Tattoos Down Under feature

 

Check it out! I was fortunate enough to be featured in the latest issue of Tattoos Down Under magazine! I am super excited about this, because I love Tattoos Down Under and have been reading it for years. Since well before I had any tattoos - I actually used to cut pages out of it for inspiration! :) The photos of my work, taken by TDU's art director and awesome photographer Nicole Reed, look so amazing. I couldn't be happier. Its available at any good newsagent, so go pick up a copy now.

In print : *bespoke* Feature

I was lucky enough to be featured in Issue #3 of Jess Van Den's beautiful zine *bespoke*. I wrote an article called 'Tale of a Modern Scrimshander' about my work and the history of my craft. - you can buy *bespoke* online here and find it on page 37.

*bespoke* is a zine for and by the contemporary hand-made community and features articles, tutorials, beautiful images and stories about all kinds of amazing artisans and crafters. It was so great to contribute to such an awesome independent publication!

This is actually the first of a few print features that I have coming up in the next few months! Very exciting! I'll keep you posted.

TE x

branding an identity

I've been thinking lately about this thing called 'branding'. As an artist, I am the brand. But I am also an actual, real, dynamic human being. There are REAL people behind every brand, but I think small creative businesses like mine have a particularly difficult time dealing with branding themselves. How do I deal with the idea of brand consistency as a real person, when the only constant aspect of a person is the constant state of change? Can I be consistent and dynamic at the same time? What parts of my 'brand' should remain consistent and what parts should grow and change as I do?

In case any of you had ever wondered, this may be the right time to share... eels is actually my nick name. My very best friends call me eels. It was coined years ago by Bernadette (@bmtrainor) when we were both studying at Enmore. There's no crazy story, it just comes from my name, Tenille. (not One-eel, Ten-eels..?) I actually didn't like the nick name at first, but it grew on me. And now I love it. It also relates in a quirky kind of way to the ocean and scrimshaw. Because I have lots of different elements to my design and art practice, I wanted my scrimshaw jewellery to have a very clear identity. I like to use my full name for exhibition work, events and other jewellery work that isn't scrimshaw.

All of my work IS ME. So branding my business and my work means that I am branding my own identity. This is a troublesome idea for me. Those that know me well know that I can be flippant, flighty and easily distracted. I am constantly growing, changing and evolving as a person, so how do I resolve this within the context of a consistent 'brand'?

Lately I am thinking that the only option is to embrace it! To accept that many things will change, but there are things that will remain strong and provide solid grounding for my identity and the identity of my brand.

What will remain constistent? ...My voice, my values, my ethics, my true imperfect growing self. My resolve to make amazing and meaningful work; whatever that may mean. My commitment to making individual and unique work of a high quality. By accepting these things as constant, I am able to accept the things that will change.

What will change?  ...My work. Hopefully it will get better and better! It may change dramatically over the years, but this is ok with me! My appearance, I will get older and more wrinkled. Haha! My perspective, I will grow and mature and that will impact on my brand and my work. My work is made by me and is influenced at every stage by me and my life.

What does this mean? ...I think that by embracing the reality of change, I will be more likely to be honest and take risks. This can only be a good thing! In the past, I have delayed 'making a move' until I was absolutely certain. Delayed launching a website, product, talking about an idea... etc until I was sure it was perfect. I now embrace the perfection of growth and resolve to put it all out there during the process.

What are your thoughts on branding a personal identity as an artist or in small business? What are the constants for you? and what do you allow to change and grow? I'd love to hear your comments below, or chat with me on twitter! @eelsjewellery

 


     
 

adore

I've started to get a reputation as "that girl that likes ships", so I thought I'd start posting about other things I love. Hopefully I will be able to keep it up as a regular thing! Yes, I love ships and anchors and nautical things. But I also like other things. For my first adore post; one of my biggest idols in the Australian contemporary jewellery industry, David Neale.

Not a new love, I've admired his work for a long time. His lovely idiosyncratic stylised natural forms appeal to me in a very pure and honest way. His work is warm and sturdy like old furniture. Check out his beautiful blog www.thegoldensmith.blogspot.com and his website www.davidneale.com.au

all images are Copyright David Neale 2007, source: www.davidneale.com.au

eels all over the interwebs

I have been so lucky to be featured in a few gorgeous blogs lately, thought I'd share...

The amazing Danielle from Sometimes Sweet featured me in her regular Tattoo Tuesday post. Have a read here.

