Tell me about your background and what led you to jewellery design? It started at high school where I studied sculpture and art subjects. I studied sculpture as part of a Fine Arts degree at Elam, the Auckland University Art School in New Zealand. I specialised in sculpture, but not in a traditional sculptural way, more about installation and performance.

My interest in jewellery really began when I moved to Australia and met William Griffiths, a New Zealand jeweller making in Melbourne. He said to me, come and see if you like making jewellery and hang out. I hadn’t really thought about jewellery until I met him. I ended up just mucking around in his studio making my own things. My first piece was something really instant – a safety pin pressed into cuttlefish with molten metal poured into it. I was chuffed, and thought ‘this is the best thing ever!’ I felt quite inspired by William’s work and I enjoyed working with him so much that I decided to study Jewellery Engineering at NMIT.

How would you describe your work? I’m inspired by geometric patterns, formations, structures and architecture. I think I started doing angular, sharp work because I wanted to test myself technically. Geometric shapes can be trickier than making round organic shapes. Because my course was a trade course, we made hinges and very precise things. I wanted to prove that I could do those technical objects and now I have ended up doing hinges in my work.

The NMIT course is so different to the RMIT course. It’s a trade focused course, for instance we would spend 3 weeks making hinges. I chose the course for that reason. I had already completed a fine arts degree so I wanted to just get down and get some skills.

What common themes link each of your designs? I suppose it’s the whole geometric thing, similarities of the forms. I’m trying to incorporate spheres into my work so it’s not all sharp and aggressive. It’s tricky to make the angular stuff spherical, especially with the geodesic shapes. I want to start using more stones but at the moment I work just with metal.

Is your creative process ordered or organic? Ordered. I’m not organic at all. Making a cone or dome becomes a personal challenge, then I will start joining them together to make a necklace, bracelet or pendant. Quite often I will make something that starts off as one shape, like a geometric shape, then I will start multiplying the shape to become much larger.

When you start a piece do you think ‘this is going to be a necklace’ or does it evolve? Sometimes it’s pretty definite – at the moment I’m trying to make smaller pieces. I find it harder to make smaller pieces. Even though I make geometric shapes, I’m pretty rough and ready. Once I have an idea I want to get it out!

Do you work alone or do you share your creative space? I work alone. It means I can work more effectively when I want to. It can get a bit lonely. Sometimes you can wear your pyjamas all day and not leave the house.

How do you stay connected to the wider creative community in Melbourne and internationally? The Internet, I go to exhibitions and I’m friends with a few Melbourne jewellers – William Griffiths and Julia de Ville and Katherine Bowman. Internationally, I don’t have much of a connection with New Zealand jewellers because I didn’t make jewellery there.

I’m just as much interested in video art, noise and sound. It informs my jewellery work. A little while ago I saw work in an architectural magazine that was big, black and folded, and I liked it.

Sometimes it comes from other sources. It doesn’t have to be in your field. Sometimes it’s just a really good song. I’m really into Siouxsie and the Banshees at the moment. I listen to music when I work, otherwise it’s quite boring, especially when you are by yourself. Once I have an idea I might cut out the music, or if I am having trouble working out something mathematical. When I’m doing production stuff, the louder the better!!

Where do you find your creative inspiration? It’s haphazard. If I did know where to go for inspiration, that would be awesome! I would go straight there. I think it just happens in bouts. I have bouts of heaps of inspiration and will just flow on from there and hopefully ride the wave until I get another bout.

Which designers, artists or creative people do you admire? I definitely like Buckminster Fuller, he’s awesome. I love the way he builds with geometric shapes. It draws on nature and cellular growth, how things are reproduced in life. Using multiples of geometric shapes to make a mass.  Simon Cottrell is another favourite – I really like the way his work is constructed. His pieces seem to grow in an organic pattern, while still retaining an affiliation with the materials he uses. I like the juxtaposition of hard clean materials and the softer rhythmic references in his work.

What would be your dream project? I would like to make jewellery for the Pope. You could make some really great geometric crosses with heaps of jewels and gold. Everyone would see it!

What do you enjoy outside of jewellery? I take my dog George for walks but that sounds quite boring! I like to go out and listen to music. Music is a big part of my life. My boyfriend is a sound engineer and he’s really into it. I think it can really change the way you feel about things, which is very cool.

What advice would you give to emerging contemporary jewellery artists? When I first started I made really big pieces and perhaps should have started with smaller pieces. Big pieces are more time consuming and they don’t sell as often. Everyone does it differently, it’s just finding your own practice, finding your own style and discovering how it works for you. I know people who have completed a NEIS course, which sounds really good.

