Marmalade Issue 4, 2016

ISSUE NO 04 

design + craftsmanship

A BAROSSA WINE, FOOD & ART PARADISE 

SEPPELTSFIELD.COM.AU 

T: (08) 8568 6200 A: 730 Seppeltsfield Rd Seppeltsfield Barossa Valley SA 5355

CONTENTS 

Features 

12 / The Next Crop 

JamFactory’s unique two-year Associate training program is 

delivering world class results for another group of inspiring 

young artists and designers. 

20 / JamFactory Icon: Gerry Wedd 

JamFactory’s annual Icon series celebrates the achievements of 

South Australia’s most influential artists working in crafts media. 

24 / FUSE Glass Prize: Reconciling Innovation and Beauty 

This new biennial is creating opportunities for outstanding Australian 

and New Zealand artists working in glass. 

14 

28 / Winning: Just the Beginning 

For accomplished Sydney-based designer Seaton Mckeon, 

the benefits of winning the 2015 AFDA are contining to acrue. 

36 / STEEL: art design architecture 

Outstanding projects by contemporary Australian artists, designers 

and architects representing a cross section of current creative 

practices and relationships to this versatile material. 

42 / Homeland: returning, remembering, reimagining 

Alumni and Associates of the University of South Australia’s 

Bachelor of Interior Architecture consider the meaning of homeland 

in relationship to their professional practice and personal lives. 

Profiles 

22 

46 / Liam Mugavin 

48 / Amanda Dziedzic 

Regulars 

6 / Highlights 

56 / Q&A: Angela Walford 

26 

48 

ISSUE 04 / 1

Marmalade 

Editorial Team 

Margaret Hancock Davis 

Brian Parkes 

Design 

Sophie Guiney with 

template by Canvas Group 

Copy Editor 

Genevieve O’Callaghan 

Feature Writers 

and Contributors 

Leanne Amodeo 

Penny Craswell 

Joanne Cys 

Julie Ewington 

Caitlin Eyre 


Jo Higgins 

Gerry King 

Jane Lawrence 

Lara Merrington 

Margot Osborne 

Brian Parkes 

Marcus Piper 

Photographers 

Angela Bakker 

Chris Boha 

Brad Bonar 

Andre Castellucci 

Hadyn Cattach 

Andrew Cowen 

Pete Daly 

Jeremy Dhillon 

Anna Fenech Harris 

John Gollings 

Jordan Gower 

Grant Hancock 

George Karatzas 

Sven Kovac 


Derek McClure 

Pippy Mount 

Sam Noonan 

Seb Paynter 

Sharrin Rees 

Tom Roschi 

Barton Taylor 

Jonathan van der Knaap 

Elise Wilken 

Bo Wong 

All photography as indicated 

Measurements throughout 

have been given in millimeters, 

height x width x depth. 

Printing 

Printed in Adelaide by Express 

Colour 

Distribution Enquiries 

Emma Aiston 

emma.aiston@jamfactory.com.au 

Publisher 

JamFactory 

19 Morphett Street 

Adelaide SA 5000 

Office: (08) 8410 0727 

Email: contact@jamfactory.com.au 

Website: jamfactory.com.au 

Board of Directors 

Peter Vaughan (Chair) 

Jim Carreker 

Noelene Buddle 

Shane Flowers 

Prof. Kay Lawrence AM 

Dr. Jane Lomax-Smith AM 

Anne Moroney 

Libby Raupach OAM 

Chief Executive Officer 

and Artistic Director 

Brian Parkes 

Administration 

General Manager 

Kate Cenko 

Finance Manager 

Carolyn Seelig 

Executive Assistant 

Claudine Young 

Accounts Officer 

Tracy Peck 

Administration/Accounts Assistant 

Anna Fenech Harris 

Development Manager 

Nikki Hamdorf 

Marketing and Graphic Design 

Manager 

Sophie Guiney 

Marketing and Communications 

Coordinator 

Vanessa Heath 

Sales 

Creative Directors - 

Retail and Product 

Emma Aiston and Daniel To 

Retail and Gallery Manager 

Lucy Potter 

Retail Supervisor 

Ali Carpenter 

Retail Supervisor - Rundle Mall Plaza 

Roxanne Ambrose 

Retail and Gallery Supervisor - 

Seppeltsfield 

Kristy Pyror 

Retail Sales Staff 

Naomi Bishop 

Angela Kearns 

Sonya Moyle 

Kate O’Leary Wroblewski 

Bettina Smith 

Ellen Steinborner 

Janice Vitkovsky 

Zarah Witzmann 

Exhibitions 

Senior Curator 


Assistant Curator 


Exhibitions Coordinator 

Katie Barber 

Exhibition Installation 

Peter Carroll 

Rhys Cooper 

Ceramics Studio 

Creative Director 

Damon Moon 

Production Manager 

David Pedler 

Associates 

Connie Augoustinos 

Jordan Gower 

Madeline McDade 

Glass Studio 


Karen Cunningham 

Program Manager 

Kristel Britcher 


Liam Fleming 

Commissions Assistant 

Llewelyn Ash 

Technician 

Tim Edwards 

Assistant Technician 

Madeline Prowd 

Associates 

Lewis Batchelar 

Laure Fradin 

Cole Johnson 

Alice Mahoney 

Thomas Pearson 

Emma Young 

Furniture Studio 


Jon Goulder 


Nicholas Fuller 

Associates 

James Howe 

Madeline Isakson 

Huw McConachy 

Matt Pearson 

Jake Rollins 

Pantea Roostaee 

Daniel Tucker 

Metal Design Studio 


Christian Hall 


Alice Potter 

Studio Tenant 

Sylvia Nevistic 

Associates 

Danielle Barrie 

Antonia Field 

Emma Field 

Zoe Grigoris 

Studio Tenants - Adelaide 

Studio 1 

Katie-Ann Houghton 

Madeline Prowd 

Studio 2 

Llewelyn Ash 

Andrew Baldwin 

Liam Fleming 

Alexander Valero 

Studio 3 

Kristel Britcher 

Tegan Empson 

Emma Klau 

Zoe Woods 

Studio 4 

Snøhetta 

Studio 5 

Rhys Cooper 

Matt Taylor 

Studio 6 

Stephen Roy 

Studio 7 

Lilly Buttrose 

Courtney Jackson 

John Richardson 

Kate Sutherland 

Studio 8 

Julie Bartholemew 

Bruce Nuske 

Sophia Nuske 

Ulrica Trulsson 

Studio 9 

Susan Frost 

Wayne Mcara 

Studio 10 

Daniel Emma 

Studio Tenants -Seppeltsfield 

Julie Fleming 

Brenden Scott French 

Barry Gardner 

Rose-Anne and Michael Russell 

Angela Walford 

Development Committee 

Denise George 

Diana Jaquillard 

Helen Nash 

Patricia Roche Greville 

Barbara Tanner 

Special thanks to Libby Raupach 

OAM 

Cover 

Mari Funaki, Object, 2009 

heat coloured mild steel 

410 x 50 x 45 

Collection of Geoffrey Smith 

and Gary Singer, Melbourne 

Photography Courtesy of the 

National Gallery of Victoria 

Photographer: Jeremy Dillon 

Left: Glass studio. 

Photographer: Brad Bonar 

JamFactory supports and promotes outstanding design and craftsmanship through its widely acclaimed studios, galleries and shops. A unique not-for-profit 

organisation located in the Adelaide city centre and at Seppeltsfield in the Barossa, JamFactory is supported by the South Australian Government and recognised 

both nationally and internationally as a centre for excellence. JamFactory acknowledges the support and assistance of Arts South Australia and is assisted by 

The Visual Arts and Crafts Strategy, an initiative of the Australian, State and Territory Governments. JamFactory Exhibitions Program is assisted by the Australian 

Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body. 

ISSUE 04 / 3

Editorial 

WELCOME TO THE 

2016 ISSUE OF 

MARMALADE! 

JamFactory recently launched a fresh new 

website and I’m pleased to report that our 

on-line audience is growing rapidly. The digital 

environment is global and almost infinite and 

while we are excited about the possibilities of 

promoting what we do via the World Wide Web, 

we are equally committed to telling our stories 

through this annual printed publication – a 

beautiful thing that can be held in the hand 

and read slowly over time. 

Physical engagement with objects and spaces is 

important to us and I’m equally pleased to report 

that our audience has recently increased to over 

250,000 visitors annually across our touring 

exhibitions and our permanent venues in 

Adelaide and the Barossa. 

Our plans for continued growth over the coming 

years will see JamFactory increase its 

engagement nationally and internationally. In 

particular we hope to establish an on-going 

presence in Sydney and in November this year 

we launched an eight-week JamFactory pop-up 

at Koskela in Rosebery to test some ideas. We 

are grateful to Koskela for the opportunity and 

hope to build many new connections. 

One of JamFactory’s most important offerings 

is our unique two-year Associate training 

program and for this issue of Marmalade we 

invited Leanne Amodeo to write about the 

program and the growing philanthropic support 

it receives through our wonderful Medici 

Collective program. 12 outstanding new first-year 

Associates will join the program in 2017. They will 

be coming from as far away as France, the United 

States, the Czech Republic and Mexico as well as 

Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Adelaide. 

JamFactory now runs three significant award 

programs. The latest is the biennial FUSE Glass 

Prize, which Margot Osborne has written about 

on page 24. The others are the biennial Australian 

Furniture Design Award (in partnership with 

Stylecraft) and the annual South Australian Drink 

Dine Design Emerging Designer Award. The 2015 

winners of both these awards are also profiled in 

this issue. 

An ambitious new activity for JamFactory 

was the recent launch of our first ever furniture 

collection – an initiative that we hope will create 

significant training, marketing and income 

benefits as well as contribute to growth in local 

high-value manufacturing. You can read about 

this on page 50. 

JamFactory has long been a leader in curatorial 

research and exhibition development within the 

craft and design sector. Our first major exhibition 

for 2017 will be STEEL: art design architecture, 

which will tour nationally to 15 venues and be 

accompanied by a 264-page catalogue. The 

exhibition’s curator Margaret Hancock Davis 

has provided some wonderful insights into the 

exhibition on page 36. 

Marmalade is jam-packed with fascinating stories 

that are generated by the many hundreds of 

passionate artists, designers, craftspeople, 

curators and collectors who are part of 

JamFactory’s growing network. 

Enjoy! 

Brian Parkes 

CEO and Artistic Director 

JamFactory 

ISSUE 04 / 5

Highlights 

LIKE MINDED 

Coffee Bondi Beach is a coffee bar and roaster with a focus on education, 

experience, sustainability and quality. In late 2015 the client approached 

former JamFactory Furniture Studio Associate Liam Mugavin with a brief 

of “complete creative control” and the opportunity to not only apply his 

skills as a designer and maker, but also to engage and collaborate with 

fellow JamFactory artists and designers; Christian Hall in metal, Ulrica Trulsson 

in ceramics, Liam Fleming in glass and Stephen Soeffky, a JamFactory 

alumnus who provided significant input as an interior designer. 

AMERICAN DREAM 

The new JamFactory scholarship with the 

internationally esteemed Corning Museum 

of Glass was awarded to second-year Glass 

Studio Associate Laure Fradin. This gave 

Fradin the opportunity to participate in a 

workshop with American glass artists Karen 

Willenbrink-Johnsen and Jasen Johnsen in 

June this year. While at the Corning Museum 

of Glass, Fradin perfected skills in hot sculpting 

and new techniques for the application of 

colour. She also did further research for 

upcoming works at the renowned Rakow 

Research Library, which has the largest 

collection of glass-related resources in 

the world. 

Photographer: The artist 

Liam’s research during his Masters in Sustainable Design at the University of 

South Australia, focusing on producer responsibility, design for end-of-life 

and material take-back, tied in neatly with the client’s ethos – to serve only 

what they themselves produce, including in-house roasted beans and an 

almond–macadamia nut milk. Taking all these elements into consideration, 

Liam finished all the timber with tung (nut) oil and made certain nothing in 

the shop was “off the shelf”. 

Photographer: Barton Taylor 

NEW WORTH 

Worth Gallery has set up a city 

showroom and gallery space to 

complement their existing site at 

The Barn in Stirling. The new 

warehouse venue at 20 The Parade 

West, Kent Town, has been divided up 

to provide space for several creative 

businesses including Tell Henry cafe, 

Lucent Construction and Rodeo. 

The Worth boutique showroom 

stocks limited-edition exhibition 

pieces and artists’ work, while the 

gallery will show an exhibition 

program of featured Worth Gallery 

artists, whose work encompasses 

furniture, glass, ceramics, jewellery, 

painting and sculpture. 

Image courtesy of Worth Gallery 

6 / ISSUE 04

A BECOMING WIN 

“Instantly, unavoidably compelling” is how the judges 

described Gabriella Bisetto’s winning entry for the Art 

Gallery of Western Australia’s 2016 Luminous: Tom Malone 

Prize for contemporary glass artists. The work, titled 

Becoming, 2015 is “a tangle of tubular curving forms held in 

a loose spherical formation” that the judges recognised as “a 

brilliantly bold, ambitious statement in glass”. Becoming 

evolves from Bisetto’s interest in the body and the nature of 

death. She says the structure of her work was inspired by 

the beauty of the ubiquitous plant species Kali tragus, 

common in the arid regions of Australia and especially on 

the Hay Plains, which she frequently passes through. Bisetto 

explains: “It is a plant rarely admired or even noticed until it 

dies, when in its new animated state it is commonly 

recognised as a tumbleweed. More visible dead than alive, 

its transitional state speaks to me about our own mortality 

and the perplexity of death”. Bisetto says winning the prize, 

now in its 14th year, was extremely affirming to her practice. 

She is excited to be on the list of artists acquired by the Art 

Gallery of Western Australia, including Nick Mount, Jessica 

Loughlin, Clare Belfrage, Benjamin Sewell, Kevin Gordon, 

Charles Butcher, Cobi Cockburn, Deirdre Feeney, Brian Corr, 

Tom Moore and Mel Douglas. 

