like this one in a range of different colours recently for a two lady exhibition: Unnatural, naturally with Lauren Simeoni. It opens on 1st October 2009 at metalab

My work in this exhibition plays with the idea of a blurring between botany and the body, something which has come out of Take a ball of thread... it has been a good opportunity to make different work (not pink!) and explore some new materials, although I seem to have started a habit as the many of the materials I am using are ones that I have found already in my studio, Lauren and I are also sharing some found objects that we are both incorporating into our pieces. This exhibition has meant shopping for different coloured thread, I have had fun visiting rag trade wholesalers. It has also allowed me to finally chart approximately how much thread is in each neckpiece - around 500 metres, this means each of the larger rope brooches would have around 200 metres of thread.

Navigator

2009-07-04T22:42:00.002+10:00

This brooch was inspired by a trip to the Maritime Museum in Sydney with my Dad. Shamefully I had never been to the Maritime Museum before... I can't believe I waited so long. The exhibitions were interesting, inspiring, fun and beautifully designed. True to form, Dad and I spent almost as much time examining the exhibition furniture as we did the exhibits! The brooch below is of course inspired by the exhibitions...

Navigator Brooch, 2009, NYC Pink Wax, Shells, 925 Silver, Cotton Thread

This is the only piece I have made using plaiting. I have experimented with all kinds of thread work including plaiting and macrame during this project, but have found that they speak too loudly about the technique (or scream, in the case of macrame - although I may be tainted by a childhood spent doing macrame nearly every day, it will just never be neutral for me. They were very happy days spent doing macrame I should add!). The 'rope' technique common to most of the works since early 2008 speaks softly technically and loudly conceptually which is why it is so dominant. I deliberately used plaiting in this piece for it's resonance with the exhibition we saw about ancestral voyages across the Pacific at the Museum.

'Pink, you stink'

2009-07-04T22:33:00.003+10:00

Rot Brooch, 2009, NYC Pink Wax, Coral, Vintage Glass Imitation Gems, Freshwater Pearls, 925 Silver, Cotton Thread.

Rot felt like a good companion image to the second catalogue essay by Amber McCulloch... I have linked to this essay in a previous post, but here it is on the blog!

Pink… You Stink

My dad thinks he’s pretty funny, and in fact he is, in a slightly absurd way. And so I spent my childhood subjected to his abstract humour, one manifestation of which was his putting on a silly voice and saying “Pink. You stink” whenever the colour was mentioned. What the hell did this mean? Pink is the colour of roses and bubble gum. It’s a girl’s colour. How could it ever smell bad? As well as being annoying, my father’s catch phrase made no sense. How could something sweet and lovely be pungent and unpleasant? How could something be beautiful and ugly?

I had forgotten all about dad’s weird saying until I was introduced to Melinda Young’s collection of pink objects. Pulsing, visceral conglomerations, they are at once arresting in their beauty and just a little bit icky. Like strange sea creatures, or disembodied organs, Young’s creations are dangerously ‘alive’ - living, growing and feeding on themselves. Rubies and pearls are swallowed by globs of wax, crystals push out of the surface and delicate fringes sprout from the edges… and all of them pink, pink, pink.

The incongruity of these beautiful/ugly works is echoed in their materials and production. Precious gems are coupled with inexpensive casting wax; and while the pieces appear roughly clumped together, closer inspection reveals them to be meticulously constructed, the products of a long process of collection and collation. Dichotomous to the last, each piece doubles as both artwork and wearable – functioning as rather pretty sculptures and, at the same time, somewhat ‘out there’ pieces of jewellery.

The titles of Young’s pieces point to a longstanding fascination with notions of abjection, referencing artists such as Louise Bourgeois, who is famous for works that both seduce and repel. So too, Young’s blog reveals a more personal inspiration for her pink series - photographs of the artist’s insides, taken for medical tests. Entries entitled Innards and Gut Instinct further explain the bodily connotations, but it’s one image that says it best – an unidentified organ, bright pink and studded with droplets of blood. It’s luminous and gorgeous and horrible too. Suddenly, “Pink. You stink” makes perfect sense.

Amber McCulloch

Mounds and Text

2009-07-04T22:14:00.001+10:00

Mounds Brooches, 2009, NYC Pink Wax, Polystyrene Balls, Freshwater Pearls, Coral, 925 Silver, Cotton Thread

The results of attempts to make coil pots out of the thread and then remembering my 'wearable' rule... no vessels for me! I stuffed the little pots with some conveniently handy polystyrene balls to hold the shape. These brooches have secret gems embedded on their backs.

As I have been sitting here updating the images of work made this year it occurred to me that I have not posted much writing about the project apart from my comments here on the blog. I have done a bit of writing about the work and asked two marvelous writers to contribute pieces to my exhibition catalogue. As I am posting so many images just now it is hard to think of something snappy to add, so here is an image (a detail of the exhibition installation at Craft Victoria) and some text by Debbie Pryor...

And I looked

At my big ball of string,

And I said,

NOW I will find

A thing of some kind –

Some GOOD kind of thing

To do with my string!1

When Marion Holland wrote my favourite children’s book, A Big Ball of String, she created a character (not surprisingly) obsessed with making the biggest ball of string he possibly could. He began to do everything a child could do with an incredibly long piece of string- fly balloons into the sun, construct a machine out of a bike, a trike and a toy jeep- until he was bedridden. Then he discovered he could do even more- he could rig up the entire contents of his room and continue playing without needing to leave his bed at all, all with one ginormous piece of string. But if only he had some pink wax and a few pearls…

In her self-assigned project Take a ball of thread… Melinda Young has set herself three fundamental rules: Make from the one industrial spool of pink thread until completely used. Only materials already in her studio can be sourced. Every item made must be wearable. These simple rules are reminiscent of Miranda July’s Learning to Love You More 2 project, such simple beginnings for pieces that ultimately represent very intimate concepts and experiences.

