SHOP OF THE WEEK

c'est magnifique

Ohh la la! While on an epic gallery crawl last Saturday I was directed to level 2 of the Nicholas Building to the amazing L'uccello. One of those shops that just takes your breath away. Crammed with vintage haberdashery, beautiful books, gorgeous craft kits. It was just dreamy. This wasn't your average pretty frou frou either. We're talking proper ricrac, horn buttons, and enough millinery ephemera to make me dream of an elaborate spring hat!

I allowed myself a couple of treats. Some new old buttons for a much loved cardigan and a couple of pretty fat quarters that will probably sit on my bedside table before I work out what to do with them

really dreamy and well worth rambling up and down flights of stairs. Oh I miss the lift ladies on the weekend. RAMONA.

Have a wonderful week!

WHO LISTENS TO THE RADIO

Ramona and I will be doing our monthly report from the Craftiverse live on RRR's Grapevine this morning at 10.30 in the AM. We'll be talking up bad beasts, christmas lists and things to do with toilet rolls and dried pasta with the kids come the school holidays next week. Happy listening peoples! BECK

Dream dress

V magazine Summer 2010

SHOW OF THE WEEK

lucky charm

Opening tomorrow night is the new collaborative exhibition BAD BEASTS DO NOT HARM ME by two of our favourite 'new jewellers' Natalia Milosz-Piekarska and Karla Way. We gasped our first gasp over these ladies works at their RMIT graduate show at 35 Downstairs a couple of years back, immediately identifying them as 'ones to watch'...  Which of course is what we have been doing ever since, and we've been eagerly anticipating this new show since we first saw it come up on the Craft Victoria exhibition calendar. Bad Beasts is a joint "investigating the transcendent and transformative capabilities of materials." Their collective interest in superstition, ritual, divination ritual and belief made manifest in highly personal objects that draws inspiration from the extensive pre/history of jewellery and hollowware. Maybe it's just me but I find the experience of viewing their work reminiscent of that scene in the Blair Witch Project where you first witness the hairy wicker bits hanging in the trees en masse... spooky, dark, increadibly disturbing but utterly compelling. I have been lucky enough to watch the installation come together and couldnt resist taking a few shots to give you all a sneak peak of what you might see tomorrow night. Really and truly one NOT to miss.

BAD BEASTS DO NOT HARM ME
Opening Thursday 9 September, 6-8pm


September 10  until October 17
Gallery 1, Craft Victoria
31 Flinders Lane Melbourne, 3000

REBECCA

ROAD TRIP OF THE WEEK REDUX

Craft ACT

My trip to Canberra was pretty wet and windy. Crazy weather did not make for the easiest of gallery tours on Saturday. Of course we had to brave the rain to get to Craft ACT. Their new shop space is spartan but full of the most beautiful local work. My favorite was the ceramic paper cups by Bev Hogg. We've all seen this sort of thing before but her citrusy colorways felt fresh to me and sitting all together they looked like a Pantone dream.

Ceramics are obviously pretty strong in Canberra. I thought that Debra Boyd-Goggin's work in the gallery space was really gutsy and delicious.

I was very impressed with the curated cabinets out the front that had a group show of miniature craft and design objects. I was disappointed this Peter Bollington chair that was the size of my thumb had a red sticker on it!

My favorite craft object of the weekend as actually found at the Museum of Australia. A small stuffed pig toy from 1946. These very austere toys are all the rage at the moment. Can't you see this resting on some design festival trestle table or on a little bed in Vogue Living?

Of course we had to stop off for baby chinos at every cafe in town. You can take the baby out of Melbourne but you can't take the Melbourne out of the baby.

Tomorrow I'll give you a peak inside the Gallery of Australian Design and show you the amazing glass work of Wendy Fairclough.  In the meantime I have 30 loads of washing to do. RAMONA

ROAD TRIP OF THE WEEK

home town

Well I'm off to Canberra for a few days. First up to visit the Gallery of Australian Design where I am curating a show next year (eek). lucky for me they have exhibition about Design in Media, looks quite crafty from here don't you think?

I'm popping into Drill Hall gallery to see a new glass piece by the amazing Wendy Fairclough. There is something so ethereal about glass forms referencing ordinary objects, like ghost of their former selves perhaps...

of course I have to visit Craft ACT. Can't wait to see the shop (which is new since my last visit many moons ago) and the joint exhibition 'Conjunction' between the Debra Boyd-Goggin and Chris Harman.

If I have time I'll also visit Beaver Galleries. This long established space has a terrific history of supporting good craft and design long before it was cool thing to do. It's been about 10 years since I last visited and I'll be curious to see what's changed. I'll also check out the Amanda Shelzer ceramic sculptures.

Of course I'll always end up wandering through the fog sculpture at the NGA sculpture garden. Can't wait to show nearly'two Thom this amazing piece...Then we might go and throw eggs at our old high school. My beloved and I return to where we met 21 years ago! Good Grief. More pics from the road. RAMONA