Photographer: Chris Boha 

WEST SIDE 

3 Degrees West is a retail space nestled among 

a group of small shops in West Croydon. It 

specialises in South Australian handmade and 

botanical goods. Owned and operated by 

ceramic artist and JamFactory alumnus 

Stephanie James-Manttan, the shop is 

conveniently located next door to James- 

Manttan’s shared workspace, 6 Hands Studio, 

where you are welcome to see how 

her contemporary ceramics are made. 

Photographer: Lara Merrington 

INTERNATIONAL SCALE 

Snøhetta is a trans-disciplinary architecture and landscape 

practice with main offices in Oslo and New York. In January this 

year, they took up residency in a studio located at JamFactory. 

With a working method that practises a simultaneous 

exploration of cutting-edge digital technology and traditional 

handicraft, for Snøhetta, being located among the makers and 

designers of JamFactory is a perfect match. From their 

Adelaide base, they are currently working on the University 

of South Australia’s Great Hall project in association with JPE 

Design Studio, as well as the Arts Centre Melbourne master 

plan project in association with NH Architecture. Snøhetta 

received its first commission in 1989 – the Bibliotheca 

Alexandrina in Alexandria, Egypt – followed a decade later by 

the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet. In 2004, Snøhetta 

was commissioned to build the National September 11 Memorial 

Museum & Pavillion at the World Trade Center site in New 

York, and, in 2013, the new San Francisco Museum of 

Modern Art expansion. 

Image courtesy of Snøhetta 

ISSUE 04 / 7

Highlights 

BEAUTY NOW 

Designers Daniel Emma (also the Creative Directors of 

Product and Retail at JamFactory) were selected to 

exhibit in the fifth instalment of the Cooper Hewitt, 

Smithsonian Design Museum’s signature 

contemporary design exhibition series Beauty – 

Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial. Beauty included 

projects ranging from experimental prototypes and 

interactive games to fashion ensembles and 

architectural interventions. With a focus on aesthetic 

innovation, the exhibition featured more than 250 

works by 63 designers and teams from around the 

globe and was organised according to seven themes: 

extravagant, intricate, ethereal, transgressive, 

emergent, elemental and transformative. Presenting a 

variation on their work Squeaky Clean, which was 

originally exhibited at the Wallpaper* Handmade 

exhibition in Milan, Daniel Emma created a design for 

Cooper Hewitt that was minimal and composed of 

geometric shapes, but playful in the experience and 

interaction with the object. Emma Aiston says their 

challenge as designers is to look at objects that most 

people take for granted and “make them more 

enjoyable to use and just nice”. 

Photographer: Andre Castellucci 

TRULY HONOURED 

Catherine Truman has been chosen as the 2017 

JamFactory Icon. Truman, who is co-founder of 

Adelaide’s Gray Street Workshop, has a diverse 

practice spanning installation and contemporary 

jewellery to public art projects and moving image. 

Recently she was celebrated as featured artist for 

the 2016 South Australian Living Artists (SALA) 

Festival and Wakefield Press publication. An 

accompanying survey exhibition was held at the 

Art Gallery of South Australia and provided a rare 

opportunity to present a comprehensive survey of 

her carved objects and jewellery from her 35 years 

of practice. Truman says she feels very honoured 

to have been chosen as the next JamFactory Icon 

and is excited about the upcoming exhibition 

which will investigate her 20 years of research 

and collaborative practice at the nexus of art and 

science. This exhibition will open at JamFactory 

in July 2017. 

Photographer: Grant Hancock 

FUNCTION AND FASHION 

JamFactory Furniture Studio second-year Associates Matt 

Pearson and Daniel Tucker have recently completed a 20-seater 

boardroom table for the fit-out of Australian Fashion Labels at 

their new headquarters on North Terrace, Adelaide. The piece is 

designed for the space, which boasts richly coloured jarrah 

flooring and a varied colour palette. The design of the table uses 

simple forms and takes visual queues from the JamFactory 

commissioned bench seats for the new Royal Adelaide Hospital. 

It features a bone white Corian working surface with blackened 

American oak carcasses to form the leg structure. A strip of solid 

American oak is a central feature on top of the work surface. It 

has flip lids at either end that allow access to an integrated 

power and data management system. Pearson and Tucker say 

they were cautious about designing anything that was “on trend” 

or too “outrageous”, with their priority being to create a “tasteful 

form that was fundamentally functional and would remain 

stylistically relevant for the contemporary fashion label”. 

Photographer: Seb Paynter 

8 / ISSUE 04

MAKING GOOD 

ESSENTIALLY AUSTRALIAN 

Former JamFactory Associate and Ceramics Studio 

Tenant (2010–15) Maria Chatzinikolaki held a solo 

exhibition of her work at Beaver Galleries, Canberra, in 

June this year. Titled Essence of…, the works were 

based on “the qualities that define us and that we carry 

as human vessels”. Using mould-casting as well as 

hand-building and throwing, Chatzinikolaki made the 

clay and glaze, specific chemicals and all the colours 

and stains out of Australian materials. These were 

transported from Australia with Chatzinikolaki to her 

small studio on Paros island, Greece, where she now 

lives and works. Chatzinikolaki currently works with two 

main galleries in Australia, Beaver Galleries, ACT and 

Margaret River Gallery, WA. 

Photographer: George Karatzas 

Continuing their work in backing creative professionals, 

Guildhouse launched a new marketing initiative, Well 

Made. A curated online platform, the site is designed to 

connect the very best South Australian visual artists, 

craftspeople, designers and spaces with those looking to 

purchase work, collaborate on a new project, invest in 

residential and commercial commissions or plan their visit 

to South Australia. Well Made can be contacted about 

artists and commissions or to discover what’s happening 

generally across our creative industry. 

Photographer: Jonathan van der Knaap 

FORCE OF NATURE 

The 2016 Biennial North Queensland Ceramic Award was 

awarded to Jeff Mincham for his Bush Ballard (Forces of 

Nature Series), 2015. The Creative Director of JamFactory’s 

Ceramics Studio, Damon Moon, was the sole judge of the 

award. Mincham, who has enjoyed an association with the 

ceramics community of Townsville and the Perc Tucker 

Regional Gallery for over 30 years, says he was pleased to 

hear that after a brief hiatus the ceramic award was to be 

revived: “For over three decades [the award] has been the 

underpinning of the gallery’s very fine ceramic collection, 

easily among the best of its kind in the regional gallery 

network”. This is the second time he has won the award, 

as well as having also previously judged it. 

Image courtesy of the artist 

ISSUE 04 / 9

Highlights 

SILENT NATURE 

TAKING FLIGHT 

The Creative Director of JamFactory’s 

Metal Design Studio, Christian Hall, was 

commissioned to create a piece 

commemorating the commencement of 

direct flights (two per week) between Adelaide 

and Doha. A gift from Adelaide Airport to 

Qatar Airways, CEO to CEO, the Falcon piece 

constructed from lasercut and folded stainless 

steel and cast brass was considered an 

appropriate gift, with falconry being one of 

the core cultural activities of Qatar. So pleased 

with the project was the airport that they have 

subsequently commissioned JamFactory’s 

Metal Design Studio to create a new gift to 

commemorate the commencement of flights 

by Southern China Airlines. 

Photographer: Tom Roschi 

In December 2014 a fire ripped through Eden Valley, including large portions 

of the Angas’ property, Hutton Vale Farm, in the Barossa region. The property 

is a mixed farming business and has been in the Angas family since 1843. The 

trees of this land were more than part of the Angas lineage on the property, 

with some of those extensively damaged in the fire, including 77 river red 

gums, in existence for near to 500 years. 

Silent witnesses to an age of events on the land, an integral part of the local 

eco-system and a staple in the rolling landscape, these majestic beings 

represent a significant and emotional loss for which Jan and John Angas felt 

deserved a proper send-off. They approached Brian Parkes (Chief Executive 

Officer, JamFactory) with the idea for a project that would creatively preserve 

the trees’ memory. The resulting exhibition at JamFactory at Seppeltsfield 

includes a selection of South Australian artists who have created new works in 

response to their site visits and their conversations about the cultural history 

of Hutton Vale Farm, from Aboriginal to colonial and contemporary times and 

regarding the role of the trees within the wider ecology of the landscape. 

Featuring Jennifer Ahrens, Adam Cantwell, Chris de Rosa, Helen Fuller, Heidi 

Kenyon, Sue Kneebone, Adrian Potter and James Tylor, the exhibition is 

curated by JamFactory’s Assistant Curator, Lara Merrington. Silent Nature 

runs until 4 December, 2016 at JamFactory at Seppeltsfield. 

Photographer: Lara Merrington 

CAREER 

SCULPTING 

This year’s recipient of the Pilchuck 

Scholarship was JamFactory 

first-year Associate Thom Pearson. 

Thom Pearson attended a class 

at Pilchuck Glass School under glass 

artist Debora Moore. Based in 

Seattle, Moore teaches a class called 

The Architexture of Nature, which 

provides an in-depth approach to 

colour application. Pearson gained 

a significant insight into surface 

manipulation and built an 

understanding of hot-sculpting 

techniques, benefiting the 

technical skills in his practice. 

Photographer: Sven Kovac 

10 / ISSUE 04

BREATHING SPACE 

NEW MUSEUM, 

OLD ART 

In June this year, Adelaide welcomed a new 

museum to its ranks, the David Roche Foundation 

House Museum. As one of the greatest decorative 

arts collections in a private institution in Australia, 

the impressive collection of porcelain, paintings, 

furnishings and antiques spans two centuries of 

European design, focusing particularly on 

European neoclassical design of the late 18th and 

early 19th centuries. The late David Roche 

(1930–2013) assembled the collection over his 

lifetime, purchasing his first piece at the age of 17. 

Today the collection is of “national and, indeed, 

international significance”, explains museum 

Director Martyn Cook. Part open house, part 

purpose-built museum, an extension designed by 

Adelaide architecture and interior design firm 

Williams Burton Leopardi houses the curated 

exhibitions of the most important pieces of the 

collection, while complementing the display of 

Roche’s former home, Fermoy House, adjacent. 

Located on Melbourne Street, North Adelaide, the 

house is presented in a manner reminiscent of 

how David Roche lived and displays elements of 

his collection in the context of his lifestyle and 

everyday interaction with the objects 

Image courtesy of the David Roche Foundation 

JamFactory Ceramics Studio Tenant Wayne Mcara was 

selected to participate in the first Latvia International 

Ceramics Biennale held in June this year at the majestic 

fortress that is the Daugavpils Mark Rothko Art Center. 

Latvia’s largest centre for contemporary art, it holds the 

most significant selection of work by renowned Latvian 

ceramicist the late Peteris Martinsons. As well as several 

contemporary international exhibitions, conferences, 

lectures, performances and other activities held during the 

biennale, a key event is the Martinsons Award, which gives 

three individual cash prizes to international ceramicists. 

Using the “mimetic qualities of porcelain, slip-casting and 

hand-building techniques”, Mcara creates installations and 

groupings of objects that blur reality and fiction, weaving 

new stories directly into his delicate porcelain forms. Mcara 

says his entry, titled #icantbreathe, questions “our place in 

the global community and our outlook on inequality within 

social structure” and toys with “perception and narrative 

through contemporary ceramic sculpture and installation”. 

Photographer: Michael Kluvanek 

OVER THE EDGE 

Our first-year Ceramics Studio Associates were recently 

commissioned to make a small run of branded beakers for 

Over the Edge, a regional bike shop and cafe in Melrose in 

the Southern Flinders Ranges. The final design was 

decided on after close conversation with the shop’s owner, 

Kerri Bruce, and is a slightly shorter version of the thrown 

beaker from the JamFactory Ceramics Studio production 

range. It also features the shop’s emblem and a grey/iron 

matte glaze. Guided by the Ceramics Studio’s Creative 

Director, Damon Moon, the first-year Associates managed 

and oversaw the project from start to finish, which 

included not only making the work but keeping on track of 

finances, approaching commercial industry and fulfilling 

client requirements. The Associates said it was a “great 

opportunity to understand how to operate within a 

commissions-based environment”. 

Photographer: Jordan Gower 

ISSUE 04 / 11

Feature

THE 

NEXT CROP 

Words by Leanne Amodeo 

Leanne is a content director, 

media consultant and educator. 

JAMFACTORY’S UNIQUE TWO-YEAR 

ASSOCIATE TRAINING PROGRAM IS 

DELIVERING WORLD CLASS RESULTS 

FOR ANOTHER GROUP OF INSPIRING 

YOUNG ARTISTS AND DESIGNERS. 

For many people their introduction to JamFactory’s Associate 

training program is via the annual presentation of work by 

second-year graduates, Generate. The exhibition always 

manages to exceed expectations, with an offering that 

proves the quality of work being produced by the Adelaide 

institution’s four studios is on a fast-moving trajectory. Last 

year’s showcase, in particular, displayed the Associates’ high 

level of commitment to their craft and stands as testament 

to the hard work of JamFactory Chief Executive Officer Brian 

Parkes and his team. 

Tasmanian-born Parkes has long reinforced the importance 

of the training program for the nation’s creative economy. 

Associates spend two years developing their own work and 

collaborating on JamFactory products under the guidance and 

mentorship of expert creative staff; after graduation they set 

up across Australia and beyond. Not only do these emerging 

practitioners become new ambassadors for the design 

industry in general, but they also shine a very bright light 

on JamFactory as one of Australia’s leading incubators of 

creative talent. 

This reputation has been cemented by Parkes, who was 

quick to appoint some of the country’s finest to lead the four 

on-site studios through what is arguably JamFactory’s most 

prodigious period in its 43-year history. As Creative Director 

of the Furniture Design Studio, Jon Goulder exemplifies the 

unabashed ambition that steers the internal vision for the 

program. “I want to make the JamFactory Furniture Studio 

the place in Australia to come and practice or study furniture”, 

says the renowned designer–maker. During his relatively 

short time at the helm, the studio has produced a number 

of high-profile commercial commissions, launched the first 

JamFactory furniture collection and collaborated with several 

well-respected independent designers, including Henry Wilson. 

