Big Blue the Blueberry

I wanted to give a mention to one of my loyal knitter supporters, Lindsay Obermeyer.Lindsay is always up to a bunch of interesting things but I'm completely in awe of her latest artistic creation. She has knitted an enormous globe sweater. The sweater wearing globe are part of an interesting and important! Public Art project, currently on display in Chicago.

This is the project - From June-September 2007, the City of Chicago will host "CoolGlobes: Hot Ideas for a Cooler Planet," an innovative project that uses the medium of public art to inspire individuals and organizations to take action against global warming.

Over 100 extraordinary globes will be displayed along the lakefront using a variety of materials to create awareness and provoke discussion about potential solutions to global warming. Solutions that can be put into practice every day...at home, on the job and in your school.

Lindsay the sweater may be blue, but I'd say you are definitely green - great job!!

Coolglobes
Lindsay's blog
Lindsay's website

Sunshine Musk & Friends

I have been saying (or possibly nagging!) to my friend Miss Windbag "Have you made any more TechGnoMe Mini's yet?", "When are you going to make some TechGnoMe Mini's's?","Where are the TechGnoMe Mini's?", "When, when, when, when, when...?". You see I was lucky enough to have scored the very first one as a birthday present and just LOVED it, but I want MORE!

Now Miss Windbag has finally released them to the world. So I say, go and check them out. They have been given lolly names just for me - ohhh!!I LOVE them even more now!!!

Renee Damiani

A couple of week back I was at Craft Queensland (or should I say the organisation formerly known as C.Q, and now known as ARTISAN), for an opening and happened to have a super quick glance at the jewellery cabinets. It was then that some brightly coloured scribble looking brooches and earrings really caught my eye. I thought the pieces were so inventive and fun. When I got home I contacted Adelaide jeweller, Reneee Daminari to tell her that I liked her pieces. Renee is currently a resident jeweller at the JamFactory after having finished her degree in 2005. I think she is definitely one to watch out for,and yes I am completely biased toward crazy plastic jewellery - but only if it's good!

Renee's name did sound familiar and on some investigation I worked out that she had asked me some questions as a student in 2005. looking at my answers now I was surprised to see how little my thoughts have changed, except when it comes to knowing who my "target market" is. Being online has really given me a better understanding of that, and hopefully a better connection to them.

Here is the interview if your interested.
Interview questions- Contemporary Jewellers that work with Synthetics materials (plastic, foam & rubber)


1.What are the main design considerations or ideas for your work?
I mostly make wearable pieces in which I consider how they will sit and the comfort factor for the wearer.

2.What materials do you predominantly work with and why?
A broad range of plastics & rubber, which are generally recycled/found objects. Tupperware was used extensively.

3.Is it a cost or an aesthetic consideration for choosing plastic, foam & rubber for the design of your work?
It is an aesthetic consideration although the lost cost is a great benefit.

4.How did you start working in these materials and why?
I have used found plastic objects in my work before. The turning point, in which I switched to a focus on plastics came after my 2004 show, I’m a Tupperware Lady. After I had made over 100 pieces of jewellery for this show all using Tupperware I developed an interest in exploring the possibilities further.

5.What are your main influences for your work?
I like anything that looks like a lolly!

6.Whose work do you admire most in terms of using plastic foam & rubber? Are you influenced by them?
I love Helen Britton’s work in term of her use of colour and the combining of plastics (junky pieces) and the precious.

Mark Vaarwerk – the plastic bag is just the best idea around.

There is always a lot of really interesting and inspiring work on the Fingers gallery website.

I spend time each day looking up websites and seeing other artists work and no doubt I am influenced by them.

7.What techniques or processes do you use in your work? How do you treat the material?
I cut, saw, melt, drill, twist and stretch.

8.Why have you continued to work in this material?
I haven’t discovered all the possibilities yet.

9.Is there a market for this material? Where do you market your works and what is your target market?
Yes there is right now. I sell work through places such as the Queensland Art Gallery, Craft Victoria, Form, KickArts and a number of others. My target market would be people who attend such places.

10.Do you predominately use plastics and synthetics for production lines or for your one off pieces? And why?
I use plastic materials for all lines. It is the time and ideas involved in different work that make them production or one off pieces.

11.Is colour important in your work & why?
Yes, I’ve always been interested in colour and using it to make bold statements.

12.If you like could you share some technical information with me about the way you work?
I am searching for new techniques and experimenting all the time.

13.What material do you think has the greatest influence on contemporary jewellery at the present time and why?
There is a lot of interest right now in plastics and recycled materials in general.

14.Will you continue to work with plastic in the future? What other ways can you see yourself working in? other materials?
I expect so. I have been interested in combining materials in the past and may do more of this in the future.

15.Anything else you would like to add about this topic?
I am interested/concerned in the longevity of these materials and try to consider this when choosing particular plastics/rubber.

