Jewellery fundraising auctions reminder

Okay now. It wouldn’t do for anyone to forget that there are TWO, yes TWO, jewellery auctions in the coming weeks.

Next Wednesday: 9th May
NMIT Jewellery fundraising Auction [facebook page]; “The Advanced Diploma students of 2012 present to you an exciting opportunity to purchase exquisite handmade pieces of jewellery at exceptional prices. Crack open your piggy bank, get your bidding arm ready and help them raise funds for their Graduate Exhibition.“

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The following Wednesday: 16th May
Box Hill Institute silent jewellery auction

auction media

Jewellery ahoy!!

NMIT graduates ‘Auteur’ @ Northcote Town Hall

It’s that time of year – many graduate exhibitions to visit.

The NMIT graduate (Advanced Diploma of Engineering Technology (Jewellery), 2yrs) exhibition is ‘Auteur‘ at the Northcote Town Hall.

image taken with permission

Participating artists are: Emilia Athanasiadis, Katia Di Crescenzo, Emily Jane Edwards, Maximillian Egan, Tatiana Torres Garcia, Carla Garro [site], Maha Ghobrial [site; particularly liked the enamelled neckpiece], Rayin Haining, Jayde Hollingworth, Kate Jungwirth [site; her pieces were quiet and beautifully made], Carole Kernohan, Jenny Maynard, Rikki Moore, Rebecca Munn, Asha Nicholas, Larah Nott, Stephanie Putker, Chanittha (Gibby) Satitphat, Penny Scallan, Siobhan Elise Schembri, Paula Slutskin, Chloe Smith [blog], Rhiannon Smith, Michelle Stewart [site], Khanittha (Karen) Suwitthayaporn, Ilze Svarcs [site], Jessica Helen Travassoros [site], Chi Trung Trinh, Henrietta Walker, Joel Walton [I really liked his 'Orbit' piece, and think it'd look great as an object], Robert Withall.

image taken with permission

I wrote in my review post on the last NMIT exhibition of the different focuses of NMIT and RMIT. I don’t want to repeat myself, but it’s hard not to notice – especially when I visit the exhibitions on the same day. The most obvious observation is that the NMIT exhibition has so much more highly polished metal (not a finish I like unfortunately).

image taken with gallery permission

If you’re interested, check out my post on last year’s exhibition ‘Forge‘.

I’ve seen so much art today, I have art fatigue!!

‘Auteur‘ is at Northcote Town Hall until 27th November 2011.

Short courses in Melbourne

I’ve mentioned before that prior to studying Gold & Silversmithing at RMIT I undertook evening courses at The Goldsmith School in Brisbane.

Since finishing by RMIT degree, I have also done some evening courses at CAE and NMIT.

My opinion of these are as follows:

• Goldsmiths School (2000/01): LOVED it; strongly recommend this school to anyone in Brisbane; the teachers are knowledgeable, and lovely to work with, and the structure of their courses is exceptional; I’ve said it before, but I don’t know how I would have coped at RMIT if I hadn’t learnt the foundational hand skills at this school
• CAE (2010): really didn’t like it; I tried two courses but abandoned both after the first night; the facilities are more than disappointing; when I was there there was only one torch for the whole class … seriously; this isn’t anywhere near adequate (hopefully it’s improved since then); I would not recommend going here (from my personal experience anyway)
• NMIT (2009/10): really enjoyed the facilities; I did the leisure class and this was run in parallel to the beginners class, and I liked what I saw of the organisation and the approach; the only inconvenience is that the Fairfield campus is not too easy to reach on public transport

I’d really like to create a listing of the best short courses in Melbourne for jewellery making – can you recommend where you’ve been or heard is good?

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NMIT Auction

Last night was the NMIT jewellery auction. I had a great time with two lovely friends – sadly though, not one of us was able to walk away with the ‘silent auction’ pieces we each had our eye on…

pieces for auction

It was impressively organised – registration at the front desk, bidding numbers, a great agenda (though ambitious with their timing – they were approximately half an hour late to the intermission; but I can understand how easy it is to underestimate how long an auction can take) and program with colour photographs.

The space is good – perhaps an alternative for RMIT to consider??

Just one thing – it would have been great to have an online blog or site for preview … but it would not have changed anything about my choice to go, I’d still have gone … but I just may have spent longer coveting and planning on just how much I was willing to spend.

The most amazing part of the night was a neckpiece I spotted on first-year NMIT jeweller student Anita Crowther – just incredible!

Anita Crowther piece; photograph taken with artist permission

Anita told me that she learnt to crochet especially to make this piece – that’s committment people! And she confirmed a thought I’d had when I first saw it – she had been thinking about the movie ‘The Red Shoes‘ and also reading a book about red shoe(s) (I hope I have that right) …

Amazing yes?! From a distance it looked like sculpted coral …

NMIT jewellery auction – tonight!

auction invitation; used with permission

See you there?!
Update (12th May) : yes, the image is smaller now …

NMIT Graduates ‘Forge’ @ Northcote Town Hall

If you want to see an absolutely magnificent graduate jewellery exhibition, make sure you make time to get along to the Northcote Town Hall to see the NMIT Graduate and second year student’s exhibition ‘Forge‘.

I am always impressed by the professionalism and handskills of the NMIT graduate shows [last year's review is here and their auction review is here].

installation; photograph taken with permission

It’s interesting to compare the RMIT and NMIT exhibitions, as I’ve seen them so close together it’s hard not to… I’ve said before that the focus at NMIT on handskills is well-known, and the exhibition really does show this. That’s not to say that handskills aren’t in evidence at the RMIT exhibition, but the consistency is more obvious at NMIT. And it’s certainly not a reflection on the abilities of the respective students, but more the focus of the institutions.

I was presented with a beautifully produced booklet upon walking into the NMIT exhibition, for free. How wonderful. It wasn’t just me, everyone was … I’m not that famous!

installation; photograph taken with permission

Artists exhibiting this year are below (in alphabetic order). I’ve added their links, where I didn’t have them before, to my links page.

• Ryuta Amagasa [website]
• Anny Apostoplidis – thread-festooned bowls are spectacular
• Annie Broadway [website] – Circle object was my favourite piece in the show
• Renae Burton
• Vanessa Caruso [website] – hatpins my friend and I very much liked
• Anastasia Chiappalone
• Eleni Coroneos – hairclips were a fantastic shape, but with short hair a brooch would have been better for me (I did consider taking one home before realising)
• Laura Eyles
• Sophie Ferriroli – incredible silversmithing is on show in the arresting chastity item as you enter the room (forefront in above image)
• Paige Fountain [website]
• Fatima Grant
• Cemil Jimmy Gulasi
• Joanna Harris-Macneil – pale blue enamelled earrings I thought were lovely (though I don’t wear earrings)
• Paolo Hernandez-Camargo
• Carly Jacobs [website]
• Jacqueline Joosen
• Emma Luke [website] – her striking Metropolis-esque neckpieces unfortunately were not published in the booklet
• Nichola Prendergast
• Kim Russell
• Anjila Singh – little bowls were lovely
• Giao Tran – who we got to speak to on the day of our visit
• Naomi Walsh
• Luna Zucchi [website] – rings were the subject of intense trying-on and buying-musing of a fellow gallery visitor when I was there

installation; photograph taken with permission

Huge congratulations to the artists!

‘Forge‘ is at Northcote Town Hall until 21st November 2010 – that’s only this weekend, make sure you go!