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What's in the Box?

Drum roll please.................

Tenmoregirls are excited to announce the theme of our upcoming 2012 exhibition:

Glory Box

An exploration of history, culture, women, change and the contemporary hope chest.

Glory Box. The result of weeks of brainstorming, researching, debating and wondering, our theme explores the many facets of what it is to be a woman.

The concept of a Glory Box, or Hope Chest can be an extremely emotive one, referencing marriage, dowries and bride prices, rites of passage and the valuing and devaluing of women through history and across cultures.

From brilliant, moralistic paintings on renaissance marriage chests, the buoyant secret of Pandora's Box, and the despair of a refugee's tale, to the bright, plastic 'niceness' of 1950s Tupperware, each member of tenmoregirls is tackling this poignant topic from a vastly different angle.

Despite the distance between our starting points, our work is travelling along circuitous yet intersecting paths, overlapping every now and then, giving us deeper insights into the meaning of our theme and opening new realms of possibility in our designs, use of materials and techniques.

Our work for this exhibition is shaping up to be a varied, yet coherent collection of conceptual pieces; knives, wearables, objects, (un)wearables, and perhaps even a light...

Keep an eye out for the next instalment when you'll get a sneak peek into one of our studios and be the first to see what we're making. To make sure you get all our updates, just subscribe on our website.

Know anything cool about Hope Chests? Or have a question you're burning to ask? Just leave us a comment and join the conversation.

Tenmoregirls get crafty again

Saturday October 29th saw Salerno Gallery in Glebe bursting with craftiness yet again as we held our second Kids' Jewellery + Art Workshop as part of our latest exhibition, 10 Girls. 10 Colours.

In a frenzy of colourful craftiness, members of tenmoregirls were joined by local children and their parents, creating fabulous wearables, from the cute, to the beautiful, to the weird and wonderful. We even had a spot of impromptu millinery, in honour of Spring Carnival Race weekend.

Our workshops were generously supported by funding from the City of Sydney Council as part of their Matching Grants Program. On Saturday we were excited to welcome Ashley Heath, from City of Sydney Council, to visit the workshop and be part of the crafty fun.

Visit us on FaceBook and tell us which is your favourite crafty creation!

Kids' Jewellery + Art Workshop in Glebe

Salerno Gallery lit up last Saturday, October 22nd, with the first of our special tenmoregirls jewellery and art workshops for kids.

Our participants included local kids and their families, visitors to the nearby Glebe Markets and one crafty dog. The workshop was run by several members of tenmoregirls who, naturally, couldn't resist the creative urge. As well as assisting the participants, they also turned out a wonderful collection of 'quick jewellery' made from repurposed materials.

Called 'The Silhouette Project', the workshop gave each participant the chance to create some great pieces using their own silhouettes, that were photographed and printed on the day.

Our next workshop will be held this Saturday, October 29th, from 12pm. Join us at Salerno Gallery, 70 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe for heaps of crafty fun!

10 girls. 10 colours. opening night

Thank you for everyone to make it all happen.
It was such a great opening.

from tenmoregirls.

bump in

tenmoregirls started to display exhibition works from 10am at the Salerno Gallery today. Everyone attached pieces to the canvasess already to save time this year and roomsheet looks like pretty much done, too.
There is visual equipment to show tenmoregirls' concept, images & making process, and artist talk on 3 saturdays. 22nd, 29th of Oct and 5th of Nov from 11am & kids workshop on two saturdays. 22nd & 29th of Oct. from 12-2pm.

Come along our opening tomorrow at 6pm Salreno Gallery, 70 Glebe Point road, Glebe.
If you miss the opening, gallery opens till the 5th of Nov, tue - Fri 10-5:30pm, sat 10-3pm, sun & mon by appointment.

brown by a mi kim

well, when i chose the colour, BROWN, my brain went blank for a few second.

what can i do...what can i start with first...

Although i didn't have a clue how to make it when i first picked brown, i started to investigate why things turn brown.

brown is the colour of autumn. when leaves & flowers get old and wilted, when things get dirty, when things burn, their colour changes to brown. This influenced me to create wearable pieces using papers, bronze and reticulated silver for this exhibition, 10 girls. 10 colours.



visit kamidesignstory for more about my making stories...

The Patina of Age - Tenille Evans explores the colour yellow for 10 girls. 10 colours.

The colour yellow is the patina of age.

