Billabong: Australian craft stories
Image from Reclaim the Void
Enjoy the amazing stories of Australian culture-makers, who keep stories live across what wide brown land.
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Steal This ✿ Melissa Cameron confesses to her role in a lawless jewellery gang - Melissa Cameron tells the story behind Melbourne's radical street jewellery scene of the 2000s.
Ten Thousand Suns spotlights the technologies of First Nations peoples through craft - Pamela See reflects on the craft works in the 24th Sydney Biennale.
Sana Balai ✿ A champion of inclusivity for International Women’s Day - Pamela See creates a papercut installation in honour of a woman who has helped acknowledge the diverse communities of Logan City.
The World returns to Charters Towers - The Charters Towers' Wall of History returns past glory to a legendary country town.
Industry relief: The Newport Railway Workshop Project - Geoff Hogg recounts a poignant public art project to honour the treasured history of a railway workshop
Petersham Escarpment: The mountain comes to the city - Through the mysterious alchemy of the kiln, Simon Reece brings the landscape of the majestic Blue Mountains to an inner urban plaza.
Walking in the expanded field of jewellery - Roseanne Bartley recounts a series of pathfinding projects that take jewellery to and from the streets.
The Big Build: Industry by needlepoint - Jessie Deane honours the ugly but beautiful industrial landscape around her, stitch by stitch.
Measuring up: Public art in Queensland through a craft lens - Pamela See writes about public works by Brian Robinson, Bruce Reynold and Judy Watson where the making is part of the message.
Street Sweepers: Adornment for outside care - Anke Kindle pays homage to the invisible labour of street cleaners with a jewellery practice that turns brushes into jewels.
Michelle Hamer helps us all slow down - Michelle Hamer reflects on two decades of making tapestries that lovingly render the emptiness of our urban road signs.
A “bin chicken” redemption - Napam is a street artist who lends her unique migrant perspective to walls for everyone to enjoy.
The healing wall - Through her wall mosaic, Jane du Rand brings the healing power of the Spring Mountain White Rock Conservation Estate to the Ipswich Mental Health Unit.
Chloë Waddell ✿ Make a dream home - Inspired by New York cityscapes, Chloë Waddell has developed a practice of memorialising domestic havens.
Crafting entrails to recover forgotten worlds - Dana Falcini recounts the alchemy in the hands-on transmutation of hog intestine into unique and precious objects.
Duncan Meerding ✿ A light touch - Duncan Meerding's furniture and lighting are crafted with a precise touch, reflecting his vision of frayed light.
Touchstones:The sensual work of studio potter Jane Sawyer - Carolyn Leach-Paholski reflects on the pleasures at hand of a slow ceramics.
Nikki Hind ✿ A feel for fashion - Nikki Hind recounts her journey as a blind fashion designer who profiles the feel of clothes.
Marta Figueiredo ✿ Elementary Abacus - Marta Figueiredo tells us about one of her remarkable multi-sensory works that brings together all five senses in an experiential feast.
Jess Dare ✿ Handful of flowers - Adelaide jeweler Jess Dare explores the dialogue of ephemerality and metal in a collection of floral works in brass.
Ground: Thinking and Feeling with the Earth - Saskia Gilmour finds nature bursting through the cracks in a Brisbane exhibition.
Weaving to the beat - Sara Lindsay shares her experience of the unique sounds made in the weaving process.
Bringing gamelan to the west - Neil McLachlan recounts the development of a new version of the gamelan instrument adapted to the mobile Western lifestyle while keeping true to the Indonesian musical scale.
sounds of clay and me, making - Toni Warburton describes the sounds that orchestrate her work in ceramics. 
Round and round we go: Echoes of protest in sound and weaving - Jan Nelson speaks about the making of sound and woven works that reflect the fraught history of protest.
My lockdown Tonbak: A homemade industrial musical heritage - Through re-igniting the spirit of Industrial music alongside the emerging experimental Iranian music, Jahan Rezakhanlou innovated homemade Iranian percussion during the COVID lockdowns.
David Ray ✿ Four Treasons - Our June laurel is awarded to David Ray for his Four Treasons series of figurines that update the bucolic Staffordshire genre.
Notes on sound and making: 02 On hearing and listening - Gary Warner writes about ways of achieving quietude such as the Center for Deep Reading.
The Magill commission: Ceramics to savour - Lauren Murphy's tableware commission met precise criteria of aesthetics, functionality, and durability.
Sensing resonance: Interview with Marikuku Wirrpanda yiḏaki maker - Marikuku Wirrpanda and János Kerekes introduce the yiḏaki (didgeridoo) of Northeast Arnhem Land and give us insight into the skills and knowledge involved in the creation of this important Australian Aboriginal instrument.
Sound Before Sound I: One and Three Scores - David Chesworth writes about an artwork using piano rolls to reflect on the materialisation of sound in place and time.
Jane DuRand ✿ Walking through landscape, tile by tile - Our March laurel goes to Jane DuRand for an epic installation of tiles that evoke the myriad dimensions of the landscapes she loves to walk through.
Alice Potter ✿ You’re more than just fruit & veg - Mel Young offers a tribute to the Australian jeweller, Alice Potter, whose embroidered ornaments brought joy to so many.
Chefs who make - Lee Tran Lam finds four remarkable chefs who make their own tableware, uniquely crafted for their specialist dishes.
Gilty: Consuming contemporary jewellery - In her audacious exhibition, Claire McArdle invites the audience to consume and destroy her precious jewellery.
Cone Eleven ✿ Crafting a theatre for specialist dining - Ilona Topolcsanyi collaborates with two chefs, demonstrating the creative role of the ceramicist in specialist dining. 
Jayanto Tan ✿ Delights for every palette - Pamela See interviews Jayanto Tan about the role of brightly coloured food in his installations.
Ruth Woods ✿ Finding Form with Fibre - A book on Australian fibre sculpture combines inspiring artist profiles with a useful reference to materials and techniques.
Patterns of Settlement: A kangaroo skin map of Sydney Cove - Beth Hatton pieces together a map of Sydney Cove from kangaroo skin offcuts as a reflection on settlerism.
Vivalto Lungo: Espresso bridal jewellery - We ask Annika Karskens about the origins of her jewellery made from coffee pods.
Plunging into batik with Zahir Widadi - Carla van Lunn received a batik master’s meticulous indigo fabrics which she helped fashion into clothing for Western bodies.
The meaning of yellow - Helen Ting's weaving is inspired by the deep meaning of the colour yellow in Chinese culture.
Artifice as allegory: Sylvia Nakachi investigates evolving Indigeneity in the Torres Strait - Pamela See writes about Torres Strait artist Sylvia Nakachi, whose fibre works recover a pre-contact history.
Of uncertain value: The fragile beauty of epiphytes - Kath Inglis's work reflects the concept "of uncertain value", reflected in the epiphyte jewels carved out of PVC.
The Dirge and the Vital Heat - Nicole Polentas writes about a series of art objects that draw on Aristotle's theory of Vital Heat to reflect on life and death.
The bauxite challenge: Bioregional thinking and place-based making - Kyoko Hashimoto's place-based jewellery practice makes visible the hidden substances that fuel economic growth.
The life cycle of steel - Lindy McSwan’s vessels reflect the beauty of iron remnants as they lie rusting in the landscape.
Jacqueline Rose ✿ Geometry at hand - For Jacqueline Millner, Jacqueline Rose's paper collages humanise geometry and enliven space
Simone Fraser ✿ Re-gendering ritual - Simone Fraser explains why she was drawn to ceramics as a way of feminising the rites of her childhood.
Kelly Austin ✿ Suspended decompositions - Jane Stewart writes about Kelly Austin's ceramics, whose material response to the mined landscape of Queenstown reflects the genre of still life in painting.
Devoted: Adding weight to weaving - Ana Petidis draws on her Greek heritage to revive the spiritual value of weaving.
Julia Gutman ✿ Muses - Elyse Goldfinch, Associate Curator at Artspace, Sydney, looks at the "muse" in Julia Gutman’s textile representations of community and friendship among women, on the occasion of the artist’s debut solo exhibition at Sullivan+Strumpf.
