Samorn Sanixay is an Australian woman born in Laos who has established a company Eastern Weft that seeks a market for Laos silk in countries like Australia. Her project requires a good fit between two radically different worlds. What seems critical to Samorn is an appreciation of serious craft – something more likely to [...]
Posts under ‘World of Small Things’
Horse hair – the new Chilean gold
Crin is one of Chile’s most distinctive folk crafts. In markets around the country you will find delicate forms, often taking the shape of insects, woven out of dyed horsehair. Despite its distribution around the country, almost all Crin originates from a small town called Rari.
Crin appeared mysteriously around 200 years ago, as local women [...]
Craft Without Borders – waking up together
According to Plutarch, "All men whilst they are awake are in one common world: but each of them, when he is asleep, is in a world of his own." So it seems in the sphere of world craft. Many of us have our own personal engagement with a craft community or tradition in a [...]
Opening the treasure of small things
‘Humans are animals for whom only the superfluous is necessary.’ Ortega y Gasset
The World of Small Things was finally installed at Craft Victoria in time for the opening last night. It was a great crowd that seemed absorbed by the stories of craft and design at the frontier. Professor Soumitri Varadarajan gave a wonderful [...]
Cathy Kata – a cat walk on the highlands
Cathy Kata lives in the highlands of Papua New Guinea, in Goroke. Like a number of other PNG makers, she has adapted traditional bilum weaving techniques to clothes and fashion. Her seamless skirts and tops are made with the same hand-looped, woven in the round techniques as bags.
Cathy decided to leave her career [...]
Hlengiwe Dube – tin top buttons with Zulu style
Hlengiwe Dube is a craftswoman and manager of the African Art Centre. In 2000, she was awarded the Woman of the Year award by the Department of Arts and Culture. As well as her own work, she has played a critical role in developing crafters in the area, particularly in beaded products. Dube has [...]
Janet DeBoos – hand-designed in Australia, factory-crafted in China
In Australia, ceramics is under siege. Since the boom of the 1970s, the number of courses available have rapidly declined. For today’s iphone generation, the dedication required by clay-making poses a significant lifestyle challenge – it threatens to disconnect you from the ‘clouds’ of text and image that give meaning to the day. Of [...]
Cheryl Adam – ‘bat people’ fight back with plastic
Cheryl Adam is a recycle artist from Melbourne associated with the Philippine organisation Peace Women Partners (PWP). In her previous work, Cheryl collaborated with the Moro women from the Philippines’ Muslim population. For The World of Small Things, she is working in collaboration with a group of extremely poor homeless population from Manila, [...]
Polly&me – masterpieces in idle chatter from Pakistan
‘GupShup’ means chit chat in Urdu and Hindi. It was the title of an exhibition by Polly&me, a group working on an embroidery project involving women in Chitral, in the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan. The results of their workshops were displayed in Islamabad and Karachi, where half of the works were sold. The creative [...]
Karl Millard – made in India, sold in India
Karl Millard is a Melbourne metalsmith whose work has gained high profile, particularly in the Transformations exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia. He has mastered a particular method of combining metals in a patchwork pattern that is quite unique and highly regarded. As part of his interest in artisanship, he has also travelled to [...]
