[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #8F9F59;”] G [/dropcap]iven it is almost Christmas, we thought we would highlight some of the wonderful creators around South-West Victoria who have featured so far in Bluestone Magazine and who will be appearing at either a market or a gallery over Summer.

Bluestone Magazine is a strong believer in art and creativity as a vital ingredient in any community and we have really enjoyed bringing you the stories behind some of the region’s best known artists who exhibit widely, but also the stories of those who are just starting out and, in some cases, working from a tiny studio or their kitchen table.

This includes people like Alesha Carter and Narelle Smith, sisters from Warrnambool, who this year started 2bird Designs. They create affordable jewellery using largely scrapbooking materials and carefully selected fabrics and have been delighted by the response to their work.

“We only started in March, but the markets have been going really well. I think it’s because we aim for everyone between 16 and 80,” Alesha said, laughing.

Rather than spend your hard-earned dollars on a mass produced product for Christmas, please think about purchasing a piece of locally made art or craft: there is nothing quite like it. For inspiration, see some of our creators below.

[box type=”bio”] Some of the artists and creators featured below will be at The Artery Christmas Market, this Sunday December 15, 224 Timor St, Warrnambool.[/box]

Rachel Peters is a well-established artist in South-West Victoria, with her most recent exhibition at Scope Galleries featuring works inspired by a ‘Healing Walk’ along the Fiery Creek. (You can catch up on that story here). Rachel, however, also creates cards and jewellery inspired by the landscape, that are for sale through The Artery markets.

 

 

 

Merran Koren creates large-scale sculptures from Mt Gambier stone that she bends to her will with the  help of some fairly industrial-strength tools. One of her most significant works, Nurture, is displayed at the entrance to Lyndoch Residential Care, Hopkins Rd, Warrnambool. She also has a studio space at The Artery. Read our full story on Merran here.

 

 

 

 

Helen Bunyon has been a part of the South-West Victorian arts scene for more than 20 years, since relocating from Melbourne. Apart from running the Customs House Gallery in Hawkesdale (formerly in Warrnambool) with her husband Des, and being heavily involved in The Artery, Helen also creates her own jewellery from recycled watches and found objects known as the Time Flies series.

 

 

 

Surrealist photographer Berit Hampel is part of an artists’ collective who exhibit and sell their work through the Whale Bone Gallery, Bank St, Port Fairy. Her work is evocative, yet often playful, and it is her manipulation of the images that creates their engrossing stories. You can catch up on Berit’s full story here.

 

 

 

 

 Jon Hayes is a heavy metal man. The Timboon sculptor takes rusty old farm tools or discarded hunks of metal and transforms them into one-off garden ornaments or  industrial-size braziers. You’ll find Jon, who works under the name Tomrtoe Designs, at local markets most weekends including Port Fairy, Trentham, Daylesford, Birregurra, and Port Campbell. Visit his Facebook page here or website here.

 

 

 

 Yambuk artist Sarah Gubby recently held her first solo exhibition at Blarney Books & Art that featured photography, textiles and intricate baskets. (You can catch up on that story here). Sarah, who has a studio space at The Artery, also sells her photographic works at The Artery markets.

 

 

 

 

Meg Finnegan is a Port Fairy sculptor who works with ceramics, copper and limestone to create works from the very large to the intricate. Meg also runs the beautiful Limestone Gallery in Port Fairy, that is open to visitors. You can read our story on Meg here and visit the gallery Facebook here.

 

 

 

 

 

Rosebrook artist Clare Fennessy creates ceramics under the name Claybody and her unique way of combining the rustic and the delicate make her work instantly recognisable. You can usually find Clare at the local art markets, but her work is also available to view online.

 

 

 

 

Ella Webb is becoming something of a phenomenon around South-West Victoria with her intricate drawings of the natural world. Since picking up a pencil several years ago, she has not looked back and now sells her work through gift shops, markets and online. Read our story here and find her on the web here.