It is the colour of sickness, jaundice and degeneration. Yellow is the colour that our skin, teeth and nails turn when we grow old. Yellow is a stain. It is the colour of our bones as we decay. It is also the mark of age on the domestic objects we keep. Books, fabric, clothing and paper all turn yellow as they deteriorate. There is some beauty and comfort to be found in the realisation that our treasured household objects and furnishings all yellow in the same way our bodies do. The inevitability of each of us, as individuals, changing and decaying in the same way is a universal truth. Recognition and acceptance of this certainty gives us the ability to unite.

Existing comfortably with our mortality and impermanence links us to, but at the same time lifts us out of, the everyday domestic spaces we inhabit.

Using this concept as a starting point, I have experimented with various domestic materials, eventually exploring the aesthetic effect that can be achieved by folding antique book paper. I enjoyed the consistent yet unique way each piece was formed. It is a representation of the inevitable and continual process of generation and decay, something that occurs over and over again, in similar yet distinct patterns.

10 girls. 10 colours. - two weeks to go!

10 girls. 10 colours. is on very soon! Please make sure you put our opening night - Tuesday the 18th of October, as well as all of our other great events in your diary now!

Inspiration: The Power of Purple

Danielle Butters is working with the colour PURPLE for 10 Girls. 10 Colours. Her exploration has taken her through history, examining manifestations of power and the people that wield it.

"Some twelve thousand mollusks for barely more than a few drops of colourant... Among the most complex dyes to extract and, therefore, the most expensive, purple has seduced the powerful, from Roman emperors to Church dignitaries." - Anne Varichon

The history of the colour purple is entwined with the history of power.

Innate power; power misused, misdirected, abused; people power; influence, authority, coercion. For centuries, power has been wielded on the world stage by charismatic people, with a genius for provoking extremes of emotion: faith, envy, desire, loyalty, rationality, fear and hatred.

In my work for 10 Girls. 10 Colours. I explore the relationship between powerful people and the emotional tools they use to wield power.

Everyone will have their own list of favourite powerful people; leaders who have changed the world, inspirational icons, ruthless dictators - people we love or love to hate. My list is, of course, subjective, it might only makes sense to me, and is populated by people whose influence I have experienced, through history books, movies, religious teaching and TV.

I love reading about philosophy and arguing about the nature of things so it makes sense that my list began with the power that makes our society work - democracy, and the most visible expression of that power - the law. We've all had a parking fine or voted in a local election; both side effects of a democratic political system.

Going in search of the source of democracy, I landed in the world of the ancient Greek philosophers. I researched Pythagoras, Parmenides, Democritus, Socrates, Plato, Plutarch, finding not only the roots of democracy, but the seeds of much that we take for granted in our modern world: philosophy, politics, mathematics, music, religion, law, astronomy, chemistry, logic, ethics and poetry. All firmly based in the process of rational thought, they seem to me like shards of power traveling around the world and through time, influencing minds, societies and the political shape of the world.

Using words, the tools of rational thought, I made the first piece in this series from thoughts on paper - the pages from a book of Greek history and philosophy. The shape is inspired by colossal tribal statues, ancient symbols of personal power, giving the piece a monumental volume that belies its small size. Even though it's made of paper, the object evokes weight and substance, expressing the immense contribution of Greek philosophy and rational thought to the progress of the modern world.

So that's the start of the story. Coming up: Adolf Hitler, Marilyn Monroe, Jesus, Angelina Jolie, Queen Elizabeth, Osama bin Laden ...I'll see how far I get in my search for power of purple.

Inspiration : What does the colour blue mean to me?

Radka Passianova talks about the inspiration behind her work for 10 Girls. 10 Colours. Blue.

What does the colour blue mean to me?

Water, ice, snow, air, bubbles, glass, cold, fresh, quiet, balance, stability, safety and communication.... these are the terms that are popping into my head when I think of the colour blue. All these terms are forming shapes in my head. Rather round, smooth and simple objects inviting to be touched and played with. Almost like air bubbles in the water. Objects that would make a sound that talks to us. Sound of wind, falling water or breaking glass.

To find out more about Radka's work check out her website http://www.radkapassianova.com.au

Australia Council Grant Application Successful!

We have some amazing news! Our application for a $10,000 new work from emerging artists grant from the Australia Council has been approved! The grant is for the creation of new work for our exhibition 10 Girls. 10 Colours. which opens on the 18th of October 2011 at Salerno Gallery in Glebe.

This is so exciting! The financial pressure of creating work for exhibition can often mean that emerging artists like us have to reign in our creativity. Government funding bodies like the Australia Council for the Arts make it so much easier to bring our ideas into reality.

