MONTHLY MISSIVE

RADIO ROUND UP

So once again we've been off the radar for a few weeks, but this month we've actually been out and about learning more about making ceramics, seeing new exhibitions, launching new creative endevours and putting the finishing touches (at last) on the Craft Companion. We hope you're all looking forward to August which as usual promises to be THE BIG ONE for the Craft community in Melbourne with the launch of Craft Victoria's annual Craft Cubed festival. We're on The Grapevine RRR again this morning around 10:15 and we'll be bringing you a choice selection of what's happening in the craftiverse.

SoCa THE SCHOOL OF CLAY AND ART

Theres a new school in town. Shane Kent, one of Melbourne's premier ceramicists is quickly becoming the poster boy (man) for modern artisans - regularly collaborating with chefs on large commercial commissions, maintaing a vibrant personal artistic practice and encouraging and inspiring aspiring clay mavens through both formal educational settings and short courses in specialist clay centres and continually showcasing the kind of life that can be sustained through creative endeavour. The latest string to his bow is the new School of Clay and Art which is offering up a unique mix of wheel thrown and hand building classes as well as career advice and perceptual skill building. We're excited and we will be signing up.

MEREDITH TURNBULL

One of Melbourne's finest (the lovely Ms Meredith Turnbull) has curated a new show called Form and Flex which we are really looking forward to. Makers who create interactive wearables that examine the physical connection of body, ornament and environment really push our buttons, often literally, playing with notions of performance, functionality and adornment. In this exhibition the spotlight will be on the conceptual artistry and manual skill of Bridie Lunney, Sanne Mestom, Anna Varendorff and Benjamin Woods as they take centre stage. We can't wait.
Opens Tuesday July 28, 6-8pm
Pieces of Eight Gallery

DOMESTIC FRONTIER

This August will see the second iteration of this wonderfully curated temporary retail space that focuses on a select range of works that skilfully embody the skill and inherent beauty of purpose built functional objects. Baskets, ceramics, metal, wood and textiles come to life as hand dyed, hand sewn and hand wrought tableware, napery, aprons and utensils. This year sees the original collective of Sophie Moran, Bridget Bodenham, Sandra Bowkett, Adriana Christianson and Vic Pemberton expand to include a new list of makers joining the team presenting a selection of modern classics that will be seriously hard to resist. We highly recommend getting in early.

Opening night Wed August 5 6-8pm
466 Smith St. Collingwood
Runs from 5-16 August, Wednesday to Sunay 11-6pm.

POP CRAFT CAKE SALE

Northsiders with a liking for fibre arts and baking can combine their activities for a good cause this month. Pop Craft are hosting a cake sale to both raise money for their Craft Cubed chunky weaving public access project. The results from which will be auctioned off once complete to raise money for both The Lighthouse Foundation and the ASRC. Sign up your support here and get your apron on! We should also mention that the fabulous monthly feast has a Caribbean flavour this month and takes place THIS FRIDAY the 31st of July. We'll be there enjoying the festivities and no doubt drooling stoop idly at the deliciousness NOM NOM NOM.

AND NOW FOR THE BIGGEST SHOW IN TOWN...

CRAFT CUBED (the festivus for the restofus)

Make no mistake this festival is a big deal for anyone involved in the craft sector. This is sixth year Craft Victoria has presented Craft Cubed and it will bring together over 150 events all over Victoria during an extended 7 week schedule that starts on August 1 and finishes up on September 22. For a small arts organisation that literally runs on the smell of an oily rag, the scope of the festival is enormous and its impact profound. All media, all skill levels and all makers are celebrated and encouraged to participate in a program rich with exhibitions, open studios, public events, skill sharing, markets, open access activities, a curated window walk, Koori Showcase at Fed Square, collaborations with Radiant Pavilion and the inaugural Victorian Craft Award.

This year the festival finally has its own mobile friendly website making it even easier to work out your own program of must sees, which we advise doing in advance because the program is HUGE. It has been incredible to see the development of this event into one that is completely unique and that attracts an audience of over 150,000 visitors! It would be even more fantastic to see it receive a whopping great lump of cash (are you listening Mr. Brandis) to take it Australia wide in the future. But enough of our grandstanding… whats on!

