The year that was: Member profiles

{Throughout January, we're looking back at all the posts our awesome columnists wrote for us in 2012, before our team of some new and some returning contributors start blogging in February.} Mid-2012 we reintroduced Member Profiles to the blog. Profiles are a quick snapshot of the background, skills and inspirations of our members. Being profiled on the blog is one of the many benefits of joining as a CWC Full Member. We’re really pleased to have found out a bit more about these fine women this year, and look forward to learning about more of you in 2013! tess x

Kim Tonelli: Photographer

"I followed my passion for sixties rock and roll all the way to London where I established an esteemed and dynamic career that kept me away from home for almost a decade." Read more...

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Cheryl Lin: Content creator, presenter, streetstyle photographer and stylist – Business Chic

"I am an IT professional by trade but enjoy pursuing my creative interests at the very edge of my capabilties!" Read more...

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Andrea McArthur, Graphic Designer

"I believe in creating ideas-driven visual solutions that are both beautiful and appropriate." Read more...

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Anne Sherlock of Sooper Design

"I’m totally dedicated to building and discovering more and more of our talented designers." Read more...

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CWC Member Feature: Monique Plunkett

By Roslyn Russell Today I welcome Monique Plunkett from Elkhorn. Monique is a graphic designer who creates high quality screen printed homewares and accessories. Monqiue began Elkhorn while living on the Central Coast of NSW and the natural beauty of that environment has been a strong influence in Monique's work.

What do you create? I create a range of hand screen printed designs printed on durable eco-friendly fabrics. They range from things for the home, cushions,table runners, tea towels and a small collection of soft floaty scarves.

Have you done training in your creative field or has it come about informally? I have been screen printing since I was young. Mana, my Nan, bought my sister and I our first Silk Screen sets. When I finished school, I spent my first year studying Visual Arts and then went on to study Graphic Design. I guess you could say I have a mix of formal training and have since experimented with different creative areas in my own time.

What are your main creative inspirations? Natural coastal surrounds definitely are a huge inspiration to me. It can come from something as simple as the change in light as the sun goes down over the water, to the variations of colour and texture in a feather or a collection of finds from the beach. I have some wonderfully supportive and close friends that inspire me on all sorts of levels, not just creative. It’s having these people in your life that keeps you going, which is inspiring in itself.

How do you balance your creative projects with the administration aspect of creative work? This is something I have struggled with from time to time. It can be really hard to find a balance as production time can be quite intensive. I have found if I dedicate the first hour of the morning to admin and get it out of the way it leaves me free to get into the creative projects which of course it what I love best!

What do you do when you experience a creative block? Get outside! I either head down to the local cafe or go for a walk or run, which always seems to clear my head. I have a stack of favourite magazines and blogs which are always good to flip through, they seem to help get the creative flow happening again. I also have a couple of great friends of whom I really value their creative opinion. I often shoot them a email or meet them for a coffee and show them where I am at. Sometimes it's just great to talk through your designs with someone else.

What future goals do you have for your creative pursuits? The question of the year! This has actually been on my mind a lot lately, having recently relocated to Melbourne. The short term goal is to find a shared studio space, so I can continue working on Elkhorn and perhaps pick up a few other design jobs. In the future I would love to work with like-minded designers whether it's a collaboration or assisting with another label that I admire!

Thanks so much for sharing your creativity with us today Monique! For more information about Monique and Elkhorn, you can find her on her blog, Facebook and her Etsy store.

Roslyn Russell is a sewist, blogger and teacher. Her blog, Sew Delicious, is where she showcases her latest projects, designs and sewing tutorials.  Roslyn also enjoys cake baking and decorating, exploring Melbourne cafes and restaurants, and hunting through op-shops for vintage sewing and kitchen treasures.

What's she up to now? Cristina Re

One of the interviewees in our book Conversations with Creative Women is Melbourne designer, artist and entrepreneur Cristina Re. In the book, Cristina gave some insight into how she built her brand to become a market leader and household name, recognised internationally for it's elegant signature feminine style. Since the paperback version of Conversations was released last year, Cristina Re's product line has expanded to include more beautiful products. We spoke to her to find out more...

It's been a year since you were featured in our book Conversations with Creative Women - what has changed at Cristina Re since then, as a business or in terms of your own personal inspirations or goals?

It has been an exciting year for the brand.

Our customers love for our brand and it’s signature feminine style in designer stationery, luxury bath & body products has led us to set style standards for the home with our new High Tea Collection.

Every woman deserves to indulge in beautiful things that give pleasure and nurture the soul and our High Tea Collection gives every woman the opportunity to create this opulence in their own homes.