The three other studios – Ceramics, Glass and Metal Design 

– are headed by Creative Directors Damon Moon, Karen 

Cunningham and Christian Hall respectively, and are also 

excelling. Significantly, the Ceramics Studio recently completed 

a prestigious 12-month commission to produce hand-thrown 

tableware for the Magill Estate Restaurant’s degustation menu. 

Current Associates number 19 in total (four in Metal Design, 

three in Ceramics and six each in Furniture Design and Glass) 

and come from all around Australia and as far afield as France 

and the United States. 

ISSUE 04 / 13

Many are attracted by the facility itself, while some want the 

opportunity to be mentored by a specific Creative Director 

and others see it as a chance to change the direction of 

their existing practice. Yet most may well agree that the 

JamFactory’s Associate training program’s key appealing 

feature, and biggest benefit, is its ability to connect people. 

As Metal Design Creative Director Christian Hall explains, “It’s 

a formidable community, but JamFactory is also an outwardlooking 

organisation that includes local practitioners, industry 

and a growing list of members and clients who are invested 

in what we do”. 

Being part of an established creative network serves 

each Associate well, making their entry into the world of 

professional design practice all the more smoother. “I would 

encourage any designer who wanted to grow their practice 

creatively, technically or entrepreneurially to apply”, says 

Hall. “The program allows them to set even more ambitious 

expectations for themselves and move forward with 

confidence in both their creative and financial futures.” 

One of the advantages of the Associate training program 

is, indeed, its holistic approach in providing teaching 

across both creative and business areas. 

However, the measure of any program’s success is the calibre 

and achievements of its graduates. With internationally 

recognised artists and designers such as Tom Moore, Vipoo 

Srivilasa, Janice Vitkovsky and Jim Hannon-Tan peppering the 

list of alumni, it’s safe to say JamFactory’s rate of success is 

very high. One of last year’s Furniture Design studio graduates, 

Rhys Cooper, is already proving a name to watch. His CUSP 

Dining Chair is included in JamFactory’s inaugural furniture 

collection and he is currently developing new product as well 

as working on small commissions. For Cooper, the training 

program was invaluable in providing him with business 

and marketing savvy: “I’ve built a level of confidence and 

self-respect in what I do. And my plan now is to develop a 

collection of four to five products using local manufacture”. 

Another recent graduate making a mark is Kate Nixon, who 

also completed the training program last year. The Glass 

alumnus is currently working as a glass blower at Canberra 

Glassworks and travelled to Berlin mid-year to undertake 

a four-month residency at Berlin Glas e.V. Like Cooper, 

she is quick to praise the practical tools the Associate 

training program taught her. “The hand and technical skills 

I learnt through production glass blowing has made me a 

more confident maker and, overall, the program gave me 

an excellent grounding in the nuts and bolts of running a 

sustainable practice”, she says. Nixon was also able to 

shape a clear idea of the type of practice she wanted and 

implement realistic business structures and goals in order 

to make that happen. 

Supporting emerging talent is a motto JamFactory lives by 

and on the suggestion of the Board Chair Peter Vaughan, 

Parkes recently established a new donor program to benefit 

the Associate training program. The Medici Collective is the 

organisation’s first formal philanthropic initiative and directly 

supports the training program, which is partially covered by 

State Government funding and by JamFactory’s commercial 

activity. Increased financial support, of course, means more 

can be done in order to continually refine the quality of 

delivery. Thus far, the Medici Collective has been well 

received with donors acknowledging the need for private 

investment in an age where influence and possibility has 

never been more important. 

It’s little wonder the Associate training program’s application 

process is so highly competitive. While it comes with neither 

a guarantee for fame nor fortune, there is certainly no other 

place in Australia that can offer quite what JamFactory 

does. The organisation finds itself operating at a time when 

Adelaide’s design landscape is shifting and the eastern states 

are no longer regarded as the sole industry leaders. Keep an 

eye on the current crop of Associates – Matt Pearson, Daniel 

Tucker, Madeline Isakson, Huw McConachy, Zoe Grigoris, 

Emma Field, Lewis Batchelar, Laure Fradin and Alice Mahoney 

– because they’re sure to make an impact. 

14 / ISSUE 04

Previous page: Metal Design Studio Associate Zoe Grigoris 


Far left: Glass Studio. Photographer: Brad Bonar 

Top: Furniture Studio Creative Director, Jon Goulder, in 

the studio. Photographer: Bo Wong 

Bottom left: Glass Studio Alumnus, Kate Nixon. 


Bottom right: Ceramics Studio Creative Director Damon 

Moon with elements of the Magill Estate Tableware 

Commission. Photographer: Andre Castellucci 

ISSUE 04 / 15

MEDICI 

COLLECTIVE 

The dynamic program enabling visionary patrons 

to collectively invest in and directly engage with 

the talented emerging artists and designers 

undertaking JamFactory’s acclaimed Associate 

training program. 

THANK YOU TO OUR 2016 

MEDICI COLLECTIVE MEMBERS 

Paul and Janelle Amos 

Kent Aughey and Louisa Scott 

William Boyle 

Noelene Buddle and David Shannon 

Jim and Helen Carreker 

John Chambers and Dawn Taylor 

Annette Coleman 

Michael Darling 

Geoff Day OAM and Anne Day 

Shane and Kate Flowers 

Denise George 

Colin and Marie Goodall 

Steve Grieve and Dr Christine Putland 

Deborah and Craig Hosking 

Philippe and Diana Jaquillard 

John Kirkwood and Wendy Alstergren 

Professor Kay Lawrence AM 

Nicholas Linke 

Penny McAuley 

Paul and Fatima McHugh 

David and Pam McKee 

David and Sue Minns 

Anne Moroney 

Libby Raupach OAM and Mark Lloyd 

Patricia Roche Greville and Dr Hugh Greville 

Roger and Helen Salkeld 

Peter Vaughan and Anne Barker 

Alan Young AM and Sue Young 

Association of Australian Decorative and Fine Arts Societies 

Ballandry Fund, a sub fund of Australian Communities Foundation 

JPE Design Studio 

In its first two years the Medici Collective has contributed more than $120,000 

towards supporting the Associate training program. The passionate influencers 

who make up the Medici Collective have the rewarding opportunity to see the 

results of their investment and involvement as they witness the development of 

individual artists and designers. 

We sincerely thank the 2016 Medici Collective members and warmly welcome 

interest in the program for 2017. For further information please contact 

JamFactory’s Development Manager Nikki Hamdorf on (08) 8410 0727 or 

nikki.hamdorf@jamfactory.com.au 

Visit https://www.jamfactory.com.au/pages/donate-membership#medici 

Right: 2016 Medici Dinner. Photographer: Andre Castellucci 

16 / ISSUE 04

FOR THE PEOPLE 

Words by Marcus Piper 

Marcus is Editor and Creative Director of Mezzanine Magazine. 

Growing up in Bendigo, Hardiman had no interest in design, 

nor furniture for that matter. It was deemed to be “something 

in the middle” by him and his family. As he says, furniture was 

just “facilitating something for someone else.” But, as luck, 

for us, might have it – this unassuming rural lad found himself 

studying furniture design at Melbourne’s RMIT University and 

very soon became a focal point of a creative world beyond 

his imagination. 

Initially thinking he would learn to create “functional 

sculptures,” Hardiman quickly realised he wasn’t all that 

interested in functional furniture at all – he was interested 

in exploration. Having taken a gap year to work so he could 

afford his education, design was not a luxury and nor were 

materials. With his first project, Kids Straw Stool, created 

in 2011, Hardiman was already flying in the face of the 

usual response to a student project. The brief called for a 

composite material and, instead of using resin, Hardiman 

created his own material using pea straw and grass seeds, 

cooked and moulded in the kitchen of his small Melbourne 

share house. 

The stool, which is completely biodegradable, explored the 

concept of making your own furniture – something more 

common in 3D-printed work, but unexpected in a first-year 

student project on composite materials. Entering the work in 

the prestigious Bombay Sapphire Design Discovery Award, 

the fledgling designer was amazed when it became a finalist 

amongst a line-up of Australia’s leading creators. What 

Hardiman took from this success is that “the work of students 

is just as valid as those who have been practicing for years.” 

The following year, Hardiman entered Klag, 2011, a threelegged 

chair made of fly-ash, a coal combustion by-product 

and concrete substitute, in an Italian competition. The prize 

was a stand at the Salone del Mobile (the Milan Furniture 

Fair), and to his surprise he won – though not having the 

ability to make the trip to Italy, he was awarded runner-up. 

Through a discussion with the awards co-ordinators at the 

famed Milan Polytechnic, Hardiman realised that he was 

the only Australian entrant, and with that he launched a 

Facebook page to share international awards with 

designers globally. 

The concept of giving is constant through Hardiman’s work, 

as can be seen through his more curatorial endeavours. As 

his former RMIT mentor, Simone LeAmon observes: “Dale is 

the instigator and co-founder of numerous design projects 

that bring together Australian designers in the spirit of highlevel 

creative risk-taking.” 

designer André Hnatojko – a platform to showcase the 

work of emerging and cutting-edge Australian designers. 

“His motivation is quite simple – he gets community,” 

adds LeAmon. “He understands that, underpinning a 

vibrant design sector, there is social cohesion, where 

practitioners exchange ideas, conversation and 

demonstrate a genuine interest in each other.” 

In speaking with Hardiman, the word ‘facilitation’ is 

never too far from mind, and to make his less commercial 

endeavours possible, he launched Dowel Jones with 

Adam Lynch in 2013. Starting as a concept to create 

open-source designs, Dowel Jones provides plans online 

for designs using simple materials like dowels that are 

readily available at any local hardware store, so that 

people can literally make their own pieces – removing 

the need for transport and manufacturing. Three years 

on and Dowel Jones now has several furniture, lighting 

and accessories for sale, which are achieving local and 

international acclaim. 

Working backwards from conversations and accessible 

manufacturing, Hardiman sees the Hurdle brand family 

of stools, side-tables and chairs as a perfect example of 

Dowel Jones’s process. “We talk to people about what 

is needed, what kinds of products are needed and what 

kind of price-points are needed,” describes Hardiman. 

Since its launch in June 2015 as part of the Broadsheet 

pop-up restaurant, the Hurdle family has elevated the 

brand to local and international recognition. 

Manufactured in Thomastown and the Dandenongs, the 

Hurdle family is assembled in Melbourne and in just over 

a year has made the leap to venues in Denmark, Zurich, 

Canada and the Singapore National Gallery. With such 

immediate success, Hardiman is still humble, emphasising 

that: “The most important thing about Dowel Jones is 

relationships.” And, while it is clear this life story is being 

with the idea that, for him, design is truly about 

facilitating something for someone else. 

An extract from the original complete article in 

Mezzanine Magazine’s fifth issue by Marcus Piper. 

Photography: Elise Wilken 

Dale Hardiman ran a three day collaborative 

design workshop with JamFactory’s 

Associates in July 2016. 

LeAmon, now The Hugh D.T. Williamson Curator of 

Contemporary Design and Architecture at the National 

Gallery of Victoria, has supported Hardiman’s vision through 

the avant-garde 1-OK Club which he launched with fellow 

18 / ISSUE 04

With a generosity of 

spirit and well-crafted 

sense of humour, 

Dale Hardiman is 

fast-emerging as an 

exciting new face in 

the Australian design 

crowd. 

ISSUE 04 / 19

Feature 

JAMFACTORY ICON: 

GERRY WEDD 

Words by Margaret Hancock Davis 

Margaret is Senior Curator at JamFactory and curator of 

JamFactory Icon 2016 Gerry Wedd: Kitschen Man

LAUNCHED IN 2013, JAMFACTORY’S 

ANNUAL ICON SERIES CELEBRATES 

THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF SOUTH 

AUSTRALIA’S MOST OUTSTANDING 

AND INFLUENTIAL ARTISTS 

WORKING IN CRAFTS MEDIA. 

The 2016 iteration presents the work of Gerry Wedd. 

With a practice spanning close to 40 years, Wedd enjoys 

a national reputation for his wheel thrown hand-built and 

decorated ceramics that brim with a dry wit oscillating 

from the humorous to darkly disturbing. 

JamFactory’s Senior Curator, Margaret Hancock Davis, 

recently caught up with Wedd in his home studio in Port 

Elliot to discuss influences, ideas and aspects of the 

exhibition Gerry Wedd: Kitschen Man. 

MHD I have often read about how you first came to pottery 

through your mother, Felicity Wedd, who, as you have 

described, took to pottery “ferociously”, creating utilitarian 

earthenware that overtook the kitchen table and became an 

additional source of income for the family. You are also an 

avid maker and have mentioned that when you are away from 

making you can be rather restless, even difficult to be around. 

Where does this restlessness come from? 

GW Without wanting to get all psychoanalytical, I suppose 

it’s how you choose to define yourself. Maybe it has 

something to do with the boundaries between work and life 

having become very blurred. I suppose I see making in terms 

of a continuum where resolution is a fleeting (unnecessary?) 

outcome. Although my approach is light years away from 

wabi-sabi, there is something to be said for getting lost in 

making. One way of doing this is to make incessantly. This is 

certainly true of production-based domestic items such as 

cups, bowls and teapots. Also, if you’re enjoying it, you 

hopefully get better at making. I’ve tried to “do the math”… 

40 years of making, say 10 pots a week … 

MHD You’ve mentioned your fascination for the works 

produced by British potteries on the cusp of the Industrial 

Revolution; these works are an interesting mix of 

mechanisation and the handmade or hand-decorated. The 

handmade is prevalent in your work – you can sense the clay 

being manipulated by your hand, your pushing and pulling of 

the material leaving its trail of indentations and impressions 

on the surface. What does the handmade mean to you? 

GW Thinking too much about this can be a problem. 

The handmade isn’t in itself that interesting apart from 

the fact that it runs counter to rampant consumerism; it’s 

an anachronistic activity. I don’t like the feel of most 

industry-made domestic pots. They hardly ever feel right to 

me. There is something important about the idea of touch 

playing out in the work. 

