If you have seen my recycled glass beads before, you’ll know I am a big fan of the Banrock Station wine bottles. Firstly, I love the environmental ethos of the company. Secondly, I love that the wine is so affordable, and so drinkable! And thirdly, I love that the glass bottles make some of the prettiest beads!
I can’t wait to start making the jewellery with these beads. Super pretty and sparkly!
I know the only way I am going to get this exhibition work completed…is by actually doing the work! I am lucky that Finn is still having a lovely nap in the afternoons, and that he is now spending a whole day in childcare. It has meant that I have made a lot of progress this week. I am getting there…bead by bead…
I have created a little “spreadsheet” of the beads I have to make, and the types of glass I am using. Every time I put a tick in one of the boxes, I am making progress! I am trying not to think about how much work I have left to do after that. It will get done.
I am slowly ticking things off my to-do list. And it was nice to finally see a collection of beads ready to start making jewellery (Bombay Sapphire Gin). I wish I had made more beads by now, however with everything else that is going on (moving, settling etc), I think I am also lucky to have done as much as I have.
I am grateful for an excellent childcare centre for one day each week, and for Finn still napping solidly in the afternoon.
I really do like these colours. Perfect for summer. Extra sparkle with the silver wire.
This is my favourite necklace this week. I made the etched beads for my Home-Wear exhibition last year, but never got around to using them. Then I saw that I needed some new work at Tarts (thanks to everyone who has been in to buy something from there), and I looked through all of my beads, and just loved this colour way. There is something really special about the etched glass beads, and with the sparkly silver, it is extra special.
It took a bit longer to get setup than I had planned for, but last week I finally got all of my glass set up and I was back on the torch again. My studio in Murray Bridge is considerably smaller than the room I had in Mount Gambier, so there were a few challenges in getting set up, but finding some excellent secondhand furniture helped a lot. Luckily I am used to working in a small room (Mount Gambier was really quite decadent), and it has been nice to compact everything again. It feels good.
Things I like about gallery duty in T’Arts:
I’m working in T’Arts tomorrow. Maybe you’ll drop in for a visit?
Life?? It’s complicated!!
Yes, I agree, it’s even complicated telling you the story about this exhibition, and where I fit in. Maybe I’ll just start at the very beginning!
Here’s a little about what you can expect from Stephen’s exhibition:
For a plant to emerge a seed must first die! Hence renewals … often unplanned/unconfined, be they Vegetal or Human…. are crucial for generational change. The Skillitzi artworks’ quasi-chronological titles hint at only one potential avenue for the contemplative viewer. Indeed, mature-aged musings tease out multi-leveled, tangential and often confusingly-complex lessons, retrospectively.
Here sundry regenerating mixed-media Glass/Metal dioramas set out naturalistic scenes for didactic life-relevant scenarios… so feel free to ‘navel-gaze’.
Passive but convoluted land/seascapes are peppered with lifeforms. Fish, birds, plants unconsciously migrate throughout their three-dimensional environments… we Homo Sapiens do likewise but with cerebral evaluations perhaps over-cooked. Sculpture echoes a life lived!
I’m really looking forward to seeing Stephen’s exhibition, and I’ll be featuring each of the artists from the Resonate Exhibition over the next few weeks.
For my exhibition at Gallery M, I am using 5 different types of recycled glass.
I have not used a lot of Bombay Sapphire Gin glass in the past, so I am really looking forward to melting some. It’s a great colour, with a bit more blue than a wine bottle.
I’m looking forward to putting all of these collections together.
So, I think I have nearly got everything set up again. I am waiting for a shipment of glass to arrive before I pack the glass away, but otherwise, I’m really pleased with the new studio, and I can’t wait to start making beads again.