Walking, thinking, making: A weaver in the world - Through six projects, weaver Sara Lindsay interlaces the warp of solitude with the weft of community.
place of not-knowing: on Arrernte Country - pattie beerens enacts a unique ceramics practice that weaves with surrounding nature.
Other Possible Worlds: Threading together Thai communities - Luise Guest writes about an exhibition at 16albermarle Project Space and Delmar Gallery of Thai artists who skillfully and delicately bind together disparate elements of their world.
Victor Meertens: Off Cuts - Gregory Pryor reflects on the career of a sculptor whose drive to dissect the world takes surprising forms, including breadmaking and musical performance.
Subtle cuts: New word sculptures from Ally McKay - Miranda Hine is intrigued by the words cut by Ally McKaly, which reflect the social disjunction of the pandemic.
Kate Harding ✿ Memories to keep you warm - The Unleashed exhibition at Artisan features compelling quilts by Kate Harding that evoke memories of country.
Wattle Park - The yellow wattle blossom is found across the world. Enjoy stories of what we make from this gift of spring. 
Views of Brisbane at hand - Pamela See reviews an exhibition at the Museum of Brisbane that depicts the urban landscape over time through the eyes of first and subsequent peoples.
Avi Amesbury ✿ Our material home - Julie Bartholomew reviews a sensory exhibition of ceramics that connects us to sand, seaweed, ash and other planetary materials.
Nikki Main and Sally Blake ✿ Wood wide web - Nikki Main and Sally Blake share their thoughts that have inspired a series of sublime works which delicately bind space.
Embroidering pugholes - Sera Waters describes how her embroidery brings to the surface the holes dug during settlement that remained as wounds on the landscape.
Australia or Bandaiyan? - Bardi Elder, Aunty Munya Andrews, writes about her people's name for "Australia", which describes a bisexual being.
Jenni Kemarre Martiniello’s Freshwater Saltwater Weave - Mel George writes about Jenni Kemarre Martiniello's glass works that transmogrify ancient fibre forms.
The Outback through Afghan eyes - Jahan Rezakhanlou writes about the painting and poetry of Hazara artist Elyas Alavi as an estuary that connects the experience of Afghan cameleers with Indigenous Australians.
Tonantsintlalli: Our Mother Earth - Desiree Ibinarriaga and David Marcelino Cayetano bring people together through their Nahuatl culture.
The Bung Yarnda Observatorium - For her FLOAT residency, Josephine Jakobi makes work about and with the estuary.
Katheryn Leopoldseder: Ode to restoration - Marian Hosking introduces a jeweller who honours those who sustained the historic nunnery where she works, featuring a rosary for one of its restorers.
Katsugi: Female divers of Japan come up for art - Zoe Devenport writes about an exhibition by Aiko Ohno and Zoe Porter that celebrates the life of female divers in ink and thread
Inner Traces: A dance of three rings - Inner Traces is an elemental dance of metal and flesh. It was performed by Michaela Pegum using only her two hands adorned by three gold rings. She explains how this work came about and what she learnt from it.
Rediscovering the salt of the earth in COVID times - According to Pamela See, Joachim Froese revives the nineteenth-century craft of salt printing to capture the ethos of the COVID-19 epoch.
Glimpses through glass of worlds recently lost - Holly Grace shares the journeys that inspired her homages in glass to a disappearing world
On joining the NFT art mania: Creative liberation or lotacracy - Abdullah M.I. Syed registers a classic Pakistani object as a non-fungible token (NFT) only to re-affirm its value as a real tangible object. 
Wrapping the present within the past - From her Bruny Island home in Tasmania, Janine Combes gathers stray objects where memories live.
The box: A magic object of objects - Beginning with the Japanese animation Spirited Away, Bic Tieu traces her fascination for the magic of the box in Japanese craft and discovers how it connects humans and nature.
Wildfire: Glimpses of art from open train doors - Reviled in its time, Joshua Nash and Tobias Nash find cultural value in Adelaide's graffiti scene of the 1980s documented in a new book.
Pamela Leung’s Red Line Story - Alma Studholme follows the red line and finds both hope and fear in an installation by Pamela Leung.
Sophie Moran ✿ The batter bowl - Sophie Moran dedicates her classic ceramic bowl to the memory of William Morris.
An examined life: Fairweather and China - Stephanie Radok reviews a book about the Australian painter's long engagement with Chinese culture.
The currency basket: Investing in a shared world - Bridget Kennedy creates alternative ways to exchange objects of value.
Piña: Weaving Filipino fibre into the world - Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan returned to the Philippines to work with weavers and embroiderers in recovering the world of piña, pineapple fibre. 
Castlemaine Currency: Towards a grounded economy - Dale Cox and Jodi Newcombe explain the origins and aims of producing coinage from clay for exclusive use within the town of Castlemaine.
Vide Poche: A timeless dish for every day use - Henry Wilson reflects on his iconic coin tray, an indestructible base for our precarious days.
Ivana Taylor ✿ Wrapped with care - Guy Keulemans introduces designer Ivana Taylor, whose work reflects the creative potential of wrapping.
Fresh and salt waters meet in black and white - Claire Grant writes about Brian Robinson and Tamika Grant-Iramu of Zenadth Kes (Torres Strait Islands) heritage, who unite their practices in a confluence of freshwater and saltwater country for the dual exhibition A Carved Landscape: Stories of Connection and Culture.
Pulp Friction: A paper trail from China - Embie Tan Aren writes about Pulp Friction, an exhibition at Queensland's Artisan gallery of paper works by Pamela See, Christine Ko and Yanqiao Jiang.
Julie Paterson ✿ Equanimity trees - Our November laurel is bestowed on a fabric printer in the Blue Mountains who produced painted objects where thoughts could dwell during the pandemic.
Plant Power Sisterhood ✿ Dancing a basket - Migunberri artist Jenny Fraser shares writings from Phoenix Maimiti Valentine and Gabi Briggs in her new anthology, Plant Power Sisterhood.
Reclaim the void: Weaving country whole - Ilka White presents a collaboration between Vivienne Robertson and Kado Muir that seeks to repair country with a giant textile artwork.
Jin ah Jo ✿ A pipeline to Buddha 🇰🇷 - Jeweller Jin Ah Jo shares an intense lockdown journey that transformed infrastructure into adornment (with Korean text).
New Spring, Old Gods: Adornment for the people of the bear - Inari Kiuru shares the Finnish cultural roots that ground her work, reflecting an enchantment of nature. 
Philomena Yeatman ✿ Hairy Men and Little People - Francoise Lane shares the story of Yarrabah artist Philomena Yeatman that inspired a recent collection of ceramic figures.
Gabbee Stolp ✿ Memories in flux - Sarah Stewart finds the work of Tasmanian jeweller Gabbee Stolp reflects the fleeting beauty that flows down the Derwent River.
Pesh boro: Epic weaving from Afghanistan - Australian-based artist Khadim Ali introduces us to his weavers in Kabul, who demonstrate a fortitude characteristic of Hazara culture.
The gate is open: Guan Wei and Jayne Dyer in China - Pamela See (Xue Mei-Ling) considers the lively east-west exchange supported by Beijing's Red Gate Gallery, drawing on the thoughts of Confucius, Plato, Mao Zedong and Edward Said.
Vicki Mason ✿ Wattle it be? - Vicki Mason has created a reversible necklace that activates the bounty of wattle blossom enjoyed across the world in sprinter (late winter, early spring).
Eastern glazes: The provenance of celadon, tenmoku and shino - Sandra Bowkett starts to question her right to use Japanese terms.
Zhuizi: An ordinary dog’s tale - Were netsuke originally from China? Helen Ting discovers an endearing collection of Chinese belt toggles.
Daniel Thomas ✿ Recent Past: Writing Australian Art - Stephanie Radok reviews a collection of writings by the doyen of Australian art history, Daniel Thomas.
Pat Dale ✿ Australian Plants & Fibres as Used by First Nations People - Pat Dale's new book reflects on the heritage of fibre knowledge in Australia.
Closing the circuit: Thinker-Maker residency at Substation 33 - Pamela See reports on her thinker-maker residence with Substation 33 where our recent technological past is repurposed for a better future. 
Zhu Ohmu ✿ 3D-printed by hand - The June Laurel is awarded to Zhu Ohmu, whose coiled ceramic vessels gracefully embody a precarious world.
