Seeding the Cloud with Roseanne Bartley

 material exhibitor Roseanne Bartley is currently running a workshop called Seeing the Cloud. The first session happened on Saturday, and the following is taken from Roseanne's blog:

I recently presented Seeding The Cloud at Craft Victoria (as part of their Craft Cubed exhibition material) and extended an invitation for the public to participate in learning the process. We went out for a walk and ended up finding an incredible resource of plastic fragments in Treasury Gardens. It came as quite a surprise as the park appearsto be well maintained, however in amongst the mulch we found heaps. It would appear that plastic is mixed in with the material that is put through the mulcher, such a pity, a bit of preliminary sorting could prevent this form of pollution from happening.

Anyhow, we managed to have a lovely timewalking, collecting, sorting and drilling in the park and moved on to a cafe to thread the fragments together while having coffee and cake.

This workshop forms part of Roseanne's larger project Seeding the Cloud: A Walking Work in Process, please visit Roseanne's blog.

Seeding the Cloud is a two-hour experience around  the streets and parklands of Melbourne CBD led by artist jeweller Roseanne Bartley. Over the course of the session, Roseanne will share the 'how to' behind her roving work Seeding the Cloud: A Walking Work in Process. It's an opportunity to take part in a jewellery based process that addresses the mass of residual plastic within the environment and contribute to the creation of a collectively inspired Civic Necklace. To learn more about the workshop, please click here.

This workshop is free, and the next session is on Saturday 20 August from 1.30-3.30pm. Please call us on 9650 7775 if you'd like to attend.

All photos courtesy of Roseanne's blog Seeding the Cloud.

General Assembly at Pin-up, Sat 30 April

General Assembly is back!

Initiated by Blanche Tilden and Phoebe Porter of Studio Hacienda, General Assembly is a participatory activity that invites you to select from prefabricated parts to create your very own General Assembly souvenir brooch (pictured below).

This brooch making workshop is part of The First Show at the new architecture and design space Pin-up. This is a re-staging of their award winning project that was previously seen in Craft Victoria (of course!) and Canberra. By the way, this is your only opportunity to create a General Assembly brooch in 2011, so make sure you book in quicksticks!

Images from General Assembly at Craft Victoria

Want more? Watch a video of the project in action here:

Prices range from $60 – $350 and include all parts to assemble your brooch.

Details:

General Assembly Brooch making workshop
When: Sat 30 April, 2pm – 3pm
Where: Pin-up - Architecture & Design Project Space, 15-25 Keele Street, Collingwood
Bookings: contact Blanche at blanche@blanchetilden.com.au to book your place.

And at the very least, drop by Pin-up anyway (if you haven't already) to check out what looks to be an exciting exhibition! The First Show is on until 30 April.

Lucky Charm fundraiser

2010 Craft Victoria exhibitor and dear friend Natalia Milosz-Piekarska has organised a charity auction of contemporary jewellery called Lucky Charm: Making Good Fortunte Happen in order to raise funds for the current situation in Japan.

The online auction can be viewed here and features about 50 contemporary jewellers including COUNTER stockists (in no order of awesome-ness) Karla Way, Elfrun Lach, Anna Davern, Phoebe Porter, Elizabeth Kennedy, Melinda Young, Linda Hughes and Vicki Mason as well as Inari Kiuru, Julia deVille, Katherine Bowman and Pamela Love. Phew! What a luminous list.

L-R: Karla Way (bidding currently at $155 as of 30 March), Elfrun Lach (bidding currently at $50 as of 29 March)

Anna Davern (bidding currently at $180 as of 27 March)



Phoebe Porter (bidding currently at $50 as of 27 March)

The reserve price for all works is $30 and the auction closes at 11pm on 21 April. You can also donate if you'd rather not bid

All images from the Lucky Charm blog.

If you missed our last round of exhibitions...

...don't worry as you can still view them online!

In Gallery 1, we had a solo exhibition by ceramicist and architect Susan Robey.

Click here to view more images of Susan's exhibition Inhabit as photographed by Lily Feng.

Over in Gallery 2 was jeweller Elfrun Lach, whose exhibition Corollary explored the social and moral implications of the use of coral in gold and silversmithing.

Click here to view more images of Corollary, also photographed by Lily Feng.

And finally in Gallery 3 was Adelaide-based ceramicist Gerry Wedd with his construction of the Australian outback as a hellish utopia in In the Woods.

Click here to view more images of In the Woods as photographed by Gerry Wedd.

New arrivals in-store

Let us help you get through 'hump day' with these pretty new arrivals from some very talented peeps!

A warm welcome to our latest jeweller, Melbourne-based Victoria Matthews. Having studied Gold & Silversmithing at NMIT and RMIT, we're proud to be showcasing Victoria's range The Tingate Family's Caravan Holiday series - a fun and playful range designed with the 1950s in mind!