Is it hard to switch hats between being a maker and running a small business? Yes! I’m not good at business but it’s all a learning process. It’s very easy when you are on a creative run and think ‘yeah I’m just going to go for this!’ but you know in the back of your head that it’s not commercial to make really big pieces. But as an artist, it’s really hard to put the idea away once you have had it.

Visit e.g.etal at 167 Flinders Lane, Melbourne, to view Emma Jane Donald’s current collection.

To celebrate the exhibition Mari Funaki: Objects currently showing at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, the NGV have donated one exhibition publication for us to give away.

To enter, email your postal address to promotions@ngv.vic.gov.au and include ‘e.g.etal’ in the subject line to win. For more information about the exhibition come over here.

Image: Mari Funaki Object 2010. Collection of the Estate of Mari Funaki, Melbourne. © The Estate of Mari Funaki

No matter where you are in the world, you can now take a tour of Melbourne (and Sydney’s) best design streets and precincts. The team behind the Melbourne and Sydney Design Guides have developed The Audio Design Museum, presented by Object: The Australian Centre for Craft & Design. Each tour is downloaded and loaded onto the listener’s iPod.

Our director, Emma Goodsir was interviewed for the Contemporary Jewellery walk and the Flinders Lane walk and we have had lots of fun playing those back in the gallery!

Visit www.audiodesignmuseum.com to download the map and MP3 tour, then spend some time exploring the locations listed at your own leisure. Even if you aren’t planning a visit to Melbourne in the near future, the tour is a very interesting discussion about contemporary jewellery in Melbourne from the jewellers and gallerists that know it intimately.

The delightful Yuko Fujita in blue...

KODAMA (return to me) by Yuko Fujita was opened on Thursday 15 July at e.g.etal. Director of e.g.etal, Emma Goodsir, spoke at the event –  her words below.

Over the last few months we have been in regular contact and I have truly enjoyed witnessing the development of this work. Yuko has been an absolute pleasure to work with. With delicate humility and a gentle quietness Yuko does not reveal all at once. For me it has been a gradual and delightful process to get to know her, her work and the processes by which she arrives at the final pieces. As you can see, all the pieces are made of wood. Each piece and each component had a former life – mostly as a domestic object. For example,  a curtain ring, a clog, a wooden spoon, a coat hanger or a child’s toy. And obviously before that, each piece had a life in the form of a tree. Yuko’s pieces of jewellery pay homage to these memories. The title, Kodama, meaning both echo and spirit of a tree, reflects Yuko’s intention to honour the origins and possibilities of each piece.

While carefully leaving clues as to their past lives Yuko has given each object life anew. In her own words she has transformed them into imaginary plants, creatures, and habitats which they may have belonged to somewhere in the past. And so a couple of broken hangers have been transformed into a plant deep in a forest waiting for the coming of spring. The three tones of colour used – raw timber, grey and oxidised silver – alternate to give the effect of sun and shade found in the forest. It is a flower about to bloom….  Another piece – originally a cup stand, now represents a tree. It is a midnight meeting place for birds, bats and butterflies. Curtain rings have been cut and reconstructed. In this life they are a frozen vine, telling the story of a seed that sprouted after 2000 years of lying dormant.

I hope you find this work as intriguing and as captivating as I do. In displaying the work our intention was to reflect the layers of meaning but also to create a stillness, encouraging quiet reflection on the themes that informed the creation of Yuko’s pieces. Katherine Bowman was the exhibition designer and created this very simple, yet thoughtful, display. Her dedication to creating an experience that highlighted the skill in Yuko’s work at the same time as providing a quiet and almost reverential environment for the viewer is much appreciated. And thank you also to Wil Goodsir and Andy Otto for designing and producing the display material.

Emma Goodsir
Director, e.g.etal

This exhibition is a part of the State of Design Festival Program. We thank the Festival, in particular Kate Rhodes, for their invaluable support.