The works themselves pose questions about our notions of wearability/function (through use of materials) to wearability/classification of beauty (through the creation of alluringly grotesque forms). The curious bubbling piles look like chewed candy, or a discarded sun-melted plastic Barbie accessory, somehow finding its way into a gallery (or onto a lapel). The pieces harbour uncomfortable yet familiar feelings- candy pinks at once seduce and sweetly sicken, reminding us of childhood toys. Simultaneously, the works have a visceral quality, mimicking the body’s interiors. Linking them with our exterior, we are prompted to contemplate cultural attitudes and ideas about the abject and the female body.

I’ll be your plastic toy. 3

Debbie Pryor

Gallery Director, metalab

1. Marion Holland, A Big Ball of String, Random House Inc, 1958

2. www.learningtoloveyoumore.com

3. Just Like Honey, Jim Reid (Jesus and Mary Chain), 1985

Sweet melt

2009-07-04T21:56:00.001+10:00

Melt Brooch, 2009, NYC Pink Wax, Plastic Drink Bottle Tops, Freshwater Seed Pearls, 925 Silver, Cotton Thread, Acrylic PaintThis brooch uses a sample I made during a workshop with Mark Vaarwerk . Again, a step in a different direction with the work. I made the brooch below at the same time.

Sweet Brooch, 2009, NYC Pink Wax, Carved Wood, 925 Silver, Cotton Thread, Acrylic Paint

This piece is another turning point - I enjoyed working with the wood and paint and after I had finished this went to my 'wood' box in my studio and found some beautiful huon pine that I have had since I was a student. I have made several pieces using the huon pine for the project - I had forgotten how much I love to work with wood! I have been making lots and lots of pieces with wood recently...

Lick

2009-07-04T21:54:00.001+10:00

Lick Neckpiece, 2009, NYC Pink Wax, Freshwater Seed Pearls, Cotton Thread

dry

2009-07-04T21:50:00.001+10:00

Dry Brooch, 2009, NYC Pink Wax, Plastic Drink Stick, 925 silver, Cotton thread
This brooch is a nod in the direction of my cowboy 'thing'. It is also a nice linking piece between this project and other found object work I was making in 2006 - 2008 using vintage plastic drink stick mascots - I still have a huge collection to be used... (my favourites are the cowboys).

Mane

2009-07-04T21:44:00.001+10:00

Mane Brooch, 2009
Another swarovski extravaganza!

Corps Brooch.

2009-07-04T21:39:00.002+10:00

Corps Brooch, 2009, NYC Pink Wax, Coral, Cake Decorating Flower Stamens, 925 Silver, Cotton Thread, Acrylic Paint

This brooch marks a shift in the project. Significant in terms of work I have been making this year - it is the first piece to include acrylic paint.

Dew Neckpiece

2009-07-04T21:38:00.002+10:00

Dew Neckpiece, 2009, Rose Quartz, Malaysian Jade, Cotton Thread

Ear tassels!

2009-07-04T21:37:00.002+10:00

Tassel Earrings, 2009, NYC Pink Thread, Freshwater Pearls, 925 Silver, Cotton Thread

... another imaginative title!

Porcine

2009-07-04T21:34:00.001+10:00

Perhaps it was inevitable that I would end up making a piggy brooch working with pink... this brooch ended up looking like a pig quite by accident...

le fil blog

2009-06-30T12:06:00.001+10:00

Exhibition curator Kath Fries has started a blog for le fil (the thread) it is so exciting and inspiring to read about and see the works by the other makers in the exhibition - can't wait to see it all up at gaffa at the end of next month!

More Sydney Design 09... alter ego

2009-06-28T16:01:00.002+10:00

Also as part of Sydney Design 09 I have been invited to be a part of the exhibition alter ego - the other I curated by the fabulous Zoe Brand. It is such a fantastic premise for an exhibition and a real challenge for the makers involved. I am so excited about stepping out of my comfort zone for this exhibition... and to be exhibiting with some of my favourite designers. Read more about the exhibition here It will be held at gaffa gallery from 14-22 August.

August is going to be busy!!!

Workshop at Sydney Design 09

2009-06-28T15:55:00.002+10:00

metalab have invited me to run a Take a ball of thread... workshop as part of Sydney Design 09 on Saturday August 2nd from 1-4pm. It should be lots of fun! Click here for more details.

Home on the range... and on jubilee!

2009-06-26T18:38:00.001+10:00

My work arrived home from Adelaide today. I was amazed by how many pieces there are! I am seriously behind in blogging them all, so as I am stuck at home recovering from some surgery at the moment (I have been promised more pictures), I will set to and try to catch up before some of the threadiest go off to be a part of the exhibition Le Fil (the thread) curated by Kath Fries at gaffa gallery next month.

Here's a start: Coil Brooch... (not the most imaginative name perhaps!)

This piece along with some of my other works can now be seen on the Japanese gallery website Jubilee.

I am so delighted to have been invited by Masako to be a part of this wonderful website, not the least because there are some amazing jewellers are represented there including one of my all time favourites: Mikiko Minewaki! Thank you Masako.

Installation at Zu Design

2009-06-25T16:49:00.001+10:00

I have been such a bad blogger recently - so many projects on the go and time has flown by. The exhibition has been taken down at Zu Design, so here are the installation images I should have posted long ago... The pink work looked amazing on the blue walls of the gallery!

Big thanks to the wonderful Jane and Roman for having the exhibition at Zu and to friends in Adelaide for their support and encouragement, especially to Lauren for looking after me so well as always.

the icky and the crappy

2009-04-11T22:28:00.002+10:00

Click here for a link to the talk that Damian Skinner gave about the work of Lisa Walker and myself at Craft Victoria last month. The brooch that he refers to is this one:

It was a very great honour to have Damian write about my work and also to meet him - he has been one of my craft heroes for a long time. If you are interested in fantastic, thought provoking writing about jewellery - bookmark his website: www.pauadreams.co.nz it is always a great read.