Kuyu Kuyu: A place for weaving stories and cultural resilience - Delissa Walker talks about the land her uncle reclaimed where she brings female relatives together to weave stories.
Broached Recall: Bringing modernism to the surface - For Lou Weis, a new series of commissions based on early modernist veneers helps critically reflect on the trajectory of modernist design.
Ceramix: Dialogues in clay - Sophia Cai reflects on her curation for the Australian Ceramics Association exhibition at Manly Art Gallery.
Atelier, art school, university: How to teach creativity in the twenty-first century - Seth Ellis argues for new thinking about how craft education can flourish in universities
putiya makara wingani (can’t stop feeling) - Greg Lehman and Camila Marambio dialogue across the Pacific Ocean about the ancient now in Tasmania and the settler future in Chile. 
Heron story - Ilka White is inspired to make work in response to the bird on behalf of whom she speaks.
When the lorikeets call - Storied objects by Elisa Jane Carmichael reflect the enduring synchrony of species on her island of Minjerribah.
Toshizō Hirose ✿ The sentō stamp today - What's the life of a stamp maker in Japan today? We ask Toshizō Hirose, who was commissioned to make a sentō stamp for an exhibition about Japanese bathhouses in Sydney.
Finding your feet: A communal tapestry in full bloom - Jane Theau describes a remarkable textile project she coordinated with Afghani refugees Sayd Abdali and Nasaphah Nasaphah, reflecting how craft can bring together people who are pushed apart by the economic system.
Linda Butcher ✿ Inside the tent in Egypt - An Australian quiltmaker is inspired by Egyptian tentmakers to produce an award-winning coverlet.
Sara Lindsay ✿ Searching for cinnamon - Sara Lindsay takes a boat to the cinnamon island in Sri Lanka, where she is inspired by the work of the cinnamon peeler to weave enduring works of art from the quills.
Sophie Carnell ✿ Gnat orchid - Our December laurel goes to a jeweller based in Bruny Island, Tasmania, for a silver sculpture inspired by the gnat orchid, whose elegant form clings to the land.
Paula do Prado ✿ My abuela’s hands - Paula do Prado shares the story of her family’s epic story from Africa via Uruguay to Australia, as reflected in her intricately threaded creations.
Australia Phoenix: A Cosmology - Susan Purdy takes on a journey into deep time, using the medium of photogram to trace the history of a landscape from creation story to recent devastating bushfires.
Te Hosek’en Harw: The Edge of the World - In consultation with the Selkn’am community, Sol Contardo created ceramic works inspired by their mysterious culture, located in Tierra del Fuego.
No more under the radar: On craft disciplines in universities - Seth Ellis argues that crafts are an essential part of university education, but they need to become more connected with other disciplines.
The Earth and its elements: Wood, fire, earth metal and water - Georgia Wallace-Crabbe's documentaries reflect a monumental dialogue of elemental forces connecting China and Australia.
Blood moon: Ceramics for a fragile planet - Jane Sawyer witnesses a rare astronomical event, which prompts her to consider the planetary nature of the clay in her hands.
Eddy Carroll ✿ A marigold journey - Eddy Carroll applies "wild patience" to the epic embroidery of a marigold garland which gathers together places of the wider world.
What brought Hermie Cornelisse back to pottery - Linda Fredheim interviews legendary Tasmanian potter Hermie Cornelisse about her return to making after a decade working in a shoe shop.
Mary Elizabeth Baron ✿ Passementing the present - Pamela See reviews the Lace exhibition by Mary Elizabeth Baron at Logan Art Gallery, which marks the subsiding of the first COVID-19 wave in Queensland.
Makers making change: Sydney Craft Week 2020 - "Change Makers, our 2020 Sydney Craft Week Festival theme, is as much about making change as it is to the way we respond to changing circumstances", says Lisa Cahill.
Kasih Project ✿ Delivered with love, Indonesia style - Lachlan Blain finds a community initiative that takes the Indonesian spirit of dapur umum, temporary kitchen, to help international students currently stranded in Melbourne.
Kasia Tons ✿ After - Valerie Kirk writes about an artist who used embroidery as a diary to record a lost world that may be our future.
Jumaadi’s garden of shadows - Kevin Murray explores the studio of an Indonesian artist filled with shadows of history, culture, craft and dreams.
A bridge to Indonesia, my second home - Cassandra Lehman reflects on her magical journey through Indonesia, where art extends far beyond the museum.
Maryann Sebasio ✿ Warup drum from Erub island - Our September laurel goes to Torres Strait islander, Maryann Sabiso, who has produced a handsome warup wooden drum that accompanies ceremony and song in her island of Erub.
Peta Kruger ✿ Weaving beauty out of waste - As an act of creative resistance, Peta Kruger processes ugly plastic into fine weavings.
Roseanne Bartley ✿ be in touch - Our August Laurel is awarded to artist-jeweller Roseanne Bartley for a process of making signal rings that embody common thoughts around our current condition.
Ulo ✿ Putting an African face to lockdown - The lockdown offers an opportunity mask up with African prints—umswenko!
Horst Kiechle ✿ Digital weaving inspired by a Thai basket - Selected by Garland contributor Gary Warner, our July laurel goes to Horst Kiechle for his constructed paper object 2020 vPattern Basket.
Mel Young ✿ Mapping the tideline - Mel Young uses jewellery as a way to attach herself to the coast during the lockdown.
Muhubo Suleiman ✿ A home within a home - In her Melbourne flat, Muhubo Suleiman has re-created the aqal, thatched hut, her childhood home in Somalia.
Nyibol Deng ✿ A recycled life - Nyibol Deng uses her African connections to create unique textile products from a combination of recycled jeans and Malawi wax prints.
Make the World Again: Twenty Australian textile artists - An exhibition of Australia textile art renews the power of weaving to bind the world together. 
Annette Fitton ✿ A mob of laced roos - Annette Fitton has yarn-bombed Australia's iconic fauna and unleashed a mob of laced roos on the Italian town of Trivento.
David Bielander ✿ Poking fun in all seriousness - Eli Giannini finds parallels between jewellery and architecture in the poetry of David Bielander's very particular objects.
Overallness: Ian Fairweather’s life in letters - Stephanie Radok finds the letters by painter Ian Fairweather about his life in isolation on an island to be an inspiring companion for these days.
Seikatsu Kogei: The Japanese carpe diem of the arts - Madeleine Thomas finds the embodiment of simple beauty known as Seikatsu Kogei in the presence of woodworker Ryuji Mitani from Matsumoto, Japan.
Life & Death ✿ An exhibition that designs its own demise - Life & Death is an exhibition curated by Dale Hardiman and Tom Skeehan which invites creative practitioners to create work which takes into account its own decay. Designer and researcher Guy Keulemans questions why we cling to objects despite their inevitable ephemerality.
The Shadow Theatre of Anaphoria Island - Gary Warner introduces Kraig Grady's phantasmagoric shadow world of Anaphoria Island, a place no one comes from but anyone can enter.
Seikatsu Kogei: Standard-issue craft - Related to our 生きている工芸 Ikiteiru kōgei (Living craft) issue, this exhibition at the Japan Foundation emphasises the beauty of ordinary handmade objects. 
From Brunswick to Ahmedabad: The Hand/Eye Project - After lentils in Brunswick with LOkesh Ghai, Alasdair Mackinnon and Eddy Carroll are inspired travel to Ahmedabad and make a new range of hand-printed products that match hand and eye.
Primal Casting: From the outdoor studio - Sarra Tzijan recounts the journey to India that led to her work based on traditional Indian casting techniques, made during a residency in Devrai Art Village, Panchgani. 
Christus Nóbrega ✿ Remaking the past with lace - Christus Nóbrega journeyed his ancestral homeland in Brazil and found local lace makers to recover his family history.
Bridget Kennedy ✿ A fragile beauty between the ashes - Our February Laurel goes to Sydney jeweller Bridget Kennedy, for a ring that reflects the tragedy that engulfs Australia in 2019-2020. The ring evokes the geometrical beauty of the beehive, while acknowledging the devastation wrought on the climate by use of fossil fuels.
Nikolina Brown ✿ Pleasure flesh - Our January laurel goes to Nikolina Brown, for a series of sensuous terracotta forms that express female sexuality.
