Swamp Cartography jewels at the Brisbane Institute of Art

A selection of jewellery works by Rebecca Ward from Swamp Cartography are on display at The Brisbane Institute of Art until 11 October.



Gallery 9.30am to 4.00pm, Monday to Saturday, from Saturday 1 to Tuesday 11 October; closed on Sundays

Swamp Cartography book available

The book of the project is now available to purchase online. I'd like to say that each purchase comes with one of Shannon's gorgeous scribbly gum yunomis (cups) but I'm afraid you will need to purchase these separately!

It includes an essay by Dr Tamsin Kerr , written meanderings from Shannon and Rebecca and many beautiful photographs that we took on field trips, photographs of the processes that we used and of the finished pieces.
We asked Tamsin to write an essay for us after the inspiring speech she gave at the opening of Swamp Cartography earlier this year in Gympie which seemed to capture exactly what we were trying to convey. It was rewarding to hear our intentions so clearly articulated in Tamsin's prose and follow the threads of her research. That she has put our work into a broader context of women artists working in the wallum and with environmental themes was most gratifying to us!

The book can be purchased in soft or hardcover from this site:
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/2443426

Wallum Glass Earrings

Yummy new silver and glass sandblast-resist earrings depicting sundews, clouds, leptospermum and scribbly gum by Rebecca and Shannon - Launching at Botanical Gardens, Mt Coot-tha 17- 18 September.

Beautiful new photos of leptospermums and scribbly gums

From Lucy's photoshoot... Gorgeous photos by Shannon Garson

Swamp Cartography Brisbane exhibition

Event: Swamp Cartography: notes in sliver and clay.

Exhibition and sale of jewellery and porcelain artworks.

Venue: Richard Randall Art Studio, Brisbane Botanic Gardens, Mount Coot-tha

Date: Saturday 17 September and Sunday 18 September 2011

Time: 10am – 4pm each day

The Botanic Gardens, Mount Coot-tha provides a perfect venue to appreciate Rebecca Ward and Shannon Garson’s Swamp Cartography before it travels to future venues in Queensland and the ACT.

Swamp Cartography ceramic work wins award!

Wallum Mapping – Diurnal Variation

Shannon won highly commended at the Noosa Travelling Scholarship awards with her stunning work Wallum Mapping – Diurnal Variation. News article here . Congratulations Shannon!

Touring Exhibition Dates

Tour Dates

Brisbane

September 17^th and 18^th 2011

9am-5pm

Richard Randall Studio,

Mt Cootha Botanical Gardens, Brisbane

Redcliffe

1 - 25 February 2012

Redcliffe City Art Gallery

470 - 476 Oxley Ave

Redcliffe

Noosa

10 May-24^th June 2012

Noosa Regional Gallery

Pelican St, Level 1 Riverside, Tewantin

Canberra

July- August 2012

Australian National Botanic Gardens,

Clunies Ross St. Acton ACT

Sun Infusion

Since the opening of Swamp Cartography at Gympie in February we have been busy sending work around the country. These sunset lit Wallum Glass Pendants are resist painted and diamond point engraved by Shannon Garson and depict delicate Leptospermum flowers and Forked Sundews on our subtle palette of recycled and new sandblasted glass. The colours change throughout the day and into the night as we laminated 2 different layers of colour and softened the edges in a kiln.We've now stocked Pomme in Victoria, Sturt in NSW and Artisan in QLD with the glass pieces and I've also sent out new cuttlefish cast and etched silver pieces to these places.

I stopped on the way back from an early morning airport drop-off at the beautiful Ewan Maddock dam at the bottom of the hill where I live and found a landscaped wallumy garden and system of lagoons. Unlike many dams in our area vegetation had been permitted to grow right to the very edge of the water and even beyond in a swampy lush edge that was difficult to define. While it has the misfortune to parallell the highway, this did not deter the whitetailed water rats that I saw frolicking in the reeds. After the rain there was an explosion of coral ferns
and the scribbly gums had just shed their scrolls of writings on the past season of inundations. The pouched coral fern was thick and scratchy and I was able to get some new photos for etching.

All ready for me to use in new jewels for Swamp Cartography at Brisbane Mt Cootha Botanical Gardens 17-18 September.

Slingshot Necklace

Sticks and stones
And cuttlefish bones

One of my new necklaces spinning off from Swamp Cartography.

Porcelain, Glass and an Old Barn- Gympie Road Trip

Last Saturday I drove the back way to Gympie for the opening of "Swamp Cartography".
I love driving through the golden afternoon light, the paddocks flying by, the girls in the back seat chattering about their day and taking mini naps.
We stopped to take photos of this beautiful barn. The crossroads were deserted, all we could hear was the wind in the grass and we were surrounded by the sweet, spicy smell of the afternoon sun on the fields.

For the exhibition we borrowed an old cedar table from a friend and set up a "collectors table" with all our tools and impressions laid out.



The "Swamp Bubbles" looked great in a gallery under real lights

Swamp Cartography The Movie!

Here it is. Swamp Cartography -The Movie!

Swamp Cartography OPENING in Gympie

Opening this Saturday!

...the final countdown

The Swamp Cartography collaboration is entering a white hot, nerve-wracking, exciting phase as the travelling exhibition begins on the 26th of February at the Gympie Regional Gallery.Exhibition design has never been my strong point and mostly I just opt for white plinths deluding myself that they somehow appear "Classic". We had a very fruitful visit last weekend from Australian ceramicist and teacher Janet de Boos (this doesn't really describe her fabulousness as a supporter and encourager and inspirer of literally hundreds of students, artists and teachers over the past decades) who gently but insistently prodded us into the uncomfortable process of examining our assumptions. This is a process that is totally absent from the everyday studio practice. Compared to my own very gentle examining of my aesthetic motivations Janet's was positively brutal! It was worth enduring the discomfort as Janet's questions forced me to think carefully about every aspect of the exhibition space, how to make it dynamic and how to pare down the ideas until every aspect of the space is resolved so the exhibition becomes an experience drawing the audience into the beauty and isolation of the wallum. This process is so valuable it is worth enduring the discomfort and the exhibition will be a cracker with not a white plinth in sight!

The exhibition commences in Gympie and will trundle on it's way over the next two years encompassing a film launch in Brisbane at the Botanical Gardens in September, an exhibition at the Museum of Brisbane in October , Noosa and Canberra, and Melbourne in 2012....with more to come.

$18 000

The auction of ceramics for Flood Relief raised over $18 000!!!!!!! This is an incredible number when applied to contemporary ceramics. Thanks to Vipoo and all the artists who took part and thanks to all the generous supporters who bid for the pieces.

Stormy Weather

There is a severe thunderstorm warning issued for parts of the south east.
A thick band of storms...

Torrential rain and flash flooding. People are advised to take shelter.
I wonder what is beyond that thick wall of water falling from the sky?

Did I see a glimmer?
Rain easing.

Scattered showers.
Sun Ah.

Underneath the storm is like walking under a waterfall into another world.

These 4 brooches about storms sweeping across the Wallum were created during the recent floods when we received about half a meter of thundery rain in 4 days and the side of the hill slipped away. Making them was difficult, the first batch lost to rising waters and when I was seperated from my etching bath for way too long. After that I was too careful with the etching and achieved conservative and boring results. Despondency.

So I pretended to be a risk taker and put the bath in the hot sun which had finally emerged. Forgetting about it, I discovered these rugged results some hours later. Weathered brooches. Eroded by the torrents of rain and beaten by the sun. Plucked to safety minutes before total disintergration.