Object: stories of design and craft

A deep drive into seven key works by Helen Britton, from her current exhibition The Story So Far. In this audio tour, Helen describes how she made each work, her techniques and materials, and the stories behind each piece.The Story So Far is a major solo, touring exhibition that honors Helen Britton as the tenth artist in the series Living Treasures: Masters of Australian Craft. Living Treasures recognises eminent Australian craftspeople, celebrating their mastery of skill, their achievements and the unique place they occupy in the national design culture. Featured works and excerpts1. My Godmother's HouseA set of 20 photographs taken in northeast New South Wales near Yamba on Yaegl Country. Over several years I took over 700 photographs. We've selected twenty for the exhibition. What was really fascinating for me were the collections within the house. Shell collections, stone collections, gathered objects and how they were arranged. And then, of course, the path of time. So you'll often see the dust. I was very interested in photographing the the dust as a metaphor, the material reality of time passing.2. The Mysterious Path of Matter and TimeA small cabinet framed by branches. A work made out of my childhood detritus [using] a cabinet that I made about 30 years ago, and cement branches. The cement branches does give it a ritualised, almost relique object-like atmosphere, which is what I was trying to achieve. It's also in the true sense of the expression cemented into eternity. Cement is a very interesting material because it is so stable and has such a long life. And it's an ancient material, which I think we also tend to forget.3. Junkyard Three A monumental necklace made of many parts. I've created a piece using absolutely everything I could find leftover in my studio, and put it together. I've used the circle and bone catch for many years. For me, it is an interesting way to close a necklace, a circular necklace, with these two symbols.And the rest of the pieces in Junkyard Three are often leftovers from my industrial series. Works preoccupied with the kind of environment that I grew up with in Newcastle in the 1970s and early eighties where BHP was kind of at its peak. For example, all of the barrels and rods that you would see lying around on the periphery of industrial areas.4. The Magic Cupboard When I was told I was to be the Living Treasure of Australian Craft, I decided to create a kind of 'cabinet of wonders' that included everything going back to my early childhood, the things that kind of triggered my imagination over all of those years. And include archival works. On the bottom shelf, there is a porcelain plate painted by my godmother that she made that as a gift to me. She was very interested to make something not conventional, because she thought I'd appreciate that more. It's quite a dynamic drawing of geckos. On the top shelf are a pile of airplanes made by my brother.In the drawer, some of my dolls, put to rest.5. The Big and The Small ThingsA large wall piece of paintings and jewelry depicting animals and bones. I guess the bones make this work much more sombre. They're often... what's left over. After we've eaten an animal or what's left...

Host Lisa Cahill chats with master metalsmith Johannes Kuhnen. Johannes Kuhnen is one of the pioneers of anodised aluminium metalwork. In this episode, Johannes explains why he finds anodising annoying, and his design process.Hear from judges Jason Smith, Hyeyoung Cho and Brian Parkes on his MAKE Award entry, Remnant Green.Johannes Kuhnen is one of Australia's most well recognised silversmiths. Johannes' practice has remained at the forefront of innovation, in particular his pioneering use of anodised aluminium. A fascination with the colour options of the aluminium continue to provide inspiration for his work and have also inspired many others to explore such potential.GuestsJohannes KuhnenJason Smith, Director and CEO of Geelong Gallery, VictoriaHyeyoung CHO, Chair of the Korea Association of Art and Design, and expert panel member of the Loewe Foundation Craft PrizeBrian Parkes, CEO at JamFactory, Adelaide, South AustraliaCreditsObject is a podcast of the Australian Design Centre and is made on Gadigal Country in Sydney, Australia.It's hosted by CEO and Artistic Director Lisa Cahill and produced by Jane Curtis, in collaboration with Lisa Cahill. Sound Engineering is by John Jacobs.

