Kitchenalia

The Travellers, 2014. Image by Christina Arsenault

I was invited to participate in a group exhibition entitled Kitchenalia by curator Angela D'Elia at the Goulburn Regional Art Gallery.  17 artists who either worked with kitchen items or made works that represented kitchen items participated in the show.

I chose to submit my recent work The Travellers, made from antique kitchen strainers, combined with brass and copper patina-ed wire, machine embroidery and resin.

The Travellers was inspired by immigrants from the United Kingdom who left their homes to seek fortune and opportunities in foreign and often hostile lands when Britain was establishing new colonies in Australia and North America. Passages of writing by early British immigrants, who experienced the inconveniences of first settlement and the destruction of their precious personal items that travelled the rough bush roads to their new dwellings inspired my work. Despite adverse conditions their pioneering spirits never faltered, allowing them to follow their dreams and create better lives.

More information about The Travellers creation can be found here.

Participating artists include Jacqueline Bradley, Hamilton Darroch, Melinda Le Guay, Stephanie Jones, Waratah Lahy, Birte Larsen, Nongirrnga Marawili, Ellie Mucke, Alison Munro, Mylyn Nguyen, Susan O’Doherty, Rachael Roxburgh, Niomi Sands, Kate Ward, David Watt, Anthony Whyte and various knitters.

Kitchenalia runs from 28 August to 11 October 2014 at the Goulburn Regional Art Gallery.

Simple book binding with chocolate wrappers

Whist I was in New York City over the summer I collected some delicious chocolate wrappers. They were simply too pretty to throw away after I had enjoyed the decadent chocolate on the inside.

After looking at them for what seemed an eon and wondering how I could make use of such nice wrapping, I suddenly realised they would make a great cover for a hand made book.

I reinforced the chocolate paper wrappers with a piece of card, using the gold foil of the chocolate wrapper as the inside of the cover.

Using a very basic four hole pamphlet stitch I then stitched the paper to the cover and the final result was a book in the shape of a chocolate bar. 

If you are inspired to make book, I found a great tutorial on www.designsponge.com that has instructions to make a similar style book to the one I made.

Happy making! 

PS - the book became a present for an awesome friend of mine  :)  

New York Now

My friend Jana, who owns Swaine Street Woodworking invited me to come along with her to the New York Now tradeshow. Jana designs and makes beautiful wooden cutting boards, serving boards and butchers blocks from maple and walnut.

Jana engraving one of her serving boards

New York Now is a massive wholesale trade show, where buyers from all over the world attend to purchase products for their store. The show attracts over 35,000 people over the duration of the five days.

I helped with the install, and it was amazing the transformation of the space from an empty warehouse, to a convention centre full of booths and bustling with people. 

I got so carried away with it all that I totally forgot to take an 'after' shot with everything set up. Whoops.

We didn't forget to eat though! Heres a shot of Jana stopping for a quick lunch.

We drove from Halifax down to New York City and drove back again afterwards. The drive takes about 14 hours in total, each way. Its actually kinda cool how close Halifax is to New York City.

Along with eating plenty of bagels with cream cheese for breakfast and getting the chance to visit some of the major galleries in New York we captured some of the highlights were on the drive on the way back home again.

Riding the silver fox 

holding hands with the worlds largest blue berry

Cuddling a moose

 And of course, when in Canada, one must cuddle a moose!

Feature article in Canberra Potter's Society Newsletter

Earlier this year I was interviewed by Kathryn Wells for the Canberra Potter's Society (CPS) newsletter. 

I used to have one of the lovely studios at CPS which has a lovely views and great facilities. It also has one of the most friendly and supportive environments an artist could wish to be involved with. Ill see if I can dig out some images of my studio and its surroundings to share with you. 

The article talks about the similarities and differences between the residencies, challenges I encountered, what I gained from the experiences and how it has progressed by work.

Click on the images for a readable version. Alternatively you can visit the CPS website and download a pdf version of the newsletter. Enjoy!