Our collection is made from the finest quality porcelain and trimmed in none other than 24CT gold plated to set your event or celebration apart. Customers can select from elegant Tea Cups & Saucers, a splendidly gorgeous Tea Pot and a sophisticated 3-tier Cake Stand and vintage cutlery to create a beautifully decadent High Tea experience of their very own. This last year we have seen an expansion of bold new colours for summer.

The Cristina Re brand is a trusted resource for women in Australia to inspire creativity and style. Personally, my aim is to continue to remain at the forefront of design, to remain true to my philosophy of turning the ordinary into extraordinary.

A recent trip to Rome inspired your new High Tea Cutlery Collection. Can you tell us about that trip and what the collection entails?

I was born in Rome and I delight in many trips back to discover rare treasures that can be found in the cities forgotten laneways at antique markets.

On one such recent trip, I was fortunate enough to stumble upon an oiled timber box emblazoned with a gold emblem, where I found a set of ornate and tarnished gold plated cutlery. Even in their tattered state their grandeur was unmistakable. I turned each sizeable and weighty treasure over in my hand. My mind alighted with images of Kings and Queens from eons ago who might have held each piece in their hand. Each fork and spoon engraved with delicate detail, steeped in history, and rich with stories of a glorious love affair with food.

For as long as we have been in existence the human race have fashioned utensils to aid with our consumption of food. The art of the cutlery dates back to the Stone Age and survived through both the Bronze and the Middles Ages, with the furthest advances being made in the Iron Age. In this day and age we have a plethora of technology for the design of unique, long lasting and aesthetically beautiful cutlery. However, in a wide spread search of the globe I have not been able to find a set of quality, affordable and tasteful gold plated cutlery to adorn my High Tea Table and to complement my High Tea Collection.

After years of searching and months of designing, I bring you the Cristina Re High Tea Cutlery Collection, from my table and with all my heart. Each piece from the Collection is gold plated piece of my collection is lovingly and ornately embellished, combining timeless vintage with modern quality. The Collection includes Cake Fork and Cake Spoon sets, Cake Knife and Cake Server.

We're giving away a Cristina Re 'Christmas Gift Packaging' set comprising wrapping paper, gift cards and decorative accessories, to one lucky Conversations eBook customer. What are some gift-giving traditions that you hold dear?

I recall childhood memories of growing up in Rome, where Christmas comes to life in the streets with large-scale trees inside piazza’s and dotted throughout the city. The whole city comes to life at Christmas and the celebration is best served with gorgeous family and friends. Festivities are ordained with a large array of food, suppers and dining and grappa. Throughout my teenage years to current day, I celebrate with traditional Italian panettone and delicious home made cakes and wrap these up in layers of cellophane and speciality Christmas papers in a decorative table setting set admist the backdrop of an ever-colourful Australian summer. Co-ordinating with name cards, speciality napkin rings and paper decorations, my table setting plays an important part at Christmas – bringing to life to the dining experience. We top it off with the hand-made paper cards of course!

What lovely new things can we expect to see in the Cristina Re range or at 'Where a Girl Goes' in Collingwood next year?

Where A Girl Goes continues to inspire creativity and celebrate time with your most loved girls. Next year, customers can continue to enjoy the signature High Tea experience from Cristina Re and will be able to participate in the loving tastes of our new special blend Cocktail Menu and new uniquely created Macaron-based desserts. Drawing on the brands inspiring signature flavours, the cocktails and sweet treats will be served daily from Wednesday to Sunday beautifully presented and testament to the creativity that reigns true in the Cristina Re brand.

For the lovers of paper and craft, new workshops will be introduced talking to new paper trends, colours and inspirations for 2013.

The Cristina Re brand will continue to turning the ordinary into extraordinary – we look forward to a very exciting year ahead.

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Cristina Re is featured alongside many other talented local women in our book, Conversations with Creative Women - now available in digital format for your computer, iPad, iPhone or Kindle. Visit our shop and purchase your copy before 3pm on Friday 14th December 2012 to go in the running to win a Cristina Re Christmas Gift Packaging Set valued at $150. See more details here.

Women Who Write - Sheryl McCorry

By Sandra Todorov Sheryl McCorry has been described as ‘a woman in a million’. The grandmother from Forrest Downs, whose bestselling memoir Diamonds and Dust took everybody by surprise in 2007, is back with Love on Forrest Downs, a story of her battle to keep her new outback home.

Fans of McCorry will love this – it is a celebration of country life, the land Sheryl was born into and the struggles and triumphs that can strain a rural couple but ultimately (in this case at least) push them closer together. There is a strong sense of place – McCorry’s love of Forrest Downs shines through, just as her affection for the Kimberley did in her first books. Locals will recognize the unforgiving landscape and the spirit of the inhabitants.

Simply written and beautifully paced, Love on Forrest Downs will find a keen readership among both country dwellers and curious urban folk. I managed to get Sheryl to take time out from her busy schedule (she is famous for having run two million-acre cattle properties and now has a brood of grandchildren) to answer a few questions about her writing life.

How many words do you write per day? Do you listen to the radio or music while you do it? When I sit down to write I try and do around 3000 a day. I don’t play any radio or music, I just drift.

Describe your workspace. I sit and write by hand at an old desk, beside a huge bay window. Outside the window are lots of ferns and native plants with a bird house. I can also look out and see the paddocks in the distance.

What is the best thing about being a writer? I don’t see myself as a writer or an author, it just happened for me quite unexpectedly. I was putting my thoughts about my life on paper for my children and it’s just happened from there. I consider myself very lucky since my first book Diamonds and Dust.

What’s the worst things about being a writer? It’s hard to say, because I love it. I’m at a point in my life where we are flat out farming, and it’s just trying to find the time to grab those few hours. So I guess wanting more hours in the day.

How did you get your first book deal? After I lost my husband to cancer, I was diagnosed with cancer myself. Our children were in a panic, and asking lots of questions. I had always kept diaries, but I decided to collate and put everything on paper for the children. Once I got I  paid an editor to fix it up, and make it a bit more presentable.. He told me I wouldn’t be able to get it published, but right then I decided I might not  be a university graduate but I would give it a go. I  sent half of the first book to two different publishers and then went on holidays. Within eight days had a contract with Pan Macmillan!

How important is it for writers to be part of a network of creative people? My life is based with cattle and I suppose they are creative! I don’t mix in those circles in my life.

Sandra Todorov’s writing has appeared in The Seminal, The Lowy Institute ‘Interpreter’, Kill Your Darlings and Miranda Literary Magazine. She runs a consultancy from Melbourne CBD and her first novel will be out in 2013.

Member profile: Kim Tonelli, Photographer

Kim Tonelli Photographer Website | Facebook

What is your professional or training background? After completing a BA in photography at the prestigious Royal Melbourne Institute Of Technology in 1989, I followed my passion for sixties rock and roll all the way to London where I established an esteemed and dynamic career that kept me away from home for almost a decade. Since then my work has taken me to over 50 cities world-wide. Highlights include photographing legends in the music business, numerous cover shots for Rolling Stone magazine, featuring in every major music publication in England and Australia as well as winning first place at the National Youth Media Awards.

What do you make, create or do? I create  photographic  images. I create beautiful, dynamic, artistic  images of mainly people. I capture memories  for families and document history for magazines.

What other creative areas would you like to explore as a side-project to your current work, or move into full-time? My full time career is as  a photographer. I enjoy music, art and  movies but i tend to be obsessed with my  photography and creating beautiful images...I  try to "get in the customers world" really find out what they need. I tend to put a smile or a nod on the  subjects face everytime i work. I make my shoots fun .I  involve my clients as much as i can. I  "give my all" when im shooting.

What skills do you have that help you run your business, or what skills would you like to develop? I would like to develop a consistent marketing plan and I would love to meet creative like minded women.

List five people, businesses or websites/blogs that keep you motivated and inspired, and why? Oprah Winfrey. A kind powerful woman who uses her life to make a difference in the world so many areas, down to earth and inspiring to me.

Louse Hay - at 85 yrs old she is still going strong and is an example you are what you think.

Annie Leibovitz, for her determination and sense of who she is. Her historic journey to photograph and capture life and people around her.

My Mother for her unconditional love, grace and compassion.

Landmark Education, for a great set of tools and great community

Women in Art: The uncertainty of art and science

By Lauren Treiser This month’s artist in focus is object maker Catherine Truman. On entering her current exhibition at Gallery Funaki, one could mistake all her pieces as installations and small scale sculptures. Upon closer inspection, it is revealed that some of the work can in fact be worn as brooches.

Truman has exhibited nationally and internationally and is represented in a number of major collections. She is co-founder and current partner of Gray Street Workshop – a collectively run studio and access facility for artists working in the field of contemporary jewellery and object making in Adelaide, South Australia.

Some uncertain facts showcases Truman’s interest in the crossover between art and science. She has worked amongst scientists in research environments for many years and it is apparent where she shows off her maquettes as part of the process, just like a mathematician might show thier workings out to an equation. Truman is interested in what makes sense and what doesn't, in the crossover between natural and manmade environments. In this exhibition I found myself getting very close to the work trying to figure out what was natural and what was manufactured. With the foam objects, for instance, we can understand the crab claw but what is that other part? The artist reconfigures nature and makes her audience question it.

What she uses to formulate her work ends up forming a very big part of what she shows. The colours and textures and the feeling of certain materials blend into the finished work. A lot of the time you can’t really tell what is made of paper, what’s made of clay, or what is painstakingly carved from limewood. I think that the artist doesn’t feel it is important for the audience to know what is natural and what is found but rather to present objects that make you think.

Truman is interested in the human form and is qualified in the Feldenkrais Method of movement education where the aim is to reduce limitations in movement and improve physical function. Her focus on human anatomy and how it is translates through artistic processes has shifted in this exhibition to the anatomical structure of sea creatures. The resulting objects characteristically carved from wood, bone, shell or wax are not exact anatomical replicas but rather evoke a sense of recognition.

Having worked as an artist amongst scientists for years, Truman finds these two areas not so dissimilar. “We both agree that unknowing moves us forward and that there is an inherent level of risk and uncertainty in both. We both create images of the things we see and the more we see, the more we understand we don’t know. The images are a translation – a nuanced approximation.”

So no matter if you are a science or art lover, these objects are sure to appeal to you. I love the fact that you could potentially purchase a grouping and have it in your home as a sculptural piece, and then on a given occasion decide to wear one of the parts. Enjoy viewing this exhibition and the numerous draws full of intriguing jewellery at Gallery Funaki.

All images courtesy Gallery Funaki 

Catherine Truman: Some uncertain facts 13 November – 8 December Gallery Funaki 4 Crossley Street, Melbourne Tuesday – Friday 11am – 5pm Saturday 11am – 4pm

Lauren is graphic designer and founder of patchyrugs.com.au. She loves all things design (see her blog at blog.ilovelollies.net) and is particularly passionate about fine art, interior design and jewellery. Lauren is currently studying Gold & Silversmithing and doing graphic design on a freelance basis.

CWC Member Feature: Lauren Treiser

By Roslyn Russell Today I welcome Lauren Treiser as our featured member on the CWC blog. You might already know her as our Women in Art columnist, but Lauren is also a freelance graphic designer and is the founder of Patchy Rugs. She is passionate about fine art, interior design and jewellery and is currently studying Gold and Silversmithing.

What do you create? I’m a graphic designer and run my own freelance business (laurentreiser.com). I create everything from branding, packaging, print material, websites, digital marketing to wedding invitations.

I also recently started an online patchwork rug company called Patchy Rugs . It’s the first time I’m selling a tangible product, so it’s been an exciting learning curve. I enjoy the marketing side of it and I’m quite active on social media, but my husband definitely is the business brains of the company!

Have you done training in your creative field or has it come about informally? Many moons ago, I completed Brighton Bay’s folio building course. I loved that you could explore so many creative areas; photography, printmaking and drawing just to name a few. I then went on to study Graphic Design at RMIT and did my honours there too. A few years later, I completed AWARD School (Creative advertising course) and I’m once again back at school studying Silversmithing at NMIT.

What are your main creative inspirations? Blogs for sure! But I still do love holding a beautifully designed book and magazine (Vogue Living is a weakness of mine). I like to get out and about in Melbourne; exploring new cafes, visiting galleries and attending events.

I love travelling and have many places on my wishlist including Morocco, India and Egypt! I love watching Grand Designs and have recently started listening to podcasts (I know that’s a bit late to the game) but ABC RN cover some fantastic topics.

Some of my favorite blogs are: The Design Files (I admit, I am just slightly obsessed.) Miss Moss – missmoss.co.za Design Lovefest – designlovefest.com Pinterest – find me under Patchy Rugs I know it’s not a blog but I love instagram too! My name is @ilovelollies, so come and find me!

How do you balance your creative projects with the administration aspect of creative work? It's hard when I feel I’m doing more admin than actually creating, but I guess that’s all part of working for yourself.

What do you do when you experience a creative block? Eat chocolate! This doesn’t always work so I usually try to distract myself. If I have something percolating in the back of my mind, whilst I cook or run errands, an idea will eventually cometo me! I am a very visual person so it helps me to stimulate my senses. That, and a lot of brainstorming in my studio, or at a café!

What future goals do you have for your creative pursuits? I would like to continue growing my freelance business and work with interesting clients who let me explore new creative areas. My dream is to have a jewellery collection for sale in the future and in my next life, I want to be an interior designer or a stylist.

Thank you Lauren for sharing your creativity with us! Find out more about Lauren and Patchy Rugs here: website, facebook and twitter.

Roslyn Russell is a sewist, blogger and teacher. Her blog, Sew Delicious, is where she showcases her latest projects, designs and sewing tutorials.  Roslyn also enjoys cake baking and decorating, exploring Melbourne cafes and restaurants, and hunting through op-shops for vintage sewing and kitchen treasures.