Host Lisa Cahill chats with contemporary jeweller Julie Blyfield. Hear how Julie's MAKE Award entry is inspired by love and loss. Julie Blyfield is a South Australian artist renowned for her work inspired by collected botanical specimens and forms. Using the traditional metalsmithing techniques of chasing and repoussé, Blyfield makes intricately textured pieces, which capture the essence of the Australian natural landscape.Award judges Jason Smith, Hyeyoung Cho and Brian Parkes share their thoughts on Julie’s work Memento Vivere (Remember to live).Episode photo by Grant Hancock.GuestsJulie Blyfield, contemporary jewellerJason Smith, Director and CEO of Geelong Gallery, VictoriaHyeyoung CHO, Chair of the Korea Association of Art and Design, and expert panel member of the Loewe Foundation Craft PrizeBrian Parkes, CEO at JamFactory, Adelaide, South AustraliaCreditsObject is a podcast of the Australian Design Centre and is made on Gadigal Country in Sydney, Australia.It's hosted by CEO and Artistic Director Lisa Cahill and produced by Jane Curtis, in collaboration with Lisa Cahill. Sound Engineering is by John Jacobs.

Meet the winner of the Inaugural MAKE Award, ceramic artist Vipoo Srivilasa.Vipoo tells us about the themes that inspire his work, the process of making the winning piece Diverse Dominion Deities, his strategic approach to the MAKE award, and Vipoo's ongoing charity project 'Clay For'.Hear comments from judges Jason Smith, Hyeyoung Cho and Brian Parkes on what made this sculpture a prize-winning work. About Vipoo SrivilasaMelbourne-based, Thai-born Australian artist Vipoo Srivilasa creates artwork that is positive, accessible, and beautiful. His practice primarily focuses on ceramics, though he also produces works on paper, mixed-media sculptures, bronze statues, and large-scale public art installations. He often incorporates food and interactive performance into his ceramic projects, creating a unique and immersive experience for viewers.GuestsVipoo Srivilasa, ceramic artistJason Smith, Director and CEO of Geelong Gallery VictoriaHyeyoung Cho, Chair of the Korea Association of Art and Design, and expert panel member of the Loewe Foundation Craft PrizeBrian Parkes, CEO at Jam Factory in Adelaide, South AustraliaCreditsObject is a podcast of the Australian Design Centre and is made on Gadigal Country in Sydney, Australia.It's hosted by CEO and Artistic Director Lisa Cahill and produced by Jane Curtis, in collaboration with Lisa Cahill. Sound Engineering is by John Jacobs.Image episode photo by Simon Strong.

Meet Powerhouse curator Eva Czernis-Ryl and hearThe skills of a museum curatorHow curators select and interpret objects What makes a work of ceramics suitable for a museum collection?The unique history of ceramics collected by the PowerhouseAnd hear ceramic artist and former editor of The Australian Journal of Ceramics Vicki Grima on setting up a ‘living bequest’ fund for ceramics.Eva Czernis-Ryl is an art and design historian and curator of Arts and Design at the Powerhouse in Sydney.Vicki Grima, OAM, was the editor of The Journal of Australian Ceramics and CEO of the Australian Ceramics Association from 2005 to February 2023. She’s also a practicing ceramic artist.Object is a podcast of the Australian Design Centre. We'd like to thank Visions of Australia, the Federal government’s regional exhibition touring program for funding support towards this podcast.Object is hosted by Lisa Cahill and produced by Jane Curtis, with production support from Alix Fiveash. Sound Engineering is by John Jacobs.

What are the many ways to learn ceramics? How do you find your own sense of touch with clay?If you’re thinking about a hobby class or applying for a university or TAFE course, what’s good to know? Hear different approaches on teaching with clay, including from a Japanese production pottery, and a wishlist for the future of ceramics education in Australia. What’s on your list?GuestsJane Sawyer, founder and teacher at Slow Clay MelbourneJulie Bartholomew, former Head of Ceramics at ANU and ceramics artist