MHD Runneth Over, 2016, a work consisting of 100 cups, 

reflects not only this near-compulsive drive to make, but also 

your passion for drawing. Can you tell me a little about what 

these drawings mean to you? 

GW Representational drawing is a series of “tricks” that you 

employ to make some kind of argument or proposition. What 

I do is probably illustration, rather than drawing. Drawing on 

three-dimensional surfaces and under a glaze is a different 

kind of activity. Modernism and the studio pottery movement 

made drawing on pottery a kind of aesthetics crime. The 

tastemakers were very driven by particular idioms that were 

more influenced by minimal, pared-back, wabi-sabi aesthetics. 

There are, of course, notable exceptions, but even these 

were derided as “Picassoettes”. I started drawing on my 

mother’s pots; I didn’t know you weren’t meant to! Thinking 

that pottery was a second-rate activity anyway, the vessel’s 

surface and form were open season to me. So, I drew and 

scratched on hundreds and, now, thousands of pots. I suppose 

I’d always seen images of the classic Attic pots painted with 

mythological scenes, so drawing on pots seemed a natural 

thing to do. For years I only decorated in sgraffito, where you 

paint a contrasting layer of slip (liquid clay) onto the surface 

of the pot and scratch your drawing through to the pot’s 

surface. Now I veer between that and painting with cobalt 

underglaze. The nice thing about using cobalt is that it’s a 

little less predictable both to use and in the way it responds 

to different glaze thicknesses. Last year I spent three months 

hanging around the ceramics collection of the Victoria & Albert 

Museum courtesy of the Australia Council’s London residency. 

The objects I kept coming back to were those made on the 

cusp of the Industrial Revolution, which combine industrial and 

craft production and skills. Interestingly (to me), this was also 

a time when kitsch objects flooded the market due to the new 

ease of production and decoration. 

MHD The domestic is important to you. Your partner, 

printmaker Chris de Rosa, and your studios are located in 

your fertile garden, while your house is a vibrant cornucopia 

of objects and imagery, including pieces by fellow artists and 

friends and folk art items from your travels. How does this 

setting feed into your artwork? 

GW Most of the stuff we’re surrounded by at home is from 

trips we took to see things we were fascinated by in situ, to 

maybe get under the skin of the artefacts in some way. There 

is, of course, a fascination with a kind of folk art – that is an 

art that is enmeshed in daily life and serves a more prosaic 

purpose than the other kind of art. We first went to Mexico 

20 years ago and brought back a lot of small Day of the 

Dead wooden skeletons, probably made for tourists. Most 

of the stuff has a relationship to telling stories – the wooden 

skeletons are essentially figurines from daily life and we have 

an Asafo flag that illustrates some kind of folk tale. They all 

have a decorative and humorous quality. There is a casual 

approach in the crafting of these things that I aspire to. 

ISSUE 04 / 21

MHD The exhibition includes works of art from your 

personal collection, by artists who were part of the 

Jamboree Workshop (1990–99), an artist-run workshop 

located in an old Scouts Hall in Welland. Why have you 

chosen these works? 

GW The collected work is a mixture of influences and 

sentiment. There are things made by people who were a direct 

influence on me, like Chris Headley and Bronwyn Kemp, along 

with my former studio mates at Jamboree, Jo Crawford, Peter 

Johnson, Phil Hart and Lincoln Kirby Bell. Toni Warburton and 

Stephen Benwell are artists who make the kind of work I 

aspire to, while Stephen Bird and David Ray just make in a 

way I love but can’t do. 

MHD Many of your works have lyrics tracing their form or 

looping around images. Why are songs such a potent form 

of inspiration for you? 

GW The song-based pots are “cover versions”, karaoke 

crockery perhaps? My approach is unavoidably craft-based 

and I think that writing/making songs is a craft activity. Again, 

there are powerful precedents in the history of ceramics from 

Iranian tiles to Attic amphorae. Some of the pots are simply 

tributes to a song or a particular writer/performer in the 

manner of Robert Crumb’s great illustrations of blues singers. 

The song-based work simply illustrates the song in a very 

straightforward way. I guess that I’m aiming for a particular 

reading of the lyric by turning metaphors into images to see 

how they play out. 

MHD I have read previously that you keenly listen to Radio 

National (RN) programs such as Michael Cathcart’s Books 

and Arts and Inside Sleeve. Both are great programs, but I 

can’t help but wonder, if like many Radio National listeners, 

you possibly don’t change the radio channel that much and 

therefore you end up listening to an array of other programs 

with a vast mixture of topics. I ask because a lot of your works 

interrogate societal views, from current, often damning 

events to aspects of Australia’s unsettling past. What 

drives these works? 

GW Erm … I’m not a fan of Cathcart, but the show is kind 

of unavoidable. Having always decorated pots with songs 

and stories, it’s inevitable that current stories will end up 

embedded in the work. The whole RN thing is double-edged, 

comfortable chardonnay socialist stuff. There is also the need 

to feel like you are “culturally informed”. There have been some 

really interesting interviews with authors dealing with their 

craft. There are also a number of particular news stories I have 

“illustrated”, but I don’t really like to spell things out too much. 

Ceramics is forever, so some of the figurines might serve as a 

reminder to particular events or circumstances. Maybe they 

are conversation pieces … Napoleon had porcelain figurine 

tableaux made to accompany meals to provoke discussion 

of events, so again I’m drawing on the history of the activity. 

Based on mythology and characters from theatre, the 

figurines were originally made from sugar paste. 

MHD It strikes me that people often see your work as a 

lighthearted reference to the freedom and excitement of surf 

culture; however, I would suggest this assumption is often 

made without closely looking at and engaging with many of 

your works. Some of your urns reference a much darker view 

of surfing, its infamous stars and many of its lesser-known 

histories. Who are these surfers and what is it about their 

stories that you aim to convey? 

GW People don’t really look at my work, me included. They 

see a generic pot form with blue-and-white decoration. 

Most of the work is made to be lived with … to unfurl over 

time, perhaps. 

A few years ago I started making work focused on antiheroes 

in surfing. Trophies were for winners, so it seemed 

appropriate to make them for losers. Up until I worked for 

Mambo, the sort of imagery I employed was largely part 

of the decorative ceramic oeuvre. Dare Jennings, who was 

the driver of Mambo, encouraged me to use personal and 

political imagery when I was designing fabrics and T-shirts 

for them. The work I was doing for Dare infiltrated my ceramic 

decoration, so the breadth of subject matter became more 

diverse and pointed. Having been obsessed by surf culture 

from age 11, I had lots of surfing history and mythology to 

draw from. Some of the subjects, such as Michael Peterson 

and Peter Drouyn, were brilliant and accomplished athletes 

whose lives were the stuff of mythology, complete with 

triumph and tragedy. Trophies are based on urns. Mine are 

anti-trophies or something like it. Again, precedents are in 

ceramics from the past that were festooned with mythology. 

There is a period of “surfing history” that I keep coming back 

to when the counterculture, music and psychedelics collided 

with a very straight, boofy, regimented surf culture. 

JamFactory Icon 2016, Gerry Wedd: Kitschen Man, opened 

in Adelaide in July as part of the South Australian Living 

Artists (SALA) Festival. In 2017 the exhibition will tour 

to JamFactory at Seppeltsfield; Manningham Art Gallery, 

Doncaster; Port Augusta Cultural Centre - Yarta Purtli; Port 

Pirie Regional Art Gallery; Signal Point Gallery, Goolwa; 

Murray Bridge Regional Gallery and Walkway Gallery, 

Bordertown. The exhibition tour has been assisted by the 

Australian Government’s Contemporary Touring Initiative, 

a program of the Australia Council for the Arts. 

Previous page: Gram Jar, 2016 

coil built, terracotta, coloured slip decoration 

1120ºC, 640 x 430 430 

Photographer: Andrew Cowen 

Top right: Gerry Wedd in the studio. Photographer: Andrew Cowen 

Bottom right: Strange Fruit Bowl, 2016 

handbuilt, coloured slip, coloured slip decoration 

1220ºC, 80 x 290 x 190. Photographer: Andrew Cowen 

22 / ISSUE 04

ISSUE 04 / 23

Feature

FUSE GLASS PRIZE 

RECONCILING INNOVATION 

AND BEAUTY 

Words by Margot Osborne 

Margot is an independent curator and arts writer and was 

a judge of the 2016 FUSE Glass Prize. 

On 12 May 2016 the inaugural FUSE Glass Prize of $20,000 

was awarded to South Australian artist Clare Belfrage. The 

award was the culmination of a highly competitive selection 

process, with five award judges filtering 83 entries to achieve 

a final exhibition of ten artists in the established category and 

five in the emerging category. Judging criteria focused on 

innovation and mastery in the use of the glass medium. 

The other finalists in the established category were Mel 

Douglas (ACT), Tim Edwards (SA), Wendy Fairclough (SA), 

Brenden Scott French (SA), Elizabeth Kelly (ACT), Jessica 

Loughlin (SA), Nick Mount (SA), Richard Whiteley (ACT) 

and Kathryn Wightman (NZ). In the emerging category the 

award of $2,500, combined with a professional development 

program, was awarded to Alex Valero (SA), an alumnus of 

JamFactory’s Associate program. The other finalists in the 

emerging category were Lewis Batchelar (SA), Hannah Gason 

(ACT), Marina Hanser (ACT) and Andrew Plummer (NSW). 

This final selection, in its mix of exciting new talent and some 

of the most outstanding established glass artists, exemplifies 

the strength and diversity of contemporary glass practice in 

Australia and New Zealand. It is particularly noteworthy that 

the focus of the judging on innovation resulted in the FUSE 

Glass Prize exhibition showcasing fresh and experimental 

approaches to working with glass, including some that were 

technically unimaginable only a few years ago. 

At the same time, FUSE has reinforced the continuing 

importance of attaining excellence in such traditional skills 

as cane-working, engraving, carving, polishing, blowing, 

casting and hot-forming. Indeed these skills underlie nearly all 

the works. The finalists’ exhibition affirms that innovation in 

glass does not come about from a sudden thought bubble of 

inspiration, but rather is the end result of years of skills-based 

training and experimentation. Equally, works by finalists in 

the FUSE Glass Prize refute any suggestion that technical and 

conceptual innovation might be irreconcilable with formal 

beauty. On the contrary, both share a potential to disrupt our 

preconceptions, and to invoke fresh or unexpected insights 

into the familiar. 

Clare Belfrage, in her blown and cane-worked vessel titled 

Into the Deep, 2016 has created wondrous three-dimensional 

effects of interwoven and overlaid colour within the depths of 

the glass through her sophisticated cane-working technique. 

This involves applying trails of coloured glass onto a large 

bubble, melting these streams of colour and then drawing 

overlaid patterns of fine white lines, before encasing the 

drawing in further gathers of clear glass. The final hotworking 

phase is blowing and forming the vessel into a gently 

flattened, ever-so-slightly asymmetrical, almost-closed form. 

Belfrage then abrades and sands the surface to a fine satin 

finish that provides a perfect foil for the coloured ribbons 

floating within. 

Belfrage’s subtle modifications of formal symmetry and 

her careful attention to proportion impart an air of calm 

repose to her forms. She has imbued Into the Deep with 

understated allusions to rhythmic aqueous movement, 

hovering between organic abstraction and representation. 

Through a harmonious balance of restrained colour and 

elegant abstraction of blown form, the piece emanates a 

quiet, resonant beauty. 

Kathryn Wightman, who migrated to Whanganui, New 

Zealand, from Britain in 2012 after obtaining a doctorate 

from the University of Sunderland, has developed a highly 

innovative method of using digital technology to adapt 

screen printing to create complex patterns in fused glass 

panels. Her installation of floor panels using this technique 

was awarded the final Ranamok Glass Prize, in 2014. In her 

evocative FUSE installation Capturer, 2016 Wightman has 

taken this breakthrough into a new poetic dimension through 

incorporating allusions to the flocked, patterned wallpaper 

of a domestic interior. 

The bold graphic presence of Tim Edwards’ large blown 

and carved vessel, Line Drawing #12, 2016 both simulates 

and subverts the act of drawing. It hovers between twoand 

three-dimensional form, generating an enticing optical 

seduction though this playful ambiguity. In an inversion 

ISSUE 04 / 25

26 / ISSUE 04

of the additive process of drawing, Edwards creates allusions 

to drawn form by a laborious process of carving back the 

outer layer of black glass until it is no more than a linear 

outline. Line Drawing #12 conveys a strong resolved 

presence when viewed from a distance, while to the 

intimate gaze it reveals the nuanced beauty of its carved 

and textured surfaces. 

Also playing with the shifting perceptual effects of viewing 

a work from afar and close-up, Brenden Scott French, in his 

murrine wall panel titled View from Window, has configured 

his palette of glass colours to create a semi-abstract 

impressionistic evocation of landscape, through composing 

murrine tiles of compressed, fused slivers of coloured glass 

in a myriad of tonal variations. There is a potent dimension of 

dark imagining in Nick Mount’s cone-shaped blown sculpture, 

Beacon, 2016. His delicately drawn enamel markings, with 

their luminous tonal modulations, act as a counterpoint to the 

sombre overtones of his uncharacteristically subdued and 

restrained blown form. 

In other cases, artists have progressively refined and 

extended their approach to embodying poetic and 

metaphorical concepts, while working within a coherent 

framework over a period of years. Jessica Loughlin, in her 

panoramic sequence of wall panels, Unfolding Continuum 

10:00, 10:05, 11:30, 1:00, 2016 has found ever-more technically 

accomplished means to evoke the connection between inner 

and outer realities through evocations of subtly shifting 

cloudscapes. Adelaide-based glass artist Wendy Fairclough, 

who is currently undertaking a residency in her birthplace of 

Whanganui, New Zealand, continues to refine her work with 

cast glass to create luminous still-life installations in which 

she elicits a surprising beauty by transfiguring the humdrum 

objects of everyday life. 

Mel Douglas attains an exquisitely resolved formal harmony 

in her triptych of blown, engraved vessels, Wove.Weave. 