It was so great to have the opportunity to talk about myself outside of my work. It was heaps of fun to share images of all the artwork I collect on my body, which is something I haven't really done before!

I also wrote a guest post on Winter Love for beautiful mama Natalie about the love of my life, my son Cash. I talked about the awesome adventure of motherhood and juggling working at home on my jewellery business with a young baby. Find it here.

The very talented jewellery designer and artist Sophie from That Vintage also did a shout-out to me and my work on her blog recently. This is such a huge compliment, because she's a super rad lady! Have a look here.

Keep an eye out on the tenmoregirls blog too! I will be a featured artist on there very soon.

While I'm sharing links, I should also let you know that I have recently listed some new stuff on two more online marketplaces... 

The awesome new Young Republic site will be launching very soon, and I have already started listing items. The brand new site is very exciting and the Australian designers featured on there are looking brilliant. Check out a sneak preview of my shop here.

I have also joined the Australian based ethical handmade store Blue Caravan. It is a beautiful site that promotes sustainable design, locally made products, organic materials as well as ethical and fair trade production. All the stuff I love! Have a look at my shop here.

Instagram

I just love instagram! 


At jewellery college you learn photography. For a very good reason. Photographing your work well is so important, especially when you are trying to market your work and sell online. So I have a grasp of the basics of good photography and I know my way around an SLR. I also know how to use a macro lens to show the details of a piece of jewellery.


My iPhone has no macro lens. It doesn't pick up details or show how something works or its connection. I wouldn't dream of taking photos of my jewellery with my iPhone! That was, until I discovered the instagram app.


For those of you who don't use it, its basically like twitter for images. It allows you to apply filters to photos, like hipstamatic, and post them directly to your facebook or twitter profiles. People can also follow you directly, like and comment within the app itself.


The benefit of instagram is not to show exactly what my work looks like, but to give a feel for my work. I still use a proper camera for real pictures! I use instagram to take progress shots while I'm in the studio, or little sneak-previews of something I'm working on. If you use it right, you can convey an aesthetic in a really lovely, personal and direct way. This translates really well into jewellery work, as long as you follow it up with some good, crisp and clear images on your website as well. 


Here's a few of my favorite eels instagrams as an example.       


Work in progress shots...

Sneak previews of exhibition work...

Concept drawings...

Brand new work snaps, as its made.... 

If you'd like to follow me on instagram, my user name is eelsjewellery. Otherwise, I regularly post my photos on twitter @eelsjewellery


TE x

Delicious New Autumn Colours

A box just arrived full of beautiful pieces of polished water buffalo horn in the most stunning autumn colours, I just had to share some pictures before I started cutting it up, carving it, scrimshandering it and turning it into jewellery. They are so delicious looking that I can't help but think of butterscotch, espresso, toffee, mocha, and creamy lattes.

After seeing these pieces of material, I am thinking about carving images of animals. Not whales this time though! Deer, foxes, wolves, horses, birds and buffalo. I have been doing a few custom pieces with animal images carved into them and have really enjoyed it. So it looks like a new range is on its way!

While I'm on the subject of material, I thought I might also share some other pictures of the various kinds of raw materials that my pieces evolve from. In addition to the cut and polished shapes that I work with, I also use raw sheets and rods, various beads, vintage buttons, bone tools and even bone straight from the butcher.

Although these images are lovely, the true beauty of these organic materials lies in their warm tactile quality. I just wish you all could touch and feel the pieces. Working with them is truly inspiring. If you are a maker too, I'd love to hear about how your materials inspire and influence your work. 

TE x

blogging for tenmoregirls

As you may know already, this year, I am part of the tenmoregirls collective! A Sydney based group of contemporary jewellery designer/makers that come together annually to produce amazing exhibitions of concept based work. Very exciting!

I'll be blogging here regularly about the development of my work for the show this year, titled 10 Girls. 10 Colours. But I will also be blogging over on the tenmoregirls site.

I'm writing a regular Friday weekly post about the production of the event itself. I will be covering topics like; grant applications and securing sponsorship, budgeting, marketing, print design and production, building the exhibition space itself and all of the other amazing things that go into making an exhibition come together.

I find this part of being an artist and designer really exciting and challenging. Go and check it out at www.tenmoregirls.com. I'm sure you'll find it as fascinating as I do!

TE x 

L.A.M.I.C.

In 2009, after attending the MITRA conference in Sydney and listening to a Buddhist nun talk about women and consumerism, I decided to do something.

