Have you started preparing for Christmas? Are you looking for something extra special for your table or your tree this year? Begin the shopping season by selecting a unique item or two to brighten your home. There isn't a better way to decorate in style than with beautifully handcrafted items that you won't find anywhere else.
The Craft ACT Shop is overflowing with an abundance of exquisite products, created and supplied by local artists and designers, perfect for the occasion. Prepare for Christmas with a perennial timber tree designed and produced by local furniture designer, Tom Skeehan, or add an assortment of one-of-a-kind decorations to your collection. Ready your table for the season's feast with a selection of handcrafted glasses, ceramic cups and beakers, a designer platter, a handcrafted glass teapot, timber serving utensils, or an iconic F!NK wine chiller.
Start making your wish list, support local craft and design, and celebrate the festive season at Craft ACT: Craft and Design Centre. The Eat Drink Share shopping season will run until Thursday 22 December 2011.
Are you looking for a special gift but aren't sure what to buy? Surprise them with a gift voucher to purchase a unique hand-crafted present from the Craft ACT Shop.
An example of some of the products now available are pictured to the right (top to bottom):
Danyka van Buuren, Teacup ring, $110.00 each
Danyka graduated from the ANU School of Art in 2010 and her work continues to explore shapes and forms using vintage plastics from abandoned mass-produced objects in her production series of 'Teacup rings'. These rings are constructed from the handles of second-hand melamine teacups which were in production in Australia between the 1950s-1970s. She buys the cups from op-shops, garage sales and estate sales.
Megan Jackson, Handprinted scarf, $50.00
Megan Jackson graduated from the ANU School of Art in 2008 winning a number of awards for her graduating work including the Design Institute of Australia's Graduate of the Year Awards NSW/ACT - Best Use of Colour, a residency at Megalo Print Studios and an exhibition at the Belconnen Community Gallery as part of the Emerging Artist Award Scheme. She continues to produce a collection of hand screenprinted textiles, homewares and scarves.
www.meganjackson.com.au
Peter Minson, Glass teapots, from $75.00 each
Peter Minson has a studio, gallery and cafe, Peter Minson Art Glass in Binalong, a small village 95km northwest of Canberra where he creates lovely objects and teach glass to those who want to experience the magic of his everyday world. You can see exquisite, unique, hand-blown decorative and functional art-glass and be mesmerized by glassblowing as it happens.
www.minsonartglass.com
Sarit Cohen, Ceramic cups, $90.00 each
Sarit Cohen's simple forms are exquisitely populated with applied designs and carved motifs which speak of a range of sources - Islamic architecture, the Hebrew language, Chinese decorative symbols - to name a few. Cohen's inclusion of this complexity of signs and simplicity and directness of form, beautifully and subtly encompasses her own life experience.
Deborah Fiori, Earrings, $210.00 per pair
Deborah Fiori completed a Bachelor of Education at the University of Melbourne before completing her Bachelor of Fine Art Honour (Gold & Silversmithing) at RMIT. She has exhibited in various galleries around Melbourne and was selected as a Fresh! Craft Victoria Multiplex Award participant in 2000. She has won various awards including the Kodak Award for best third year student at RMIT.
Margaret Brown, Porcelain bowls, from $60.00 each
Porcelain is Margaret Brown's preferred medium; she is drawn to it for its pureness and translucency, with her creations possessing strong connections to early domestic forms. Brown adds colour to the porcelain prior to throwing each piece, which adds to the essence of movement in each individual design. Colour is diffused externally and internally within each unique creation, inspired by the idea of capturing the movement of the clouds as they drift by.
View Margaret's Accredited Professional Member portfolio
Cardog Designs, Vintage flower earrings, $51.00 per pair
Sharon Cornthwaite of Cardog Designs is drawn to projects that rearrange the everyday in to little bits of wearable fun. She enjoys the how and what, choosing to ignore the why... All of Cardog Designs products are made in the studio in Bega using semi precious stones, precious metals, found objects and vintage bits in unusual combinations. Sharon's playful designs are individual, unique and one-of-a-kind.
www.cardogdesigns.com.au
Barbara Rogers, Silk shibori cushions, $120.00 each
Barbara Rogers is a textile designer, based in Sydney, with over 20 years experience in textile design and fashion. She has developed unique contemporary methods from Japanese shibori techniques and has particular interest in selective bleaching and dyeing, in building up layers of both colour and design.