Hot off the press!

2009-04-07T16:31:00.001+10:00

Here is the invitation for Take a ball of thread... at Zu Design.
Hot off the press! I love the sexy, thready font.

Talking, naturally

2009-04-07T15:49:00.003+10:00

Next week I am off to Adelaide for the last leg (for now) of the Take a ball of thread... exhibition tour at Zu Design. I am so excited. I love Adelaide and have many good friends there, including the sensational Lauren Simeoni. Inbetween installing the exhibition next week Lauren and I will be spending some time together plotting and planning for our two lady exhibition to be held at metalab in October. It is going to be called Unnnatural, naturally. We have been working on the idea for the exhibition for over a year now - Stay tuned for more as the exhibition develops!

While I am in Adelaide I will be giving a talk at the Jamfactory, come along if you are in town!

I also recently gave a talk at salon a talks evening run by metalab and ECC Lighting and Furniture. The talks are held at the ECC Lighting and Furniture showroom in Darlinghurst. It was a real honour to be invited to speak and such a fun thing to do - I got to install my work on some stunning tables, lit by beautiful chandeliers and other designer lights for one night only! I took lots of pictures and will post them soon. If I was more organised I would have posted this information before the talk! But it was a big rush putting it together after coming back from Melbourne and I actually LOST the whole first draft (the long one with all the words and images...) so had to do it again! The process of writing about my practice is one that I always find interesting (and challenging).

Here are some images of my work in situ at ECC:

Workshopping

2009-04-07T15:42:00.001+10:00

While I was in Melbourne last month I gave two workshops at Craft Victoria in conjunction with Take a ball of thread... Participants were asked to bring along their own ball of sewing thread and I taught a few simple techniques that I have been using in my work including how to make a tassel, some string and a pom pom. The workshops were so much fun and participants made some super pieces. Like this neckpiece in progress by Craft Victoria's lovely Carmel:

It was also exciting to have a sneak peek into the contents of peoples sewing boxes!

To see more pictures of the workshops click here

Vitalstatistix

2009-04-07T15:17:00.001+10:00

As part of the Clog interview I was asked to provide some statistics about the project. I put on my thinking cap and this is an updated version of what I came up with:

800g of casting wax used
115 finger pricks
130+ objects produced (there were 78 pieces shown in the Craft Victoria version of the exhibition)
70 blog posts and counting
51 wax burns (approximately)
23 AA batteries
19 months and counting...
4 metres of 0.8mm diameter 925 silver wire
1 litre methylated spirits
1 drilled hand
and of course,
1 ball of thread (length unknown)

Clog-a-riffic!

2009-04-07T15:09:00.000+10:00

Well, I am pretty behind on all my posting here, blame a hectic making schedule and recovering from jet-set interstate travel with the exhibition!

I have missed so many exciting things to post about. The first one is a link to the Clog interview mentioned in the previous post - you can read it here

clogtastic!

2009-02-05T09:13:00.001+11:00

One of my very favourite blogs is CLOG from the wonderful Craft Victoria. Not only does it keep me up to date with all of the exhibitions and other goings on at Craft Victoria - it also presents profiles on the makers who exhibit in the gallery, window space and store. CLOG is informative, beautifully written and always jam packed with wonderful images.

Imagine my delight then at having my work featured! There have been several lovely posts about Take a ball of thread... including the wonderful essays written for the exhibition catalogue by Amber McCulloch and Debbie Pryor and a lovely review by Emily Bentley-Singh. I was also even more chuffed to be interviewed for CLOG! The interview should appear soon - I found responding to Kim's insightful questions about my work quite the challenge and agonised over my answers for ages... it is an excellent process to have to write (or present a talk) about your work - particularly responding to what other people see in it - which may sometimes be something that you have not noticed yourself because you are so immersed...

some sketches.

2009-01-26T12:25:00.000+11:00

Here are some preparatory sketches done for the work made for the exhibition at Craft Victoria. Ever the obsessive drawer, I have begun drawing the work as a way of both documenting and planning as well as staying focussed on the project - previously the pieces were made intuitively, however now I am so familiar with process and materials I have been having ideas thick and fast - faster than I can make, so drawing has helped. It has been interesting that many of the designs that worked on paper have not been at all successful in reality. The painted drawings use the left over paint from some of the new work I have been making, I found some blocks of huon pine in a review of the contents of my studio and have started to work with this as a new material - I have been painting the backs and in some cases the front of this work. (I have also been developing a rather strong curiosity for the interior of envelopes recently...)

a new favourite!

2009-01-26T12:17:00.000+11:00

This brooch is called Spill. It is my new favourite. It's made from a cut up plastic necklace I found at my beloved local market. I also made a horrible neckpiece using the necklace - I haven't photographed it yet as I hope to re-work it.Towards the end of last year I kept finding pieces of old costume jewellery that look like the work I have been making for this project. If you look verrrry carefully at the picture of my studio below, you might see them displayed on the black neck stand to the right. I have been prompted to look around myself at the things I collect and examine how they both fit in with and influence my aesthetic - I plan to photograph and blog them in the future.

exhibition opening at Craft Victoria

2009-01-26T12:07:00.000+11:00

Here are some images of the exhibition opening for Take a ball of thread... at Craft Victoria on Thursday 22 January 2009. These images are from Craft Victoria's Facebook gallery, I will be uploading some of mine showing installation etc soon. A huge thank you to Nella Themelios and all at Craft Victoria for being so welcoming, helpful and generally wonderful! I would also like to thank Debbie Pryor for her wonderful opening speech; Eric, Debbie, Cesar & Nina for helping me to install the show as well as Mark & Francesca for being such a wonderful support as always.

not quite how it was meant to be

2009-01-17T20:42:00.002+11:00

This neckpiece is based on some of my drawings (I plan to post those soon too...). It looked so good on paper, but the reality was rather unfortunate! Needless to say it now only exists in this photo. I have chopped it up now and recycled it into some new pieces...

