WORKSHOP OF THE WEEK - CLAIRE McARDLE

worn out 

We think local jeweller Claire McArdle is pretty much a genius... we've been been big fans since seeing her grad work a few years ago so you can imagine we're pretty thrilled to be attending a workshop with her at Craft Victoria this Saturday. 

The workshop is tied to her new exhibition Worn Translations which continues her exploration of soft sculpture as a means of charting the life of objects via the interconnections between wearer and object. Her re-imagining of worn clothing into new textile jewellery is a neat play on the idea of wearable adornment. We love the playful use of colour, humour and scale within her work - just check out the pieces above from her Public Displays of Attention (below) and you know we love anything that fosters the re-use of refuse. Breathing new life and new use into discarded garments is something Ramona and I are both big believers in - we both have collections of cast offs in varying states of transformation from t-shirt yarn to patchwork quilts, much to the dismay/amusement of our families!

After last weekends crafternoon we've been ruminating on the importance of finding time to play with other people, yet how quickly we push this need to the bottom of our own super busy schedules (and we know we're not alone here). These kinds of workshops are almost a perfect combo of skill sharing, socialising and play. And we can't get enough of them. There are still a couple of seats left at the bench for this one so why not pull out your old jeans, sweaters, or in our case baby onesies and join us! BECK

see more of Claires work here

book a seat for the workshop here

Worn Translations is on at Craft until October 12.