Thanks Mike!!

Thanks to everyone who has congratulated me on my recent claim-to-fame (being mentioned in the current issue of knit.1). I must say though I had only heard that I was in it and hadn't actually seen it myself. I did pop down to Border's last week but alas they weren't that up to date. So I did feel a little nervous mentioning it because I had no idea what it said and sort of wondered if it did actually exist?

Today my fab. flickr contact Mike Wade offered to scan the mag for me and did so in lightening fast speed. I think it looks great, although perhaps "article" was overstating it, it look more like a snippet to me. A lovely one though.

Thanks Mike. I'll say it again - you rock!!

I'll Blog Tomorrow

Perhaps the stars have aligned? Or perhaps all that hard work is paying off? Because right now I seem to be doing better than ever. So I'll say YAY to that.

It is all a bit exhausting though so I'm off to have a little rest. But I won't stop for too long, because the good times should be appreciated when they come, but not be relied upon to last.

Failure?

There have been many, many times when I have failed. Actually, I never really thought of these times as failures, but they can certainly be viewed in that way. I'm talking about all the times things didn't go as well as I'd hoped, such as, not selling well (or at all!) at an exhibition, creating a new design that wasn't well received, a promised article that new happened and generally feeling disheartened and wondering why I do the crazy thing that I do - I make plastic jewellery for goodness sake!

Right now I'm doing better than ever, and I believe that the "failures" I've had, and will continue to have (as unpleasant as they are), have been an important part of my current success ( it feels weird to say that!).

Every time something doesn't work out you have a choice whether to throw in the towel, or take it as the opportunity it is, to reassess and make some improvements. I try to do that, although feeling down (just for a little while) is natural and O.K (and I do that too!).Perhaps I'm just in the mood for giving a little pep talk after reading/hearing about makers (mostly on etsy forums) who want to give up after,what seems like, no time at all.

Here is just a bit more advise (if you want it), work out what your TRULY passionate about, work HARD, be ORIGINAL and don't give up (not if you REALLY want it).

Any other advise out there,?? I'm always looking to improve.

Knit.1

One of my recent customers just alerted me to the fact that I got a mention in the current issue of Knit.1. She works in a yarn shop in the US and was stocking the shelves with it when she happened to flick through and notice the article. This sort of unexpected press is always a thrill.

It may not be Vogue the fashion magazine, but rather Vogue knitting's little sister mag, but I'm happy. More than happy - thank you!

What Colour Is This??

I think this brooch is red/crimson but others have called it pink. I really just can't see the pink in it, but I'm afraid I'm in the minority. Would you mind helping me see the light (the colour) and tell me what you think? IS IT RED OR IS IT PINK?

Grab A Bargain

The MoB Mother's Day sale is happening this Friday. If you are in Brisbane please feel free to come along and see what the MoB jewellers have been up to. There will be a range of jewellery for sale and ON SALE for one day only.


Friday 11th May
11- 4pm

MoB Workspace (via MoB store)
Museum of Brisbane
Ground Floor, City Hall
King George Square, Brisbane
PH: 3403 5518

cash/cheque only

For all those who can't make it, I'll be running an online sale throughout May on my etsy shop. I wouldn't want you to miss the opportunity to a grab a bargain!!!

The White Cube

I found this image on flickr this morning. It was taken from a shop window display in Amsterdam (I think?). It just really appealed to me as I think it would be a great way to display/photograph some of my jewellery. It seems like such a great match - plastic gloves, domestic materials, offbeat, fun, colour - love it!! I'm just so sick of white - white galleries, white backgrounds and white plinths with clear perspex boxes. It rarely seems to be anything else.

I don't wish to inject colour and crazy display ideas for the sake of doing something different, but I do want to consider it more often. I can only hope that exhibitions/curators do too.

7 Things

I really don't think there are 7 interesting things to say about myself right now. In fact I'm feeling rather boring but since Miss Windbag has asked me to do this, so here goes:

1. my favourite lollies are musk, particularly musk lifesavers. When my daughters were little I would pinch the musk sticks out of their lolly bags. Now days they're on to me.

2. I have a rather large (and growing) collection of shiny/glittery shoes.

3. I'm a pisces. I don't love the beach (hate sand) but love I swimming pools - big plasticy swimming pool with pool noodles.

4. I hate to drive but I'm glad that I can. If you drive my somewhere I'll pretty much love you forever.

5. I really only wanted girl children. I'm sure I would have loved a boy but luckily I had two kooky, creative girls.

6. I'm a cat person. I suspect I may one day be a crazy cat lady.

7. I have an addictive personality. I'm prone to obsession and obsessing. My current addictions are plastic, plastic jewellery, the promoting of plastic jewellery, learning new things about plastic...jewellery...plastic...jewellery...

I'm not going to tag anyone else right now but it would be lovely if you could post a random fact/habit about yourself in the comments section.