Another droplet

2009-01-17T20:39:00.000+11:00

This brooch is the companion piece to the Droplet Neckpiece.

cry me a river

2009-01-17T20:32:00.001+11:00

This neckpiece is extremely long and called Cry me a river. It has watermelon quartz beads sewn along its length and the seep out of the rope like tears. Made during the winter of 2008, this piece was a long and laborious to make and I used the time to contemplate and mourn an event that had recently occurred. The title is a reference to how I was feeling and also the extremely guilty pleasure that is the Justin Timberlake song of the same name...

Update...

2009-01-17T20:12:00.001+11:00

I have been a very slack blogger these past months. I have been very busy making for several group exhibitions - two were held in December at Pablo Fanque and metalab as well as finishing up the year at work - always hectic with the student exhbition and so on!I have ALSO been busy making new pieces for the Take a ball of thread... to be held at Craft Victoria in Melbourne. I am so excited about this exhibition. When I was a student I used to dream about having a solo exhibition at Craft Victoria and I am still pinching myself that it is actually going to happen. I am flying down on Monday to install and the exhibition opens on Thursday 22 January, running until 7 March. I am giving an artist talk on the 22nd of January at 5.30pm and a workshop on Saturday 6 March at Craft Victoria 31 FlindersLane Melbourne, if you are in the neighbourhood, please pop in and say 'Hello'!

I have lots of images of new work and some installation images from Pablo Fanque to post... I will try and get all this up in the next few weeks along with shots at Craft Victoria!

Meantime, here are some images of neckpieces that took a long time to complete. First, the Tumbleweed Neckpiece.

and below is the finished Cats Cradle neckpiece that I have blogged in progress a few times.

Exhibition extended!

2008-10-21T17:56:00.000+11:00

Take a ball of thread... has been extended until Saturday November 1 at Pablo Fanque.
So exciting!

Take a Ball of Thread... exhibition open!

2008-10-21T17:35:00.000+11:00

Take a ball of thread... opened two weeks ago at Pablo Fanque. It was a fantastic exhibition opening, I couldn't have hoped for a more lovely night and my warmest thanks to everyone who came along not just to the opening, but to everyone who has been to the exhibition since. I have been quite overwhelmed by the lovely feedback from people who have seen Take a ball of thread...

I would also like to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone who has been involved with the project, my extended family and friends. Most particularly, thank you to Mark for putting up with me being all about the jewels for the past few weeks, Francesca at Pablo Fanque and Debbie for being so supportive and helping out in so many ways and to Suzanne and Martin for the stunning catalogue.

I will post some installation shots soon, in the meantime, here are some pictures from the opening night:

As you can see, I look really nervous and there is still lots of thread left... I decided to show the rest of the ball as it gives context to the work made from it on the opposite wall of the gallery. Despite probably needing a break from pink, I miss having it in my studio and am itching to keep making with it - the enforced separation has been quite strange.

I have been playing with black thread since the exhibition opened - all the funny little half used black spools of thread lying around in my sewing box and various other, more unexpected places in my house. The thread I have been playing with has no precise place of origin - there is no real memory of it coming into my life, unlike other found objects I have used in the past which are very specifically located in time and place. I know some of them probably belonged to my Grandmother and Mother, to ex-partners or flatmates perhaps, who can say. They remind me a little bit of the black umbrellas that seem to come in and out of my life. I am excited about using black and very interested in how the colour works with the forms - the black looks a lot like hair - an ongoing fascination for me and the initial notion behind the pieces I have been sketching and sampling is a meditation on loss.

I pretty much used up all the black thread lying about the house on the weekend and so, to fill the thready gap in my life, today I bought 5 kilometes of black thread (oddly enough I have just discovered that I walk past a sewing thread wholesaler every day on my way to work). This ball of black is no where near the size of the pink one when I started and much smaller than what is left of the pink... maybe a third of the size, I am not sure how to feel about this. The vastness of the pink is overwhelming at times.

The black thread is being used to make some pieces for Pablo Fanque's next exhibition which I have been invited to participate in, the exhibition is called Recycled, renewed, reborn

Post Script: Not half an hour after I posted this, I lost my bag containing not only my latest black umbrella, but also the ball of black thread. I was so preoccupied, sitting on the bus writing and doodling away about ideas of loss and how to attack the new black thread, that I left my bag on the seat. Now I really have something to think about.

dripping berry

2008-09-25T14:23:00.000+10:00

I have been making lots of neckpieces using the wax dripped over thread and strings of various thicknesses like beads, returning to some of the techniques and ideas I was exploring at the end of last year (this is the only one I have photographed so far). The little wax conglomerations are very raspberry-like on many of the pieces and on this neckpiece I am enjoying the contrast between the fine thread, the weight of the wax and the little drip of pearls oozing out the bottom.

droplet (or suffering for one's craft)

2008-09-25T14:18:00.001+10:00

Still on the leaky theme. This neckpiece is called Droplet. I was inspired to add the red as I stabbed my self quite badly with the needle while I was stiching this together. I have strings and strings of these beautiful vintage glass beads that I bought a few years ago in Barcelona, Spain and until I saw the droplet of blood on my finger tip the same size as one of them, I hadn't thought to use them. I am glad I did.
I like the back of this piece (second image) much better than the front.

bubbling dewy leaks

2008-09-25T14:13:00.000+10:00

The tiny beads spilling out of these pieces remind me of dew drops, bubbles and leaks... or links of tiny, tiny instestines...

tassels

2008-09-25T14:10:00.000+10:00

A tassel neckpiece... I have been making quite a few tassels recently - they are difficult, on many levels.

this little piggy!

2008-09-25T10:13:00.000+10:00

A very cute pig getting in on the pink action during the brochure photshoot - used as a stand in for pink things when setting up for the photos.

Behind the scenes and some thank yous

2008-09-25T10:02:00.000+10:00

Behind the scenes while photographing pieces for my exhibition brochure at Boccalatte

A huge thankyou is due here to Suzanne and Martin at Boccalatte for their wonderful design and photography - and also for their patience in guiding me through the exhibition brochure process... also to Bruce at Peachy Print for printing assitance.

Enormous thank yous are also due to Debbie and Amber for their fabulous catalogue essays.

I feel really blessed to have been able to work with such amazing, talented and generous people on the production of the brochure. I can't wait to see the real printed thing!

Here is a sneak preview of one of the mock ups:

...and a whole big pile of pinkness laid out at the end of the day.

more blooms...

2008-09-25T09:57:00.000+10:00

I have re-made the Blossom neckpiece. It was one of the very first pieces I made as part of this project and one of the first pieces to use the NYC pink wax. At the time I made it I was really happy with it, but over the past few months it slipped from favour and ended up in my rejects box. Francesca from Pablo Fanque made a lovely comment about the original and this inspired me to take another look and resulted in this re-make. I think it has benefited from my increased confidence and skill level using the materials - particularly in the string-making department. The original was on untwined thread and this is on a nicely spun string. It is also double the size of the original - I am no longer afraid to go BIG!

Chrysanthemums

2008-09-25T09:54:00.001+10:00

Spring is sprung and these neckpieces have a decidedly springy feel to them - they remind me of Chrysanthemums. I have been making lots of neckpieces recently as I felt like I was getting stuck in broochland...

catching up...

2008-09-25T09:40:00.001+10:00

These are some piecs that I made a little while ago but haven't photographed until now.
The neckpiece below is called Gangs it is one of two neckpieces that have been French knitted. I posted about making them while watching Gangs of New York a while ago - it is extremely long...

This is Lure, a more recent brooch that was next to impossible to photograph - the beads oozing out of it are the most vividly eye hurting fluorescent pink... pilfered from a fishing tackle box many years ago, they have been glowing quietly in box of bits and bobs just waiting to be made into something alluring.

This is the result of an experiment gone wrong, but somehow ending up right - I was trying to make a big hollow ball using a condom. The glue ate through the condom as it was hanging out to dry overnight and the ball collapsed and set in this lovely nest shape. I have added a silver brooch back through the tangles, wax and pearls.

This brooch is called Muff. It's sister piece Merkin has a starring role in the brochure being produced to go with my exhibition. Muff is very, well, muffy really it has a lovely movement when worn.

One of the very first looped thread pieces made way back in May - this is a transition from using pearls and coral to using thread ropes. It is very small and very loopy. It seems sparse and strange now against the denser looped pieces I have been making recently.

interior landscapes

2008-08-16T20:07:00.000+10:00

I haven't posted for way too long. Since my last post I have moved house and studio and been caught up in all the domesticity that a new house requires. I have also been applying for exhibitions and getting images together for my Pablo Fanque exhibition catalogue. It seems like the administration to support the making is endless at the moment!

I have made some pink things though... these brooches are called 'Interior Landscapes'. I have started making neckpieces in this style also.

As you can see I have been having a truly rope-tastic time!

bench activity

2008-06-21T19:42:00.000+10:00

Here is a bench shot showing some of the lovely big hollow balls I made for a great big neckpiece I completed about two months ago, it's a work in progress shot and also shows some French knitting I was doing at the time. The French knitted pieces haven't been photographed yet, which is a bit slack. Whilst I was making them I was watching the film Gangs of New York which is a bit gory, in true Scorcese fashion. Thus, the French knitted neckpieces are a bit intestinal... seems I am a bit infatuated with the intestine at the moment!

You might have seen an earlier post where I was having fun taking pictures through the first couple of balls I made and deciding that I needed to wait till the cooler weather to finish making the neckpiece due to studio hotness. Anyway the balls are about 8cm at their largest diameter and I made them using thread dipped in PVA glue and then wrapping the thread around balloons and pegging them on my washing line to dry. It was super messy and lots of fun! To complete the neckpiece, the balls have been strung on some rope I made from the thread, my first (and not last!) use of the thread rope as a stringing device. I am about to embark on a series of ropy neckpieces to match the brooches I have been making... I haven't photographed these yet either!

The picture also gives a bit of an idea as to how much thread is left, something I am getting asked quite a lot at the moment. I REALLY regret not measuring its girth before I started! I reckon I might be about half way now... it's going to start getting precious fairly soon! I love how when you work with found objects, or non-precious things they become ever so precious once the supply is limited. I remember Mark Vaarwerk saying this about the plastic bags he uses so beautifully in his work - that when he started using this material it seemed an unending resource, but now the bags are becoming more scarce. I love that he is immortalising them in his work.

gut instinct

2008-06-21T17:05:00.000+10:00

This brooch is called gut instinct. It is being shown in the exhibition Refashioning the Fashion which opened last night at Object gallery The exhibition has been curated by the amazing Debbie Pryor and it is at once edgy, confronting and beyond fabulous. The other exhibitors are: Tiffany Parbs, Julia de Ville, Leah Heiss, Alice Lang, Gabby O'Connor & Chelsea Gough

I feel extremely privileged to have been included in this illustrious line up.

in her garden of red delights...

2008-06-21T16:56:00.000+10:00

You might remember me posting about the ritual of the Sunday Bridal Swarovski count a while back. In one of life's most delightful ironies, one of my coral brooches was recently purchased by a bride to wear on her wedding day - I am beyond delighted and absolutely proud as punch that someone would want to wear one of my pieces on such a special day!

The piece was a little like this recently made one which is called In her garden of red delights

The bride wore it around her neck on a red velvet ribbon...

making too much!

2008-06-21T16:46:00.000+10:00

At the moment I am definitely making faster than I can blog!

Here are some of the things I have made in the past few months...

A bangle to match the freshly named tumbleweed brooches. I am still plugging away at the matching neckpiece!

