Ash Street - Pablo Fanque

we pulled down our pieces from blank_space last wednesday.

BUT, our show hasn't been finished yet as we displayed our works at the new place of Pablo Fanque on Ash street, at the back of ivy hotel on george street near martin place in Sydney.

you don't know where ivy hotel is?

simply click here to find out and no excuse will be made then. :)

This window exhibition on ash st. will be running until the 25th November 2009 and please contact pablo fanque regarding to purchasing pieces or email tenmoregirls@hotmail.com for any other inqueries.

Thank you.

17 oct 2009 - opening night for girls against gold

after all troublesome & stressful happening, we made it!

it was packed with our friends, families & other visitors and a lot of positive feedbacks!

thank you to everyone who came along to our opening night and...people who couldn't make it on last sat, don't worry... we are still at blank_space everyday from 11am to 6pm till the 28th of Oct 2009.

14 oct 2009 - setting up day for girls against gold

on setting up day, we actually could see everyone's works for the first time and it was all stunning! we finally finished our setting at 12am!!!

well done everyone and let's keep going to the sparkling opening night on sat! yeay~

MX on Mon. 12 Oct 2009

girls against gold is in MX on Mon 12 Oct 2009.

we had a photoshot on Fri the 2nd of Oct for MX newspaper and we are finally on MX today!

Girls Against Gold e-flyer

exhibition is running from Thursday the 15th of Oct at blank_space gallery on 374 crown st, with a sparkling saturday opening to be held at the gallery on Saturday the 17th of Oct from 4-6pm.

The exhibition will be running daily until Wed the 28th of Oct.

news news news on web

check it out the links below.

noise
kit and caboodle
design federation
you can also be a member of tenmoregirls group in facebook!!!

grants, sponsors & donations for girls against gold!

First of all, as we mentioned earlier, we achieved $10,000 grant from Australia Council for this exhibition , girls against gold.

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.

Much of the work will be available to purchase and 5% of all sales will be donated to Breast Cancer Australia. We also have sponsors, Peter W Beck & Inkassoulwho are generously supporting our exhibition this year 2009. Peter W Beck is one of leading precious metal companies in Australia and sponsoring $500 cash to us, and Inca's Soul is donating 10 bottles of sparkling wine!

Thank you to Peter W Beck , Inka's Soul for their great supports.

girls against gold 2009, janis valdivia

simplus, triangle ring, 925 silver with painted black gesso, 2009

I’m a Sydney based designer/maker and the main source of inspiration for my work comes from abstract paintings and the sea. In particular I’m interested in capturing shapes and forms. I like the asymmetry of objects that connects with basic things in life and finding the special in the ordinary.
My work is predominantly hand fabricated using sterling silver. It also incorporates other materials such as delrin, perspex, felt, bone, glass and 18k gold. I use traditional metalsmithing techniques to form each piece but employ contemporary methods to create unique and textured surface.

girls against gold 2009, bernadette trainor

wallpaper one, brooch, 925 silver, american walnut, 2009

I never knew true love until I found mid-century modern design. After World War II products not usually used in construction and decoration took housing in a new direction and economic growth brought style to the suburbs. A new kind of dream home was affordable and accessible.
I am inspired by both the spirit of innovation and the aesthetics of mid-century design. The graphic qualities of wallpapers, fabric patterns and sculpture from the fifties and sixties are the basis for a series of brooches, made from sterling silver and a variety of timbers.

girls against gold 2009, radka passianova

petals, pendants, 925 silver, stainless steel, stainless steel cable, 2009

What is precious?
Jewellery and materials become precious once they have the right look, colour and feel.
For some, it may be gold or platinum, or something much more common and affordable, like flowers, which people have used as decoration for thousands of years. So for these people I have created Petals, inspired by the lovely yet sometimes tricky and intricate details of flowers. These have motivated me to represent their forms in materials precious to me, and capture their beauty forever.

girls against gold 2009, jasmine matus

moon flowers, brooches, 925 silver, recycled cream bulb canister, base metal, 2009

Taxidermy of a Modern Road Kill and Moon Flowers hint a subtle reminder that life on earth is precious and impermanent; our natural resources are being readily depleted and most are unable to be replenished. The scrap metal used has been collected by the side of busy road intersections. These scraps of metals have revealed to me some interesting characteristics; the scratches from other vehicles driving them into the road, odd shapes, they tell a story.
By combining the scrap with precious metals I am giving a new life to otherwise useless trash waiting to be swept up and lost into the abyss.

girls against gold 2009, natasha marcus-taylor

untitiled, brooch, 925 silver, bone, stainless steel pin, 2009

So how am I “against gold” when I work with gold everyday?
Well I’m not against gold, as a ductile and malleable metal for making jewellery, but I am concerned with what gold has come to represent. Gold prices continue to rise, becoming unattainable and unaffordable for many people. Gold represents the high-end market of jewellery, not what most can afford.We wish to challenge this thought. I wish to produce jewellery how it used to be made, well designed, well crafted, and made for a meaning.

girls against gold 2009, nikki majajas

bling ring, the gold digger series, brass, swarovski crystals, 2009

Just for the record, I am in no way ‘against’ gold. How could anyone be? It shines and sparkles, never tarnishes and always looks great with a tan. My only gripe with gold is the price tag. In a global financial crisis should you fake it til you make it? Perhaps the answer is to put aside feminist principals and try your luck as a gold digger…
Those who chose the latter option have inspired my range of jewellery, and I wish them luck in their pursuits.

girls against gold 2009, a mi kim

ginkgo, brooch, 925 silver, 2009

I am very interested in playing with various materials and love their different forms, patterns and colours. What I have considered for girls against gold was the preciousness of time, I thought about my life. The most precious time in my life was my childhood and I had a look my old pictures. I collected some elements from old photos which reminds of memorable moments and applied their motifs, colours & materials to jewellery and object pieces.

girls against gold 2009, lisa furno

madonna, neckpiece, 925 silver, 2009

The Madonna series is inspired by my earliest childhood memories
of gold. I vividly remember my dad, nonna, uncles, aunties and cousins all adorned with gold rings and religious emblems worn on gold chains.
The Madonna series is originally sand cast from my nonna’s gold Mary pendant, which she wore most of her life. Sterling silver casts of casts were made to slowly deteriorate the initial preciousness of the original gold piece. The intrinsic preciousness lies not in the materials or casting quality, but in the piece’s emotional value.

girls against gold 2009, jenny daskalakis

love is more precious than gold, heart rings, 925 silver, 2009

Love is more precious than Gold. If love was a commodity, would it be more precious than gold?
I would infinitely answer...YES! My personal interpretation of the universal symbol of love, 'The Heart' in this series, is what I believe love to be...Simple and Joyous!I enjoy the process of creating wax to silver.Carving my passion and emotions into the pieces I make is both meditative and rewarding! My ultimate desire is for my pieces to be worn as amulets and remind the wearer of the purity and the truth of love.

girls against gold 2009, majella beck

garden of suckulents, brooch, 925 silver, stainless steel, silicone, 2009

In my practice I have begun to look at the notion of value in interchangeable contexts.
The notion of material, the tactile sensibility and determinism of utility inform this irrevocable displacement of what we traditionally deem as valuable. I combined precious and non precious materials, in this sense my work is a constant exploration and evaluation of what makes jewellery precious. This series of works are tactile, evoking a sense of exploration and interaction.

GRANT approved!

We submitted our application to Visual Arts Board of the Australia Council for the Arts in May and Lisa was collecting all necessary documents from us and organising these so hard.