Alice Whish ✿ Works from the Understory - Helen Wyatt describes some of the learnings revealed in the stunning new jewellery series by Alice Whish whose work was inspired by her Bundanon residency.
Philip Faulks ✿ Greek chorus 📽️ - Mark Newbound's film beautifully captures Philip Faulk's meditative papercutting.
The world in a yurt - Dinara Cochunbaeva shares her learnings about Kyrgyz craft, family, culture and cosmology embodied in the yurt. 
Judy Nolan ✿ A knitted revenge on wordiness - A fibre artist takes revenge on convoluted writing with a knitting needle. 
Harry T. Morris ✿ The spirit of fuzei in furniture - Artist in Residence at The Bower Reuse and Repair Centre, Harry T. Morris, is inspired by the Japanese concept of fuzei to use discarded materials in producing furniture of lasting value. We learn the experiences in Japan that inspired this appreciation of fuzei.
Jumaadi ✿ You’re invited to a snakes’ wedding - The Sydney-based Indonesian artist Jumaadi uses the snake as a symbol of a dualistic universe. His intricate painting on buffalo hide imagines a cloud-like form created from two snakes entwining.
Gunybi Ganambarr ✿ Creative industrial - Aluminium mining has been seen as a threat to Yolŋu culture. In collaboration with Stephen Anthony, Gunybi Ganambarr uses this metal to express core values of his culture.
Kyoko Hashimoto ✿ the Musubi necklace - Kyoko Hashimoto's Musubi necklace is a striking example of how a Japanese craft technique can help us appreciate the local quality of another country, in this case the sandstone that defines the Sydney basin.
Sydney Craft Week 2019 ✿ Learning to play & playing to learn - Contemporary jeweller and educator Melinda Young reflects on play, the theme of this year's Sydney Craft Week.
Nicole Robins ✿ It’s all in the loop - The Sydney exhibition Totes Serious…who made your bag features unique baskets from Nicole Robins, made from a common indoor plant.
Paula do Prado ✿ El Grito - Paula do Prado's textile work El Grito expresses a cultural resistance drawing on her African ancestry. 
Carlier Makigawa ✿ Delirious in Uzbekistan - The Melbourne jeweller Carlier Makigawa was inspired by the Islamic architecture of Uzbekistan and produced necklaces that relfect a geometric intricacy of colour and form. Helen Britton adds her analysis of the work.
Zoë Veness ✿ Wayfaring - As our September Laurel, Zoë Veness applies the most delicate of muslin textile to hard metal and produces a texture of trails that weaves a landscape in brass. 
Holly Grace ✿ The Shangri-La of the Jagungal Wilderness - Holly Grace's latest show introduces a theatrical background giving expression to the historical context that underpins her work.
Jarred Wright ✿ Blowing up science - Artisan, Brisbane, has recently been exploring the creative craft dimension of industry. A new exhibition features the artistic output of a scientific glassblower. 
Kinder, Küche, Kirche ✿ New mementos of the Barossa - 11 South Australian artists make works that honour the heritage crafts of the Lutheran German community from the Barossa. 
Please give up your seat for local design - New seat designs were recently announced for Melbourne's trains. As part of our Crafted City campaign, we seek the opinion of Alasdair MacKinnon about the significance of this decision.
The ladybird garden of Chen Ping - Jan Hogan writes about a Tasmanian printmaker of Chinese origin whose work expresses a universal idiom of flowers.
Rainbow Serpent art from Pormpuraaw - Artists from Pormpuraaw share stories of the Rainbow Serpent that inspire their art.
Very peaceful for the ancestors: Chinese memories in the Lambing Flats Folk Museum - Sharon Peoples is struck by the quiet of Chinese students at the Lamming Flats Museum.
How I learned coppersmithing in Gaziantep - Shireen Taweel descends into world of Gaziantep coppersmiths to learn its secrets.
Why a Japanese lacquer master sought a surfing legend - Lacquer is a gift of the ancients that is largely forgotten today. Sachiko Matsuyama is convinced of its value not just for its redolent surface but also as a bond between people and nature. She finds an inspiring future for lacquer in the work of Takuya Tsutsumi, in partnership with an Australian surfboard maker. 
Elisa-Jane Carmichael ✿ Weaving with ancestors - Sally Butler writes about Quandamooka artist Elisa-Jane Carmichael, who interprets her fibre tradition in stunning new forms
A rainbow serpent theory of time - For Tyson Yunkaporta, the rainbow serpent offers an alternative to the circular world of second peoples.
Are you hungry? Jewellery learnings from Shanghai - Vicki Mason reflects on the remarkable support during her time with SanW Gallery and Yiwei Foundation in humid Shanghai.
Deep and shallow time meet in Jingdezhen - Pie Bolton takes Australian relics to Jingdezhen where they are transformed into works of "influence".
“Drifters” in Jingdezhen: Past meets present in the porcelain capital - Luise Guest listens to ceramic artists who draw on the unique energies of Jingdezhen, including Geng Xue, Liu Jianhua, Juz Kitson and Merran Esson.
Robin Best ✿ A tea journey in silver and blue - Antonia Harrison writes about Robin Best's five vase garniture, made in Jingdezhen and telling the story of tea from China.
Sera Waters ✿ Dazzleland - Sera Waters "justice-driven" exhibition stitches together a new canvas for dreams of home in an ancient land.
Objects for the morning ritual - What role can objects play in making a morning ritual? Adelaide designers Daniel To and Emma Aiston have produced a range of objects that are used specifically to start the day. 
Yirran Miigaydhu Aboriginal Women Weavers - The Yirran Miigaydhu weavers exhibition at Cement Fondu profiles the influence of Thawaral artist Phyllis Stewart. 
For Peter Emmett, objects speak - Gary Warner reflects on Peter Emmett as an auteur of exhibitions that make objects speak.
Reflection pods: Yolŋu weavers create a thinking space in Sydney CBD - Lucy Simpson designed a series of spaces for the offices of Westpac in Sydney CBD, which were woven by Yolŋu women from Elcho Island and Milingimbi.
Local colour: The search for a plant dye industry in Sydney Cove - Liz Williamson reveals the importance of natural dyes in the establishment of Sydney as a British colonial settlement.
Crafting the city: The re-emergence of handmade Sydney - Lisa Cahill and Penny Craswell reveal the glimpses of the craft fabric the underpins Sydney today.
An orchid in the desert – the lacquer journey of Bic Tieu - Kevin Murray explores how Bic Tieu uses the medium of lacquer to tell a unique Australian story,
Linda Brescia: Holding Up The Sky - Kath Fries reflects on the work of Linda Brescia who monumentalises and memorialises hidden domestic labour. 
Flamboyance and intensity: Contemporary ceramics of Peter Cooley - Eva Czernis-Ryl writes about the ironic and iconic ceramics of Peter Cooley, made in his Blue Mountains studio.
Creating sanctuary through beading: The South Sudanese Elders group - Caroline Lenette finds herself welcomed with beads into the South Sudanese women's group.
Crafting a community – A year of time, 2017-2018 - Bridget Kennedy outlines the exchange model that underpinned the Year of Time project that explored alternative values for making.
The Hayman jug - The Hayman jug is a craft classic that comes from the Sydney workshop of Ben Edols and Kathy Elliott. We glimpse the making behind the iconic wedding present and discover its greatest fan who inspired it. 
To have and to hold: Precious objects from a place called “home” - Sahr Bashir reports on a paper jewellery project that traces lost and found homes.
Crafting a city, crafting a life, from matter and memory - Peter Emmett reflects on a life gathering handmade objects in a city crafted over time.
The panggals of Kambot and Wom villages: A journey down the Keram river - Natalie Wilson journeys down the Sepik river to the village of Kambot, where she finds the remarkable art of panggal painted boards
Re-locating traditions: Ethiopian crafts in Moorooka, Brisbane - Melanie Gupta finds a haven of clay and fibre craft in Brisbane's Little Africa. 
The worldly currency of Abdullah Syed - Zoe Ghani visits the Pakistani-born Sydney artist Abdullah Syed whose work uses currencies to weave together distant homes.
21st century chinoiserie: A journey from Zibo to Sydney - Yixuan Geng traces a journey through jewellery that connects her Chinese heritage to creative life in Sydney. 