'message' brooch by yuko fujita

'midnight meeting' neckpiece by yuko fujita

'quiet show' neckpiece by yuko fujita

KODAMA (return to me) is currently showing at e.g.etal, until July 31.
Downstairs 167 Flinders Lane, Melbourne, 3000
Ph: 03 9639 5111

]]> http://www.egetal.com.au/blog/?feed=rss2&p=235 0 http://www.egetal.com.au/blog/?p=210 http://www.egetal.com.au/blog/?p=210#comments Mon, 12 Jul 2010 02:10:06 +0000 e.g.etal http://www.egetal.com.au/blog/?p=210 Interview by Stephanie Williams at e.g.etal

In this new collection you have used found wooden objects combined with silver and gold. What inspired the concept for your solo exhibition KODAMA (return to me)?
I am attracted to natural materials such as paper, cotton, wood, silk, wool and leather. I see individual, unique character and warmth in those materials. I think they become more attractive when they are dented, stained, wonky, discoloured, stretched and scratched because it gives me a feeling of their life and history.

I see many wooden objects that have passed their prime or have fallen out of use, having been replaced by our ever-changing consumer society. I still see the life in these objects and thought that I can give new life to them again.

The title Kodama has double meaning in Japanese. One means “tree spirits” and the other meaning is “echo” (sound refection). It is said that the reason you hear echo in the forest is that the spirits of tree is responding the sound you made.

My process for the work in KODAMA (return to me) was like communicating with these existing materials. I see the objects and they respond to me through their shape, color and texture to bring form to each item. I transform them into imaginary plants, creatures, and habitats which they may have belonged to somewhere in the past.

Describe your workspace. Do you work alone or with other people?
I have a basic studio at home but most of wooden items were crafted in the wood club I joined called the Mount Waverley Wood Workers Inc. I became a member in order to learn the woodwork skills I needed to realise the work and to access larger machinery. The workshop is full of skilled and enthusiastic woodworkers of all ages. They are very helpful and have much knowledge to pass on. I also like listening to their conversation during coffee break; it is quite a different experience for me!

What path led you to contemporary jewellery?
I began with a degree in Japanese literature in Tokyo then I came to Australia to study jewellery. First I studied NMIT and later completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts (gold and silversmithing) at RMIT. I found jewellery quite similar to literature in the respect I went from using words to tell a story to using materials and visual language instead.

I learn a lot from my cats such as being patient, amused by small things and playing in imaginary worlds, which I think help me to work as a contemporary jeweller.

Where do you turn for inspiration?
Materials, shapes and colours inspire me. I would say I am more inspired by elements rather than artwork or artists. I like doodling which often accidentally inspires me.

What next for Yuko? Will we continue to see wood in your work?
I have been enjoying working with wood and would like to develop my woodwork skills further. I think you can expect to see more wood and metal combinations from me in the future.

KODAMA (return to me) is open from 14-31 July as part of the State of Design Look.Stop.Shop program.
Opening night: Thursday 15 July, 6p-8pm, RSVP flinders@egetal.com.au
167 Flinders Lane, Melbourne.
www.egetal.com.au

I will remember Mari for her warmth, her beautiful smile and her gentle, yet determined way of engaging with the world. Mari’s contribution to the jewellery world was enormous.

Mari’s lifetime of work had a direct impact on the direction that this specific field of craft/art took in Australia, as well as internationally. I feel very lucky to have been involved in Melbourne’s jewellery community during the last 15 years. This era of vibrancy and international cross-pollination was in no small part due to Mari’s passionate dedication. She generously mentored and supported emerging and established jewellers. Mari was a visionary with clear and wonderfully uncompromising views of her chosen art form. As such her own work was perfectly defined and her gallery became a mecca for all aspiring jewellers.

Mari was, and will remain, widely respected, collected and admired. Her life and passing has touched many people.

Emma Goodsir

Director

Mari Funaki was a distinguished Australian jeweller and founder of Gallery Funaki. She passed away on May 13.

Melissa Cameron in her St Kilda studio

Embedded with references to her architectural education, Melissa Cameron’s work displays beauty through geometric patterns and fractal repetition. An active participant in the Melbourne jewellery scene, I recently met Melissa in her St Kilda studio to learn more about her background, her recent collaborations and the inspiration behind her new range.

Tell me a little about your background – what path led you to jewellery design?
I studied interior architecture at Curtin University in Western Australia. Before I got into that course I had studied six months of computer science and sucked at it.

When I was writing my honours thesis in my final year, I visited Melbourne with one of my friends. We went to a bead supplier on Swanston St and bought beads and pliers, tiger tail and crimps. I had studied a bit of ‘proper jewellery’ making at school in metalwork, so I knew the basics. I picked up the beading work and thought ‘this is not bad’. I knew there was more to it than that, but I kept it as a sideline for a few years, selling at markets and to friends. I was working as an interior designer but I had a ‘dark night of the soul’ and decided I really had to become a jeweller.