Our exhibition 10 Girls. 10 Colours. is looking to be our most successful show yet, so make sure you stay updated by subscribing to recieve our blog updates via email, liking our page on facebook and following us on twitter.

Our new website www.tenmoregirls.com will be completed very soon too!

10 girls. 10 colours. dates announced!!

We have some exciting news to share about our 2011 exhibition....

We have now officially confirmed the date and location of the exhibition and are pleased to announce that 10 girls. 10 colours. will be showing at Salerno Gallery from the 19th of October until the 6th of November 2011.

Our opening night will be on Tuesday the 18th of October, so make sure you save the date! We will also be running 'meet the artist' events each Saturday that the exhibition is open.

Salerno Gallery is located in the vibrant inner city suburb of Glebe at 70 Glebe Point Road. It is an amazing space that will really showcase our work to the highest standard. We are so excited to be exhibiting there!

Making Do with Music and Mashed Potatoes in the Southern Highlands : Inside Carol Faulkner's studio.

In today's blog post, tenmoregirls artist Carol Faulkner shares an insight into her making process for Ten Girls. Ten Colours.


As the title suggests I have recently relocated to the picturesque but chilly Southern Highlands. Fortunately for me my studio is the warmest room in the house and the addition of my Bose docking station is a joyful and (often) loud addition to the workshop.

I have long believed in the right tool for the job and during my studies was always excited when a new, “can’t live without” tool seduced me into a purchase. Over the last few years I have been acquiring whatever was needed at the time for my own studio, along with a few things that weren’t as well!

Having a husband that makes furniture and who possesses an impressive range of tools himself, has been an added advantage to my own tool philosophy. You can imagine my frustration, when recently, the right tool for the job did not appear to be at hand. Fortunately this quandary coincided with a regular Tenmore Girls meeting and it was Majella that suggested I look no further than the kitchen sink for the item I was looking for. After a hasty clean a pot came in very handy for forming the external structure of the neckpiece I was working on for the Ten Girls. Ten Colours Exhibition. PS – I have since bought a swage block ooooh!

Check back here every week for more studio insights, as we share sneak previews our works in progress for Ten Girls. Ten Colours.

tenmoregirls artist profile : bernadette trainor

This week Bernadette Trainor talks to us about her inspirations.
For tengirls tencolours, she is exploring the colour ORANGE.
For more info about her works go to bernadette trainor's website

What materials inspire you?

I like carving timber, because I love the versatility and warmth of wood. There’s something lovely about taking a raw, splintery piece of wood and making it smooth and lustrous. I have stacks of timber off-cuts, bits and pieces that have a beautiful grain or colour, I just wish I had some more time to turn them into something…
I also enjoy working with glass, as you can achieve great depth and colour. I’d like to experiment more with large cast pieces.

What is your favourite tool in the workshop? Why?

I hope it doesn’t come across as corner-cutting laziness, but I love my micromotor. It has all the great characteristics I wish I possessed myself, like being very efficient and good at multi-tasking. It was one of the first pieces of equipment I bought and I find it invaluable. I use it for carving timber and wax, drilling, sanding, polishing…

Where do you think your creativity comes from?

”Work only starts when the fear of doing nothing finally exceeds the fear of doing something badly.” – Alain de Botton

What is your favourite colour?

I’m learning to embrace many colours, and I’m not sure if I have a favourite. I’m always surrounded by a lot of orange and red, but I find different situations call for different coloured neckerchiefs. At the moment I’m in love with bright blue and turquoise, and I’ve been hunting for vintage jewellery, art glass and furniture to satisfy this obsession.

Who inspires you?

I appreciate the work of people like Robin Boyd, dedicated to education and innovation; like Alain de Botton, who help to make life a little easier to understand; and Archer Lambourne, age 3, and his tireless efforts striving for workshop safety.

tenmoregirls artist profile : tenille evans

This week Tenille Evans talks to us about her inspirations.
For tengirls tencolours, she is exploring the colour YELLOW.
For more info about her works go to EELS jewellery + scrimshaw + objects

What materials inspire you?

I love warm organic materials like buffalo horn and bone. I enjoy materials that have their own history before I start working with them. The unique surface fluctuations and colour variations in a piece of horn inspire me the most. I am also conceptually inspired by traditional materials like gold and silver. I find myself continually drawn to ideas of permanence, mortality and decay in my exhibition work. So often, the juxtaposition of metal with things like paper, fabric and string allows me to explore these concepts in a very tactile and direct way.

What is your favorite tool in the workshop? Why?


