MRAG Maitland Regional Art Gallery

Exploring colour and design is what interests Gil Goddard most. She enjoys the process; from the hunt for fabric to the finished product. Originally working with Japanese fabrics, silk, and traditional styles, she began exploring more a contemporary feel while also using retro and retro inspired fabrics.

Practicality is important. Most bags consist of 4 layers, 3 of which are purpose stitched together then lined. Stress points are triple stitched and all bags have a closure for security and internal pockets for storage.

Chris Ball is a ceramic artist living and working in Uralla. She has an exquisite range of wheel thrown vases, bowls and jars.

Her work combines Japanese influenced forms and glazes, with traditionally European elements, such as marine theme stamps. All works are reduction fired stoneware of the highest quality.

In 1991 Robert Wynne established his own studio, Denizen Glass Design in the beachside suburb of Manly where he produces a range of hand-blown glass including smaller production work and large, one-off sculptural pieces.

The dynamic process of glass blowing immediately captivated Robert. Not only was the visual splendour deeply pleasing, he relished the choreography in glass blowing, and particularly the immediacy and risk that the material demanded.

He is a pioneer of studio glass in Australia and continues to push the boundaries, creating unique and arresting glass pieces.

In the late 80s, Carol Capalija and Eric Imeson met in the glass studios of Sydney where they were both assisting productions. As glass blowing is a two person dance they teamed up to create Dragon Glass. The climate suited long days working in front of high temperature furnaces and the surroundings inspirational to the styles of work they wished to produce.

In 2000 they built and began working from their own hot glass studio, producing unique hand blown glass, reflecting the colours and forms of far Nth Queensland from the reef to the bush and the greens between.

The handmade beads in Giselle’s jewellry range are known as ‘lampworked’ beads; the lamp being an oxygen/LPG gas torch that can be used to melt glass rods in a variety of colours. The molten glass is then wrapped around metal rods, called mandrels, and the patterning is created through layering with different colours.

Giselle has been producing beaded jewellery for over 10 years. Each of the works on display is totally unique. The earrings are all made of sterling silver, as are many of the necklaces and bracelets. She also has a range of felt bracelets for purchase.

Greg Sugden and Merrie Hamilton have been working collaboratively as ceramic artists since 1981 and established a studio/shop in Braidwood, NSW, in 1994. From there they make several ranges of jewellery as well as domestic wares and sculptures.

The pair favour working with inlaid coloured clays. This method of building and decorating at once, allows a raw surface and an earthy palette with incised detailing. Greg and Merrie aim to deliver an ‘Australian-ness’ in their work, influenced by rural life and landscape and the painter and printmaker, Margaret Preston.

Helen Tolhurst is a bead and textile artist who focuses on the use of colour and texture to express feelings and ideas in her art.  She says that ‘the human eye can see a million colours, and this provides an endless palette for my work’.  Inspiration for her work comes from the beauty of nature as well as the world of fantasy and myth, and much of her work is in the style of Art Nouveau.

In her jewellery making, Helen uses a number of techniques including threadwork, stringing, polymer clay work and the use of mixed media. 

Leading glass artist Marie Simberg-Hoglund presents a stunning range of exclusively designed handmade Art Glass Jewellery.

Each piece is a unique work of art, individually created from the highest quality glass.

Art Glass created by Hoglund Art Glass is a much treasured possession of glass lovers and collectors around the world.

Julio Santos is a highly skilled master glass blower with extensive representation in Australia and overseas. He was a glass blowing apprentice in Portugal from the age of twelve. His fantastic glass comes in a delightful range of perfume bottles, vases, bowls, glasses and small sculptures. Santos lives and works nearby in Tomago NSW.

Keith Rowe is one of Australia’s most innovative and successful glass artists. A master in the art of glass blowing, his superior technical skills and creative flair combine to create highly collectable, unique, artistic glass.

My childhood, where I grew up on the water, looms large in this new series. This has given me an enduring love of the ocean and the coastal areas.

The decoration is about mangroves, reefs, even the city skylines where they merge with their harbours, however, my love of the landscape seems to take a place in my work by pure osmosis. Keith Rowe.

Born in New Zealand, Kes Harper collected rocks, shells and debris from the beach, and again later in England where she trained as a jeweler through an apprenticeship and art college. Working in contemporary jewellery and crafts during the 1980s, and more recently, teaching children at AGNSW, Kes constantly increases her creative resource for ‘inventing’.