Going to hell (and back) in a handbasket… - Tracey Clement re-casts the basket from a symbol of damnation to an icon hope for a city needing handmade attention. 
Biculturalism at hand: The Australian-Malay quilt - Soraya Abidin writes about her work with Seed Stitch and her journey as a Malay-Australian. 
余韻 (yo-in) / afterglow – Japanese ceramics in Melbourne - Compared to the KonMari "spark", the ceramic artist Yoko Ozawa has offers us more enduring and subtle light, the 余韻 (yo-in) afterglow, in which to view the resonant works she has gathered from Japan
Baskets for lemurs ✿ An epic challenge - Our second article by Wendy Golden describes an epic fibre construction for the new lemur enclosure at Melbourne Zoo. The needs of these primates from Madagascar are met by one of the largest basket projects in Australia. 
Baskets for spider monkeys ✿ Wendy Golden - Wendy Golden describes the commission to make feeding baskets for spider monkeys at the Melbourne Zoo, inspired by the teardrop nests of Oropendola birds.
Mike Nicholls ✿ Finds a bird in the tree 📽️ - In his latest video, Mark Newbound ventures beyond the studio to witness the sculptor Mike Nichols transform a cypress tree into a gannet. 
Works never seen before in this world - Mitsuo Shoji was influenced by the experimental ethos of the Gutai group to always strive for originality.
Women’s Wealth Project: Biruko and Tuhu hoods - Sana Balai and Ruth McDougall write about the precious fibre objects, biruku and tuhu hoods, that arose from a series of workshops in Bougainville and Solomon Islands. 
Throwing shadows from the sun: Spacecraft’s botanical prints - Eugenia Lim examines the Spacecraft upholstery commission, applying a new tradition of wattle prints to Boyd furniture.
From Kyoto to Brunswick: The Mr Kitly story - Bree Claffey accounts for the emergence of Mr Kitly and how time spent in Kyoto forged her distinct taste in pottery and plants.
Full of emptiness: The wonder of Hagi ware - This article imparts the virtues of a living Japanese craft and introduces readers to the profound wisdom that comes from the quotidian practice of drinking tea.
My own private mosque ✿ Clay activation by Varuni Kanagasundaram - Varuni Kanagasundaram reflects on an incident from a recent workshop where she came across a unique expression of clay as private devotion.
Making memory ✿ The Huldremose woman today - Lisa Sharp writes about three textile artists who attempt to weave memories into their work. Reminiscent of Kim Mahood's essay on an anthropogenic art, she begins by invoking our wonder at the deep time found in museums.
Margaret Grafton ✿ Weaving power - The Australian tapestry weaver Margaret Grafton produced many important commissions in courts and parliaments. Her technique of weaving with metal was unique.
The People’s Library is now open - The People's Library by A Published Event opens at Long Gallery in Salamanca Art Centre, Hobart.
Thanks giving in Australia: Eva Heiky Olga Abbinga’s Rajah Quilt - Kevin Murray describes a project that makes connections across time to the beginning of settlement and space with Aboriginal and craft guild collaborations
When do stories become designs? - A series of glass works by Mimi Jung tell a story of migration. What does this material offer that can't be expressed through words?
The linking object: A textile mourning ritual - Mary Burgess outlines a practice of mourning through ritualised recycling of textiles.
Weaving the feathered serpent - Yunuen Perez recounts her journey across the Pacific and the feathered serpent she takes with her. 
The tinsmith and I shared no language - Melbourne jeweller Claire McArdle ventures into the workshop of a tinsmith in Oaxaca. 
Remembering Oaxaca - Mario Licón Cabrera shares three poems sharing his recollections of Oaxaca from his current home in Sydney
Bin Dixon Ward ✿ Adding digital to the jeweller’s bench - Melbourne jeweller Bin Dixon Ward is fascinated by the relationship between digital technology, jewellery and its maker. She discusses the development of 3D printed jewellery including her own work in this field.
Khadim Ali: Australian fauna made in praise - A stunning series by Khadim Ali, rendering iconic Australian animals in calligraphic form. 
Anne Jillett ✿ “Sitting on a milk crate each week…” - To celebrate the beautiful and thoughtful works that are made across the Indo-Pacific, we're introducing an "object of the month". The first of these laurels goes to Anne Jillett for her Salt Pot. Anne lives in Babinda, Queensland. You can see more of her work at Ellis Road Fibre Arts
Crafting a ceramic habitat for a handfish - Not far from Hobart’s Salamanca Market, with its vendors hawking the usual arts and crafts, ceramicist Jane Bamford is creating something extraordinary.
Jenuarrie – My story - Jenuarrie is a Queensland artist who has drawn on the Lapita ceramic tradition of her region to produce striking unique works. Here is an extract from a recent book Gift of Knowledge, where Jenuarrie tells the story of how she came to produce this work, and the values that guide her life.
Alterfact builds their own 3D printer for ceramics - When Ben Landau and Lucile Sciallano from Melbourne studio Alterfact decided to start 3D printing ceramics, they didn’t just buy a 3D printer, they made one. Australian Design Centre Creative Strategy Associate Penny Craswell reports.
Drawing Out the Gold – A Crown of Alfalfa by Katheryn Leopoldseder - The Melbourne jeweller Katheryn Leopoldseder manages to make epic statements out of personal adornment. Here she pays homage to a Mexican scientist was able to develop alfalfa as a non-toxic form of gold-mining. 
Judith-Rose Thomas tunapri journeys through painting - Judith-Rose Thomas is a palawa artist who features in our On Offer exhibition. She has a life-long interest in the petroglyphs found in northern Tasmania. These have inspired a series of paintings that seek to animate those ancient designs.
Meredith Turnbull: Closer - Meredith Turnbull developed a striking installation of objects from the collection of the Potter Museum of Art (27 March - 1 July 2018). Closer explored different possible proximities for the viewer with precious handmade objects.
Quarterly essay: Libraries of Stone and Wood - A Published Event is a remarkable project for nurturing and housing original stories. Their narrative greenhouses have stimulated the growth of a unique creative scene in Tasmania.
237 days: parallel / return - Black Matter is an Australia-Chile residency-based project that translates Gondwanian connections.
New terrain in an old world - Zoë Veness writes about metal objects she made in homage to kunanyi / Mount Wellington
Hyphenated: Spaces between cultures - Tammy Wong Hulbert outlines an exhibition of Asian-Australian identity
Wickery and place - Ray Norman reveals the hidden world of wickery and its role in our musing places
Lost histories: Inscription and Place - Peter Hughes writes about place and memory in the work of the CUSP jewellery collective
Craft classic: The spurtle - Patrick Senior describes the making of the spurtle, a craft classic used for stirring porridge
Offerings for absent friends: An interview with Ro Cook - Mark Stiles talks to a Sydney textile artist of twenty years experience on hemp works from her latest exhibition, inspired by the Hmong culture.
Art at a glance: Tasmania’s roadside gallery - Lucy Hawthorne considers about the drive-by art that is so prevalent in Tasmania.
Slow design in wood - Laura McCusker speaks to the importance of care for materials and local production. 
Wicker Wonderlust, a gallery experiment - Karina Clarke describes an experiment in asking a community to fill an empty space with baskets they've acquired. Libraries of Stone and Wood - Justy Phillips and Margaret Woodward publish knowledge in rock and wood that reveals a lost Tasmania
Holding space making place - Dee Taylor-Graham and Janny McKinnon write about the enduring sense of place in Tasmanian ceramics
Where the weaver left off - Gwen Egg discovers an ingenious fibre "needle and thread" used in traditional Tasmanian Aboriginal basket weaving
Building a better dome - Greg Lehman discovers tunapri knowledge involved in the construction of the palawa Tasmanian Aboriginal shelter
Expanded lace: Lindy de Wijn at Bundoora Homestead - In an era of "expanded" art, we now find different textile crafts going beyond the traditional domestic setting to find a place in the world. 
Andrei Davidoff – The Golden Calf - Guided by the Biblical tale of the Golden Calf, Davidoff draws on his dual practice as a production potter and artist to investigate the tension between an object’s high art cultural value and its social value as a utilitarian object.
From the Top End down: An Adrienne Kneebone story - Kevin Murray talks with Adrienne Kneebone, one of a generation of fibre artists who emerged from the Northern Territory scene in the 2000s. 