I love my custom-made scrimshaw tool. It is probably the tool I use the most! Its is really just like a very heavy scribe, with super sharp interchangeable steel tips. The man who made it specialises in scrimshaw tools and has definitely perfected the art! It makes my scrimshaw work so much easier. I know a lot of jewellers and metalsmiths might shudder at this, but I also really love emery and sand paper and the process of sanding down and polishing up a piece of metal, horn or bone. Even though it can be a tedious process, the pleasure I get from seeing something shiny and smooth emerging from the dirty mess that polishing makes is just divine!

Where do you think your creativity comes from?

I'm not sure what has driven my creativity. My family are mostly corporate types, in terms of career. Although they are certainly not boring and are all wild and creative in their own way! I do know that I have always been creative. I have been drawing for as long as I can remember and knew that I would eventually try to make an arts career of some kind. I fell into jewellery design by accident. I studied other fields of design, arts, art history, literature and sociology before dropping out of uni altogether. After a wasted year working in a pub, I decided, "I have to do something!", google searched tafe courses and stumbled on Jewellery and Object Design. I thought I may as well give it a go. As soon as I had finished cutting out that first piece of metal into a tiny perfect square, I was hooked!

What is your favorite colour?

This is a hard one now. Had I been asked this question a few months ago, I would have said red. After exploring colour for 10 Girls. 10 Colours. my experience of colour has changed. The spectrum of shade and tone within each colour is infinite. I have noticed now that there are actually some shades of red that make me feel quite ill. There are also some shades of purple that I find positively delightful and while I love some incarnations of green, others make me shudder. Colour is such an emotional thing. It is linked to memory and personal experience.

Who inspires you?

Since giving birth to my son a year ago, I'd definitely say him. As well as the rest of my family and close friends. Without trying to sound too sentimental (or like a hippy!) I feel connected to the collective consciousness of humanity through the people I love. Inspiration for me, comes from the complex interconnectedness of all of us and the world we live in. More simply, I feel at my most inspired and creative when I feel a deep sense of connection with those around me. Nurturing these connections, nurtures my creativity.

tenmoregirls artist profile : majella beck

This week Majella Beck tells us what inspires her.
For tengirls tencolours, she is exploring the colour RED.

Majella Beck is a jeweller, object designer and teacher based in Sydney.
She combines precious and non-precious materials and sees her work as a constant exploration and evaluation of what makes jewellery precious.
She currently teaches a variety of courses relating to contemporary jewellery and objects. Majella participates regularly in exhibitions and has work held in private collections.

What materials inspire you?
Working with metals is very challenging and inspirational to me.
I enjoy combining precious metals with everyday non-precious materials. For me a lot of enjoyment comes from working with a material I haven’t worked with before.
I have used felt for my first piece for our upcoming show. When I starting working with felt I was so excited about my new material and the felting techniques. Followed by a short-lived period of hating it. As I was learning more and more I enjoyed felting again and have developed a great respect for the craft of felting.
Experimenting and learning about a material is very delightful to me.
Silicone is next…

What is your favorite tool in the workshop? Why?
I really love filing. I find it very soothing and I enjoy the control it gives in fine-tuning your designs. In saying that I also really love my jewelers saw and I get a great pleasure of using hammers for all kind of purposes from shaping to texturing.

Where do you think your creativity comes from?
(eg family? background? have you always wanted to be an artist/designer?)
I have always been creative, curious and inventive using my mind and my hands. Originally born in East Germany, I was lucky to have limited toys. I spent a lot of time reading and making things…I always have been (and still am) a bit of a bowerbird and find immense joy in things that other might see as rubbish…
As a child greatly enjoyed repairing household appliances, but I think you could say I was breaking them by taking them apart and re-assembling them.
In my family we always made presents for Christmas and birthdays.
I never wanted to be a designer, but as a child I dreamt of being an inventor.
Making jewellery and objects combines the head, the heart and the hands, it feels very liberating to me.

What is your favorite colour?
Funnily my favourite colour is red, which also is my allocated colour.
I love the primary colours red, blue and yellow, but seldom wear yellow, as it really doesn’t suit me. Working with the colour red was initially more difficult than anticipated, as I just wanted to make things in red, anything as long as it was red…
It wasn’t enough of a concept to start a body of work for an exhibition.
So for our upcoming 10girls 10colours exhibition I looked at red being the colour of blood.
We are all the same colour on the inside…

Who inspires you?
Passionate, curious, honest people who remember the child within.

tenmoregirls artist profile : jo piper

This week tenmoregirls artist Jo Piper talks to us what inspires her. For tengirls tencolours, she is exploring the colour BLACK.