Weaving, 2016. She deftly balances exterior and interior 

surfaces, positive and negative space in her meticulously 

conceived composition of finely engraved linear drawings 

and monochrome surfaces. Richard Whiteley, in his cast 

glass sculpture, Absence, 2016 also works at a poetic level 

by creating formal interplay between interior and exterior 

form, between solid glass and the voids within. Inspired by 

MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) of the body’s internal 

landscape, he sculpts softly amorphous, organic forms that 

are partly encased within, and partly perforating, the severe 

formal geometry of the cast glass. 

Elizabeth Kelly evokes organic form at an even more 

elemental level in the intricate geometry of her miniature 

sculpture in cast glass, Groovy, 2016. Kelly has translated 

her fascination with the “rhythmic repetition and patterns” 

of organic quasi-life forms into the interlocked spiral 

components of Groovy. This is one of the first pieces 

resulting from her investigation into the organic geometry 

of abiogenesis – a scientific term for the point where a 

chemical composition becomes a life form. 

Innovative approaches to glass are a distinctive feature of 

FUSE Glass Prize’s emerging category. Award winner Alex 

Valero has adopted an unconventional approach to 

hot-worked glass in his pair of small geometric objects titled 

Grave (Infra & Ultra), 2015. Working with solid rod colour, 

he uses minimal intervention, neither blowing nor kiln firing, 

but simply heating and forming the glass rod on a punty 

in the glory hole to retain the maximum intensity of colour 

and achieve an optically alluring surface lustre. These small 

objects, with their sharp, irregular angles and mysterious 

metallic finish, exert a powerful enigmatic presence that 

belies their size. 

Australian National University (ANU) glass program graduate 

Hannah Gason has created alluring painterly effects of 

overlaid tonal colour through a process she developed 

whereby glass powder and threads are compressed between 

sheets of glass to achieve a very thin final composite. Marina 

Hanser, another ANU graduate, has employed a distinctive 

approach to pate de verre casting in order to achieve subtle 

grey tonal nuances in her understated abstract sequence of 

wall panels. 

In stark contrast, Andrew Plummer’s bold graphics and vivid 

colours in his fused glass panel titled Urban Hieroglyphs, 

2015 draw inspiration from the coded markings left in the 

urban environment by “the builder tribes of Sydney furiously 

communicating with their spray-can styluses”. Plummer has 

translated these into glass – first via photography, which is 

then freely interpreted through a drip-painting technique; 

and then by digital imaging to achieve the “looseness” in 

glass that emulates the spontaneity of the original. Lewis 

Batchelar, a current Associate in JamFactory’s Glass Studio, 

is the sole emerging artist to work with blown glass. He has 

done so with considerable elan and bravura command of 

traditional cane-working techniques. His “family” group of 

quirky anthropometric forms, Animism, 2016 is characterised 

by visually impressive streamlined shapes and beautiful 

stretched cane patterns. 

We thank the founding donors to the FUSE Glass Prize 

Jim and Helen Carreker, Diana Laidlaw AM, Phil and Diana 

Jaquillard, Alan Young AM and Sue Young, The Thomas 

Foundation and Sandy Benjamin OAM. Funds contributed 

by this generous donor group have enabled JamFactory to 

introduce this new award for excellence in the field of glass. 

Previous page: 2016 FUSE Glass prize winner Clare Belfrage with her 

piece Into the Deep, 2016. Photographer: Andre Castellucci 

Top left: Wendy Fairclough, Fill to Line, 2014 

cast lead crystal, 730 x 280 x 280 

Photographer: Grant Hancock 

Bottom left: Nick Mount, Beacon, 2016 

blown glass, surface worked, low fire glass enamel, patinated mild steel 

850 x 260 x 260 

Photographer: Pippy Mount 

Bottom right: Alex Valero, Grave (Intra & Ultra), 2015 

rod colour, 170 x 70 x 40 

Photographer: Anna Fenech Harris 

ISSUE 04 / 27

Feature

WINNING: JUST 

THE BEGINNING 

Words by Penny Craswell 

Penny is a Sydney-based editor, writer and communications 

specialist on design and architecture. 

IN 2015 JAMFACTORY AND STYLECRAFT 

LAUNCHED THE BIENNIAL AUSTRALIAN 

FURNITURE DESIGN AWARD - THE 

AFDA. THE WINNER OF THE INAUGURAL 

AWARD WAS SYDNEY BASED DESIGNER 

SEATON MCKEON. 

Mckeon is interested in the human dimension of design. “For 

me, design is pretty broad”, he explains. “It’s not just about 

sculpture or about objects, it’s about trying to bring what’s 

human to the problem or experience. I’m interested in what 

civilisation imposes on the human condition, whether using 

a shopping trolley or a pushbike, or doing your banking.” 

Mckeon was first inspired to investigate design as a career 

option after travelling the world and learning about the 

Bauhaus. While his upbringing had been full of DIY projects, 

one particular door handle designed by Walter Gropius 

opened his eyes to the possibility of design at a small scale: 

“I really appreciated the level of detail – plus it had a 

presence and identity that made an impression on me”. 

Now, Mckeon works across a range of design disciplines – his 

job at Blue Sky Design Group has him currently working on 

a transport wayfinding kit of parts for Sydney Trains – but 

it is his standing lamp, The Sun, the Moon and Me, 2015 that 

has gained him the most recognition. The light won him 

the inaugural Australian Furniture Design Award (AFDA), 

the richest and most prestigious award for designers in 

Australia right now and presented by JamFactory and 

leading commercial furniture supplier Stylecraft. Mckeon 

was selected from a shortlist of six and received $20,000 in 

cash and the opportunity to develop work for commercial 

production and distribution. 

The winning design is inspired by the sky at night. A large 

transparent perspex disc represents the night sky with 

stars etched onto its surface with a laser. At its centre, the 

ISSUE 04 / 29

aluminium housing and switch behind presents a dark circle 

to the front of the light, which Mckeon sees as the black hole 

at the centre of the universe. Attached to the perspex disc at 

the front and to the side is another disc – a metal clamping 

plate that represents the moon. With a mirrored metallic 

finish, this disc does not emit light, but only reflects it, just as 

the moon does. The whole is attached to a steel pole with a 

marble base to give it stability. 

The Sun, the Moon and Me is considered, detailed and 

beautiful in its materiality and its concept. “I was interested 

in the idea of creating a discussion through an object”, 

explains Mckeon. “I used stars to communicate a sense of 

scale, to allow people to sit and take the time to reflect on 

the scale of the universe. The design became minimal so 

as not to deflect from that idea.” 

Winning the award has been a surreal experience for Mckeon. 

“It was a lot of work to make it and each step of the process 

I felt like I was flying by the seat of my pants”, he explains. 

But the best thing to come out of the process has been 

developing the design – firstly into an object that could tour 

all the Stylecraft showrooms to be exhibited, and then into 

a working production edition that is now for sale. “I felt like 

every other month I was finding weaknesses in the product, 

but now, after a process of total redesign from the original 

prototype, I have a bulletproof design that has a really 

enduring quality to it.” 

Designer Jon Goulder, Creative Director of JamFactory’s 

Furniture Studio, initially conceived of the idea for the 

award with Anthony Collins from Stylecraft three years 

ago. When Goulder took up his role at the JamFactory, 

he began discussing the idea with CEO Brian Parkes, who 

could see the benefit in the award and was excited to team 

up with Stylecraft to deliver the outcome. Goulder explains: 

“We wanted to design an award that put its money where 

its mouth is – no small print, just real outcomes”. He is 

also delighted with the winning design: “Seaton is a true 

professional, his light is truly original and that is what we 

were looking for”. 

and JamFactory to design a furniture range”, says Stylecraft 

Brand Director Tony Russell. “This provides the winner with 

real insight into what is involved in developing a range and 

then bringing it to market. The award also allows us to form 

relationships with emerging and established design talent.” 

While Stylecraft doesn’t want to give away too many 

specifics about the range (it will be launched in early 2017), 

they say the collection will encompass a chair, lounge and 

bar stools and will be suitable for hospitality, corporate 

and residential applications. “The range will draw upon 

JamFactory’s and Stylecraft’s expertise in guiding design 

development and the resources of leading Australian 

manufacturers”, says Russell. 

For Mckeon, working with JamFactory, visiting their metal 

and timber workshops in Adelaide and collaborating with 

designers, manufacturers and fabricators there has been 

a really valuable experience: “It’s heaven down there for 

a designer to be walking around with every tool at your 

disposal and everyone has been really friendly. It’s been 

awesome to be working on that collection and have that 

support.” 

JamFactory and Stylecraft will present the 2017 AFDA in 

July 2017. The deadline for applications is 15 May 2017. 

Previous page: Sketches and scale model of the Paperclip Chair, 2015 

Image courtesy the artist 

Right: Seaton Mckeon with the AFDA winning piece The Sun, the Moon and Me, 2015 

Photographer: Andre Castellucci 

Below: Computer render of the Paperclip Chair in development for Stylecraft 


Mckeon is currently working with Stylecraft and JamFactory 

on a new range of furniture, which is scheduled for release in 

late 2016. This aspect of the award was the most significant 

for Stylecraft, who will produce and distribute the collection. 

“The idea behind AFDA, and its point of difference from other 

design awards, is that the winner will collaborate with us 

30 / ISSUE 04

Tribute 

VALE ROBERT FOSTER

THIS YEAR THE AUSTRALIAN 

DESIGN SECTOR LOST ONE OF 

ITS GREATEST CHAMPIONS. 

Robert Foster’s tragic death, in a car accident in July, cut 

short the career of one of Australia’s most influential and 

respected designers. 

Robert was an electric mix of master craftsperson, mad 

scientist, experimental engineer and poetic visual artist. His 

excitement in the processes of designing and making was 

visceral and infectious. His pioneering approach to both the 

creative and commercial aspects of an independent design 

practice, and his enthusiasm to share his knowledge and 

mentor others, made a significant impact on the Australian 

design landscape. 

I first met Robert when I moved to Canberra over 20 years 

ago to run the shop at the National Gallery of Australia - an 

early stockist of his now iconic F!NK & Co. products. Robert 

was also one of the first designers I spoke to back in 2005 

while curating Freestyle: new Australian design for living – the 

first major survey of contemporary Australian design. The 

conversations we had around this time were some of the 

most intense and enlightening I have had. Robert’s actions 

and opinions helped define that show, as they have no doubt 

helped define design culture in Australia today. 

Indeed, key elements of JamFactory’s current strategic 

direction (and much of my own philosophy about the 

relationship between craft, design and industry) owe their 

genesis to conversations with Robert and his partner Gretel 

Harrison and their trail-blazing work through F!NK & Co. The 

design and manufacture of crafts-based products within 

the JamFactory studios, the distribution of these products 

and the valuable role their production plays in our Associate 

training program are just some examples. 

In 1992 he was invited to exhibit at the prestigious Museum 

fur Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg, Germany, which led to 

discussions with Alberto Alessi about designing something 

for the Alessi range. The opportunity never transpired but 

Robert’s frustration with the process motivated him to 

explore the idea of self-manufacturing in Australia and in 

1993 F!NK & Co. was established. As the name suggests, it 

was always intended that the company support and create 

opportunities not just for Robert but for other Australian 

designers as well. It remains one of the most successful 

Australian design stories, informed significantly by the global 

success of one of its earliest products - the F!NK water jug, 

designed by Robert in 1994. The water jug is often referred 

to as an icon of Australian design. It is sold and used around 

the world and has been in continuous production for over 

two decades. 

Robert’s creative output included experimental one-off 

pieces of hollowware, jewellery, furniture and lighting as 

well as designing elegant and affordable products for 

everyday living. His work is represented in most major public 

collections in Australia as well as several overseas, including 

the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. 

Robert’s star shone most brightly in the Canberra region, 

where he lived with Gretel and their two daughters, but 

he maintained strong networks and connections across 

Australia and internationally. His memorial service was filled 

with artists, craftspeople, designers, curators and friends. All 

gathered to pay tribute to a life cut so tragically short, yet 

lived with such deep intensity. 

Words by Brian Parkes 

Brian Parkes is CEO at JamFactory. 

If you wish to honour Robert Foster’s outstanding contribution to the arts in 

Australia, the Capital Arts Patrons’ Organisation has established the Robert 

Foster Memorial Award. For information on how to donate visit www.capo.org.au 

JamFactory was also an early stockist of F!NK & Co. products 

and hosted solo exhibitions by Robert in 1995 and 2002, 

as well as numerous group exhibitions featuring his work. 

Robert also undertook residencies in the glass and furniture 

studios in 1996 and 1999 and ran a collaborative design 

workshop for our Associates in 2011. 

Robert was born in Kyneton, Victoria in 1962 and studied 

gold and silversmithing in the early 1980s under Ragnar 

Hansen and Johannes Kuhnen at the Canberra School of 

Art. He achieved significant early success as a silversmith 

undertaking commissions and exhibiting widely in Australia. 

Left: Robert Foster with the F!NK water jug 

Image courtesy of F!NK & Co 

ISSUE 04 / 33

WORKING FROM THE INSIDE

The Egyptians wrapped threads of molten glass around 

a core of clay-like material to make small vessels. The 

Syrians and Romans blew bubbles of molten glass to 

fashion hollow vessels. Forming a bubble provides the 

glass with an integrity, which allows the work to be 

manipulated without losing its form. A well-controlled 

bubble is the basis of glass blowing. 

Yet Martin Janecky sacrifices that integrity by opening 

the far end of the bubble while it is still attached to the 

pipe. He inserts tools to press areas outwards to make 

human faces and torsos. Martin originally trained in his 

homeland of the Czech Republic and among many other 

formative experiences assisted the American glass blower 

William Morris. 

Andrew (Andy) Baldwin wraps an impossibly thin thread 

of coloured glass around a mass of hot glass. This form 

will later become a vessel with the orientation of the lines 

in the direction opposite to that which one might expect. 

He also makes multicoloured rods of glass in a technique 

first mastered in Murano and uniquely exploited by Danish 

glass blower Tobias Mohl. Andy trained at two Australian 

universities, at JamFactory and more latterly in 

international workshops. 