I eventually moved to Melbourne and completed the Master of Fine Art – Metals and Jewellery at Monash last year and got a studio this year.

Lavender Star bracelet

Wreath Star brooch

How would you describe your work?
It’s really geometric with a definite sense of space and volume, but it’s made up of planes so it’s not ever a solid object. A lot of the titles are ‘Planar this’ and ‘Radial Pattern that’. It’s geometric patterns in space.

What are the common themes linking your designs?
Again, it’s that space thing. First, I draw patterns on my computer. I have many, many patterns; it’s a continual drawing process. Not until I string the piece do I know how big it is. It’s like an architectural plan, without any sections or elevations. I just have to work with the plan and make it into something that I enjoy. Sometimes things look a bit pointy or silly so I will pull them apart and rework them.

When I’m drawing, whatever has come before will influence what will come next. If I see a pattern that I do enjoy and has made form really well, then I will try and find something the next time around that is just as interesting.

While there’s the drawing practice and the jewellery practice, they do really inform each other. At the moment I’m using titanium and stainless after moving on from mild steel. Having come from an interior architecture background where you do a lot of rendering in shades of grey, I had been enjoying using the mild steel. When drawing, you can indicate depth with shades of grey so I spent a lot of time working with those colours.

I have a separate side of my practice that uses recycled materials. Those are more considered in the placement of the pattern in the form as the object will become two objects in the end – the inside piece and the outside piece.

Is your creative process ordered or organic?
It’s ordered. Your way of working is based on what you learn first, as the natural way for you to do things. I learnt ‘plan, section, elevation’ and then you construct a model. I was really good at model making, that was my forte!

What have been some of your favourite special projects, exhibitions or collaborations you have been involved in?
I recently curated a show to coincide with the Jewellers and Metalsmiths Group of Australia (JMGA) conference in Perth. It featured Western Australian artists who had moved away from WA. I also spoke at the conference, which was another project I enjoyed. The show was really a high point for me so far. The show featured jewellers, Belinda Newick and Regina Middleton from Melbourne, Michelle Kelly from Adelaide and Robin Wells who has recently returned to Perth. The work was a big focus but it wasn’t the only focus for me. Presenting the whole package was an interesting challenge. All the skills – the interior design skills, the jewellery skills, the writing skills, everything came together to do this one event and it came off. The new work that I have at e.g.etal debuted at that event.

I’m doing a collaboration with Chloe Vallance, a drawing artist, showing in December at Hand Held Gallery. We collaborated on a small spoon recently. She drew on the spoon and I cut it up and made part of it into a brooch. Using coasters we found at a local op shop, Chloe will draw on half and I will cut out half and then switch them and see what happens.

Do you work alone or share your creative space?
I work alone but in a studio in a large house. Mary-Lou Pavlovic is my landlady and an artist. I see her daily and I come into contact with the other artists occasionally but they work unusual hours. If I’ve got the air compressor on, it’s fairly awful to hang around anyway!

Melissa's lovely old desk

Melissa's impressive sandblaster

How do you stay connected with the wider creative community in Melbourne and internationally?
Internationally there are lots of different competitions and I have done two workshops this year – Helen Britton in Melbourne and Elizabeth Turrell in Perth. I meet my industry friends and share an afternoon tea once a month at ‘Part B’. I started the group because I was out of uni and wasn’t having dialogue with anyone anymore. I think it’s a really important part of practice.

Where do you find your creative inspiration? Is it a formal process?
Architecture and space are really influential in my work. One of the surprises with my Masters was that I spent lot of time researching cube nets, hectacubes and mathematical constructs, mainly recreational mathematics, I wouldn’t go into trigonometric theorems or anything. With architecture there are so many patterns involved, not just visually represented, but the patterns of manufacture and process systems. They are pretty much in my DNA as an artist. I represent what you can see as well as what you can’t see. The cyclical nature of life itself is part of the greater pattern that I like to represent.

Which designers, artists or creative people do you admire?
I have admired Helen Britton for a long time. Actually seeing her work this year, doing her workshop and learning the processes she uses demystified her work for me. I tried to find the bits that were applicable to what I do. Now having done a workshop with enamellist Elizabeth Turrell, I’m looking forward to getting into enamel.

There are a few architects who inspire me such as Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe, but more in an abstract sense.

Ball pendant

Random Strung Planes

What is your dream project?
I think if you aren’t working on your dream project at any given time, then perhaps you are in the wrong business! I think getting the studio and being able to work uninterrupted on my own is the dream project.