Ilona Topolcsanyi makes bespoke tableware for some of Australia's most notable chefs. She’s even made plates that world leaders have eaten from, like Barack Obama, Angela Merkel and Xi JinPing.Hear how Ilona designs and makes by hand large orders of beautiful, hard-wearing and functional tableware. Learn how she works with chefs as a problem-solver, figuring out how to make bowls where the sauce sits perfectly.Ilona and her partner Colin Hopkins run their business Cone 11 in Naam, Melbourne. Their tableware has subtle surfaces that range from shimmering pearly whites to rich encrusted terracottas. Some of the restaurants Ilona has created work for include: Dan Hunter: Brae, Birregurra VictoriaJoel Bickford: Aria, Sydney NSW Josh Lopez: The Wolfe East Brisbane QLDSeth James: Wills Domain, Margaret River WAGuestsIlona Topolcsanyi    https://www.cone11.com.au/Josh Lopez is the chef and owner of The Wolfe East Brisbane, Queensland https://www.thewolferestaurant.com/Dan Hunter is the chef and owner of Brae, Birregurra, Victoria   https://braerestaurant.com/ Full Show NotesRead the highlights and takeaways, and see photos of Ilona's work with Josh Lopez and Dan Hunter on the Show Notes page for this episode on the Australian Design Centre website.CreditsObject is hosted by Lisa Cahill, with production by Jane Curtis and sound engineering by John Jacobs. It's made with support from Visions of Australia regional touring program.

In this bonus episode, you’ll meet one of the key people behind the original idea for the Living Treasures series of exhibitions - Brian Parkes. How did the idea of recognising Australia’s master craftspeople become a reality? Who chooses Living Treasures? How was the first Living Treasures exhibition made on a shoestring budget, maybe some shopping at IKEA?  How important are exhibitions like these to regional art galleries? How do audiences react? And hear about the two Living Treasures Lisa Cahill didn’t get to interview – the late glass artist Klaus Moje and South Australian glass artist Nick Mount. Brian is the CEO and Artistic Director of JamFactory, Adelaide’s leading craft and design centre, where he's been for over a decade. Before that, he was Associate Director of the Australian Design Centre 2000 - 2010 (when the Centre was called Object. Now you know where the podcast name came from!). Brian Parkes lives and works on Kaurna Country in Adelaide. Guests Steve Pozel was the former CEO and Artistic Director of the Australian Design Centre who developed and championed the idea for the Living Treasures series during his 16 year tenure with the organisation. He’s now an Innovation Strategist and Facilitator in mindful leadership. Bridget Guthrie is the director of Tamworth Regional Gallery in NSW. Show highlights and takeaways Inspiration from National Gallery of Australia Susan Cohn exhibition [1:47] In 2000, the National Gallery of Australia made a national touring exhibition of the work of Australian jeweller Susan Cohn, Techno Craft: The work of Susan Cohn 1980 – 2000. It toured to Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide, Hobart, Perth and Melbourne into 2001. Brian Parkes says it was the first time that a major institution had done a big touring exhibition of someone who came out of the crafts sector. The late Jim Logan, Assistant Curator of Australian Decorative Arts at the National Gallery of Australia, curated the exhibition and Brian Parkes worked with him during this time. "All the hallmarks of the Living Treasure series were borrowed from that exhibition, which Jim had always intended as an ongoing series of shows, celebrating the extraordinary wealth of talent in the kind of decorative arts scene in Australia, " Brian says. Who nominates and selects craftspeople to be Living Treasures? [5:30] First, a jury was appointed by the "key figures - curatorially, academically, theoretically", Brian say. Then, the nominations process lets Australian craft sector organisations, as well as individual practitioners, to nominate Australian artists to be a Living Treasure.  The criteria to be nominated as a Living Treasure [6:12] There are some specific...