www.barbararogers.com.au
F!NK, Neck piece, $88.00
F!NK products are designed by Australian artists. Most of the manufacturing processes occur in the F!NK studio and each object is individually hand finished which results in an object embedded with its own unique characteristics — more like a piece of art. Founded in 1993 to manufacture beautifully-designed and innovative household objects, F!NK is not just a showcase for Foster's internationally-renowned exhibition pieces, but a production house for the work of an increasing pool of young designers, and a name synonymous with spirited and distinctive Australian design.
www.finkdesign.com
Alison Jackson, Condiment spoon, $199.50
Alison Jackson graduated from the ANU School of Art in 2008 winning a number of awards for her graduating work including the National Gallery of Australia Shop Award as part of the Emerging Artist Award Scheme and the Silver Society of Australia Inc. Contemporary Silver Award. Jackson has gone on to be awarded the 2010 Excellence in Craftsmanship, Challenging Construction and Resolution. She produces unique hollowware which is individually hand raised and fuses functionality with a distinctive aesthetic to create a range of contemporary tableware pieces.
www.alisonjackson.com.au
Dimity Kidston, Ceramic beakers, $54.60 each
Since Graduating from University of Sydney, Dimity Kidston has worked as a tapestry weaver and designer, completing many tapestry commissions for restaurants, private collections and exhibitions. In 2003 she established Wagtail Designs a ceramic home wares business and shop. Wagtail designs produce individually hand carved porcelain beakers and silk screened towels uniquely designed to compliment a broad range of décor. Wagtail designs has been operating for five years and their designs have been well received both Australia wide and internationally.
www.dimitykidston.com
Gilbert Riedelbauch, Centre square red platter, $900.00
Using the old together with the new calls for new design solutions and informs the resulting objects. Traditional silversmithing techniques interact with digital fabrication and the virtual space feels like an extension to Riedelbauch's workshop. The resulting objects are one-off finished objects or prototypes to be produced in small scale manufacture. Riedelbauch finds that the pleasure is in the making, wherever and however it happens.
www.behance.net/riedelbauchg/frame
Kate Ward Design, Shibori silk stole, $240.00
Kate has been working in art and design for over ten years having graduated from the Textiles Workshop at the ANU School of Art in 1998. In 1999 she was awarded a residency at Megalo Print Studio and undertook an exchange with Kyoto Seika University in Japan through the ANU exchange program in 2000. Her experience in Japan informed a body of work and as a result held a solo exhibition at the Goulburn Regional Art Gallery. Since then Kate has been awarded the inaugural Emerging Artist Award by Fibrearts International Biennale, USA, and first prize in the City of Redcliffe Excellence in Craft Award, Australia and her work is represented in a number of national and international collections.
www.kateward.com.au
Sylvia Marris, Ceramic vessels, $50.00 each
Sylvia Marris is an emerging ceramic artist who graduated from the ANU School of Art in 2010. She was the recipient of the Emerging Artist Support Scheme at the Canberra Potters Society in 2011. Sylvia utilised this opportunity by investigating various firing methods and abstract surface decoration, exploring the Arboretum as a theme for her slip cast, carved and burnished pots.
Evan Dunstone, Cascade Rocking Chair, $6,545.00
Evan Dunstone is the driving force behind Dunstone Design. Evan was trained and mentored by David MacLaren of the world renowned Bungendore Wood Works Gallery. Evan created Dunstone Design in 1998 after David's workshop tragically burned down. For four and a half years Dunstone Design operated out of the excellent workshop of Uneke Furniture in Bungendore before setting up in Queanbeyan in October 2003. Dunstone Design specialises in original contemporary chairs.
www.dunstonedesign.com.au
Bungendore Wood Works Gallery Bungendore Wood Works Gallery specialises in exhibiting and promoting Australian made wood art, sculpture, craft and contemporary furniture of a very high standard from the country's foremost designer/makers in wood. The Gallery is one of the most successful specific purpose arts and craft galleries in the world. The driving force and Artistic Director of the Gallery, has been working with wood for over forty years.
www.bwoodworks.com.au