A ring

winter brooches

2008-05-28T11:56:00.000+10:00

I was inspired by the pink intestinal brooch below to create these brooches for the upcoming Studio 20/17 exhibition titled winter brooches... It promsies to be a beautiful exhibition and I am very excited to have been asked to exhibit. It was also a great excuse to play with some other colours!

I think this is my favourite so far...

2008-05-18T15:16:00.001+10:00

a brooch for Mary Douglas

2008-05-18T15:06:00.000+10:00

Any one who has known me, my strange socio/cultural fascinations and my work for a while would know that it was really only a matter of time before I made a hairy piece celebrating matter out of place...

This was very much a collaborative work with the studio assistant.

meet my studio assistant

2008-05-18T14:32:00.000+10:00

This is Mansize. She is my beloved, helpful studio assistant.

Usually she performs more sedentary, yet extremely important tasks such as keeping my seat warm, observation, listening and providing silent, non-committal feedback and praise.

However when I was making rope recently she couldn't help herself and joined in...

it's not easy being green...

2008-04-30T17:15:00.000+10:00

A while ago I posted about some green stuff I had been making...

Well, it has just finished its showcase appearances at A&E Metal Merchants and the Powerhouse Museum shop and is now having a stop over at my house before being installed at the fantastic gaffa gallery for the group exhibition make_do which opens next Thursday night (8 May). I am very excited about make_do and looking forward to seeing what everyone has made... there are 23 fantastic artists in the exhibition whose practices span painting, ceramics, textiles, jewellery, multimedia, drawing, photography, graphic design and

installation...

Some of my favourite people in the whole world are in this exhibition. We have forged lasting connections and friendships after having been work colleagues at one time or another at Object and this show is a great way to get together. This is the second year we have had a show together - last year the exhibition was called make do. So exciting!

Update: The exhibition is UNREAL I am so proud to be a part of it! Click here to see some pictures from the opening taken by photographer extraordinaire Joe Wijangco.

Love to Liana

2008-04-25T14:44:00.000+10:00

I have to say an enormous thank you to Liana Kabel for the beautiful post on her blog a few weeks ago. I found it quite overwhelming to be the subject of such a lovely post as Liana has been a bit of a hero of mine for a while now. It was Liana and Anna Davern, who quite apart from being two of the loveliest ladies I know and absolutely fantastic jewellers, inspired me to start this blog.

I love this brooch by Anna Davern, it is called Sad...

pink rope

2008-04-25T14:33:00.000+10:00

Finally I have made some pink thread rope... it's fantastic in an Olivia Newton John 'let's get physical' kind of a way and also kind of kinky looking as I guess only pink rope can be (especially when it has silver jump rings threaded through it - thanks to Debbie for pointing out the kink factor!!!). I have a few plans for it - one is to make some decorative rope knot pieces. It has also become a great way to solve the threading problem for some of the other pieces I have made/am half way through.

Big thanks to the superbly lovely Mark Vaarwerk for the terrific string making lesson at the fantastic workshop he ran for the Adelaide JMGA Conference in January.

busy, busy...

2008-04-18T16:03:00.000+10:00

I haven't posted for a little while, but I haven't been idle, in fact it has been full pink steam ahead the past few weeks - I have completed eight new pieces and am working on three bigger pieces as well. Unfortunately the weather has been crappy the past few weeks and I haven't been able to take any decent photos of the new work, sunlight is my special photography friend! So here is a picture of my (messy) bench taken a couple of weeks ago with some work in progress. There is a bangle to the left, two half made brooches, the start of the dodgy dots neckpiece (see post below) and the ball of thread - as you can see - there's still lots to go. I should have measured its girth before I started, but by eye, I think I might be about 30% of the way through it...

these dots are driving me dotty!!!

2008-04-18T15:57:00.000+10:00

I promised to post everything good and bad - I have been lucky for the past little while and things have been going my way. Until this
It is a neckpiece with little pink sticky dots stuck to it like beads. It's kind of cute. But the damn dots don't stay stuck - not even long enough for me to take a picture...

Swarovski embellishment - three from five!

2008-03-29T16:40:00.000+11:00

There is a bit of a story behind this brooch and a confession... Story first, confession later.

I have an ongoing and impossible to explain fascination with the Swarovski crystal embellisment count as mentioned by the weddings reporter in the Sunday Telegraph. I turn to the weddings page of the newspaper as first port of call and count how many of the gowns are 'embellished with Swarovski crystals' and that's all I read on the page. Each week the count is different, but there has only been one week in recent memory that has been Swarovski embellishment-free. Why the fascination? Perhaps it is a fascination with the pervasiveness of the brand, but other than that, impossible to explain! Even funnier, is that my partner has gotten in on the act and will now check and call out the Swarovski count on his way through the paper to the sports pages. I like a bit of sparkle now and then (who doesn't), but don't get into crystals and I am no Muriel, I have never really been into the wedding thing, I love going to them of course and make a fair few wedding rings, but the whole traditional sparkly dress confection thing has never been a dream. I recently became engaged however - which is a wonderful and beautiful thing and I look forward to our simple wedding, whenever it may be and to sewing a Swarovski crystal into the hem of my frock to honor our funny Sunday ritual!

So this brooch is an homage to the Swarovski crystal and the wedding writer from the Sunday Tele. Now for the confession. I bought the Swarovski crystal beads for the brooch and broke my rules... I just couldn't resist!!! The pink thread and wax series of brooches, with all its candy coloured feminine allusions was making a siren call for some Swarovski intervention. The result is quite interesting, the hard angularity of the crystal beads make a strange companion for the softness of the wax and thread - the crystals are a sharp imposition rather than a natural inclusion in the terrain of the piece.

the dot net

2008-03-29T00:28:00.000+11:00

Exciting news - My website is all live!
Hugest thanks to the enormously clever and patient Martin Ford for designing and building such a fabulous site and making this dream a reality!
Have a look... www.melindayoung.net

like a bird on the wire...