In a career spanning seven decades, Les Blakebrough has become one of Australia's most acclaimed and influential ceramic artists.The ceramics of Les Blakebrough range from earthy functional ware to more delicate forms, made with the Southern Ice Porcelain - a material described as having ‘the whiteness of snow and translucent of ice'. In fact, he used Southern Ice Porcelain to make Tasmania’s wedding gift to Mary Donaldson and Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark.In this episode, you’ll hear about Les’ experiments in the early days, why he went from ceramics maker to porcelain producer, and how Australia’s first national craft association was founded.The Australia Design Centre made Les Blakebrough its very first Living Treasure: Master of Australian Craft in 2004. His Living Treasures exhibition toured nationally until 2007.Les Blakebrough lives on Dharawal Country in the Illawarra region of NSW.uestsGrace Cochrane AM is a writer, curator and historian.Ben Richardson is a ceramics artist and runs Ridgeline Pottery Tasmania. He studied under Les, taught alongside him and was a co-researcher on Southern Ice Porcelain.Anne Ferran is one of Australia’s leading photographic artists. Anne is also Les Blakebrough's partner.Show highlights and takeawaysStudying under the Australian 'masters’ of ceramics – Peter Rushforth and Mollie Douglas [5:30 mins]Les Blakebrough went to art school at East Sydney Technical College to study painting, in the 1950s. He says, "I wanted to be a painter and sadly, I was in love with the idea of being a painter. It didn't gel." Les made the fortuitous switch to ceramics, at a time when iconic teachers led the department. Peter Rushforth (1920–2015) was a master potter largely responsible for introducing ancient Japanese ceramic traditions to Australia. Mollie Douglas (1920 – 2011) was a founding member of the Potters' Society of New South Wales, along with Peter Rushforth.Early experiments with Col Levy [6:45 mins]Les met Col Levy at art school. Col had originally trained as a manual arts teacher, and studied pottery at East Sydney Technical College (now the National Art School) in Sydney in 1956. Les says, "There was a kind of chemistry that was involved that Col Levy introduced me to, and we had a collaboration going. We were desperately trying to make high temperature, stoneware and porcelain and Levy and I would sort of do these experiments, trying to make reduced glazes. And the kilns weren't set up to do it. "Inventing an Australian-made, exportable porcelain [11:00 mins]Through the 1970s and 1980s, Les felt the white clay he was using "never quite came up to the mark."He wanted a clay you could knead, throw well, and handle easily. Most of all, Les wanted it "very white. I wanted it to be whiter than

Jeweller Marian Hosking makes silver brooches, necklaces and vessels that are translations of the Australian bush. Hear why Marian thinks that souvenirs are underrated; the reason she still makes brooches and how she co-founded the iconic Melbourne open access jewellery space, Workshop 3000.Marian Hosking is an award-winning artist, and is former Head of Jewellery at Charles Sturt University, The Riverina College of Advanced Education and Art Design and Architecture at Monash University.Marian Hosking collects, draws or takes photos of Australian plants and flowers to make silver objects like brooches, necklaces and vessels. She often oxidises and heats the silver to blacken it. Using techniques of drilling and sawpiercing, Marian's work is delicate but strong, detailing fragments of the Australian bush.The Australian Design Centre honoured Marian as a Living Treasure in 2007.Marian lives and works on the ancestral lands of the Boon Wurrung people, on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria.GuestsKatie Scott is the Director of Gallery Funaki. www.instagram.com/galleryfunakiSu San Cohn is the co-founder of Workshop 3000 and is one of Australia's finest jewellers and metalsmiths. She is an Australian Design Honouree and represented by Anna Schwartz Gallery.Show highlights and takeawaysThe Australian bush isn't all the same [4:04 mins]For Marian, the Australian Bush is never the same. She likes to draw attention to something you think you know, like an ordinary gum leaf, and isolate a single element or a particular quality.In the first lockdown, Marian thought there was no point in making [4:38 mins]When Melbourne and regional Victoria went into extended lockdowns in 2020, Marian thought, "There's no point in making anything because there's already too much of everything in the world. And making things is just a waste of time and space."She stopped making for a time, but kept up with other parts of her practice, like closely observing nature, sketching and taking photos of local plant and bird life.Swans got Marian making again [4:54 mins]Lockdown restricted movement to 5km from your home. Luckily for Marian, she could regularly visit the Tootgarook Swamp, a peat regenerating wetland on the Mornington Peninsula that's home to birds, animals and frogs."And I noticed the swans, the black swans. I've worked over a number of years with swans, in England and Australia, the black and the white. These swans and little baby cygnets were just so appealing." Marian has just finished a vessel depicting these swans and credits them for getting her making again.Rejecting 'sentimental' as a derogatory term [6:28 mins]"In fine art terms, being sentimental or a souvenir is often a derogatory term," Marian says. "Actually what I do is both souvenir and sentimental. And I really value both of those aspects of my making. I love the souvenir."She says another reason that jewellery is