Materials include the usual suspects/techniques - sterling silver and powder coating - as well as Formica and laminate for that nostalgic touch! Prices start at $100 for a pair of earrings, and range from $200-$300 for necklaces and brooches.

We've also got another fun new addition to our astroturf section - ceramic accessories by and o designs (who was a 2010 Craft Hatchling!) Prices start from $35

And next to it are Emily Green's colourful fimo bead necklaces ($30), a popular choice so be quick if you'd like to snaffle yourself one!

And last but not least, new necklaces ($165) and earrings ($92) by Milly Flemming a.k.a. our acting Retail Manager!

Photography: Kim Brockett

'Bad Beasts Do Not Harm Me' > opening Thursday at Metalab, Sydney

Jewellers Natalia Milosz-Piekarska & Karla Way take their collaborative exhibition Bad Beasts Do Not Harm Me to Metalab in Sydney! Yay!

This exhibition opens on Thursday 3 March. See it if you can!

Studio visit: Michaela Bruton

We've been keeping an eye on Fresh! 2009 winner Michaela Bruton since she took home the grand prize last year, and it sure has been a busy 2010 for Michaela! Since launching her stunning jewellery collection under the label A.D. (which is available at Alice Euphemia), Michaela's been industriously devoting time to her practice and recently nabbed herself a studio space at the Nicholas Building.

Since we're practically neighbours now, CLOG took the liberty of inviting ourselves over to Michaela's studio and we took some pictures of where the magic happens. But of course it wouldn't be much fun if we kept it to ourselves, so here's a selection of highlights!

By the way, make sure you check out Oomph Trajectories, Michaela's exhibition of new drawings and fine metalwork in the Sofitel Melbourne on Collins lobby, which was part of her Fresh! prize. Oomph Trajectories is on display until Tue 1 March 2011.

Work bench



Michaela's signature filligree work





Selection of crystals







Sketch by Michaela.
Like it? Then take a peek at our Craft Vic coffee cup collab, which was illustrated by Michaela and produced by Ingrid Tufts.

Thanks again Michaela for letting us into your studio!

For more images, click here.

Photography: Kim Brockett

David Neale makes ring; reminds everyone how awesome he is

Melbourne is home to many jewellers including one of our favourites, David Neale. We're avid readers of his blog The Golden Smith and we recently saw this post 'Proven Goodness' which is incredible!

In it David shows how he transforms a simple ingot of gold (with a not-so-simple provenance) into something truly amazing.

Anyhow you must read it. Here's the link again!

Image from David Neale

Good shows galore!

Grad show season is upon us and prime ourselves, here are three fantastic exhibitions that are whetting our appetites.

First up we'll be attending the Crafticise exhibition opening. Crafticise (full title Crafticise: make something that means something) is the title of an RMIT Industrial Design Elective that explores conceptual and experimental design through craft and handmaking techniques. Yay for craft and design, together forever!

Crafticise is led by Ben Landau and Brittany Veitch, both of whom are some of Craft Vic's favourite people. You may remember their collaborative exhibition Bio-Accessories at the City Library last year (shown as part of Craft Cubed), and Brittany was one of Craft Hatch's first guinea pigs! Ahem we mean Hatchlings.

Anyhow, back to Crafticise... to round off the semester there will be one-night+weekend only exhibition at RMIT and it is happening TONIGHT!

Here are the details:

Time: 5-7pm
Where: Level 5, RMIT Building 88, 440 Elizabeth Street

There are plenty of gems including Georgia Hutchinson's Mutual Growth (pictured below) which explores the relationship between object and owner, as well as Michelle Vanspall's Tradie Cushion (pictured above) that gives tradies the comfort they deserve.

So go on, have a crack!

Currently on is Lisa Engelhardt's FORME - Building upon her long-standing interest in botanical themes and printing, Lisa is another Craft Hatch pal and we're excited to see more work from this lovely lady!

FORME is currently on at C3 at Abbotsford Convent till 14 November.

And finally currently on is Got a nice ring to it, the RMIT 1st and 2nd year gold & silversmithing exhibition at First Site.

We went to the opening on Tuesday and there was some pretty great stuff there! This exhibition is on until 6 November (next week).

Psst...

More photos from our studio visit to Natalia & Karla's space now available for viewing here.

Enjoy!

Studio visit: Natalia Milosz-Piekarska & Karla Way

As part of their current exhibition Bad Beasts Do Not Harm Me in Gallery 1, Karla and Natalia invited us to have a peek at their beautiful light-filled studio in the Nicholas Building.

New work - featuring lobster feelers harvested from a nearby novelty store

Natalia's sketches in preparation for Bad Beasts

Stacks



OH&S is a priority!

Arrow heads and other assortments

First-year work alongside recent pieces

Karla's workspace

Natalia's space

Thank you for having us Karla & Natalia!

Photography: Kim Brockett