At JamFactory in 2015 Martin Janecky and Andy Baldwin 

combined their techniques to demonstrate the making of a 

hollow skull. Martin was teaching a workshop while visiting 

from his home in Prague. Andy is a key member of the 

JamFactory “family”. Now, one could reasonably be amazed 

with their technical finesse; one could reasonably be amazed 

with their aesthetic outcome. One might, though, be equally 

amazed at the connections that brought them together. 

Contemporary glass has from its onset been international. 

Initiated in Europe and popularised in the United States, 

its tentacles spread around the globe. This trait of 

international migration of knowledge references the 

eventual spread of traditional glassmaking and JamFactory 

participates in the international dissemination of knowledge 

and insight generated by glass blowers locally and from 

around the world. 

Martin and Andy met during 2014 at the Hsinchu International 

Glass Art Festival in Taiwan, where both were exhibitors and 

demonstrators. In demonstrations they assisted each other. 

Their next meeting resulted in the skull that bears Andy’s 

decoration and Martin’s sculpting. 

A line could almost be drawn that traces the threads of 

development of glass blowing from early times through the 

many cultures and individuals who have contributed to the 

skill and conceptual ability held by these two artists, each a 

master in his own specialty. 

Such is the nature of contemporary glass – skills and insights 

are exchanged around the world in contrast to traditional 

factory working, in which commercial secrecy was the ideal. 

The skull belongs to Martin, who has taken it home to sit 

alongside his collection of mementos that give witness to 

his travels and collaborations. It also belongs to Andy, as 

his contribution was indispensable. It also belongs to the 

workshop participants, as their experience of its creation is 

indelible. It also belongs to the glassmakers of Egypt, Syria, 

Murano, the United States and the glass-blowing teachers of 

the Czech Republic and Australia. 

Words by Gerry King 

Gerry is a renowned artist and designer specialising in 

contemporary glass. 

In 2017 JamFactory’s Glass Studio will host workshops 

by Edols Elliott (Ben Edols and Kathy Elliott) from Sydney 

and David Walters from the USA. 

Left: Glass sculpture by Martin Janecky. Image courtesy of the artist 

Top right: Skull created by Martin Janecky and Andrew Baldwin. 

Photographer: Anna Fenech Harris 

ISSUE 04 / 35

Feature 

STEEL: ART DESIGN 

ARCHTECTURE 

“That’s all the motorcycle is, a system of concepts worked out in steel. There’s no part in it, no 

shape in it, that is not out of someone’s mind… I’ve noticed that people who have never worked 

with steel have trouble seeing this – that the motorcycle is primarily a mental phenomenon. 

They associate metal with given shapes – pipes, rods, girders, tools, parts – all of them fixed 

and inviolable, and think of it as primarily physical. But a person who does machining or foundry 

work or forge work or welding sees “steel” as having no shape at all. Steel can be any shape 

you want if you are skilled enough, and any shape but the one you want if you are not.” 

Robert M Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An inquiry into Values, 1974, 

Chapter 8, pp 104–5. 

36 / ISSUE 04

Words by Margaret Hancock Davis 

Margaret is Senior Curator at 

JamFactory and curator of 

STEEL: art design architecture. 

Steel is a medium rich in human history. 

An alloy of iron and carbon, steel dates 

back to 4000 years ago and traces 

the technical and cultural development 

of multiple civilisations. First forged in 

handmade furnaces, steel production 

and its subsequent use expanded in the 

17th century with technical innovations. 

By the 19th century, and with further 

developments, the era of massproduced 

steel had begun. Today, 

steel is one of the most ubiquitous 

and pervasive materials in the world. 

It inhabits the landscape of our bodies, 

our domestic spaces and our built 

environments. A material that ranges 

from raw and functional to lustrous and 

decorative, steel blurs the boundary 

between utilitarian and precious. Its 

affordability and durability has made it 

so pervasive that is often overlooked. 

Just think of an average day: you may 

get up in a house or apartment block 

whose structural form is made of steel, 

head to the bathroom where you turn 

steel taps for a shower under a steel 

shower rose; next to the kitchen to open 

your stainless-steel-covered fridge, turn 

on your steel kettle, and eat breakfast 

with utensils made from steel; before 

leaving in cars, motorbikes, trains, trams 

or buses, over bridges and on tracks, 

all of which contain steel. 

In Australia steel has played an essential 

role in the development of our design 

vernacular. In the hands of skilled 

Australian designers and makers, steel 

has become an essential material that 

helps articulate a national character 

and contributes to our distinctive 

material culture. 

The Drew House, 2010, by Simon Laws 

takes its cue from the architecture of 

Queensland’s cane-growing region 

around Bundaberg. The dramatic visual 

language of the sugarcane mill, its largescale 

boilers and turbines juxtaposed 

with the beautiful silhouettes of the 

corrugated-iron water tanks and stands, 

finds form in this holiday home. Built to 

be a luxury type of camping, the house 

operates as sculpture on a bushland 

site camped at by the Drew siblings for 

many years. It is located near the beach 

with the aim to create a building that 

celebrates its environment by allowing 

its occupants to be in touch with their 

surroundings; the building is therefore 

designed as a series of interconnected 

pavillons and walkways. Assembled in 

Brisbane, the pavillons were scaled to fit 

a semitrailer and transported to the site. 

With the house positioned to capture 

natural airflows, the south-easterly 

breeze creates a passive cooling system 

without the need for air conditioning. 

DesignByThem is a Sydney-based 

design company established in 2007 

representing and producing the work 

of Australian designers. Founded by 

industrial designers Sarah Gibson and 

Nicholas Karlovasitis, it has a designfirst 

approach that is reflected in its 

culture and products. Every design 

is carefully considered, developed 

and curated to ensure it meets the 

requirements and standards of good 

design. DesignByThem creates a playful 

collection of fun and functional furniture 

and lighting. Made of mirror-polished 

stainless steel, the Corro Bowl, 2009 is 

a beautifully refined corrugated form 

accentuating steel’s inherent strength 

and fluidity. 

For the many thousands of varieties of 

steel there is one that seems intrinsically 

linked with the Australian identity – 

the corrugated steel sheets known 

as corrugated iron. Synonymous with 

Australia’s rural and mining landscapes, 

while also an essential part of the classic 

“Aussie” backyard, forming sheds, 

chicken coops, outhouses and water 

tanks, corrugated iron is durable, strong, 

adaptable and light. It is for these 

reasons that it is used or interpreted 

by contemporary architects, designers 

and artists. 

Previous page: Maureen Faye Chauhan, 

Cluster Series Brooches, 2008, heat coloured 

mild steel, 85 x 80 x45 and 70 x 40 x 30 

Photographer: Jeremy Dhillon 

Right: DesignByThem, Tuck Table and Stool, 2013 - 15 

zinc plated and powder coated steel 

Table 720 x 800 x 800, Stool 440 x 310 x 310 

Photographer: Pete Daly 

38 / ISSUE 04

Top left: Alison Jackson, 10 Vessels 10 Days, 2015 

fine silver, copper, binding wire 

50 x 65 x 65mm each 

Photographer: Angela Bakker 

Top right: Korban Flaubert, Involute, 2009 

60 Clarence St, Sydney, New South Wales 

powdered coated steel 

1500 x 1500 x 1500 

Photographer: Sharrin Rees 

Bottom left: Trent Jansen, Tidal Chair, 2015 

stainless steel, 570 x 455 x 770 


Bottom right: BVN, The Australian Plantbank, 2014 

Australian Botanic Garden, Mount Annan, NSW 

Photographer: John Gollings 

40 / ISSUE 04

Lorraine Connelly-Northey is a 

Waradgerie woman from Swan Hill in 

north-west Victoria who finds inspiration 

in the land of her childhood and her 

mother’s tribal boundary, where the 

Mallee meets the Murray River. The 

strong cultural practice of weaving is 

translated in Connelly-Northey’s work, 

which transforms found materials such 

as rusted sheets of corrugated iron, 

steel barbed wire, fencing mesh and 

other agricultural detritus into traditional 

forms including koolimans (coolamons), 

narbongs (dilly bags) and interpretations 

of possum-skin cloaks. Her choice of 

material from our frontier and colonial 

history reminds us of Australia’s fraught 

history with our First Nations peoples – 

the fence being both a physical barrier 

used to contain and control Aboriginal 

people living on missions and as a 

metaphoric symbol of Aboriginal people 

being trapped within white society, 

unable to express their culture and 

traditional way of life. 

Australia, like most countries, has many 

cultural tropes and myths surrounding 

its identity. Apart from the traditions 

of our First Nations peoples, Australian 

identities have been forged through 

many lenses, from our convict past and 

colonial frontiers with their bushranger 

legends, and the Anzac traditions of 

courage and sacrifice, to one of the 

most mythologised “Aussies”, that of 

the counterculture surfer history of the 

1960s and 1970s. Trent Jansen looks to 

these myths to create designs through 

a process he describes as design 

anthropology. Researching human 

behaviour to layer concepts into his 

forms, Jensen’s Tidal Collection, 2015, 

for Tait conjures long laid-back summers 

spent relaxing at the beach or by the 

pool. The steel-wire forms of the lounger, 

sun lounge and chair reference the shape 

waves take as they make their way to 

shore, knowledge surfers capitalise on to 

catch the perfect wave. 

Preservation can take many forms. The 

Australian PlantBank, 2014, designed 

by BVN, is situated in the Australian 

Botanic Garden, Mount Annan, on the 

outskirts of greater Sydney. Part of 

a global network coordinated by the 

Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, London, 

known as the Millennium Seed Bank 

Partnership, the Australian PlantBank 

houses the Domain Trust seed bank 

and research laboratories, which 

specialise in horticultural research and 

conservation of Australian native plant 

species, particularly those from New 

South Wales. Located in a part of the 

garden between a threatened and rare 

remnant section of Cumberland Plain 

native forests and the garden’s nursery 

that propagates species, including the 

famous Wollemi pine, the building is 

designed to embrace the forest. Steel 

is used throughout, with polished 

steel panels reflecting the building’s 

surroundings and bushfire-resistant 

mesh-covered louvre windows 

enabling the building to open up to 

natural airflows. 

Ecological practices often lead to 

discussions of sustainability and 

recyclability. Steel is the most recycled 

material on the planet, recycled more 

than all other materials combined. 

Steel retains an extremely high overall 

recycling rate, which in 2012 stood at 

88 per cent. 1 The amazing metallurgical 

properties of steel allow it to be recycled 

continually with no degradation in 

performance, and from one product 

to another. 

The recycling of steel can be seen in 

the beautifully crafted knives of master 

knifemaker Barry Gardner. Gardner is 

one of those makers that knows their 

“ah ha” moment – for him it came 24 

years ago while visiting a gun trade 

show in Adelaide. Trawling through 

the many stalls, he came across one 

showing a group of knives made 

by the stallholder. From that day he 

knew that this was what he wanted 

to do. Slowly developing his skills 

through trial and error and through 

research into Japanese knifemaking 

practices, Gardner creates handforged 

knives desired both nationally 

and internationally. Working mainly 

with Damascus steel, he tiers multiple 

layers of molten steel sourced from old 

files and bandsaw blades that he then 

reworks, twisting and folding the steel 

to create the distinctive and unique 

patterns that are revealed once the knife 

is submerged in an acid bath. 

From an ancient craft to one that works 

with modern technology to realise its 

final result, Maureen Faye-Chauhan’s 

intricate mild-steel brooches are 

produced through the manipulation of 

three-dimensional images in advanced 

computer-aided design programs and 

laser printing. Describing her practice 

as artistic, she notes that “part of 

the creative process is bringing forth 

something from nothing; ideas develop, 

a drawn line closes to become a shape, 

and through the manipulation of space, 

that shape becomes a form”. 2 Working 

with fundamental geometric patterns 

found in nature’s building blocks, 

Faye-Chauhan relies on repeated 

elements and the strength of steel to 

create her complex forms. 

This is a mere snapshot of the ideas 

and works presented in JamFactory’s 

upcoming STEEL: art design architecture 

exhibition. The third in a series of 

exhibitions produced by JamFactory, 

STEEL showcases innovative works by 

29 contemporary Australian artists, 

designers and architects, providing 

a cross-section of current creative 

practices, modes of thinking and 

relationships to this essential material. 

1. http://www.steel.org/sustainability/steel-recycling. 

aspx, accessed July 2016. 

2. http://www.mfayechauhan.com/, accessed 

July 2016 

STEEL: art design architecture opens in 

Adelaide in February 2017 and will tour 

nationally to 15 venues. The exhibition 

has been assisted by the Australian 

Government’s Visions of Australia 

program. 

An extract from the essay published 

in STEEL: art design architecture by 

Margaret Hancock Davis. 

ISSUE 04 / 41

Feature 

Homeland: returning, 

remembering, reimagining 

Words by Joanne Cys and Jane Lawrence 

Dr Joanne Cys LFDIA is Associate Professor in Interior Architecture and Dean: Academic 

in the Division of Education, Arts and Social Sciences at the University of South Australia. 

Jane Lawrence is Associate Head of School: Teaching and Learning in the School of 

Art, Architecture and Design at the University of South Australia. Both are interior 

design graduates of UniSA and co-curators of the exhiition Homeland: returning, 

remembering, reimagining.

An association with “home” is ingrained in 

every person’s consciousness. For many, home 

is the place where first memories are made, 

where security and love are bounded. For 

others, home is a place of refuge, safety and 

shelter. For some, home is a place yet to be 

established, a future and sometimes-distant 

site where new memories will be made and 

dreams will be realised. 

The concept of “homeland” is both familiar and foreign: 

a paradigm, a place, a landscape, a nation or region, a 

constituency, a way of being, a place of belonging. It is of 

the past, the present and the future. It houses memories, 

experiences, objects, cultures, beliefs and relationships. 