Great at starting things, but not so good at finishing them, I founded the Ladies Association for Mindful Informed Consumption. Haha. Catchy right? I then started my blog www.ladiesformindfulconsumption.blogspot.com, posted THREE times and got distracted by something else.

Terrible. I know.

This lovely little seed of an idea now sits lonely inside the internet, neglected. Visiting the site this morning made me a little sad that I didn't push it further. I guess it will just sit there waiting for me to have some extra time and energy. I get some consolation from the fact that I do still very much live my life the way I advocated through LAMIC.

I thought I'd share the first blog post I wrote over there, because re-reading it now, makes me feel inspired. Enjoy.

TE x

When I grow up, I want to be a designer. I'm trying already, actually. To both grow up as well as be a designer. I studied jewellery and object design, where I learnt how to technically and conceptually transform an idea sucessfully into being. To transform raw creativity and a flippant thought into a usable, wearable, tactile object. I learnt how to hustle my wares. Where, how, using what marketing techniques and when. People will buy anything if it is packaged in the right way. There is a market for everything. Whatever crap you are merchandising, if you stick it in the right place and use the right type-face on your labels, someone will spend their money and take said crap home with them.

A jewellery making colleague of mine once came to me in a very distressed state. In a manic fit of bedroom organisation she hit the wall of stuff she had collected over the years with a realisation of the precarious relationship between her sanity and things. "What are we doing?" she lamented, "our lives are spent making more and more of these things, these trinkets, these items, these objects, this stuff. Sorting through them, and throwing them away." And we, as designers get some kind of pleasure out of infilltrating and adding to the glut of paraphernalia that people call their belongings. Thats fucked up.

What is this compulsion? To buy stuff, to make stuff, to create stuff out of nothing? This blog is basically an investigation into the hazardous relationship we humans have with the objects around us. As tumultous as it is however, the link we have with the things we wear, adorn ourselves with and keep close to us, doesn't have to be a negative one. There must be a positive way of buying, consuming and creating mindfully. 

www.ladiesformindfulconsumption.blogspot.com

It all starts with a concept... Exhibition work PART 1

I blogged recently about how excited I was to be included in the tenmoregirls collective exhibition this year. Tenmoregirls are a Sydney based group of ten female contemporary jewellers who all studied Jewellery at the Design Centre Enmore. Since 2008, they have been producing annual exhibitions of stunning concept based objects and wearables. Each year, a different theme is chosen. For 2011, each of the artists randomly selected a different colour to inspire their work. The show will be called ‘Ten Girls. Ten Colours.’

I have selected the colour Yellow.

Yellow. At first, I felt a little apprehensive about this. I surely would feel more comfortable exploring black, red or white. These are the shades that usually resonate in my work. Exhibition work though, is about pushing yourself to think differently. For me, concept based work is also an opportunity to disregard all of those constraints that usually inform my production jewellery. It doesn’t have to be pleasurable, marketable, wearable, fashionable or even liked by your audience. Your work, in a gallery setting, can say whatever you want it to. How exciting is that?!

Yellow. Instantly I imagine gardens of flowers, bees, sunlight, corn fields and summer. BORING. In some ways it is easier to design pleasurable things. This is imagery that has become an aesthetic cliché for happiness. This is nice, but honestly, I could make lovely pretty happy things anytime. In a gallery, I like to challenge people and make them feel something they wouldn’t ordinarily feel. Make them think a little or experience some discomfort.

So, yellow.... Sickness, jaundice, decay. Yellow is the colour that our skin, teeth and nails turn when we grow old. 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. Yellow is actually a verb. To ‘yellow’ is to show the patina of age. This is a more productive thought train! The objects we own and treasure all decay in the same way our bodies do.

I then start thinking about the work of one of my favourite artists, Eva Hesse. Her sculptures reference the body and its functions in a very abstract but visceral way. She uses tactile materials like latex, string, cheesecloth, resin, rope and fibreglass to construct objects that are sensual but disquieting and are often, very yellow. 

What do I find successful in Hesse's work? Is it material or form that I am drawn to? And how will this influence my work? 

This is Part 1 of a series of posts about my concept development and creation of work for Ten Girls. Ten Colours. a tenmoregirls exhibition. I will be posting updates, photographs and images of the progression of my work as well as the planning of the event itself.         

Image: Eva Hesse Studiowork, 1968, Courtesy of University of California, Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive, gift of Helen Hesse Charash, 1979 Photograph by Abby Robinson, Photograph: Abby Robinson/Courtesy of the Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign