TES 28/11/12 TES 28/11/12

Tools of the Trade: Sarah J Coombes Shoemaker

by Brianna Read This month’s instalment of Tools found me in the charming rabbit warren of the Nicholas Building in the heart of Melbourne. This wonderful building is home to many talented folk of a creative bent but I had come to visit the studio of cordwainer (and CWC member) Sarah Coombes. The term cordwainer is a name given to artisans who craft shoes, different to a cobbler who traditionally repairs them…

I didn’t know quite where to start with the tools of this trade, there are so many of them! Sarah’s beautiful, light filled workroom (which she shares with fellow hand crafter Phong Chi Lai) is packed with tools of every kind, there is serious machinery and workbenches covered with tools and materials. Sarah walked me through the studio introducing me to the bare essentials of her toolkit:

Hand skiving knife - starts as a flat length of metal about 25cm long without a blade edge, this has to be honed by hand, this makes each knife blade shape quite different as it is shaped by the technique of each maker.

Lasting pincers – these come in a range of shapes and are used repeatedly throughout the lasting process to stretch the leather around the last and hammer onto the insole.

Shoemakers hammer– a smooth rounded hammer on one side and curved edge the other, both sides are used for many different processes from neatening edges during lasting to hammering on the soles to the shoe.

And lastly the tool known to Sarah as Edith – a beautiful seventy year old Pfaff industrial post sewing machine, whose age has apparently not impaired her speed…They sure don’t build them like they used to!

Recently some of Sarah’s summer sandals made their way to Northcote shopping treat A Quirk of Fate and when I ask if they are available at any other retailer Sarah discusses the enjoyment she takes in the process of meeting with a client and crafting a pair of shoes just for them.

Given that many of her designs include time consuming details, such as hand stitching, I get the impression that this practice is very much about the crafting, this footwear is the ultimate in fast fashion antidotes. In addition to the high levels of hand craft involved in the making of each pair of shoes Sarah has also enlisted the talents of Melbourne jeweller Tessa Blazey to create metal embellishments for her designs, adding another tier of the bespoke to each pair leaving the studio.

Visiting the creative space of an artisan like Sarah whose trade has a long and rich history prompted a slew of questions about how she learnt to use such an extensive toolkit, a trade after all is usually something you must learn from another… Next month’s post will be the last for the year and Sarah has inspired the perfect wrap-up topic: masters & apprentices…

Brianna Read is a designer/maker based in Melbourne. Her knitwear label Jack of Diamonds employs traditional hand-made techniques in combination with machine knit technologies. Brianna’s multi-faceted creative practice encompasses design, production, works for exhibition and machine knitting workshops.

TES 26/11/12 TES 26/11/12

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

Jaclyn Carlson 23/11/12 Jaclyn Carlson 23/11/12

Scenes From Sydney: CWC Sydney Event

By Jaclyn Carlson In late October, Sydney finally got our first CWC event (yeah!) and I’m here this month to tell you that it was a huge success and I personally can’t wait to see what 2013 has in store.

Held in an eclectic new community center in Redfern, a room full of like-minded Sydney gals gathered to hand knit and listen to textile super star, Julie Patterson of Cloth Fabic. Julie shared her background, business advice and candid thoughts on running your own business. If you’ve ever heard Julie speak, you’ll agree she is a natural born story teller and I couldn’t think of a better person to kick off Sydney’s first CWC event. A big thank you to Tess for organising such a great afternoon for us local girls and if you haven’t yet signed up for the Sydney event newsletter – run, don’t walk, and get your name on the list. You won’t want to miss the next one!

A recording of this event is now up the Podcasts page for Full Members to enjoy when signed in. Find out about becoming a Full Member of the CWC here!

Originally from Boston, Massachusetts, Jaclyn Carlson is the author behind the Sydney-based blog, Little Paper Trees. When not documenting her expat adventures, she can be found working for one of Australia’s top design & homewares trade shows. Passionate and prone to wasting hours on Pinterest, she has years of experience in marketing, advertising and PR and aims to put Sydney’s creative women in the spotlight with her monthly column.

Lauren Treiser 21/11/12 Lauren Treiser 21/11/12

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.

Diane Leyman 19/11/12 Diane Leyman 19/11/12

Bricks & Mortar: Colour Box Studio

By Diane Leyman Colour Box Studio is a new multifunctional art space located in Footscray. Studio director Amie Batalibasi launched the space earlier this month with the aim of showcasing Melbourne’s creative community and to represent a diverse range of artforms.

Amie’s background is in documentary filmmaking and, since graduating in 2007, she has worked hard to establish her practice. She now considers herself to be privileged enough to initiate and choose film projects to work on, and an important part of her practice involves sharing her filmmaking skills via workshops with community groups, largely in Melbourne’s western suburbs.

Amie was working in a studio that wasn’t entirely meeting her needs, so decided to find a studio space that would allow her to not only be based, but where she could also collaborate and tap into other people’s creativity. Her dream was to open up a space run by and for artists in Melbourne; a supportive space where makers could pursue, perform, hone, sell and display their craft, and a relaxed space where artists could meet to collaborate and co-create. As a resident of Footscray, Amie wanted to be based in the western suburbs, and so set about finding the perfect location.

As soon as Amie walked into an old tattoo parlour on Nicholson Street, Footscray, she knew she’d found ‘the one’. She spent some time researching how to lease a commercial space and checking out other artist spaces to see how they were run, and took out a twelve-month lease on the building, giving it one last hurrah before it will be turned into a multi-story apartment block. Amie received the keys in early October and she and a team of volunteers set about transforming the old parlour into a vibrant and diverse space, with freshly painted walls and a lovely concrete floor.

One of Amie’s goals with Colour Box was to incorporate the community into the space as much as possible, so it was important that those volunteering their time felt that the space was as much theirs as anybody else’s. In the six weeks running up to the launch Amie also managed to find time to develop an online presence and teach herself how to build a website.

You could say that the past couple of months have been pretty hectic for Amie, but she says it’s been an epic adventure so far, and the level of support Colour Box has already received from the community has made it all worth it. One of the first projects for Colour Box Studio is the fantastic pop-up shop that you can see here. The shop features a range of wares from Melbourne makers (including Aacute, Able & Game, AK Adornments, Hannakin, Milk & Cookies, North St. Flowers, Pacific Women’s Weaving Circle, plus many more), and also incorporates an artist residency.

There are also a range of different workshops happening, and there will be a new program running each month that focuses on a different artistic discipline. The pop-up shop will be running until Christmas, so head on down to 236 Nicholson Street, Footscray to check it out for yourself, visit the Colour Box Studio website for workshop details and stay up-to-date via the Colour Box Studio Twitter and Facebook feeds.

Diane Leyman is a freelance editor, proofreader and project manager with more than six years of experience working in non-fiction illustrated trade book publishing. She has a passion for all things design, and writes a design blog called Notes to a Further Excuse. She also likes taking photographs, crafting, drinking coffee and obsessing over mid-century homewares.

TES 16/11/12 TES 16/11/12

Become a CWC blog contributor in 2013

Earlier this year we welcomed 13 wonderfully talented women to co-author this blog and present engaging and uplifting original content for us all to enjoy. I'm sure you'll agree there have been some fantastic insights and tips shared by these ladies, and I thank them all very much for their commitment to the task!

Next year, some of our contributors are moving on the persue new businesses, career changes and family additions (hooray for them!), and so we're looking for a few fresh voices to join our blogging team. Are you interested?

Who we are looking for:

Any creative woman, with any professional or hobbyist writing/blogging background, from any creative industry, whether you are currently working or not. You don’t necessarily have to be from Melbourne, but read on for more specific location details.

Skills required:

Basically, you should enjoy coming up with ideas for interesting blog post content, writing posts, and taking/sourcing photos.

More specifically, you should:

have some basic knowledge of how a blog works and what makes an interesting blog post.
know how to appropriately credit image sources and link to relevant online information in a blog post.
have enough time to research & write a blog-post once a month and submit the post by the deadline date.
have a strong grasp of the English language, spelling and grammar.

The commitment: One post per every 5-6 weeks for the year (if successful you'll be sent a comprehensive schedule to help with planning and posting). Your first post will be on the blog in February/March 2013.

Blog posts can vary in length from 200-1000 words and might include taking/sourcing photos or graphics – but this will depend on the nature of your column.

The benefits of becoming a CWC blog columnist: The benefits of becoming a CWC blog contributor boil down to your name, business, work, creations and personality reaching a large audience of people (over 22,000 visitors this year!) who may want to engage with you, promote you, hire you, or buy your stuff.

Other benefits include meeting people and learning things about yourself and others in the course of writing and preparing your posts; and writing, sharing your skills and knowledge - being seen as an ‘expert’ in your field.

If I have learned anything running the CWC and other blogs, it’s that the art of self-promotion and ‘getting one’s name out there’ is all about engaging with the online world, and then marvelling at how that translates to projects, work, collaborations and friendships in the offline world. Our contributors this year have used their position to enhance their CV, approach creatives they admire to learn more about their work, network, share their expertise, hone their writing skills and break out of their day-to-day work mindframe and challenge themselves.

(As you can see, there is no direct monetary benefit, but the opportunities for self-promotion and networking are priceless.)

Here are the columns that are looking for authors in 2013:

Bricks and mortar (see past examples of this column here) Every month, you visit an actual bricks-and-mortar establishment run by a creative lady, such as a retail shop, a cafe, a design studio etc, and document that business/workplace through photos and words (mostly photos).

Would suit: Someone who likes getting out and about, meeting people in person and enjoys taking photos. Arranging the visit with the person/place you have chosen beforehand would be essential – this is not a covert operation-style blog post.

Location: Melbourne preferred, but if you travel interstate regularly or if you are from interstate then you could author or co-author this column.

Women in the world (see past examples of this column here) Every month, you tell our readers about the work, or plight, of creative women in another part of the world. Perhaps they are creating beautiful products and supporting themselves and their families/communities. Perhaps they have social or lifestyle issues that would be unheard of in Australia, and CWC readers can do something creative to assist them in some way.

Would suit: Someone who is socially conscious and enjoys researching and promoting not-for-profit causes and alerting others to the living and working conditions, or creative pursuits, of women around the world.