With a background in interior architecture did you find it hard to translate your designs to a smaller scale?
No, not at all. When you look at a set of architectural plans you make an abstract link to say that 1:100 is the scale. You’re representing the whole item as an object that you couldn’t represent at full scale but if you engage with that plan as if it was 1:1, you see specific patterns that are in miniature scale anyway. Fractal geometry influences my work, where the whole idea is that you’ve got the same pattern at shifting scales. I will often repeat at line or a form at a different scale within the work.  If you are canny you will see it but it’s on the periphery of people’s consciousness when they look at the work.

What advice would you give emerging contemporary jewellery artists?
The great piece of advice from Helen Britton was ‘move your arse and your mind will follow’. I really hold onto that. Until you start making you cannot theorise about what you’ve made.

Vintage materials Melissa found in a yard sale

The little garden outside the studio

Is it hard to change hats and do what you need to do for your business as well as creating jewellery?

Early in the development of the project when discussing with the artists their responses to the original FIGMENT brief, it became clear that the preciousness of this collection of work ultimately lay in the rigorous and reflective process that preceded their finished form. As a result, the traditional ‘glass case’ display method of showcasing contemporary jewellery was challenged and inverted in order to foreground the ideology behind the work and communicate it as being as important as the objects themselves.

A compressed white ‘envelope’ was built to mark a transition from the retail environment of the main space to the installation. Within this space, the works were placed on twenty ‘found’ projectors which were mounted on simple, white plinths of varying heights. Lit and glowing from beneath, the objects, drawings and their projected variations created a highly immersive environment of light and scale that aspired to communicate and objectify the artists’ process as well as the end object.

Fleur Watson, FIGMENT Curator.

FIGMENT was launched on 18th March, 2010 by e.g.etal Director, Emma Goodsir and curator, Fleur Watson. Fleur Watson from Something Together with AnneLaure Cavigneaux, Rodney Eggleston and team from March Studio developed the concept for FIGMENT in response to the brief given by eg. etal Director Emma Goodsir.

Image: Isamu Sawa

Sean O’Connell and a very heavy and expensive bar of tantalum to make his tantalum rings!

Sean O’Connell is not your average jewellery designer.  With a background in mechanical engineering – and study paths ranging from philosophy to physics, it’s no wonder Sean’s pieces have a sense of mechanical sophistication about them.  But, don’t take Mr O’Connell too seriously… he doesn’t!  A self confessed hippy, Sean’s cheerful and inquisitive demeanour informs each of his unique creations. His vibrant personality and sense of humour mightn’t be apparent at first glance, but upon closer inspection, it’s clear that his fascination for mechanics stems from a sense of child-like wonder and curiosity about ‘the way things work’, rather than from a rigid or strategic design approach.

Inspired by machines, moving parts and physics, Sean’s work is measured and minimalist in style – although often deceivingly complex in its construction. Like many committed crafters Sean has no interest in outsourcing any part of the creative process – even the tiniest of components are handmade by Sean himself in his studio in Bundeena on the NSW coast. For Sean, the magic of the handmade object really comes from this disciplined, repetitive act of making – sitting at the bench, honing expert skills and forever generating new ideas and forms.

Whilst rooted in precise and efficient engineering, Sean’s style is also is inspired by intangible, even romantic ideas(!) – such as the tension between opposing beliefs, or the magnetic attraction between two people.  He also finds endless inspiration in nature, where he says ‘form follows function, and everything seems to be just “right”.’

Just goes to show – you can never judge a book by it’s cover!  Beneath the surface, Sean’s hard-edged, geometric creations speak volumes about their quirky creator!

Tell us a little about your background – what path led you to what you are doing now?

I never took Art at school, and after I left I was a bit of a dropout.  I started a range of degrees from Mechanical Engineering to Philosophy to Pure Physics, finishing none of them.  I was one of those hopeless teenage boys that worried their Mothers, taking drugs, sleeping with too many girls, fixing old cars and never keeping a job for more than a month or two. Only when I started doing a Jewellery and Object Diploma at Enmore Design Centre in Sydney, when I was 27, did I find somewhere to feel at home – something to sink my teeth into.  Now, at 37, I kid myself that I am mature, more focussed, and that my sole occupation is making Jewellery.  With only a little bit of Art on the side.  And perhaps some commissioned furniture.  And the odd bit of vintage car restoration.  And perhaps a little high-speed cinematography.  And, and, and….