No touching – A curatorial reading of contemporary ceramics on Instagram - Yasmin Masri explores the new genre of ceramics emerging in the medium of Instagram. 
Baluk Arts: Storied objects tied to Country - Tallara Gray and Neil Aldum talk about the collaboration with Baluk Arts to develop objects that tell powerful life stories for the exhibition In Cahoots.
Call Them Home - Marziya Mohammedali writes about her installation that identifies refugees who have died while held in detention by Australia.
Review of Use: Queensland contemporary jewellery, by Vivien Bedwell - Use addresses thematic connections jewellers have with their tools and the creations that follow through the extension of the body, further referencing the vital role fingers and hands play in each and every work in this exhibition.
Where can I read Garland in print? - If you want to take 20 minutes out to follow the journey of a long-form essay, where can you find a convivial space to sit and read?
Japan matters in Sydney: An exhibition of material design - Shifts in Japanese Materiality is an exhibition of contemporary works by experimental Japanese and Australian designers, curated by Bic Tieu at Sydney's Japan Foundation Gallery,
Love Thy Labour, by Kay Abude - Kay Abude is an artist who seeks to honour her family's experience as piece-workers from South-East Asia. Born into a life where factory labour is no longer a necessity, she reproduces the meditative and social enjoyment of work in her art performances and exhibitions.
Made of Holes: A monumental sculpture by Lucy Irvine - Lucy Irvine has dedicated her creative life to realising the artistic potential of the most humble of modern elements: the black plastic cable tie. Her work keeps growing.
Jess Dare’s eternal bloom: Sydney’s Martin Place memorial - The Adelaide jeweller Jess Dare has just completed a commission for Sydney's Martin Place. This memorial for victims of the Lindt Cafe siege contains 210 individual flowers set in glass cubes embedded in the pavement. This provides a permanent version of the sea of flowers that flooded the square in the wake of the tragedy.
Island Welcome - Belinda Newick introduces Island Welcome, where Australian jewellers created leis to reflect on the quality of welcome currently extended by their country to refugees.
He tupare o ka kupu (a garland of words) 🎧 - Andrew Last reflects on his identity has an Australian manuhiri (guest) in the South Island of Aotearoa and how he has creatively responded to his new home.
Stephen Bowers on “The Waratah in Applied Art and in Literature” - The mission of art to create a sense of place is certainly not new, even to a settler-nation like Australia.
The Philosophy Pop-Up Shop - Regular Garland contributor Tessa Laird has teamed up with a collaborator to develop a very Melbourne exhibition of philosophical objects. 
The beadworks of the Embera Chami tribe of Colombia - Ana Maria Parada writes about her enterprise Mami Watta Collections that promotes beadwork by Embera from her homeland in Colombia.
Sgraffito Country: the ceramic art of Penny Evans - Freja Carmichael visits Penny, who uses sgraffito in her ceramics to reflect her Kamilaroi/Gomeroi heritage. 
Julie Blyfield and Kirsten Coelho at Gallery Funaki - A collaboration between our inaugural garlandee Kirsten Coelho and Julie Blyfield transforms the humble archeological remnants of domestic life in South Australian mining towns. Source: Klimt02.net Ormolu by Julie Blyfield and Kirsten Coelho ✿ Like the article? Make it a conversation by leaving a comment below. If you believe in supporting a platform for culture-makers, consider becoming a subscriber. 
Galeecha: Cultural Textiles Design - This exhibition is a marvellous sequel to Liz Williamson's article Sky’s the limit: The Cultural Textiles Rug Project
Jenny Crompton at Koorie Heritage Trust until 26 November - As featured in our current issue From Sumatra to Bellbrae A sculptural installation by artist in residence, Jenny Crompton. Source: Koorie Heritage Trust ✿ Like the article? Make it a conversation by leaving a comment below. If you believe in supporting a platform for culture-makers, consider becoming a subscriber. 
New space for objects in Sydney: HAKK by Gunjan Aylawadi - The inaugural Object Space exhibition will feature the work of talented paper artist Gunjan Aylawadi. Sydney-based paper artist Gunjan Aylawadi presents HAKK, a large-scale, intricate paper installation.
Simon&Jacob – A union for collaboration - Jessica Hutchison and Alex Jack articulate their thinking and making as woodworkers commissioned by the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art to produce furniture from the installation by Goldin+Senneby. 
Global Indigenous Runway: Lisa x Verner x Sarah - Global Indigenous Runway involved a three-way collaboration between an Indigenous artist (Lisa Waup), fashion designer (Ingrid Verner) and retail manager at Craft (Sarah Weston). The results take two-dimensional designs onto the body and into the world.
Mirror/ in vapour: Glass in Venice - Rosslynd Piggott travels to Murano, Venice, to work with specialist glass engravers who help her achieve a tangible ethereality. 
Helen Wyatt: Life is revealed through layers - Helen Wyatt is a Sydney artist who first began making jewellery while studying Fine Arts at the University of Sydney in the 1970s. Mark Stiles spoke to her on the eve of her latest exhibition, Thresholds, at Studio 2017 Project Space, North Sydney
Complete me - Annie Gobel brings a collaborative Indonesian mindset to the Melbourne jewellery scene by offering "incomplete" pieces to willing partners.
Charlotte Haywood: Weaving ideas - Lisa Cahill writes about Green Asylum, in which Charlotte Haywood continues a personal investigation into the Australian landscape: colonisation, representation of history, survival, and her interpretation of “flux” that includes questioning “meanings, values, ethics, landscapes, currencies, architecture, people and language”.
Sydney – A City on the Make - Sydney – A City on the Make 11 October 2017, 6-7:30pm Australian Design Centre, 113 William Street, Sydney A public forum about the energies in Sydney’s craft spaces and communities What does Australia’s largest city make? Join a timely discussion about Sydney’s craft culture, including its display spaces of museums and galleries, Indigenous stories, recent migrant skills, studios, workshops, making and teaching spaces. Where is creativity most active? How does craft respond to the changing patterns of consumption, where the focus is more on experience than possession? What pathways are there for craft practitioners to present their work outside Sydney, especially in our Asia Pacific region?Presented by Garland and the Australian Design Centre. Featuring Bridget Kennedy, Carolina Triana, Lisa Cahill and […]
Southern Knowledge Symposium: Valuing Wisdom and Know-how from beyond the West - We invite and welcome all those keen to learn, participate, share and listen to dialogues about how the wisdom from places beyond the West can inform what we do.
String Figure Workshop – 2 October - Robyn McKenzie introduces the world of string figures that she has developed with Yolŋu collaborators. Learn about the meaning and making of string figures in the cosy space of Brunswick's yurt.
Forum: Imagine postcapitalism - Historical algorithms appear to predict the demise of capitalism as we know it, thanks to the erosion of community, confrontation between old North and young South, and critical levels of financial and environmental debt. If so, then what’s the alternative to "my tribe first"?
Weaving land and people: the Gwen Egg story - In the third article about contemporary fibre artists, we venture south to explore the world of Gwen Egg. Egg’s life in fibre testifies to its power as a medium for binding the land with its peoples.
An invitation to create: The Deeper Voice of Textiles - Tim Johnson tells of a project inviting men from widely different businesses to "play" with the materials of their trade, using timeless basketmaking techniques.
A textile selfie, with love from Rajasthan - Fiona Wright weaves a story that combines stencil art, Indian block printing and selfies. And it's all in the family. 
The Tapestry Couch: healing and new beginnings at heart of refugee arts project - Carolina Triana introduces tapestry artist Sayd Mahmod, who leads a project to create a tapestry couch as a symbol of welcome to Sydney
Mutagenesis: Wiring up Dutch tradition - Jeanette Stok translates the traditional Dutch Hardanger embroidery into wire sculpture
Godh: in the lap of nature - Mandy Ridley shares her experience collaborating with Indian designers and folk artists for the Kochi-Muziris Biennale. 
Loved up? A review of Love: Art of Emotion 1400-1800 - Inga Walton takes us on a walk through the National Gallery of Victoria exhibition Love: The Art of Emotion 1400-1800. She finds works that testify to the creative power of love, but asks at the same time how dependent this is on the money necessary to show it. 