THE VICTORIAN CRAFT AWARD
What can we say - this will be amazing. A selection of over 100 of Victoria's top craft works running at 4 different venues and featuring some of the most skilled craftspeople across all media. This is a unique event showcasing the best craft our state has to offer and is the first of what will become a biennial event. The prizes are big and the stakes are high. Unmissable. More information on the craft website here 1-15 August

WINDOW WALK

Fellow window shoppers rejoice! This years festival will feature a series of collaborations between leading artists and retailers to present site specific exhibitions and in-store events that showcase some of our favourite makers in some of our favourite spaces. Like The Golden Opportunity Shop (pictured above) which includes live gilding of op shop finds at Alpha 60, Volcanic Landscapes by the incredible Megan Nicholson at Print City (pictured below) and Dear Plastic's Peace Bunnies Victory Land  at new docklands book hub Library at the Dock.

SATELLITE EVENTS and OPEN STUDIOS
The list is long and pretty much everyone in the community has something on or is opening their doors. If you've ever had even the slightest interest in finding out more about anything about local craft nows your chance.

Some of our top pics include Wild Weaving at Pop Craft and Twilight Textiles at the Handspinners and Weavers Guild and the welcome-home weaving project at Home Work in brunswick.

Newcomers Handmakers Factory  are putting on some Mini Workshops  that have us hooked as well as the Upcycling jewellery class with the Ethical Makers Movement at Radiant Pavillion.

For clay lovers the best known learning centres Northcote Potters, Carlton Ceramics and Slow Clay Centre but a raft of smaller studios as well as the new School of Clay and Art in Brunswick are also opening up for public viewing.

EXHIBITIONS

Too many to mention. Just go on the website and look - we're not kidding we couldn't possibly fit them all in. Collage, books, photography, jewellery, ornaments, glass, ceramics, jewellery, wood, mixed media, jewellery, ceramics and textiles, textiles textiles. Emerging makers to the most revered masters of their craft offer up works showing the diversity of concerns and skills present in todays contemporary craft landscape.

Our short list already includes Electric, Elise Sheehan, Anna Varendorf and Meredith Turnbull, Roseanne Bartley, Surface and Structure, Illuminate, Multiple Signatures and Hothouse. The list is sure to grow as our families become festival orphans once again.

TALKS

As part of the festival there is also a flurry of discussion groups from small highly specific round tables to key note day long seminars (our top pick - Craft and Design as a Career), and Craft The Australian Story presented by the World Crafts Council at which our very own Ramona will be speaking. Scan the festival guide and find your topic or people and get on board. Nothing like being among like minded people discussing the intricacies of your favourite hobby or profession. There is also the super expensive and highly contentious Parallells gab fest at NGV timed to coincide with Craft Cubed but presented by the NGV and the National Craft Initiative that is causing conversation ripples (make that tidal waves) of its own... But that's a whole other story we'll get to next month!

Don't take our word for it though, head over to the website and see for yourself.
BECK and RAMONA

SHOW OF THE WEEK - CARLY FISCHER

wasted

The ladies of HML are enormous fans of paper-craft, origami, silhouettes, paper-cuts, embossing, we love it all. Ramona even has a thing for quilling. But we seriously love paper when its used as a clever and confounding construction material. And Carly Fischer's new show Magic Dirt, currently on at Craft does this in spades.

Carly is a contemporary artist who brilliantly utilises the medium as both a conceptual and mechanical tool. Making models is not in and of itself new. However playing with the traditional context of model making as starting point for a finished piece of work and flipping it - by using the 'real' piece as the starting point and making a paper model as the finished piece, really is. Especially when said work is so realistic it gets your brain totally twisted up in chicken and egg knots.

Her mastery of mimicry is mental. Upon first sight the gallery space looks like its mid installation, with dirty plastic and green shopping bags strewn among cigarette butts and discarded soft drink cans. Of course under closer inspection the true nature and genius of the exhibition reveals itself. Honed on the visual cues of iconic cinematic representations of the 'outback' from films like Wake in Fright and Mad Max, Fischer deploys the interlopers associative aesthetic and spiritual mythology built around the landscape, contrasting it sharply against the reality of the land as it is actually inhabited. 

The soundscape that accompanies the exhibition continues Carly's collaborative work with Berlin Based composer Mieko Suzuki. Created from both site specific atmos recordings and film score samples it provides a poignant and evocative backdrop to one of this years most profound and compelling exhibitions.

Craft is recording an interview with Carly for their brilliant Craft TV channel, so keep your eyes peeled hear and learn more from this amazing artist. Or in the meantime check out the website for more details. BECK

Magic Dirt by Carly Fischer

Gallery one, Craft Victoria

31 Flinders Lane, Melbourne

September 5 - October 18.