Her latest range is made re-using olive oil and biscuit tins which are not commonly recyclable. This gives Kes the opportunity to be an inventor, considerate towards the planet and a creator of beautiful things.

It was his passion for the lathe that led Lindsay Dunn to become a wood turner in 1985. The lathe is a simple machine but its complexities can take a lifetime to master.

Lindsay enjoys working with the rich and diverse range of Australian timbers. Their characteristics and beauty can be highlighted in simple forms or can be a canvas for something more.

Much inspiration is drawn fron the ornamental turners of the mid 1700s whose machinery evolved into the modern engineers lathe. These techniques are fused with contemporary forms to create something new.

The creating of objects is a way Michael Garth communicates emotion, ideas and beliefs.

This is not my concept but the concept of humanity. Michael Garth

Nicole Bauguss’ work is an anthropological, sociological, environmental and artistic study of what we value and what we dispose of as individuals within our communities over time, and how repurposing materials and ideas impacts our lives, histories and ultimately the environment. Nicole continues to investigate the current issues facing society by conceptually integrating sustainability and eco-conscious practices into questions of how we move through life and what our lives reflect about who we are individually and collectively.

In The Box Project, she investigates materials reuse through the design and construction of functional art boxes.

Noel Wilton’s pots are simple stoneware forms to enjoy using. He describes the process of making them as exciting yet also calming. The composition of the clay; shaping it, the design, form, glazing and firing are all influenced by the unquantifiable factor – Noel himself, at the time of making. They are born from the kiln, the production of these many variables. Always a surprise!

Patrizia Biondi is a prominent award-winning Italo-Australian artist specializing in jewellery, handbags and belt designing and making, as well as paintings, craftworks and all things creative and beautiful. Her preferred jewellery-making techniques are definitely unorthodox, giving her work a whimsical and often playful feel, yet always feminine and impeccably elegant.

The materials Patrizia uses in her jewellery include brightly coloured semi-precious stones, Venetian mouth-blown glass, Swarowski crystals, silk cord, fabrics, leather, objects trouvee and a variety of metals, making the end product a high quality piece of jewellery.

Nikki Main, creator of Riverwater has recently graduated from the ANU with an honours degree in Visual Arts (Glass Major). Nikki has been interested in the movement of water in the landscape with a particular concern for the significance of natural flow rhythms to river health and how human intervention has impacted on this.

Nikki’s Riverwater series uses the river stone and droplet form as a canvas for her sediment coloured pieces.

In her jewellery Robyn uses a wide range of materials, including pewter (which is gold, silver, bronze or black nickel plated, plus patinas), coloured epoxy enamels, silk and other textile, semi- precious (e.g coral. turquoise, amber, hematite) and glass beads and a variety of found materials. There is often reference to nature in the subject matter e.g. coastal and marine forms, landscape patterns and textures, insects, birds, reptiles. Forms may be realistic, emblematic or almost abstract.

Her work has been regularly exhibited throughout Australia as well as in Great Britain, France, Spain, Germany, USA, New Zealand, Japan, Korea and China.

Robyn established Studio La Primitive and has worked as an artist in the Hunter Valley for over twenty years. She has exhibited in Sydney and Melbourne and is represented in Europe.

Robyn presents a collection of unique necklaces, featuring a miniature hand painted portrait, inspired by the traditional cameo. Currently her necklaces are available in galleries in Australia and the Netherlands and they are in private collections in USA and England.

Tjanpi desert weavers is the dynamic arts and culture enterprise of the Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjanjatjara, Yankunyjatjara (NPY) Women’s Council.

Ngaanyatjarra women were the first to start weaving after a series of workshops were facilitated by the NPY Women’s Council in remote WA. These women shared their new skills with family from neighbouring communities and weaving spread across the NPY region.

These baskets and sculptures are business. They provide the women with economic independence through meaningful employment that supports their cultural and artistic expression. 

Zanna lives in Orange surrounded by orchards and vineyards. Orange is called the colour city due to the four distinct seasons; white winter, blossom-filled spring, rolling green hills in summer and spectacular autumn foliage. Vibrant colour is certainly an integral part of Zanna’s jewellery.

Zanna uses mostly resin beads in her pieces whether it’s the lolly-like translucent beads or the glossy opaque variety, each necklace is a mini mardi gras. Her limited edition works have a carefree whimsy about them. With a background in art and design and a compulsion to create Zanna has found her niche making gorgeous little things.