Made on The Left

Image by Helena Tay, courtesy of Made on the left.

Back in 2007 a group of Perth Crafters & Artists found each other in the Etsy Forums.
Excited to find like minded, local people on an international site, social meet ups were arranged in "real life".
It was from these meet ups and the online discussions in the forums that the seeds were planted and in 2008 "Made on the Left" was founded with a view to supporting Local Western Australian Independent Designers.
And support it has, in this past year or so, The hard working Made on The Left committee has organised two successful Art/Craft Markets; one here in Perth and the second in Bunbury.

They are now organising their third market at The Hyde Park Hotel, running over two days on the 25th & 26th July. Showcasing different work each day, this will give more artisans the opportunity to offer their work and promises to be bigger and better than ever.

Applications are being taken for stallholders now until 20th June, so get in quick - More details here and if you're one of the many Perth "Indie Handmade" lovers, then mark those dates in your diary.

Visit the Made On The Left Website
Visit the Made On The Left Blog
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Up, Up and away .........again..........

Sterling Cast Ring - plane cast from son's old Micro Machine Toy

Barely a month home from our holiday in Broome and I was back in the skies again flying to Singapore!

This time my daughter choose me as her travelling companion for her very first overseas trip and treated me to my ticket to Singapore for Mother's Day. It was a quick trip of just 4 1/2 days away, to fit in with her R and R from her job in Port Hedland.

It was great to spend time with her and we had a fantastic holiday, saw as many sights as we could cram into the time there, and when we weren't sightseeing we were shopping...well I'll rephrase that - she was shopping and I was keeping her company while she parted with her hard earned cash although I did pick up a pair of shoes or two for myself :)

Planes and airports play a big part in my life it seems, Husband and daughter are both "Fly in, Fly out" workers, so I'm doing the airport runs on a regular basis, I could pretty much put the car on "auto pilot" and it'd find it's own way there.
Early June - back out at the airport - International this time, to see my son off to London.
He's doing the backpacking thing around Europe for the rest of the year. Pin It

Texture Time!

I took some jewellery down to the shop last week. I had Mother's Day in mind when I made these. I'd been playing with my rolling mill and loved the effect that glass paper made on the silver. Very glitzy I thought, and I added a simple freshwater pearl to most of the designs, because, well.... Mums like pearls :)

The first corrugated design made me think of crinkle cut potato chips, not in real life but I couldn't help noticing it when I was resizing the photo. Maybe it's because I'm obsessing with food right now as I've cut out junk food and every time I walk past the pantry I see the chips in there calling out for me to eat them! No doubt about it - I'm tempted :(




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Beautiful Broome!.

In April we went up to Broome for a five day break. It's a couple of hours or so on the plane North of Perth.
Broome is just magic and has everything I love about our State's Northwest, I just love the colour of the ocean, the colour of the rocks and the pindan (red sand) and the fascinating plants! Here's some pics.......

From the plane as we crossed over the coast descending into Broome.


and the view from the veranda of our room at The Cable Beach Club - our own personal rainbow!


A neat twisted tree - have no idea what it is...


At Gantheaume Point - my favourite spot at Broome - loved this cool rock!

The beautiful Cable Beach


and finally can't go with out a Broome Sunset - taken from the Sunset Bar while enjoying a glass of wine!

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No stopping him now!

While I was at work yesterday, Murray did more foldforming, he made a few more leaves and this cuff from nickel silver.
and............he made dinner too.... I'm happy - I didn't have to cook and got a new bracelet. (LOL)


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Darn, Now I'm going to have to share my tools!

Murray works away and when he's home he's here for 6 days in a row. Yesterday, he decided that cooking meals for his loving family was not enough to occupy his time at home and he needed a hobby!
Armed with my metalwork book Foldforming by Charles Lewton-Brain and some of my sheet copper and brass he took off into the shed. He emerged triumphant with these two leaves :)

First one in copper - the oxidisation is from the torch and he left it as it was to add to the rustic appeal:


Second one in brass, again heat oxidised - I made a Sterling Neckwire for it:

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I'm a winner!

No longer will I be able to say "but I never win anything" Why?.................
Well, I just won this cool Heart Brooch from ReRead Design.


I'm now the proud owner of two pieces of ReRead's designs. I purchased the little bird brooch pictured below back in January and now I've won the cute heart to add to my collection!


ReRead upcycles old vintage books to construct her brooches in cute silhouette shapes, covering them with the intriguing images & Text, then it's all protected with a smooth glossy finish.

A great touch is the packaging. My brooches were carefully wrapped in a page from an old book, then another page was used to make the handmade envelope.
Not often that I experience such a visual treat when collecting the mail from the letter box - certainly makes a pleasant change from window envelopes!


Check out more of ReRead's cute brooches at her Etsy Shop Pin It

In the Press!

I was very excited when my rubber and Sterling Silver earrings were featured in the current issue of Local Lifestyle magazineScoop.

Here's the cover- click on the images for larger versions of the pics:



and here's the feature - I love the styling:



And a close up...



The earrings are currently in stock at Behind The Monkey

In the middle photo you can also see a Rose Necklace which is also available at Behind the Monkey and was designed by talented Perth Local, Sarah Gazia. Pin It

A Ghostly forrest?

Well that's how I see it......

These are actually the results of my last casting class at Fremantle Arts Centre. I was only able to stay at class half an hour before I had to dash to an unavoidable commitment, so luckily my friends Jane & Lotta stepped in and melted my silver and poured the castings I'd prepared the week earlier...Thanks girls :)

The "snow" on my trees is the remains of the investment (heat proof plaster) that forms the moulds. As Jane put it "their love for me did not extend to cleaning up my castings" Ha Ha - they only wanted to do the fun bits, like playing with fire and molten metal!

Tempting as it is to keep these ghostly little trees as they are, they are destined to become "branch necklaces" similar to the one I posted last week. Pin It

Branching out......

In casting class I've had the most success with my twigs that I turned into little bird necklaces.

Last week instead of the single twig, I cast a twig with multiple little branches. I was really happy with how it turned out and I've made it into another necklace. I've attached it to a long chain which just slips over my head with no clasp. I've resisted the temptation to add a bird or other forest creatures -I did contemplate a squirrel, but decided the tree shape was impressive enough on its own.
Soldering the rings on for the chain was a pain that's taken the best part of the morning and I did a bit of a dodgy job on it, but undeterred I'm going to try casting another "tree" at next week's class and incorporate the jump rings into the casting. Hopefully that will work better :)

I don't always cast twigs though. I've also got a little aeroplane and a dinosaur head which turned out well enough to make into something......watch this space.........

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