When we were almost about to forget this in Jul, we heard the greatest new ever from Australia Council saying that our application has approved $10000 (exclusive of GST) for the following purpose: Create jewellery for a group exhibition

Our application was successful in an increasingly competitive environment and we are so proud of ourselves and of course big thank you to Lisa for doing this in (very) professional manner! wow!

new members and the title for exhibition 2009

We have new members this year which are;

A Mi Kim, Bernadette Trainor, Janis Valdivia, Jasmine Matus & Jenny Daskalakis.

Our first meeting was in Mar and we made the new title for the exhibition 2009,

Girls Against Gold

Now, ten more girls are busy for thinking, designing & making!!!

girls for boys 2008 - display day

ten more girls' first exhibition in 2008, Girls for Boys, was successful and this is snap shot taken on display day.

girls for boys 2008 - natasha marcus - taylor

When I first started to think of what and how boys around me adorned themselves, I didn’t see jewellery. What stood out to me were tattoos. Boys proudly display a tattoo to identify who they are. “Many members of today's military have their identification tags tattooed onto their ribs; known as "meat tags". Most sailors would have tattoos to show “where the sailor had been, or how long the seaman had been travelling. This was a way for sailors to bring tokens from their voyages back on their own skin”.

I have found the technique of scrimshaw, inking a design into bone very similar to tattooing.

girls for boys 2008 - georgina pattinson

Naked truth, stacked, full flush…

Just the other day my Nan told me that it was about to become illegal to wolf whistle at a woman in public! What sort of padded cell have we been forced to live in? Soon it will be illegal to look at another person in the street and we’ll all be living in plastic bubbles for fear of catching a conscious of our own.

Bring on the hedonistic lifestyle I say! Where pleasure is every pursuit and appreciation for beauty even on the streets is revered as a national pride.

This doesn’t mean I’m advocating every male to become a cad or a chauvinist. It’s the subtly in the execution that’s important. The connotations of the sound alone, is enough and should not be followed with a sleazy remark or any boisterous obscenities.

Women like to be looked at, we like to be appreciated, we like to feel sexy and be flirted with, in the appropriate situation of course. Beauty, as they say, ‘is in the eye of the beholder’ and why not express it. For there is nothing more beautiful than the female form and as Mae West aptly put it, ‘It is better to be looked at than to be over looked’.

My Nan later explained to me the thrill of the moment she remembered as a young girl ridding her bike down the street, when someone whistled at her. She got so excited her foot caught the pedal and she ‘fell ass over tit’ onto the footpath. Not the most glamorous response but at least she loved every moment of it!

girls for boys 2008 - pamela suares

I think it’s safe to say that nearly all boys love their cars. If you were to reduce a car to its component parts, it becomes a box full of fascinating shapes and objects; when you put it back together again, it becomes “the machine of a dream.”
I have chosen car jargon as names for my pieces in an effort to evoke some of the sensations of belonging to this loosely formed boys’ club, where in-depth knowledge of the details sets the pecking order. I am completely seduced by beautiful colours, so it’s natural for me to use colour in my work. I try to reduce complicated forms to the simplest shapes possible, and my painting background urges the use of texture to emphasize this.

girls for boys 2008 - sonya scott

Son, someday you will make a girl

very happy, for a short period of time.

Then, she'll leave you and be with new

men who areten times better than you

could ever hope to be. These men

are called musician.

girls for boys 2008 - tamahra prowse

What is it about boys and their collections of ‘stuff’? Treasures that are obsessively hunted collected and traded, far beyond the scope of female understanding.
My goal for this exhibition was to identify items important to today’s grown men when they were kids. A selection of these have been translated and re-modelled into objects of desire and value for men.
Polls conducted amongst family, friends and random strangers alike, revealed an amazing array of childhood obsessions. They also revealed the boys behind the men, boys with a wide-eyed enthusiasm and an unyielding belief in the value of their treasures. A past age of innocence where crabs claws were lined up in the sand for judging by a serious panel of peers, and where certain marbles had the power to make or break friendships over playlunch. Sticks had a multitude of uses, stamps were cool, and bottle caps…well, I guess they were colourful, cheap and fun to drink first!