CHAT UP OF THE WEEK - RRR GRAPEVINE

great heads for radio

Its that time of the month again people. Ramona and I will be joining the Grapevine around 10:15 to talk up all that is crafty. We've both been battling bugs and mid winter blues - although those familiar with Ramona and my own instagram feed will note that we've both just as busy! It will be very good to get behind the mic with the lovely Grapeviners and talk up some exciting ways to make the most of the time indoors. 

We'll also be waxing lyrical about the new Gallery Oh retrospective show at Mr. Kitly which features the work one of our all time craft crushes, Bertjan Pot amongst others. Ramona and I have literally been waiting years to see Bertjan's rope masks and are still pinching ourselves that they're available for viewing now as part of Annexe Oh only one suburb away!

We've got two shows of the week to bring to your attention - Super ace DJ, painter, craftster, curator and all round legend Gemma Jones has a new shop How Am I Not Myself opening at Outré Gallery this Thursday night and the equally awesome Anita Cummins  is also opening her new show Quick Copy on Wednesday night at Bus Gallery. Gemma's latest collection of paintings, prints and wearables all featuring her signature sharp mod stylings and super pop girl groups straight outta Carnaby street, and just to up the multi dimensional craft action she's also collaborated with the equally talented and lovely jeweller Victoria Mason on enamel flags and banners.  We're excited. Anita on the other hand blew us away with her pom pom show a few years back and is continuing her own prismatic exploration of the spaces between knowing and unknowing via texta drawings and artfully arranged colour assemblages. we're pretty sure it's gonna be awesome.

This month however is really all about getting ready for Australia's biggest Craft Festival, Melbourne's own Craft Cubed which takes place right across Victoria throughout August. Last year there were over 120 satellite events and this year's even bigger so there'll be plenty of banter about what to book in for, what to save your pennies for, what to learn and what to see. Over the years we've seen and learnt some incredible things at this festival and we couldn't recommend it more highly.

Highlights for us so far include CulturalThreads  featuring a stack of amazing textile artists including HML favourites Eddy Carroll and Kate Just just to name a few.

And there's a brand spanking addition to the festival consisting of an entire week o free atrium activities at Fed Square from craftivism to ceramics, markets, makers, demonstrations, workshops and amazing Lost Trades. 

As usual there's a slew of killer workshops and events with some of Melbourne's finest makers covering everything from the ancient art of darning to a pom-pom and Pimms party, open studios a plenty and a long awaited and highly anticipated new exhibition by master gold and silversmith Vito Bila.

Also we'd be remiss not to mention the best and most inspiring annual seminar for craft makers Craft and Design as a Career which this year features jeweller Natalia Milosz- Piekarska, Melbourne Fashion icons Georgie and Alex of Alpha 60, the team behind the amazingLost Trades Fair, Artist and illustrator Jane Laver from Chapel Tattoos, Irene Grishin-Selzer of Iggy and LouLou fame....

And just announced as a speaker at CDAC is super cool graphic and textile designer Alice Oehr who's work pretty much blows our minds and who we cannot wait to hear speak. It always blows our mind just how incredibly talented, energetic and diverse our local craft scene is. Thankfully during August there's pretty much no craft stone left unturned so if you're interested in exploring we're giving the heads up now so you do not miss out! 

Oh and before we forget... Clear the decks this weekend people for the most hotly anticipated studio sale of the year as Craft Queen Penelope Durston of Cottage Industry opens her doors to the public. Seriously you will not believe what is in the offing. We've had some inside insights into what's on offer and we can tell you YOU WILL NOT WANT TO MISS IT... we're actually kind of hyperventilating already. As always folks, plenty of craft to see, make and do! BECK

CRAFT OF THE WEEK - CARD MAKING

greetings and salutations

OK so the above photo is what my dining table looks like a lot of the time. There isn't some pristine pinterest worthy studio where the ladies of HML make stuff. For both of us it takes place somewhere between making dinners for multi-generational fussy eaters, the hum of the dishwasher/dryer/washing machine and cats and dogs vying for attention by walking across keyboards. We wont be ready for the Design Files photo shoots any time soon, but we get a lot done!

With lives full of friends and family it's handy that just some of the craft supply tsunami has included a collection of stamps, ink pads, punches and paints. I have so many people with birthdays in April/May and many people to send thank you notes too that I dedicated an afternoon last week to hand making some cards for them. The trick with these traditional scrap booking supplies is to customise their look by adding paint, gilding or glitter details. Including the recipients name is a nice way of showing them a little extra love too.

You can often find bargain bins full of end of line stamps at craft stores and it is a good idea to buy an alphabet set. You can always make your own too, which we of course love most of all. If we had a spare weekend that's what we'd do for sure. RAMONA