Homeland is a realm where place and dweller are intimately 

connected and disconnected. Intricate details of physical 

interior space and fellow occupants are deeply etched 

and continuously recalled. The 2016 exhibition Homeland: 

returning, remembering, reimagining at JamFactory 

GalleryOne invites alumni of the University of South 

Australia’s current Bachelor of Interior Architecture and its 

antecedent programs 1 and awarding institutions – the South 

Australian Institute of Technology (SAIT) and the South 

Australian College of Advanced Education (SACAE) – to 

consider “homeland” in relationship to their professional 

practice and their personal lives and situations. The 

exhibition also celebrates the 25th birthday of the 

University of South Australia. 

Homeland: returning, remembering, reimagining coincided 

with the biennial Asia Pacific Space Designers Alliance 

(APSDA) conference, hosted for the first time in Australia 

in Adelaide over 24–26 September 2016. The theme of the 

APSDA 2016 conference is “Home”, evoking the principal 

theme of home in its multitudinous interpretations but always 

interrelated to the interior. 

Interior design is a relatively new discipline of practice and 

research and is regarded by many as currently being in 

a state of emergence. The first interior design education 

program was established in the 1920s at the Parsons 

School of Design in New York. In Australia, the first interior 

design education program, a Diploma in Interior Design, 

commenced at RMIT University in Melbourne in 1950. 

In 1964, the South Australian Institute of Technology’s 

Louis Laybourne Smith School of Architecture and Design 2 

launched Australia’s second interior design qualification, an 

Ordinary Certificate in Interior Design. The first cohort of the 

two-year full-time program graduated in 1966 – five decades 

ago. In the years that ensued, there were a number of 

ISSUE 04 / 43

unsuccessful attempts by the school’s leadership to introduce 

a professional-level interior design bachelor degree program 

and it was not until 1982 that the Bachelor of Arts in Interior 

Design was approved by SAIT’s academic administration and 

the first cohort entered the program. In the meantime, the 

College of Advanced Education had, in 1980, established a 

Bachelor of Design (Human Environments) program at the 

Underdale campus. 3 In 1991 the University of South Australia 

was formed from SACAE and SAIT. The two interior design 

degree programs continued to run in parallel until 1997 when 

the final cohort of the human environments program at 

Underdale transferred to UniSA’s new City West campus to 

complete the final year of their degree. 

All these works are experimental and together they direct 

the discipline of interior design outwards into an expansive 

condition, rich in new possibilities and generative concepts. 

Each piece, however, is conceptually grounded by interior 

design’s essential purpose of responding to the fundamental 

needs of human habitation. This is an understanding, and 

a skill, that has been instilled in students and practised 

by graduates of UniSA’s interior design program for half 

a century. 

The exhibition Homeland: returning, remembering, 

reimagining was shown at JamFactory from 

22 September – 27 November 2016. 

Over its 50-year history the program has graduated close 

to 1500 interior designers. Collectively, their practice has 

represented a significant contribution to the creation of 

spaces and places for human habitation: homes, workplaces, 

public places, retail, educational, healthcare, hospitality 

and leisure in Adelaide, throughout South Australia, across 

Australia and around the world. Unlike much of the structure 

that encloses it, spaces that are the outcome of interior 

design practice can often be temporary or transient, 

short-lived or ephemeral. The approach to practice by the 

program’s graduates can be characterised by a unique 

balance of highly creative and practical skills, a legacy of the 

culture of the design environment in which they studied and 

the expertise of key staff they encountered during their time 

as students. 

Notes 

(1) The antecedent programs were the Ordinary Certificate in Interior 

Design; Advanced Certificate in Interior Design; Bachelor of Design (Human 

Environments); Bachelor of Arts in Interior Design; Bachelor of Design (Interior 

Design); and Bachelor of Interior Design. 

(2) Since the 1990s, the constituent disciplines of the original School of 

Architecture and Building have been restructured and renamed a number of 

times. In 2001 the interior design program was renamed Bachelor of Interior 

Architecture. It currently resides in the School of Art, Architecture and Design 

at UniSA’s City West campus. 

(3) The authors wish to acknowledge the assistance of UniSA EAS Academic 

Services team members Deborah Faigen and Vicki Clark in determining the 

commencement dates of these programs. 

To celebrate 50 years of interior design alumni, Homeland: 

returning, remembering, reimagining has invited 12 graduates 

to “come home” from their daily practice and share their 

personal reflections on and responses to the notion of 

homeland. The 12 individual works are contextualised by a 

pivotal installation piece designed by alumnus and lecturer 

Michael Geissler that collectively represents every graduate 

since 1966. 

The individual works reflect the interdisciplinary nature 

and inherent explorations of interior design practice. Some 

exhibitors have chosen to respond to the proposition of 

homeland in three dimensions through furniture and object 

(Samantha Agostino with Gareth Brown, and Stephen 

Soeffky), lighting (Saul Scanlon) and installation (Andrew 

Schunke). Others explore their response through handdrawing 

(Hannah White, Alex Gilmore-Johnstone and Michael 

Geissler); while others experiment with other materials and 

representation techniques including digital media (Jordan 

D’Arsie and Vi Nguyen) and photography (Lisa Zamberlan). 

44 / ISSUE 04

Previous page: Agostino & Brown, Long Table, 2016 

clear matte lacquer, solid Amercian white oak, pure aniline leather 

2010 x 850 x 710. Image courtesy of the artist 

Top left: Stephen Blaess, Alessi Marli Bottle Opener, 2005 

stainless steel. Image courtesy of the artist 

Top right: Saul Scanlon, Beehive Pendants, 2016 

sandblasted glass, brass, water jet and machined brass and G9 lighting 

components. Photographer: Saul Scanlon and A. Wood 

Bottom left: Hannah White, Henry House, 2016 

graphite and digital print on 300gsm paper 

10 pieces 170 x 290. Image courtesy of the artist 

Bottom right: Amber Lewis and Murray Britton, Mem-O-Pouf, 2016 

fabric, threads, upholstered daybed/pouf base, timber 

approx 1500 dia x 2800. Image courtesy of the artist 

ISSUE 04 / 45

Profile 

LIAM MUGAVIN

ORDERING A FLAT WHITE AT 

COFFEE BONDI BEACH, IT’S 

HARD NOT TO TAKE IN THE 

CLEAN LINES, SOLID WALNUT 

COUNTERS AND PARED BACK, 

THOUGHTFUL DETAILS AND 

WONDER, IS THAT WHAT THE 

INSIDE OF LIAM MUGAVIN’S 

MIND LOOKS LIKE TOO? 

Words by Jo Higgins 

Jo is a Sydney-based freelance writer and 

the Creative Strategy Manager at the 

Australian Design Centre. 

The interior fit out of this effortlessly stylish vegan coffee bar in 2016 

announced Mugavin’s arrival in Sydney. The fit out, designed and built 

while Mugavin was a studio tenant at JamFactory, was completed 

in January; the designer himself arrived in February, setting up his 

workshop in St Peters’ vibrant Precinct 75. The move, which Mugavin 

has described as somewhat spontaneous, arguably marks a pivotal 

moment in what is already an increasingly successful career. 

In 2015, Mugavin received not only the highly prestigious Clarence Prize 

for Excellence in Furniture Design, for his Tasmanian oak and copper 

Koto Light, 2015 but also the Drink, Dine, Design Emerging Designer 

Award for his Tasmanian silver wattle Hamra Chair, 2015. Named after 

his great-grandparents and the Adelaide institution that was Hamra 

Furniture before its closure last year, Mugavin’s chair consists of just 

four pieces and three near-identical joints and is the very definition of 

elegant restraint. Its beauty and simplicity, with its clean lines and gently 

curved undersides, belies a sophisticated understanding of the role and 

value of the space that surrounds an object. In developing the design, 

Mugavin drew inspiration from both the planar surfaces of the work 

of American sculptor Donald Judd, and his knowledge of Japanese 

aesthetics and the philosophy of ‘ma’, which emphasises absence. 

Since receiving the Emerging Designer Award, Mugavin’s chair has been 

shown at both Factory Design District and Workshopped ’16 in Sydney 

and it’s acclaim continues to be put to good use. In 2016 Mugavin 

secured an Australia Council Project Grant that will be used to develop 

a new collection of Hamra-inspired furniture and lighting pieces that will 

form the designer’s first solo exhibition, to be held in Melbourne in 2017. 

Mugavin credits the visibility afforded him by the Clarence Prize and 

Emerging Designer Award for his recent slew of projects – including 

Coffee Bondi Beach and his collaboration with creative consultant 

Robyn Holt for Kate Dinon’s Commissioned Editions project. But 

Mugavin is also quick to attribute much of this success to his time as an 

associate and then studio tenant at JamFactory, and sees his practice 

today as one based very much on the Furniture Studio’s model of 

working across product development, commissions and fit-outs. 

Having completed the Bondi fit-out and his Adelaide to Sydney 

relocation, Mugavin is now working on another “dream project” for 

the same client, a restaurant at Barangaroo that will open next year. 

Given free reign of the entire interior – from wall finishes to furniture 

and lighting - Mugavin is taking a research-based approach to the 

project and using the cultural and historical significance of the 

location to inform the design. 

Left: Koto, 2015 Tasmanian Oak (stained), copper, glass, LED’s 

1800 x 1000 x 1000. Photographer: The artist 

And when he’s not contemplating local histories, veganism and 

sustainable practice, or preparing for his upcoming exhibition, or 

working on independent commissions, Mugavin can be found at 

Marrickville’s MakerSpace & Co, where he is setting up their new timber 

workshop, joining another community of passionate makers. Describing 

it as “a great opportunity for me to contribute a little to building a 

vibrant craft and design scene”, it seems Mugavin’s talents for elegant 

understatement extend well beyond his furniture… If the last 12 months 

are any measure of the things to come, Mugavin’s contributions to 

Australian design and the Sydney design community will be anything 

but little. 

Above: Hamra Chair, 2015 Tasmanian silver wattle 

550 x 550 x 900. Photographer: The artist 

ISSUE 04 / 47

Profile 

AMANDA DZIEDZIC

SINCE COMPLETING 

JAMFACTORY’S GLASS 

STUDIO ASSOCIATE TRAINING 

PROGRAM, MELBOURNE 

BASED GLASS ARTIST 

AMANDA DZIEDZIC HAS SEEN 

HER PRACTICE GAIN FIRM 

ROOTS WITHIN THE NATIONAL 

CONTEMPORARY GLASS 

SCENE. HER SOLO EXHIBITION, 

I DREAM A GREENHOUSE, 

WAS THE CULMINATION OF 

THREE YEARS’ WORTH OF 

EXPERIMENTATION AND 

UNWAVERING DEVOTION TO 

THE EXQUISITE BEAUTY OF 

BOTANICAL FORMS. 

Words by Caitlin Eyre 

Caitlin Eyre is an independent South 

Australian art curator and writer. 

Nature is a constant source of delight and wonder to Amanda Dziedzic, 

who finds the rich and vibrant array of forms, patterns and colours of 

plants to be a central inspiration and key theme of her practice. “I am 

obsessed with greenery and plant life in general”, she says. “They invade 

my waking life and creep into my dreaming life.” In her most recent body 

of work, Dziedzic has created a lush garden of exquisitely rendered plants 

in every imaginable shade of green, their cold glass surfaces bearing the 

clean lines and vibrant colours that are synonymous with her graceful and 

restrained aesthetic. The vivid hues of crisp beetroots, daikon radishes 

and turnips punctuate the dense foliage of succulents, stag ferns and 

celery stalks, while intricate miniature configurations are bedded on 

mossy dome-topped pedestals. The fine individual details of each plant 

are meticulously rendered, with each piece bearing the veined leaves, 

ribbed stalks, curved fronds, dirt smears, wrinkled flesh and creviced 

surfaces of their living counterparts. 

The inspiration for Dziedzic’s recent body of work stems from her 

experiences in Japan during a research residency and her frequent 

encounters with the tiny yet exquisite gardens located in the quiet 

backstreets of bustling Tokyo. Particularly significant to Dziedzic’s 

practice is her appreciation of wabi-sabi, the traditional Japanese 

philosophy of finding beauty and grace in the most humble of everyday 

tasks and objects: “These works are a celebration of the tiny and beautiful 

aspects of everyday life. It is really easy to get bogged down in life and 

these works express my joy and appreciation for the natural world”. 

In order to find inspiration during the initial design phase, Dziedzic 

immerses herself in extensive visual research, often finding inspiration in 

the imagery featured in retro gardening books and illustrated children’s 

encyclopedias. But it is her spontaneous interactions with plants in 

everyday life that Dziedzic finds the most stimulating, be it a visit to the 

local market or a leisurely stroll through a garden. Even the vegetables 

that appear on Dziedzic’s dinner plate can offer fertile ground for the 

creation of a new body of work. After perfecting rudimentary sketches 

based on found imagery and plant cuttings, Dziedzic then dedicates a 

number of sessions in the hot shop to crafting clear-glass prototypes of 

her creations. Once the form has been finalised, Dziedzic makes colour 

versions of each plant before finally progressing to the production phase. 

Working with a traditional glass-blowing practice, Dziedzic primarily 

uses hot-sculpting methods in the creation of her works. This technique 

involves gathering molten glass from the furnace on the end of a metal 

rod and shaping the pliable mass with a torch and various handheld tools. 

While most of Dziedzic’s work is performed with the aid of the hot-shop 

furnace out of necessity, smaller works are often flame-worked in the 

studio, the artist shaping rods and tubes of glass with a handheld torch. 

Left: Radish, 2016 

hot sculpted glass, found materials and mixed media 

Photographer: Hadyn Cattach 

There has been a long history of glass being used to make lasting and 

realistic representations of botanical specimens. While Dziedzic feels 

that her practice captures and preserves nature, there is more at play 

within her works than purely aesthetics and a love of plant life. “It is about 

capturing the memories that I have associated with these specimens”, 

she says. “They are my own personal album of memories represented 

in plant form.” As such, most of Dziedzic’s works are realistic portrayals 

of botanical forms found in nature, although she does on occasion craft 

fantastical “Franken-plants” if the mood strikes her. For the most part, 

though, Dziedzic prefers to keep the renderings true to form, believing 

that nature is the most divine architect and that the shapes and patterns 

found in nature are the most exquisite. 

