I created this one-of-a-kind handmade brooch called Brush with Nature from a small brush with black bristles and a piece of flat incised metal shaped vaguely like a leaf, mounted on a flat circular object wrapped in mottled brown paper or a leaf or who knows what. I found all the strange bits and bobs needed to make this brooch on the streets during my daily walks.
Normally I create wall sculptures and 3D sculptures from the wood, metal and tiles I find on the streets of Melbourne. However, through Instagram I met handmade jewellery designer Lynn Powers from New Orleans. She encouraged me to try making jewellery from the objects I found on the street, but I never had.
How I became a brooch designer
Then in 2019, I saw that the Contemporary Art Society of Victoria was holding its Australian National Brooch Show at the Fitzroy and Eltham public libraries. I displayed five of my brooches–and found that making them is great fun. In 2020, my brooches were in Wearable Art at The Old Auction House in Kyneton. They were also online in Survival Kit at the University of Melbourne George Paton Gallery.
In 2021, as part of Geelong and Melbourne Design Weeks, my brooches were featured in exhibitions at The Reimaginarium in Geelong and again at The Old Auction House in Kyneton. A special series using handmade 19th-Century nails from a friend’s roof were in the 2021 Australian National Brooch Show at the Fitzroy and Eltham Public Libraries. An even wider range of my brooches was at CoLab Arts in the Park in The Pavilion at Fitzroy Gardens.
In 2022, my brooches were featured in the exhibition Gold Rush at The Old Auction House and again in the Australian National Brooch Show. They were also in Covid-Themed Jewelry, an international online exhibition organised by the Art Jewelry Forum in San Antonio, Texas. And in 2023, they were back at the Australian National Brooch Show in the Fitzroy Library and at the Belconnen Arts Centre shop in Canberra.
Where you can find my brooches
And, of course, my brooches are always available through Incube8r Gallery @incube8r in Fitzroy, as well as online.