girls for boys 2008 - radka passianova

In these pieces created for “Girls 4 Boys” I have used a combination of sterling silver and separate parts from crashed motorbikes. These pieces of jewellery are made for people that are deeply attached to their much loved “two wheeled beasts” and are often unable to part with them once the machine has crashed or is ready to be sold.
I have created several pieces that carry memories and parts of bikes. The idea is that anybody can wear them and at any moment be reminded of the good times that they have spent on a bike.
People are often deeply attached to their material belongings and I am hoping to find the answer to ‘why?’ through the process of making new and different objects from the old.

girls for boys 2008 - nikki majajas

I have taken inspiration from the most practical of items: the humble toolbox and its contents. Here are 3 mini stories that play with the themes of usefulness and identity. Nine wearable objects serve valuable functions such as finding direction, measuring small distances or assessing surface level. One series acts to classify the wearer as belonging to a manly and practical club where a screw head or a bolt identifies their organisation. Then again chunky bands, which can be worn as rings or pendants double as tools and when stacked, create a handy trio of DIY essentials, inspired in part by Swiss army knives.

girls for boys 2008 - natalie klave

Prompted by the generic philosophy that men will always be boys, I couldn’t go past the long favoured fascination of the toy car.

Generations of men have whiled away their childhood, racing about smashing these miniature cars into trees, houses, and kerb edges. All the while dreaming about the real thing and picturing themselves driving or owning a fleet of expensive rarities.

No matter how much trauma and abuse these toys endured, they continued on. So to, did they steadfastly remain favourites in many hearts, bringing forth smiles and fond memories.

My aim for this collection was to return these warm and fuzzy feelings to the now mature men, allowing them to sneakily spin the wheels and reverse back to a time when their imagination ran wild.

girls for boys 2008 - lisa furno

A tribute to the hard working lives of the vibrator/dildo. A new beginning for these tools, out form behind closed doors. Could society do without them?

I work with a variety of precious and non-precious, colourful and second hand materials. Through physical manipulation I transform these forms not only into visually appealing pieces but also functioning wearable objects.

These three neckpieces are all inspired by this exhibition theme ‘Girls for Boys’. Initially designed solely for the sexual satisfaction and enjoyment for both men and women.

Here I have altered and manipulated these original bundles of joy to create a new and vibrant life for them as a series of wearable pieces of jewellery.

girls for boys 2008 - majella beck

Inspired by boys
The opposite sex, the hairier sex, they have more hair, everywhere…
My designs are inspired by male hair, hair and more hair from the big moustache to the bald spot to the amusing yet sad comb over and the question to shave or not to shave.
The works combine traditional materials with non-traditional materials, to question the idea of what we perceive as precious. The use of the fishing line has a second aspect of preciousness attached to it; if you like fishing that is…
I have coloured the nylon fishing line with commercially available cloth dye and I have chosen constructed aesthetics, multiples and screws to reflect on the antiquated perception of traditional roles in society, bringing together mechanical construction from ‘his’ shed and hand dying from ‘her’ laundry.

girls for boys

'ten more girls' was originally created by 2007 graduates in 2008. Ten female past and current students/staffs of the Jewellery and Object Design from the Design Centre Enmore had the first exhibition, girls for boys, on 28 Aug 2008 at Gaffa Gallery.

Participants 2008 were; Georgina Pattinson, Lisa Furno, Majella Beck, Natalie Klave, Natasha Marcus – Taylor, Nikki Majajas, Pamela Suares, Radka Passianova, Sonya Scott & Tamahra Prowse.

These ten girls had created an exhibition, girls for boys, of quirky, unique and handmade contemporary jewellery and objects, made for, and inspired by boys.

To view images of girls for boys' grand exhibition opening night, visit http://www.gaffa.com.au/wordpress/?p=109