 

 

 

 

Johanna Glennen is part of a major shift in how young mothers balance parenthood with making a living from their craft, and that is to sell online. Johanna creates infant and children wear under the joeyjellybean label and incorporates many of her own designs that are screenprinted onto the fabrics. You can often find her at local markets, including The Artery, and via her Facebook page. You can find our full story on Johanna here.

 

 

 

[box] * Next week we will feature a wrap up of local food producers that we have profiled this year in Bluestone Magazine.[/box]

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”] T [/dropcap]his is Brian Mills and he works nights, or very early mornings, depending on how you measure 4am starts.

Brian is one of a team of people at the Timor St Newsagency in Warrnambool who ensure that the morning newspapers are delivered each day to the doorsteps and businesses of Warrnambool for people who still enjoy reading a physical copy of a newspaper.

It is a job Brian has been doing for more than 25 years and this is why he – as a newspaper delivery man – has been chosen to appear in a photographic book due to be published in the first half of next year that will feature 30 of the iconic people and places of the Warrnambool community.

It is not a history book, nor does it include every well-known Warrnambool identity, but rather it is a personal selection of people and places that meant something to me – Carol – when I was growing up in Warrnambool in the 1970s and which are still a part of the community today, even if only a shadow of their former selves.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”] T [/dropcap]here is a deep nostalgia and an inter-connectedness that binds the people of Warrnambool, perhaps more so than most other regional cities, or maybe that is just because other regional cities don’t have a Kermonds, or a Politis fish and chip shop, or a Fletcher Jones gardens, or a Chitticks….you get the picture.

These are the names that have become a part of Warrnambool’s cultural identity and trigger such strong stories and memories – especially if you are sharing them in a bar with another Warrnamboolian you have bumped into somewhere across the world.

There is also a growing awareness, however, that such icons do not last forever (the demolition of the Criterion Hotel, in Kepler St, was a stark reminder of this truth) and this is what inspired me to race around with my camera and do the best job I could to capture the faces – and some of the places – while we still have the chance.

The book is yet to be titled, but it will be limited to just 500 copies, so we will keep you up to date on when it is due to hit the shelves.

In the meantime, if you are a nostalgic Warrnambool person or ex-pat, you can join more than 2500 people just like you at the Lost Warrnambool Facebook page and share memories and some terrific old images. Be sure to let them know Bluestone Magazine sent you!

[box] Our regular Bookmarks by Warrnambool Books will return for our final edition of the year next week, with a list of great Christmas books that add a sparkle to the festive season.[/box]

 

 

 

It says a lot about the importance of the Fletcher Jones gardens to Warrnambool that even though the Raglan Parade factory has fallen silent and into disrepair, the gardens continue to hold on.

“Pleasant Hill” was once a major tourist attraction for the city, with busloads of visitors pulling up to the kerb and pouring out to take photographs, while locals all have their favourite memories of the beautifully landscaped gardens: the fish pond, the stepping stones, the wishing well, the sun-warmed cement turtle, the archways, the mosaic ‘basket’ garden bed, the tall man in the white trousers who advertised Fletcher Jones menswear.

The gardens were established over a period of years after Fletcher Jones first selected the site – a disused quarry – for his factory in 1948. And while they are a shadow of what they were in their prime, when up to eight full-time gardeners were employed, the fact they are maintained at all is quite incredible.

 

 

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”] F [/dropcap]or this we can thank our Quiet Heroes for the week: Lex Caldwell, who oversees the gardens in exchange for living in a cottage on site, and a small, rotating team of volunteers who turn up each Tuesday morning to weed, mulch, mow or do whatever else needs to be done.

When we visited, the volunteer crew included Don McLean, Lester Campbell and Philomena Headen who were hard at work weeding one of the garden beds and picking up bits of broken glass.

Imagine how the place would look without them?