I am based in Bundeena, which is near Sydney, surrounded by the Royal National Park, skirted by the Ocean, and 30 minutes drive away from the suburbs.  It is lovely – I find nature is essential to my well-being.  I live here looking after my 89 year old German Grandmother, who nags me constantly and tells me I should eat more meat (naturally, because I am vegetarian).

How would you describe your work? What common themes link your designs?

My work is quite varied but there are recurrent themes.  Most of my jewellery is clean and simple, often comprised of geometric shapes and lines.  Repetition is another recurrent theme, lately tempered with subtle variations that bring a sense of rhythm and life into the work.

I love to abstract the movement of energy – basic things such as the tension between two beliefs, or the almost magnetic attraction between two people.  I like to see these interactions as an expression of basic universal forces at work (I can be a bit of a hippy).  I also find endless inspiration in nature, where form follows function, and everything seems to be just “right”.

I am inspired by a very seminal book on this “right”-ness called On Growth and Form by D’Arcy Thompson.  It explores biological reasons behind the varied shapes of animals and plants.

I am at the moment moving towards the use of more organic lines in my work, being frustrated by the clean, cold feel of the geometrical purity which I have focussed on in the recent past.  This move can be seen from older work, such as the Jorgumander necklace of flexible joints in stainless steel, through to more fluid forms such as the Profile bracelet in titanium that I am currently working on.

Stainless steel Jorgumander necklace

Titanium Profile Bracelet

Apart from these themes, material is extremely important to me – I love lush materials like Tantalum (the grey outer metal in the rings below), as it is so exotic, heavy and dark – like deep grey clouds that come with a storm.  Gold is beautiful too, in an almost spiritual way.  Stainless steel feels cold to some people, yet I admire its almost anonymous quality.  I use it for practical reasons, being strong enough to be employed for kinetic movements, where parts are often quite thin (as in the new ring that I am currently prototyping, with balls rolling around lathed grooves, pictured under the tantalum rings).

Tantalum Rings

Balltrack Ring

Also very important to me is the actual act of making.  I want to make with my own hands – I have no interest in getting pieces made for me, singly or in bulk.  Sitting at the bench and creating is where the magic of the handmade object is situated – the subtle adjustments of form, the irregularities introduced by the hand – I see these things as very important (especially in work such as mine, which can tend to be overly geometric and cold). The constant act of making increases my skill as a maker, but more importantly it generates new ideas, new forms, and alternate possibilities of making.  Because these new ideas and designs evolve from a hands-on understanding of process and material, more natural and cohesive work results, having taken into account the characteristics of the materials and the processes used to shape them.  This is what I ultimately strive towards.

Sean making a ring

You have a fascination for machines and mechanics  – what is it that initially drew you to creating jewellery rather than becoming, say, a mechanical engineer?!

Well, mechanical engineering was on my list of degrees started but never finished.  I am really not that mechanical – I am just now learning how to properly pull a car apart, when all my friends were doing it back in high school.  But I love movement, and I love simplicity, and in order to express these things well, I had to work out how to make decent mechanisms that kept on working.  There have been a few disappointing failures!

Speaking of mechanics, there is a great book which I am always looking at for inspiration, first published in 1868, that displays mechanical movements of crazy designs in simple drawings with detailed explanations – it is quite incredible – 507 Mechanical Movements, by Henry T Brown.

What has been one of your favourite designs?

The tantalum rings are my favourite design.  They are simple and timeless, the material combination of tantalum and gold is such a killer – they are rich and strong – and just what I would want to be given by my lover.

Do you wear your own pieces yourself?

Crazily enough, I do not wear much jewellery, except to test for comfort and if something is going to feel odd or fall apart through wearing.  I have wanted to make myself a bracelet for about 5 years now, but I have just not got around to it!

What does a typical day at work involve for you?

There are no typical days – my life is all over the place.  I would like a typical day to involve going for a walk down to the beach through the park before breakfast (10 minute walk from my back fence), a couple of espressos to get me into gear, 10 hours of making in the workshop (with rotating weeks of jewellery, art, and mechanics), then cooking a tasty dinner, reading a book and falling asleep.  That is the dream.  I am a way off yet!

Do you work from home, a dedicated studio, a shared space?

I have a studio at home, which is great, except for the high levels of procrastination and the fact that metal shards always get into my bedroom carpet no matter how hard I try to be clean.  My studio has 3-phase electricity (powering a lathe, 2 drill presses, a monster pink linisher, band saw and TIG welder), the walls are covered in old letters and posters, and the ceiling is bright orange (as you can see in the photo at the top of this post!).  It is not at all a typical jeweller’s studio – it is more of a fine metal shop, albeit a colourful one!  Besides my orange ceiling, I painted my big old metal linisher musk pink, and my precision drill press glossy orange, and even mounted a little silver alpaca atop it!

