22.7.14

OPENINGS OF LAST WEEK - GEMMA JONES, VICTORIA MASON, COTTAGE INDUSTRY

How Can We Not be Ourselves and Rumble in the Jumble?

Well we said we were going and so we went. Two big events on the July craft calendar were up for grabs this weekend and we made the most of them... 


Friday night saw the most lovely Gemma Jones' showcase her new paintings and some fine enamel wall banners and jewels by her collaborating cohort Victoria Mason light up Outré Gallery with their fineness. What a great night, what great company and what smashing artworks!


I have to say I'm a complete sucker for mod styling, pop painting and book page prints, especially when they're executed with such a deft hand and quick wit. Gemma manages to merge plentiful and playful subtext together with giddy sense fan-girl fun, wide eyed naiveté with knowing nods and winks. Like a perfect old school pop record her work manages to blend heartbreak and back beats with a soaring chorus that we can all join in. Top Job Gemma.


Victoria Mason has been perfecting her enamel objects with increasingly convincing outcomes for a while now, and just when we think she's hit her peak she wows us all over again. Such are these pieces, the photo of which does no justice to their appeal (I blame the Sailor Jerry's). Incredibly appealing and skill-fully executed we want to see them all over our walls and maybe even our bodies - why not a breastplate sized pendant? Works were selling fast - we hope there are still some left come payday! The exhibition is on until August 8 at one of our favourite shops (see what I did there) Outré Gallery.


Saturday morning we were up early (but not so bright) to head to the cottage studio for the much anticipated Rumble in the Jumble Sale. While we left the lining up for others with earlier bedtimes and better morning dispositions we did still get in relatively early. 


To say that we were a little overwhelmed might well be the understatement of the year. Confronted by a wall of fabric of which the photo above is just a tiny sample, I kind of stopped breathing and went into a kind of ecstatic but mind numbingly confused state that ended with me walking out without actually managing to select any fabric to take home with me. D'OH!!!


But along with the booty came the opportunity to catch up with some of Melbourne's finest craftspeople Madeline Sargent, Lichen Kemp of Sunday Morning Designs, Anna Davern, Sandra Eterovic were all out in force picking up bargains, and we also found our folk fable favourite in the house, AND even got to meet the one and only Kaz Cooke - I was too star struck to tell her that she pretty much saved me from my first experience with child birth and rearing... but Ramona, completely unfazed as usual in her own amazing way managed a chat and confirms that she's tops. We're pretty sure everyone we know made it in over the weekend. And yet apparently there is still stuff left... hmmm payweek next week, maybe I should email Pene about that pile of afghans I saw! BECK

No comments: