Last days: Marcus O'Reilly 'Flotsam and Jetsam'

The last days of Marcus O'Reilly's Flotsam & Jetsam series are now here. Marcus was the recipient of the 2009 Fringe Furniture 'Innovation in Crafted Design' award as judged by us, the work of which you can currently view at our 24/7 window space enCOUNTER till tomorrow.

Flotsam and Jetsam is a composite of pieces of boats, bait cutting boards, packing containers, bits of buildings and fences, marker pegs, signs, paint stirrers and anything that has had a past life.

The inspiration for this current show stems from a simple need – to make a coffee table. Named the Flotsam and Jetsam table, the coffee table then spawned a variety of linked pieces, including dining tables and cabinets.

Worth portraits

The portraits from the opening night of Ricarda Bigolin & Michael Spooner's current exhibition in gallery 3, For What It's Worth, are now up and ready for your viewing pleasure!

With just a few weeks left to go (and more portraits being nailed in as we speak!), the last thing we'd want is for you to miss this wonderful show!

Here's a sneak peek at some of the current portraits that are up:

Portraits by Antuong Nguyen

Reminder: last chance to take part in Craft Hatch 2010!

The registration deadline for our final round of markets this year is nearing, so if you've been meaning to apply all year, NOW IS THE TIME!!!

Little Wave greeting card.
Little Wave is one of the very fine makers who will be at Craft Hatch in October, yippee!

We are currently accepting applications to participate in the following markets:

• Sat 13 November, City Library
• Sun 23 November, Bikefest special at 1000 Pound Bend
• Sat 11 December, City Library

These three markets are our last for 2010, and Craft Hatch will return in February 2011 so it's now or later! (as opposed to never we suppose...)

We're looking for fresh, crafty peeps who are just starting out and looking for the perfect avenue to launch their wares through support and promotion from Craft Victoria. In particular, we're on the lookout for bike-friendly products for our Bikefest market on Sunday 23 November.

If you make accessories, garments, jewellery, prints, illustrations, photographs, stationery, furniture, textiles etc. that reference or depict bicycle culture, we'd love to hear from you!

Think laterally as we're not just looking for work that directly references bicycles, but also products that might be useful for our two-wheeled friends... They wear clothes/jewellery/like art too!

The deadline for applications is this Friday, 1 October.

Click here for further information and to apply!

Project Patchwork update

We're about a month away from the Project Patchwork raffle (which is happening on Monday 18 Oct!) and we thought we'd remind everyone that you can purchase raffle tickets directly from the Project Patchwork website through the ultra-safe Paypal.

Raffle tickets are just $2 a pop and the prizes are looking mighty, might fine!

Second prize: the triangle quilt



Third prize: the heart quilt

Altogether now: OMG!!!!

Liz and her mum Amanda have been working very hard to put all the patches together, and we can't wait to see them in real life!

There's also the 'Crafty Ladies and Gents quilt' which is the first prize and features patches from Melbourne craft and design royalty including Kat Macleod, CatRabbit, Amy Borrell, Luci Everett, Gracia Haby & Louise Jennison, Limedrop as well as Craft Victoria ladies Anita Cummins, Nella Themelios, Carmel McKie and Kim Brockett. What a star studded line up if we do say so ourselves!

So doon't forget: Project Patchwork raffle is happening at CVHQ on Monday 18 October!

'Pin Up Your doodle' at Craft Victoria

Not to be confused with, ahem, anything else, Pin Up Your Doodle is a charitable event brought to you by Shebeen, a non-profit bar opening soon in Melbourne that supports worthy projects in the developing world.

Pin Up Your Doodle invites you to submit doodles, illustrations and sketches. These works will be exhibited and auctioned at ACCA (Melbourne) and Sydney (venue TBC) this November... in other words now's your chance to say you've shown work at ACCA!

100% of funds raised by Pin Up Your Doodle will go towards Shebeen's noble endeavour as a self-described 'Robin Hood of booze'. By selling beers and wine from developing countries, 100% of profit from each drink sale will go back towards said country and support many a worthy cause! For example, drinking a Huda will support vocational training for street kids in Hanoi and drinking South African wine will support rape prevention and awareness in Durban.

From now till the end of October, Craft Victoria is proud to be a 'drop box site' where you can drop off your doodle in a fancy ballot box type contraption. It's currently located in our foyer and it's even got fluoro spray paint dotted all over it so you can't miss it!

Exhibition openings and general good times

Our current round of exhibitions are two weeks in to their time at CVHQ and there's already been a flurry of visitors flocking to view a suite of shows that has it all: jewellery, glass, fashion, architecture and elephants, and even the moving image (for those with short attention spans). These exhibitions are on till Saturday 16 October so make sure you get on to it!

Here are some images from our opening night. Thanks to all who came and enjoyed our fine wine, fine company and fine exhibitions.

Karla Way and Natalia Milosz-Piekarska (right)

Deirdre Feeney






Participants in the 'Worth' spontaneous portrait series as part of Ricarda Bigolin & Michael Spooner's exhibition For What It's Worth

The portrait wall so far...

Photography credit: Lily Feng

'Worth portraits' preview...

At our recent exhibition opening on Thursday, there was a 'spontaneous portrait' component to Ricarda Bigolin & Michael Spooner's exhibition For What It's Worth in Gallery 3. Here is a sneak preview of one of the portraits from the evening... expect more to come soon... very, very soooooon....

Mai and Lei Gryffydd

Photography credit: Antuong Nguyen

ArtPlay x Michael Doolan workshop, Sat 11 Sept

In addition to Craft Hatch, last Saturday was a busy, busy time for us with Michael Doolan's Imaginary Animals ArtPlay workshop taking place just up the road at ArtPlay on Birrarung Marr.

Using clay (and their vivid imaginations), the kids created a slew of hybrid mythical creatures. This workshop is part of a collaboration between Craft Victoria and ArtPlay to introduce Craft Victoria artists to the young 'uns through fun, interactive workshops. Imaginary Animals with Michael Doolan is the third workshop of the year, with the final workshop to be facilitated by jewellers Meredith Turnbull & Bridie Lunney. Stay tuned for more info!

Here are some photos from the day!

Michael's daughter Pepa reading a story to the kids to get their creative juices going

We used handbuilding earthenware clay from Northcote Pottery Supplies (which is actually in East Brunswick, not Northcote)

Michael showing how to smoothen out a sphere made out of two 'pinch pots' stuck together

Some of the finished works:

For more images, click here

Photography: Kim Brockett

Craft Hatch: Sat 11 Sept

Last Saturday Craft Hatch swooped in to our regular spot at the City Library with 10 hot-to-trot makers under our wing, all of whom were participating for the very first time!

It was a beautiful day outside which made it one of our busier markets. Thank you to all who came, and see you at the next market at the State Library of Victoria on Sat 23 Oct!

m2matiz

Camilla Stirling

Claybody

Simply Phoebe

Blue Blue Places



John Brooks & Jess Kavunenko



Jess Kavunenko

Justin Siow & Tom Malchi

Holikova



RMIT Sculpture

Make sure you check out the RMIT Sculpture Graduate Show from 10-20 November at RMIT Building 37, corner of A'Beckett and Swanston Streets




Marieke Treloar




Click here to view more images from the day.