The drill

The linisher

One of the main challenges faced by independent designer / makers is the challenge of working alone. Do you work alone or do you share your creative space? How do you keep connected to the design community, and who do you bounce off for valuable feedback?

I actually love to work by myself – I need that space.  I find that I cannot concentrate with other people in the workshop.  This is probably because I am an only child of an only child and that my family bought me lots of toys – I could always keep myself busy and I guess I got used to that.

I have several good friends who are also jewellers (we tend to stick together), so I am always asking their advice about my designs.  Everyone has a different aesthetic, though they usually confirm my nagging doubts, although they sometimes allay them if they are enthusiastic and positive enough!

Where do you turn for creative inspiration – travel, local and international design trends, books or the web etc?

Nature will always be my biggest inspiration – it is the source of all beauty I think.  Flowers, insects, rocks – everything is so rich and begs deeper and deeper investigation.  Where I live, the park surrounds me, and a 10 minute walk takes me to the coastline, where the rocks meet the sea – it is a beautiful place.  A great place to sit and get perspective.

Bundeena Coast

I have begun travelling only lately, often to Japan because I find the culture so intriguingly contradictory.  I love the tension between the old and the new there.

I try to keep away from design trends in print and other media in general, as I find it distracting, and I watch no TV, but I have become an expert at hunting down what I need on the net – art, music and literature.  I like to be picky and take only what I want.

Which other designers / creative people do you admire?

I admire my girlfriend, Rowena, who is part of the High Tea with Mrs Woo fashion label – she has so much energy and tenacity and her work is as much about designing the clothes as much as it is about making them.  She also straddles the tricky line between creative and functional objects, as jewellers do (there are many other crossovers between fashion and jewellery of course).

In terms of inspirational artists, the list is immense – kinetic sculptors Theo Jansen and Jean Tinguely, Australian artists  Joyce Hinterding and Robin Fox, jewellers Tone Vigeland and Felieke van der leest, photographers Hiroshi Sugimoto and Karl Blossfeldt, film directors Terry Gilliam and Tarsem Singh, musicians Johann Johannsson and Amon Tobin and writers Margaret Atwood and Haruki Murakami.  There really are too many inspirational people in the world – it always amazes me what other people are up to.

What would be your dream creative project?

Working on a series of small moving dioramas with my friends (over long lazy picnics in the national park in my old 1961 Mercedes), that would be displayed along a gallery wall when complete, telling the tale of an albino alpaca named Albert and his search for the meaning of life, with lots of colour and noisy moving things.  Coming soon!

My Mercedes is a 190B Mercedes 1961 – when I drove it up from Victoria after buying it, it lost the left front wheel – brakes, axle and all – at 110km’h on the freeway at night, with trucks rushing past all honking (none stopped) – sparks, grinding and two scared men driving it.  I think I have some angels looking after me!

Sean with his 1961 Mercedes

What are you looking forward to?

Cooking my dinner!

There is a warmth as you enter the studio of Natalia Milosz-Piekarska. It could be the sun streaming in the window, or the glow of the timber furniture, but it’s probably more likely to be Natalia’s down to earth nature and sense of spirit.

I spent some time discovering the story behind Natalia’s graphic and tactile pieces.

Natalia at her desk

Pot plants taking in some sun

How did you become a jewellery designer?

After school, I completed a Bachelor of Graphic Design at Monash. My father is an architect and was always illustrating, painting and doing graphic design on the side so it wasn’t an unusual choice for me to do something creative like that too.

In my graphic design work I produced tangible and handmade designs, like collages. My teachers said the designs wouldn’t be sustainable in the ‘real world’ of graphic design. In my final year I took an elective with contemporary jeweller Marian Hosking, planting the seed of jewellery as a possible career choice in my mind.

After uni I spent time travelling and while on my journeys I sketched. The sketches all seemed to come back to jewellery and tangible objects. It was too much to ignore so I enrolled in a couple of short courses at CAE to learn more about jewellery making. I could see that the contemporary jewellery scene in Melbourne was evolving strongly with galleries like Ingot, Funaki and e.g.etal dedicated to emerging and established artists.

I went back to uni to study a Bachelor of Fine Arts  - gold and silversmithing and went on to complete honours. It took me a little time to work out where I slotted in to the scene. I was wary of oversimplifying my designs or the concepts behind them, or using casts to mass-produce my pieces. Remaining true to my fine arts background has sometimes been commercially difficult, particularly when I’m trying to constrain big ideas into small objects.