What materials inspire you?
Any material can be inspiring if it relates to the idea and concept behind the piece. I especially love it when artists juxtapose seemingly unrelated materials together or manipulate the material to appear as though it defies its natural characteristics. Such as when metal appears to float in the air or hair is woven into a fabric that appears as precious and soft as silk.

What is your favourite tool in the workshop and why?
Parallel pliers are always handy but if I had to name one thing I think the thing at the top of my list would be the hydraulic press.

Where do you think your creativity comes from?
I have never really thought about it. I grew up in a house full of paintings, as my Dad was an avid art collector. My Mum and sister are creative people and so I have always been surrounded by creativity. I think my sense of creativity has developed over time. I also think I was a gypsy or something in a past life as I find it hard to stay in one place for long. This constant change and influences from different cultures has probably had a lot to do with it.

Have you always wanted to be an artist/designer?
I actually started out with a degree in science but the idea of becoming an artist/designer was never really something I considered. I ended up on this path purely through a love of working with metal – the artist/designer element is just a label that hides the real desire of wanting to see how far I can push the characteristics of metal.

What is your favourite colour?
Hot pink - Just because it’s very rowdy with a slight tendency to be obnoxious which I find very amusing. Followed closely by lime green for very similar reasons. My colour for the exhibition is Black and I love black for too many reasons then I am able to list here

Who inspires you?
Anyone who is a bit left of centre. I find normality very uninspiring. I love quirky eccentricity and anyone who has the courage to go against the norm to do things differently.

tenmoregirls artist profile : andrea iglesias

This week Andrea Iglesias talks to us about her background and what inspires her.
For tengirls tencolours, she is exploring the colour GREEN.

Andrea Iglesias is a Sydney based Jewellery designer/ maker. She started her Jewellery making journey in 1997 in Colombia. Started her own business called Andrea Iglesias Diseños.In 2006 she arrive to Sydney to study Jewellery & Object Design at the Design Centre Enmore, were she graduated in 2008.

What materials inspire you?
Silver, to see this material evolve is magical. All the processes is an adventure, melting, bending, hammering, connecting it all together, and in the end I encounter a piece that has become “alive”.Even in its purest form is exquisite. When I am working with it, I start to imagine what texture, elements or components would be a good partner for this chemical element.

What is your favorite tool in the workshop? Why?
Oh that is a hard question. Like I said before every process is an adventure in my own words... “delicious”.But if I have to choose I would say the Jewellers Saw. To be able to cut through metal and give any form I desire to a flat sheet is freeing.

Where do you think your creativity comes from? (eg family? background? have you always wanted to be an artist/designer?)
A bit of everything, but I think my family has been a great influence; singers, writers, architects and a decorator. So when we get together nothing normal will happen.I never thought of being an artist or designer, I just wanted to MAKE, I never thought of putting a name to it.

What is your favorite colour?
Right now Green. I got green for this year exhibition, and realized how much I being taking it for granted. So now I am exploring all the different representations, expressions, tones, hues and textures. Definitely enjoying it more.

Who inspires you?
People, experiences, happiness, tranquility or just a feeling of drawing in to a paper and just let go.

tenmoregirls artist profile : radka passianova

This week tenmoregirls artist Radka Passianova talks to us what inspires her. For tengirls tencolours, she is exploring the colour BLUE.
For more info about her works go to radka's website

What materials inspire you?
The most inspiring material for me is stainless steel. I am attracted to its cool gray colour, strength and durability. I also find it challenging material to work with as it always tests my capability of cold joining and its finishing.

What is your favourite tool in workshop, why?
My favourite tool is probably jewellers saw and hammer. Jewellers saw is a tool which allows me to cut out shapes out of almost any material I have ever been working with. Sometimes preparation of the metal and cutting it takes long time and the process relaxes me. This basic hand skill requires full concentration and focus on the correct technique and posture.
Hammers I find to be interesting and underrated tools. Depending on the different shape you can achieve different results. You can either use it for simple effects like hitting centre punch before drilling or you can create amazing raised objects.

Where do you think your creativity comes from?
I have never thought about where my creativity comes from. I have always been creative in one way or the other. When I was little I wasn’t planning to become artist/designer but I have always dreamt about it. My brother and mother are very creative, but not professionally. In addition to that I do come from Prague – very inspiring place.
These facts might be an origin of my creativity.

What is your favourite colour?
Blue

Who inspires you?
There are many people who inspire me. Often it is people who don’t have anything to do with design but they are fully passionate about what they do and how they live.