Playing tag with local identity: Art development in the inner city - The wave of apartment building in inner cities often seems at the expense of local character. But a curious ecology is emerging of street art that proclaims new local identities.
The power of transformative repair - Penny Craswell writes about Object Therapy, an exhibition currently on display at the Australian Design Centre, featuring Elizabeth Macky’s broken knitting needle was creatively transformed by designers Guy Keulemans and Kyoko Hashimoto in a project exploring memory, meaning, repair and waste.
From Prao to Melbourne – Lanna culture in the world - Prao village This story is a true memory from my childhood in 1987. I grew up in the village called Prao, a small village in the middle of forest and mountain, located in the northern of Thailand. It takes about one and a half hour to drive to the north from Chiang Mai City. The village does not consist of any big roads, shopping malls and fancy facilities. There are a lot of big rice fields everywhere, surrounded with green and beautiful scenery. At that time, most of the people still travelled by riding bicycles or walking, including me and my grandmother. My grandmother always took me everywhere with her bicycle. The location of my house is near to morning […]
Objects for today from the shards of the past: Possibilities for ceramicists in China - There are many currencies in China, from Ming pottery shards to live crikets. Pamela Irving finds that Jingdezhen has revived her interest in wet clay, after she has produced extraordinary murals elsehwere in China.
Kate Hunter Remains - Sonja Anderson finds a Cairns jeweller who has returned home to celebrate the watery treasures offshore. 
A clay voyage across the Pacific—Omnus Terra - While there is talk of building higher walls on the US border, Shannon Garson has found a way of creating exchange across the water, using ceramics. 
Workshop of the World: 1000 Degrees - 1000 Degrees is a glass studio in Melbourne that shares its ten rules of working together, includine "Coffee in the am and homebrew in the pm."
From village to suburb: How Karen weavers retain their culture as art - Pauline Tran describes the way Karen refugees in Australia have been able to use their weaving skills through collaboration with Sara Lindsay and the Australian Tapestry Workshop. 
Face-to-Face Across the World - Zina Burloiu and Terry Martin embrace WhatsApp as a platform for keeping the spirit of the World Crafts Council alive in the 21st century. Their extraordinary collaborations in wood show what can be done together, even when working in countries as far apart as Australia and Romania.
Launch of Thai issue in Melbourne - Join the crowd! Garland is very pleased to welcome you to the special launch of our Thai issue #6. Saturday 18 March 2017, 3-4pm Craft Victoria 31 Flinders Lane, Melbourne. RSVP by 13 March – Facebook or marigold(at)garlandmag.com. ✿ Like the article? Make it a conversation by leaving a comment below. If you believe in supporting a platform for culture-makers, consider becoming a subscriber. 
Quarterly essay – The world in a chai cup: Sandra Bowkett and a village of Indian potters - In an old cardboard box on the concrete floor of Sandra Bowkett’s studio there is a huddle of raw-looking chai cups. They are Indian by design and were made by an Indian potter. What are they doing here in rural Victoria? Are they out of place? There are certainly no chai-wallahs (Indian tea-sellers) to be seen nearby. So begins Andrew Stephens essay on the remarkable life of Sandra Bowkett. To learn why she is driven to connect with a colony of Indian potters, subscribers can read the essay here. ✿ Like the article? Make it a conversation by leaving a comment below. If you believe in supporting a platform for culture-makers, consider becoming a subscriber. 
What in flame-ation! - For Eliott, his flame-worked animations express the spirit and energy that he finds in glass.
Shelter for the solitary traveller - Holly Grace extraordinary glass works feature the iconic Australian billy can form on which are sandblasted photographic images of the bush. Holly tells us how her time in Denmark, helped her appreciate the importance of light in the Australian landscape.
Sky’s the limit: The Cultural Textiles Rug Project - Liz Williamson describes an ongoing exchange with rug block printers in Gujarat who are commissioned to produce designs from Australia. The results show a wide-eyed view of India, such as kites in the skies over Ahmedabad.
Indian dirt - In Issue #3, we featured Clare Kennedy as a case study for the Apprenticeship exhibition at Artisan Gallery. She wrote about going to India to study the changing brick industry—"It is a story worth telling". She shares with us now the remarkable discoveries of that trip.
Letting go design in Dharavi - Trent Jansen ventured into the Mumbai "slum" named Dharavi to collaborate with makers in the spirit of jugaad—the Indian ethic of "make do". To finish the job, everyone finds that they have to "let go". 
Launch of Garland #5 – Trading Tales in India - India has some wonderful traditions for telling stories through objects. The December issue of Garland magazine features these along with their contemporary versions in e-commerce and a profile of the vibrant scene around Mumbai and Western India.
Persian soirée – 20 November 2pm - Garland invites you to a special event for wrap up our Persian Prospect issue. Enjoy an afternoon of Iranian/Persian culture, including a first-hand encounter with Mehrnoosh Ganji's magical jewellery, reflections from writer Sanaz Fotouhi about the pomegranate, a "faal" ritual of Persian poetry, discussion about the impact of Iranian culture in Australia, forthcoming projects and afternoon treats from the Moroccan Deli-cacy.
The Craft of Ceremony - Ashley Crawford writes about the Ceremonial exhibition that explores the role of the object in constructing personal meaning.
Fragile threads: Baskets reborn in north Queensland - In the first of a series of articles, Kevin Murray takes an overview of fibre practice in north Queensland. He finds a number of remarkable individuals who, despite lack of support, sustain unique fibre techniques to produce work of remarkable beauty and personal meaning.
A pomegranate’s secret: The jewels of Mehrnoosh Ganji - Sanaz Fotouhi meets Mehrnoosh Ganji, an Iranian migrant making jewellery in Melbourne, inspired by the architecture of Isfahan and the cultural identity she brought with her to a new land. 
Paisley stands tall again: Akhtar Ismailzadeh’s patteh embroidery - Ansie van der Walt writes about the patteh embroidery of Akhtar Ismailzadeh, an Iranian migrant living in South Australia. The paisley is sometimes inteprets as the cyprus tree which has been bent by the hardships of exile. Akhtar's work corrects this by straightening the paisley again.
The social lamellophone - Gary Warner guides us through the journey of a lamellaphone, from its history in Africa to its urban reconstruction in Sydney as a social object. This article betrays a unique interplay between art, craft, music and community. 
Double Happiness - The founder of Pop Craft Studio, Pauline Tran, reveals the inspiration of Double Happiness, a way of realising the love for Peking Opera in handmade objects for a Melbourne suburb
Immortal flower (무궁화) - Laura Carthew's exhibition Immortal flower reflects on the Korean national flower: the mugunghwa (무궁화). Her works shows how an outside's perspective can enliven national identify from within.
New Primitives in Kyneton - The Stockroom is an iconic space for showing and selling craft especially from Central Victoria. The exhibition New Primitives reflected the active ceramic scene in the region, includingnew works by Sharon Alpren, Andrei Davidoff, Irene Grishin-Selzer, Janetta Kerr-Grant, Kim Jaeger, Kate Jones , Tessy M King, Vanessa Lucas, Tai Snaith, Petrus Spronk, Dawn Vachon and Alichia van Rhijn. We talk with Magali Gentric about her vision for the exhibition. 
Finding yourself: ceramics of Bankstown Koori Elders Group - Eva Czernis-Ryl visits the Bankstown Koori Elders Group and finds a thriving ceramics scene. This demonstrates the importance of art centres as spaces to build collective energy. 
The fragrant myth of Parijat - Our special garland for #3 With Nature was devised by Tanya Dutt, who swapped an Indian summer for a bone-chilling Melbourne winter to help produce this issue. 
Craft classic: Jawun - We learn from Abe Muriata about the making of the “Jawun”, a bicornual basket, which is a handsome object made from cane found in the rainforest and revered icon of Australian material culture. We also hear from Brisbane architect Christina Waterson what it is like to live with a jawun. 
Workshops of the World: Editions Tremblay - As part of our quest to go behind the scenes, we asked Theo Tremblay to list the ten most important rules in running in printmaking workshop. Editions Tremblay Print Workshop is located in Canopy Arts, Cairns, and collaborates with major artists in North Queensland.
Objects for an Unknown Future Museum - Sally Simpson's Venerated Remains are powerful evocations of an ancient world, yet one that happens to be from a recent manmade lake returning to its natural state. Kim Mahood finds in Sally's work an important expression of the non-indigenous relation to land, which reflects both the desire for a foundational history and the settler sense of non-belonging. 
DIY Apprenticeship - The Apprenticeship is an exhibition at Artisan in Brisbane (19 April – 25 June 2016) which profiles individual who’ve created their own pathways to learn craft skills for their trade or profession. We hear from the curators about reasons for this exhibition and explore the example of artisanal brick-making.
Nature and beyond – the artistic fashion of Grace Lillian Lee - Australian artist and designer Grace Lillian Lee’s work is inspired by ‘prawn-weaving’, a craft technique central to her Torres Strait Islander heritage. Body Sculpture is her newest collection of work centered on the technique is at the Cairns Regional Gallery as part of the Cairns Indigenous Art Far 2016
Nature craft - The traditional story of craft as an art of civilisation involves controlling nature. Fibre is spun, wood is carved, metal is cast, glass is blown and clay is thrown. Making seems to involve an improvement in the otherwise formless quality of materials found in the environment. Natural substances are mastered in order to manipulate them into forms of useful beauty.
Making marks on paper in the tropics - Sonja Anderson enters the world of InkFest, a biennial celebration of printmaking in Cairns. She ponders on the seemingly inescapable drive, the one that compels artists to make marks on paper. 
Mary Gole Face Pot - The Queensland Art Gallery has been a leading exhibitor and collector of work from the Melanesia. Curator Ruth McDougall takes us into the world where she found this remarkable art work by one of Papua New Guinea's leading ceramicists. 
Worn Land - Worn Land is a project by FORM Western Australia involving jewellers who traveled to the Pilbara in north-west Australia to create ornament inspired by their experience. We learn from Nicky Hepburn and Pennie Jagiello how they made meaning in a landscape that was sublime, but far from pristine.
Revival of Rainforest Culture – interview with Napolean Oui - Peter Hylands interviews Queensland artist Napolean Oui about Djabugay culture in the Queensland rainforest. The artist reflects on his interpretation of traditional art forms, including shields. 
In Ernabella, doors open for Aboriginal jewellery - An ambitious Australian project has recently emerged. The Indigenous Jewellery Project was initiated by Emily McCulloch Childs and to date has involved Melanie Katsalidis, Kate Rohde and Melinda Young. We learn from Emily about its origins, values, methods and future ambitions. 
Aesthetics in a time of emergency - An exhibition at Craft ACT (Canberra) included glass makers who explored an idea surrounding a current 'state of emergency' that impacts the individual and society collectively such as nuclear disasters and climate change issues. Simon Gregg considers the roles of aesthetics and beauty in reflecting on an ethical crisis.
Chilean horsehair jewellery across the Pacific - Crin (horsehair) jewellery is idiomatic to Chilean culture. Trinidad Estay has taken this technique to the other side of the Pacific where it develops a close relationship to its equine origins.
A Brighter Pattern for a Better Place – The Queensland fashion of Elisa Jane Carmichael and Carla van Lunn - Elisa Jane Carmichael belongs to the Quandamooka people of Minjerribah, North Stradbroke Island. Carla van Lunn is a fashion lecturer at the Queensland University of Technology and founder of Maison Briz Vegas, an experimental and ethical fashion house. Peter van Lunn writes about the alchemy of their vibrant collaboration.
Piecing together an ancient ceramic past, by Maggie Moy - Adelaide ceramic artist Maggie Moy visits the shard market in Jingdezhen and creates new works from fragments of an ancient past. 
Janina Green’s Still Life with Klytie Pate - A beautiful hand-coloured photo by Janina Green featuring a vase by ceramicist Klytie Pate, an orange peel, a pearl necklace, and, of course, a bunch of wattle.
Second Home - Shelter is a key element of life on earth. Humans construct homes, birds weave nests, insects make cocoons, animals develop skin, sea creatures and nuts grow shells for protection.
The quest for contemporary pacific art - The 8th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art in 2016 reveals a continuing dynamic art scene in the Pacific. 
With the tip of a needle - Melinda Rackham looks into the Guildhouse Traditional Crafts program, and finds how some migrants to Australia are building new lives for themselves from the craft skills they brought with them.
Thailand residency: A string of flowers – a sequence of events - Jess Dare takes up a residency in Thailand to understand the culture of the garland. She faces a dilemma. How can a jeweller, who makes works of lasting value, respond to the culture of the garland which is so ephemeral?
The art of turban tying - While the Phulkari is a textile associated specifically with the life of women in the Punjab, the turban is a way of wrapping textile that is important to both genders. Thanks to Adelaide artist Daniel Connell, we learn about what the turban means to Sikhs, and how it is part of their every day life. 
Getting a handle on the making revival - JamFactory ceramics coordinator Damon Moon writes about the extraordinary surge of interest from the general public in learning pottery. How does this relate to the sharing economy?
The Kink - The Kink has become a craft classic. The continuing success of this oil bottle supports a micro-industry of glass-blowing. What are its origins? How is it made? Who uses it? In the first of a series, we discovery the mysterious origin of the kink. 
Place matters: The success of South Australia - Susan Luckman reflects on the strength of South Australia as a region for craft production, which she attributes to a combination of local networks and government foresight. 
Ned Kelly in bloom - Jacqui Stockdale’s photographic series for the Adelaide Biennial is a homage to the anti-hero, Ned Kelly and the folkloric narrative surrounding 19th century Australia.
We are all Merantau: Macassan journeys - Abdul-Rahman Abdullah is a Perth-based sculptor whose figurative work conjures the experience of otherness in Australia.
Crafting Gujarati Tradition into the Future by Hannah Robertson - The National Craft Fair 2016, held in Ahmedabad – the cultural hub of Gujarat from 17th to 23rd January 2016, provides a platform to engage both the public through live demonstrations and stalls and the craftspeople themselves in a seminar and craft database registration. Upon entering the fairgrounds you are cast into an epic bazaar style arrangement complete with vibrantly decorated tents, traditional horns and drum music and people dressed in colourful folk costume. 
Gate 8 - Rule #2 - Like both kinds of music and be open to the other. In the first of a series about Workshops of the World, we look inside one of Adelaide's most productive workshops. What are the ten rules that help maintain order in their creative chaos?
Hanji – before and after Korea by Jan Coveney - Han-ji is the word for traditional Korean paper and it's also used to describe the art of making objects out of the paper.
Quarterly essay – Still: Kirsten Coelho’s ceramics - For all sorts of reasons, mostly to do with geography or serendipity (or the lack of it), I had never seen enough work by Kirsten Coelho. I’d encountered two or three pots at the homes of friends, occasional pieces in museums, but never enough to know it really well. Even a visit in early 2015 to Coelho’s studio, out in Adelaide’s northwest near the Port, left a feeling of unfinished business. The work was still on the periphery of my vision, persistent, but somehow elusive. I knew I hadn’t come to grips with it, not yet. Then came In the Falling Light, Coelho’s solo exhibition in Canberra last July, at the ANU’s Drill Hall Gallery… Renowned Australian writer and curator […] Still: Kirsten Coelho’s ceramics - Julie Ewington finds stillness at the heart of Kirsten Coelho's centrifugal ceramics. 
An invitation to look but not touch: The Rigg Design Prize 2015 - Maurizio Toscano on the tantalising paradox on the display of liveable design in a white cube art gallery.
CIAF and Ghost Net art of the Far North - Sonja Anderson writes about the current status of Ghost Nets and why it has been so successful in communities of Far North Queensland.
Learning and sharing traditional plant knowledge - Penny Algar and Lorraine Connelly-Northey talk about the importance of river red gum and what inspired the Murray River Cloak.
The Naked Tree: A tribute to Park Wan-So - Jin Ah Jo makes a work as a tribute to her favourite Korean author, Kyung-A.
Unexpected linkage - Sun Woong Bang describes how his work connects the ancient Celtic and Korean cultures,
Beyond Limitations Mentorship camp, ClayArch Gimhae Museum - Jane DeBoos confesses to a liking for the Korean custom of formal respect in the workshop.
Yilaalu – objects for carrying stories - Lucy Simpson interprets the Yuwaalaraay word 'Yilaalu' as an art installation to touch and behold.