2008-03-28T18:54:00.001+11:00

I have a bit of a bird issue - blame falls squarely on the shoulders of watching Hitchcock's The Birds at an open air cinema for this mild phobia. Anyway, I am trying to get over it - so here is a sweet little brooch with a pink birdie on a branch made from pink thread soaked in wax. I really find that I have an uneasy relationship with the little bird above, it is cute, but it is kind of creepy at the same time. It, and its little friends below, are cast from a cake decorating mould that caught my eye in the window of a cake supplies shop whilst wandering through the wilds of Camperdown, what possessed me to walk in and make a random cake icing mould purchase on the way to buy a blow up bed at the camping supplies store will remain a mystery... so I have had the mould for a while and eventually last year I got around to making some waxes from it, with the idea to cast silver birds and turn them into brooches. I cast the silver birds ages ago and they are still tweeting plaintively from my bench to be made into jewellery (in the to-do basket), and I kept some pink waxes as well... the waxes are far more appealing to me than the silver versions - perhaps it is the colour, but more likely the weight I suspect - as they are feather light. So I have made a few brooches with the pink thread and the little pink birds. Below is a bird in a nest with its partner bringing more nesting material.

pink thready balls

2008-03-23T13:11:00.001+11:00

I know I said earlier that I wasn't going to take any more pictures on my red tray. But I couldn't resist this one! The colour has done something totally strange and is well beyond my limited photoshop abilities to correct, although I had fun trying all the different filters.

This is a pink thread and wax ball and part of a neckpiece I am working on as well as a series of little brooches. They really bring the thread to the fore with the NYC Pink wax used more as a binder and detail than the main body of the piece. Images of the neckpiece when it is complete... could be a few weeks, the balls take ages to make, and I keep dripping sizzling hot wax on my fingers. The sizzle really helps the wax to seep right through the ball of thread though. Ah, suffering for one's art (ahem!) My finger are becoming increasingly teflon coated as this project continues.

Below are two of the brooches I have made from the balls. I have been wearing one of these and it's great fun!

A Parure for Louise Bourgeois has some adventures

2008-03-23T12:39:00.000+11:00

Finally I am posting the other pieces made as part of the Rubies and Pearls for Louise Bourgeois Parure. I should have posted them at the end of last year when I made them, but they have been away on holidays with the JMGA NSW Profile exhibition. Firstly to Adelaide at the National Wine Centre for the JMGA Conference and then in Sydney at Horus and Deloris Gallery. I was extremely fortunate not only to have been selected to be a part of such a beautiful exhibition, but also to have my work chosen by Horus and Deloris to use for the exhibition publicity and invitation. Then to really top it all off I won the Established Artist award attached to the exhibition. I am still astounded... but so extremely moved that my work was selected out of such an outstanding exhibition for this inaugural award. I was speechless at the opening when the award was given and it still hasn't really sunk in.

I would like to take the opportunity here to thank the huge team of dedicated volunteers from JMGA NSW who organised and made this exhibition possible including Jane Bowring, Jane Reynolds, Brenda Factor, JMGA NSW Chair Karin Findeis, Valerie Odewahn, Alice & Amelia Whish, Erin Keys, Sue Lorraine and Catherine Truman. In a volunatry organisation it is all about the sums of everyone's parts - so thank you to everyone who was involved in Profile 2008. Thanks too to the judges Margaret West and Tracey Clement and Margaret and Caz at Horus and Deloris for their support. Congratulations to Bridget Kennedy who won the emerging award and to Bridie Lander and Karin Jacobsen who were Highly Commended in the Established and Emerging categories respectively.

The Rubies and Pearls for Louise Bourgeois Parure comprised the neckpiece posted earlier:

A brooch:

Earrings: And a ring which I will add images of soon... they didn't come out very well!

innards

2008-03-18T18:45:00.000+11:00

It has taken me a while and several conversations with people to get up the courage to post the images of my insides that originally inspired the pink wax work - thanks to Debbie, Bridie, Lisa, A mi and others for their encouragement! Of course, now I have decided to do it, I can't find them anywhere (I know I put them somewhere really safe), so I am substituting for now with a similar image I found on the internet.
I have always been fascinated by the notion of the abject - the research I did for my Honors and Masters studies was entirely focused on investigating the abject (specifically in relation to cleanliness and femininity). I started with the manner in which a single hair on a bar of soap can be such a potent marker of abjection and this was my springboard into an investigation of the surrounding ideas and theory. One of my favourite books is called 'The Anatomy of Disgust' (an excellent cultural history of the idea of 'disgusting' things over the ages by William Miller). So when after laparoscopic surgery last year I went for a follow up visit to the surgeon and was given snapshots of my innards - imagine my surprise when my stomach turned and turned and turned. Being confronted with one's own interior landscape is a weird and wonderful thing. It is at once disgusting, yet beautiful and fascinating and there is a strange sense of both ownership and disposession, connection and dislocation. Seeing pictures of my insides subconsciously inspired the pink wax work without a doubt, although it has taken me a while to realise it. In fact I have come to realise that this whole project is something of a result of the experience as I couldn't leave home for a while and was looking around for things to make - and there was the pink thread!
The image below is of a brooch which directly refers to the images. In the spirit of the work I did for my academic research, made from soap (there are some images of these works in the slideshow attached to an ealier post), this brooch incorporates scent in the form of candle wax.