How would you describe your work?

My jewellery has a strong graphic presence and is very tactile. My work is often colourful and always handmade. Everything is a one off and hand rendered, it’s organic and doesn’t look technically minded or machined. My exhibition work challenges scale and wearability.

The materials I use vary. A piece could be made from bone, found timber, silver or beads. I use wax to model the components if they need forming, otherwise I use found objects that speak to me.

I’m currently going through a necklace phase, which relates to my interest in amulets and talisman, both historical and present day. To me a necklace is an object that you carry as well as wear, the wearer often grabbing it with their hands, enjoying the tactility.

Necklaces waiting for new owners

Natalia at work

Is there a common theme that links your designs?

Amulets and talisman fascinate me, their form and shape and the materials they are made from. Jewellery has a spirituality and emotion connected to it. I like to explore the connection of established practices such as spirituality or tribal symbolism to pieces of jewellery, and look at the personal aspect of why we imbue so much into it.

My goal is to create a piece with character and a story so that the right person will connect with it. I want the wearer to feel something for the piece, then it truly belongs to them.

Is your creative process ordered or organic?

It starts very orderly. Researching ideas is important to my process. Once the historical, material or cultural background is there the process becomes organic, for example I might start to whittle a piece of wood and see what happens. It might sound silly but I listen to what the material wants to do, what it is saying to me, and it begins to form a personality. It’s a very natural and evolutionary process after the initial research foundation.

Promise pendant by Natalia

What have been some of your favourite projects, exhibitions or collaborations to be involved in?

I share my studio with fellow contemporary jewellery designer, Karla Way. Karla and I have produced work for the upcoming exhibition at e.g.etal, FIGMENT, as part of the L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival. I’m not just saying this because you are interviewing, but I am really excited to have the opportunity to break away from my regular work and concentrate on some bigger pieces. Karla and I are also looking forward to our duo show later in the year at Craft Victoria in the Gallery One space, that’s a first for us!

How do you stay connected to the wider creative community in Melbourne and internationally?

Being involved in exhibitions really helps to stay connected to the wider creative community, but it’s mainly through our friends. I’m involved with Penthouse Mouse, a pop-up space for emerging and semi-established artists and designers, opening on 5^th March. I stay connected through other friends in the industry, and sharing the studio with Karla introduces me to music circles, as she is a musician too. Collaborations with other artists and groups is a great way to connect.

Europe it a melting pot for contemporary jewellery, which is prolific and inspirational and has a knock on effect on the way jewellery is perceived and appreciated here. Many would say that Australia, and Melbourne in particular, are just as prolific in their output as Europe which is encouraging for the domestic industry.

Some desktop inspiration

Tools of the trade

Speaking of inspiration, where do you find your inspiration? Is this ever a formal process?

I find my inspiration everywhere. I am on 24/7. When I try to go to sleep, my brain starts filing everything I have seen and experienced in my day. I have to get up to write it all down! I always have my camera with me, and I spend time researching on the internet and in books.

With my work being research based as well as aesthetic, finding inspiration and then researching it to find out more about why it inspires me is important. Researching historical jewellery design as well as tribal, folk and ethnic traditions definitely informs the work that I do.

Conceptually I love the work of French artist Annette Messager. She uses found objects, photographs, prints and drawings to explore themes of domesticity and nostalgia but in a way messes up the traditional way we may think of it. Antony Gormly is another source of inspiration for me, the way he investigates the body as a place of memory and transformation. His landscape works are among my favourites.

Little pot plant friends

How did you find the transition from being a jewellery student to running your own small business? Was this taught in your course or did you have to rely on industry contacts or your own research for guidance?

Our teachers at RMIT spent a small amount of time on professional practice but probably not enough to confidently step out and set yourself up. I was lucky in the fact that during my graphic design degree I observed the students who worked in the industry in addition to their course, were the ones who succeeded much faster as they were able to start straight away. I remembered this when I was studying jewellery and tried to start while I was still at uni. I got a couple of stockists who, through experiencing their processes, taught me how to invoice, for example, giving me a soft landing when I started for real.

When setting up after finishing uni it was hard to know how to actually set up the space, so the annual Nicholas Building open studios are also a great way to see what other jewellers are doing.

You can see more of Natalia Milosz-Piekarska’s work as part of FIGMENT, showing from 16 March until 31 March at e.g.etal.