Lola Greeno is an award winning Tasmanian Aboriginal shell worker and artist. Lola uses maireener shells, sometimes called rainbow kelp shells to make shell necklaces. It's the oldest continuing cultural practice in Tasmania. Learn about the role of insects in making a traditional shell necklace, how Lola creates for kids as well as adults, and what she wants every Tasmanian Aboriginal woman to know.The Australian Design Centre recognised Lola Greeno as a Living Treasure: Master of Australian Craft in 2014. She lives and works on Palawa land in the north of Tasmania. Lola Greeno is an elder of the Truwana people from Cape Barren Island.GuestsLola Greeno https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lola_Greeno&nbsp;and&nbsp;https://handmark.com.au/artist/lola-greeno/Stephen Goddard, Graphic Designer, Curator and Lecturer who curated Lola's Living Treasures exhibition https://goddard.net.au/Richard Mulvaney, former Director of the Queen Victoria Museum &amp; Art Gallery, where Lola's Living Treasures exhibition was exhibited. QVMAG later acquired the exhibition. https://www.qvmag.tas.gov.au/Show highlights and takeawaysYa Pulingina&nbsp;[3:39 mins]Lola Greeno uses palawa kani language to greet Lisa Cahill.&nbsp;Ya Pulingina means hello, or welcome.Shell necklace&nbsp;making is&nbsp;unique to Tasmanian Aboriginal women.&nbsp;[4:50 mins]Shell necklace making is the oldest continuing cultural practice in Tasmania.The traditional necklace was threading the King Maireener shell, the biggest of the species of the Maireener in Tasmania. Lola refers to&nbsp;old images of the tribal men&nbsp;wearing shell necklaces, as well as photos of&nbsp;Fanny Cochrane Smith,&nbsp;the last surviving fluent speaker of any Tasmanian Aboriginal language.Back six generations&nbsp;[7:36 mins]Lola remembers her mother's grandmother making shell necklaces, and believes it went back about six generations. Lola learned from her own mother, how to go and pick the Maireeners from the seaweed the traditional way, and to 'rot out' and put them in jars outside, under a tree.Protecting Maireener shells&nbsp;[9:36 mins]Lola stresses the importance of not over-collecting the Maireener shells. She always leaves some there for it to re-breed, as they breed over a twelve month cycle that finishes at the end of April.Mother-daughter patterns&nbsp;[11:57 mins]Lola's first exhibition was with her mother, in a commerical gallery in Brisbane. She said it was the start of her becoming a maker. "Mum was very excited and she got me excited about us working together." The very first shells she made with her mother were 'mother-daughter patterns'.Rice, toothy, penguin and gull shells&nbsp;&nbsp;[14:27 mins]When Tasmanian Aboriginal women started to use needles to make necklaces, they also experimented using diferent shells - such as the&nbsp;<a...

Meet&nbsp;seven&nbsp;creative Australians who've&nbsp;dedicated their lives to mastering ceramics, jewellery, metal and textiles. Why does their work matter? How do they keep going? How does working in Australia impact their work? What’s their advice for makers now?&nbsp;&lt;p&gt;Prue Venables, Jeff Mincham, Lola Greeno, Liz Williamson, Les Blakebrough, Marian Hosking and Robert Baines&nbsp;are recognised by the Australian Design Centre as&nbsp;'Living Treasures'&nbsp;because of their contributions to contemporary craft and design. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In Season 1 of&nbsp;Object:&nbsp;Stories in design and craft,&nbsp;find out what makes them tick, how they've mastered their craft, and how they advocate for craft and design in Australia.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;