[box]The FJ gardens crew will receive a coffee and cake voucher from Lozzar’s Lounge Cafe, 52a Kepler St Warrnambool. Thankyou to owners Loretta and Phil for supporting this week’s Quiet Heroes.[/box]

 

 

 Meet some of our other quiet heroes…

 

Tackling a hidden terror: Pat McLaren

A life-changing adventure: Schoolies with a Cause 

A winner for Woodford: Tania Ferris

United we stand – Wbool Uniting Church

Kylie Thulborn – pushing boundaries

 

 

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A99E90;”] O [/dropcap]ccasionally, we post an item from Gumtree – the online sell/trade/swap site – that is odd, unusual, funny or just plain weird.

This week: the purrfect alternative to a real kitten for Christmas. This one doesn’t even require a litter tray!

[box] Kitten. Real fur. White in colour. It Purrs Scratches & Meows. $10[/box]

Find more Gumtree gems here…

Out with the George Foreman grill…and in with the steamer

Cheapest house ever?

Couch with an ouch

All I need is the air that I breathe

Always check the auto-correct!

Too short for this Hill’s Hoist

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”] E [/dropcap]ach member of the “board” is only 13 years old, but don’t for a moment think that the team behind a new, home-made surfing wax is not absolutely serious about making their product a winner.

Emmanuel College school buddies and surfing mates Jade McCreddan, from Yambuk, Isaak Jagoe, from Warrnambool and Mick Slockwitch, also from Warrnambool, spent most of last Saturday down at the Made by Me Market, at The Pavilion, in Warrnambool, where they put their surf wax – Stuck Wax – on sale for the first time.

While most boys their age would be heads-down playing with smartphones, Jade, Isaak and later Mick (who had to first compete in a surf lifesaving competition) chatted enthusiastically with customers about why their surf wax was better than the others. They also demonstrated its sticky superiority by leaving a lump attached to one of two surfboards they had brought in for display.

“We wanted to come up with our own recipe for a surf wax, so we started by looking around on the internet,” says Isaak.

Jade’s mother had some experience with wax through making beeswax candles, so the boys also sought her advice as they continued to experiment with various ingredients.

“I reckon we had about 12 different attempts until we worked out how we could make it really sticky,” Isaak says, “because that’s what you are looking for: something you can trust when you stand up on your board”.

“It is also eco-friendly and all natural ingredients,” Jade adds.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”] T [/dropcap]he product was put to the test in the surf off Warrnambool and Port Fairy, where the boys have spent countless hours through last summer and winter since becoming “hooked” on the sport about a year ago.

Having nailed the winning formula, which, of course, they are keeping a closely guarded secret, the boys turned to marketing and package design.

“I must admit we spent a lot of time in our maths class at school drawing different designs and sharing ideas,” Jade says.

Somehow, we can’t imagine the teacher would mind.

Isaak’s father prints their package design on A4 paper that they then use to wrap each of the 70g wax cakes that are made in bulk in muffin trays in Isaak’s family kitchen.

“We put foil down everywhere,” he says, reassuringly.

About 60 bars were on sale for $4 a pop at the weekend and all were sold out by 4pm, but the boys are not counting their profits just yet.

“Well, first I owe Mum and Dad some money and then we have to buy more ingredients, and then, if we have anything left over, we will split it three ways,” Isaac explains.

With this sort of business acumen, Stuck Wax sounds like it will be sticking around.

[box type=”bio”] Depending on the surf over summer, the boys may be at other local markets, but in the meantime, you can buy Stuck Wax by emailing them at Stuck_Wax_Enterprises@hotmail.com[/box]

  If you enjoyed this story, you might also enjoy…

 

A long way from Pomonal to Pip: Kate Bouman

No time limit on this wearable art: Helen Bunyon

This jellybean is really jumpin’: Johanna Glennen

Stitching it all together: Joella Hill

Udderly beautiful: Make Mine Milk