There is something disturbingly hairy (abject?) about the way the thread works on this piece and the rubies peek out from its crevices.

inny and outie swapsies

2008-03-18T18:26:00.000+11:00

During December I did a swap with the wonderful Bridie Lander. I have a gorgeous neckpiece with a piece of red coral partially concealed inside. I call it my 'coral inny' neckpiece. I made Bridie a red 'coral outie' brooch in exchange. Here it is:

I put some little green balls on the back. They were the cause of much mirth when I delivered the piece...

the cat's in the cradle and the silver moon

2008-03-18T18:05:00.003+11:00

The fabulous Anna Davern made a vary valid comment on one of my earlier posts that other materials seemed to have taken over from the pink thread. I am the first to admit this is true! One of the purposes of the project for me was to discover new ways of working and materials and I have gotten rather carried away with the wax I will confess - it just speaks to me on so many different levels. I haven't been ignoring the thread for thread's sake though. Here are some of the successful results of hollow balls for a neckpiece that I made during January. The balls are are just made of thread dipped in PVA glue and are about 75mm in diameter. they remind me of making cats cradles with string as a child.
I am waiting until the weather cools down a little before I complete this piece as it's very hot in my studio and the glue is drying too fast (also it exploded out of the bottom onto my studio roof the last time I tried to squeeze some out, so I need to buy more!) Stay tuned...

One of the best things about these was how much fun they were to photograph using the macro setting!

like a distraction during a late night conversation...

2008-03-18T17:52:00.000+11:00

Here is one of the pieces I made during the summer - I think it's pretty awful, it really didn't work out the way I wanted it to and just kept getting bigger and uglier. It looks like the kind of studied candle drip cultivation that one indulges in after a few wines during a late night conversation. I am, for the record, a huge fan of late night candle drip cultivation - I guess just not as jewellery!!! Or maybe it's the nasty blue? Or, it might just be that I was making it verrrry late at night and a glass of wine would have helped!

What I do rather like though is the way the thread fell whilst I was photographing it...

lovely loops!!!

working hard... not posting as much as I should be!

2008-03-02T17:21:00.000+11:00

Despite promising myself I would post again soon... I have fallen even futher behind. I have been working extremely hard though, on the pink project and also on a little collection I have called it's not easy being green which is for a mini, mini solo showcase at the A&E Metal Merchants Sydney showroom for a month starting Monday 9 march and then moving to a showcase in the Powerhouse Museum store - exciting! I have made about 30 pieces (not sure if they will all fit...) a mixture of production and one-off exhibition works - all GREEN! There really does seem to be a colour thing happening with me... I photographed the green things this weekend and will post a few images soon along with the back log of pink things I have made over the summer. They will be posted on my website too - the main thing that has been keeping me away from my blog! I tend to allocate computer time and it's all been used working on web stuff and learning how to use new things like Flickr. It should be live soon so back to bloggin'
Meanwhile while here is a hideously colourful bench shot I took today

- I will never use my yummy new red tray to take photos on again - but I do kind of like the garishness at the same time! In the photo are a few of the pink things I have been playing with - paint blobs, string balls with fabric glue, string balls with wax and a guest appearance by a green wax brooch from it's not easy being green

A slideshow of my exhibition work over the years...

2008-02-12T20:28:00.000+11:00

ah, summer...

2008-01-20T16:33:00.001+11:00

It has been a while since I have posted. I have still been making, but not as much - mostly because in summer the temperature in my attic studio is an average of about 35-40 degrees, I have also been working with the lovely Martin Ford on getting my website up and running and enjoying a glorious and relaxing summer holiday! I will post the fruits of my summer making session over the next little while!
But meanwhile here's a piece I just made for the Pin Swap dinner at the upcoming JMGA Conference in Adelaide. Can't wait to get to the conference - great program of speakers, heaps of fantastic exhibitions to see and so many jewellery friends to catch up with and new people to meet! Check out www.jmgasa.net.au for info about the conference.

a coral neckpiece

2007-11-26T22:48:00.000+11:00

This is a neckpiece made from the coral used in the earlier brooches and with the thread to accentuate the spines - it's also a sampler in some ways (as many of these pieces are) where I have tried a few different effects and ideas with the thread that I will use again later. It was a bit tricky to photograph, so here are a few different views:

on my lobes...

2007-11-26T22:36:00.000+11:00

I have been busting to make earrings for a few weeks now and have been sketching them madly at every opportunity! There have been lots of exhibition, production and teaching deadlines and events recently so I had my first chance this weekend past to get back to the pink and make the first pair - I am pretty happy with them but there's room to improve on a few things. Here they are...

They are surprisingly easy to wear given their size and weight - I rather felt like I had stepped onto the set of Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette when I tried them on, but without the fabulous wig and frock! These are the first of several pairs planned...

on my lapel

2007-11-26T22:22:00.000+11:00

One of the most influential early pieces of writing I read when a jewellery student was written by Julie Ewington and was titled "On my Lapel" (from memory it was a paper from JMGA conference in the early 90's...) anyway it is a wonderful piece of writing that discusses the significance of the jewels we wear and is very much situated in the context of the theoretical concerns of the time - I now always give it to my first year students to read and it has, somewhat randomly inspired the title of this post. This also reminds me to register for the 2008 JMGA conference in lovely Adelaide very exciting - details at www.jmgasa.net.au)
Now for the piece - it's a lapel pin made with... you guessed it! NYC Pink casting wax, a pearl and pink thread with a silver pin.

I can't even begin to describe why I find this wax and pearl combination so appealing, in so many ways...

String of pearls

2007-11-13T11:26:00.000+11:00

Another labour of NYC Pink love! This was supposed to be a very simple neckpiece with small wax elements - but somehow I got carried away with the baroque lushness of it all...

For some reason this neckpiece reminds me of my Grandma, although she hated pink! I think it has something to do with the time and meticulous work involved in making it - she was a milliner and always sewing. When Christmas starts to loom on the horizon I always think of the day we used to spend making Chrismas table decorations together each year, something I always looked forward to.

Bright Spiny Things!

2007-11-13T11:10:00.000+11:00

I made these brooches for the Zu Design Christmas exhibition titled Bright Shiny Things. http://zudesign.com.au/ They are a development of the brooches made last week... I have called them Bright Spiny Things! They carry on the underwater garden theme - as does the Lei in some ways. It is funny that things so bright and PINK should be so reminiscent of underwater worlds - although I guess they do use watery materials!