ISSUE 04 / 49

FURNITURE 

COLLECTION 

Words by Brian Parkes 

Brian Parkes is CEO at JamFactory. 

IN JUNE THIS YEAR JAMFACTORY 

OFFICIALLY LAUNCHED IT’S FIRST 

EVER FURNITURE COLLECTION. 

Since it’s establishment in 1973, JamFactory has embraced 

entrepreneurial ways to support and promote contemporary 

craft and design. JamFactory’s furniture collection is a bold 

new initiative that will increase awareness of Australian 

design, create training and market opportunities for 

Australian designers, contribute to growth in local skillsbased 

manufacturing and help fund further development 

of JamFactory’s training and exhibitions program. 

This new range of furniture and lighting has been developed 

under the creative direction of leading Australian designer 

and current Creative Director of JamFactory’s Furniture 

Studio, Jon Goulder. The establishment of the collection 

has been central to Goulder’s fresh vision for the studio 

since his appointment in early 2014. 

Each studio area at JamFactory is required to operate as 

a viable business to provide income for the Associates 

and the program, and to create broad and relevant training 

experiences with the pressures of real clients, real deadlines 

and real budgets. Goulder believes that delivery of this 

furniture collection into the national marketplace will 

provide greater creative control and continuity within the 

studio, complementing the bespoke commission projects 

that the studio has become renowned for. 

Launched with pieces designed by some of Australia’s most 

recognised designers alongside items by talented young 

designers who have recently emerged from JamFactory’s 

training program, the furniture collection will grow and 

evolve each year. Goulder believes the collection will 

“create opportunities for our training Associates through 

hands-on involvement in design development, prototyping 

and liaison with industry, and through the chance to pitch 

new designs for consideration”. The pieces in the initial 

collection are deliberately varied but are all informed by the 

processes of making, the natural beauty of materials and the 

craftsperson’s attention to detail. 

Enlisting celebrated designers such as Adam Goodrum, 

Henry Wilson and South Australian duo Danile Emma 

(who, like Goulder, are all previous winners of the Bombay 

Sapphire Design Discovery Award), along with the head 

of JamFactory’s Glass Studio, Karen Cunningham, for the 

introductory collection illustrates the seriousness and 

ambition of this new initiative. 

The emerging designers featured are Rhys Cooper, who 

studied furniture at the University of Tasmania before 

coming to JamFactory, and Daniel Tucker, who came 

out of the industrial design program at the University of 

Technology, Sydney. Both designers have bloomed under 

Goulder’s mentorship. 

50 / ISSUE 04

The JamFactory furniture collection is aimed at 

the commercial market but has a strong residential 

application and is being produced at the highest 

quality through a network of local manufacturers and 

highly skilled artisans. A key long-term ambition for the 

collection is to contribute to retaining skills and growing 

jobs in the value-added manufacturing sector of 

South Australia. 

A significant part of the design development 

process, which took place over a 12-month period, 

was identifying specific capabilities of the relevant 

manufacturing partners and designing to ensure that 

each piece in the collection could be produced at the 

quality and in the quantities and time frames required 

by architects and interior designers working on 

commercial projects. 

The JamFactory furniture collection is now available 

in store and online. All purchases from the collection 

will directly support JamFactory’s training and 

exhibition programs. 

ISSUE 04 / 51

CUSP DINING CHAIR 

RHYS COOPER 

The CUSP Chair, available in both 

a dining and an occasional version, 

was developed during Cooper’s time 

as a JamFactory Associate. The 

chairs use traditional timber joinery 

techniques contrasted with highquality 

wool or leather upholstery. 

AG TABLES 

ADAM GOODRUM 

The AG Tables explore the relationship 

between shapes in the wire frame that 

move from a square to circle in a single 

bend. The three sizes, each available in 

timber or marble top, nestle together to 

create a dynamic display surface. 

HW BOX MODULE 

HENRY WILSON 

This beautiful, simple box module, with spline 

joint dovetail details, can be specified in a 

multitude of configurations. It is available in 

three standard options, tallboy, credenza 

and file, which all sit on solid brass rails. 

52 / ISSUE 04

BLOCK DINING CHAIR 

BLOCK DINING TABLE 

DANIEL EMMA 

The Block Chair is a contemporary 

revision of the archetypal school 

chair with simple clean lines 

combined with mirror-polished 

solid brass lugs. The Block Table 

further extends the language and is 

available as a six or eight-seater in 

either timber or marble top. 

LOOP SHELF 

DANIEL TUCKER 

The LOOP Shelf is a versatile 

shelving unit composed of 

two simple interconnected 

components – timber loops and 

bent steel shelves. It is available 

in two standard versions, high 

and low. 

STACK2 STOOL 

JON GOULDER 

Goulder designed the original Z in 

bent plywood almost two decades 

ago. This 2016 revision in beautiful 

solid timber retains the original 

feature of stacking in a bunch or as 

a display tower. 

KC PENDANT LIGHT 

KAREN CUNNINGHAM 

These free-formed, hand-blown 

glass pendant lights feature an 

innovative cord loop detail and 

are manufactured by a small team 

of skilled glass blowers in the 

JamFactory Glass Studio. The light 

is available in two sizes and six 

standard colours. 

For all trade and residential enquiries contact JamFactory on retail@jamfactory.com.au or (08) 8231 0434 

ISSUE 04 / 53

UNEXPECTED JOY 

COLLECTING CONTEMPORARY 

JEWELLERY

CONTEMPORARY JEWELLERY IS 

HOT. IN RECENT DECADES IT HAS 

BECOME AN IMPORTANT FOCUS OF 

COLLECTING, AND A WEALTH OF 

MUSEUM CATALOGUES, BOOKS AND 

BLOGS TESTIFIES TO THE BEAUTY, 

VITALITY AND DISTINCTION OF 

CONTEMPORARY JEWELLERY. 

This is especially trueof the United Kingdom, the USA, 

Germany, the Netherlands and Italy, but also in Australia 

and New Zealand, with energetic jewellery communities and 

leading figures recognised across the world. 

Collecting contemporary jewellery has been a long time 

coming. Humans have always needed jewellery, and the 

most ancient form of art thrives in the 21st century. Because 

jewellery is wearable, it is portable, passing from body to 

body, from hand to hand, travelling the world. And perhaps 

because contemporary jewellery embodies both portability 

and personal identity, it has thrived over the last five decades 

of accelerated social change, precisely when some other 

forms of crafting have been faltering. 

In Adelaide, the four jewellery collections featured in 

Revealed 3, the recent Samstag Museum of Art exhibition, 

hinted at the complex motivations that inspire engagement 

with contemporary jewellery. But collecting is, to a 

degree, opaque, even to collectors themselves: there is a 

serendipitous aspect to collecting, a story that unfolds with 

each acquisition. Each collection is an adventure, a delight. 

Truus and Joost Daalder have been collecting jewellery 

for decades – first antique, then tribal, now contemporary. 

Originally from the Netherlands, the Daalders’ long residence 

in the Southern Hemisphere – the last four decades in 

Adelaide – has inflected their collecting. Their project is 

classically encyclopedic: knowledgeable and discriminating, 

they pursue outstanding works of contemporary jewellery 

with boundless ardour. ‘We buy chiefly as art, and see 

jewellery as an important art form,’ Truus notes. ‘We are 

guided by the aesthetic appeal, not the preciousness of the 

materials used.’ Interested in key developments, the Daalders 

also recognize exceptions that prove the rule — Matthew 

McIntyre-Wilson’s Whetu brooch, 2012 where silver mimics 

Maori weaving. 

This passion for contemporary jewellery is reinforced by 

the knowledge that, as collectors, they are encouraging 

makers: as Truus says, ‘One reason for buying contemporary 

jewellery is the support one can give to contemporary 

jewellers, who often needit, because it can be a difficult way 

to earn money.’ Clearly, contact with contemporary jewellers 

has enriched the Daalders’ sense of purpose in collecting. 

Artists’ own collections are equally inspired by respect, but 

also insider knowledge. Catherine Truman, Sue Lorraine and 

Jess Dare, three current partners in Gray Street Workshop, 

Adelaide’s long-established contemporary jewellers’ hub, 

collect pieces that embody mutual admiration for other 

jewellers’ works. 

Catherine and Sue have been amassing their trove for around 

three decades —collectively it marks their trajectories as 

jewellers. Fine works have comefrom Julie Blyfield and 

Leslie Matthews, previous Gray Street Workshop partners, 

as well as from many of the 100 makers who have passed 

through the Workshop over30 years. One substantial 

group stems from the early 1990s, when a fruitful series of 

exchanges between Gray Street and New Zealand jewellers 

began at Dunedin, on the South Island; this connection was 

formative for the Workshop, building enduring relationships 

with New Zealand practitioners. Pieces by Kobi Bosshard and 

Lynn Kelly come from the early 1990s, with “memories of 

those original exchanges symbolised through the works”. 

For the most part, Catherine and Sue purchase pieces, 

in tribute to other makers: “We buy especially from the 

emerging jewellers because it is a validation in the most 

grass roots kind of way. It binds us together forever – there’s 

no better form of direct support.” What is most important, 

when Catherine or Sue asks for a work, is the sense of the 

maker embodied in the work, some trace of the person, even 

their distinctive way of being. Handling their pieces, one 

might work back from the tender lyricism of Marian Hosking’s 

brooch and the generous decisiveness of Carlier Makigawa’s, 

or the calculated whimsy of Zoe Brand’s pendant: each 

piece conjures time, place, conversations, affections. 

Collecting is often serendipitous, but what if some pieces 

of jewellery acquired their owners? American scholar Bill 

Brown has suggested that collecting seems to happen 

through “...a kind of magic, by an inexplicable vitality that 

objects and images assert when they discover us discovering 

them. Indeed, when you say that a collection really demands 

this or that addition, you voice not the desire for objects, 

but the desire of objects.”1 Why not? Happenstance is sadly 

underrated, and delight in collecting contemporary jewellery 

is heightened by exploring such an extraordinarily diverse 

field. There is a whole world waiting to be explored, and it is 

just outside the door. 

1. Bill Brown, ‘The Collecting Mania’, University of Chicago Magazine, Vol. 94, no. 

1, October 2001, accessed at http: //magazine.uchicago.edu/0110/features/mania. 

html 

Words by Julie Ewington 

Julie Ewington is an independent writer, curator 

and broadcaster. 

Revealed 3: Someone’s and Everyone’s was exhibited at 

the Anne & Gordon Samstag Museum of Art in June 2016 

and presented in partnership with JamFactory. 

Left: Frank Bauer, pendant (detail), 1981. gold 

collection of Truus and Joost Daalder, Adelaide. 

Photographer: Sam Noonan 

ISSUE 04 / 55

Q&A 

ANGELA WALFORD

JAMFACTORY’S ADELAIDE AND 

SEPPELTSFIELD FACILITIES PROVIDE 

INDEPENDENT STUDIO SPACES AND 

HIGHLY SOUGHT-AFTER ARTIST- 

RESIDENCY OPPORTUNITIES. A 

COMPETITIVE APPLICATION PROCESS 

IS UNDERTAKEN TO FIND THE PERFECT 

MIX OF ARTISANS TO OCCUPY EACH 

BUILDING. LARA MERRINGTON SPEAKS 

WITH OUR SEPPELTSFIELD CERAMICS 

TENANT ANGELA WALFORD. 

From the United Kingdom to Japan, Angela Walford’s work 

is inspired by a range of techniques. Her varied background, 

which includes film, graphic design and printmaking, informs 

her practice as much as her love for experimentation through 

process. On a visit to Walford’s studio-cum-retail space at 

Seppeltsfield, discoveries range from large-form vessels to 

small tapas plates, and an artist who is always happy for a 

chat while working away behind the wheel. 

LM You are well known for your work with Shino (Shino 

uwagusuri), a type of pottery glaze, and Raku (raku-yaki), 

a technique used in Japanese tea ceremony wares. How did 

you come to work with these methods? 

AW I became enamoured by this glaze during my time at 

college and I still love it. It’s a beautiful surface that sometimes 

“captures” the fire of the kiln, leaving carbon spots and flame 

kisses. It can be illusive but always captivating. I had an 

introduction to clay back in the beginning of my studies and 

some 25 years later I am still captivated. It is really one of my 

favourite things! My college days began with fine art and then 

I crossed over into the design stream, so I also create more 

“designed” wares with colourful glazes and printed images. 

LM So you’re both a trained designer and intuitive artist. How 

would you describe your process from start to finish? 

AW I use both methods. Sometimes a fully-fledged idea for 

wares is complete in my mind and sometimes exhibition 

work can be a process of ideas I have been investigating for 

years, especially the more illustrative tile works. I’m always 

structuring the processes in my head in order to build the 

surface layers and bring the images to life. 

AW This one is a constant for me. Printing was my major and 

photography my minor at college and it just makes sense as 

part of my practice to make multiples of image transfers this 

way. I’m not a painter, but I do see things through a lens, so 

developing a thought with progressive changes just makes 

sense to me. 

LM Though you say you’re no painter, your “finger wipe” 

method is more free-form and intuitive. Do you feel the 

landscape at Seppeltsfield has informed your work in 

this sense? 

AW I think the drive through the hills and simply seeing the 

landscape is a constant inspiration. I can always use it as a 

source of colour and texture for whatever I’m working on. 

Even the glazed tagine surfaces are evidence of an impact 

the landscape might have had on my work. 

LM What drew you to moving your practice to the 

Seppeltsfield studios? How do you think the space 

complements your practice and what do you draw from it? 

AW I had an invite from Damon Moon (Creative Director 

of JamFactory’s Ceramics Studio), and on working in the 

Seppeltsfield studios, I really feel like I’ve launched into 

something totally new. Developing a public studio practice 

has its juggling moments – I enjoy the chats, learning where 

people come from, where they are going; the “arts crowd” is 

always great! We chat about their practice, too, which is 

always intriguing. 

LM What are you working towards right now? 

AW As well as my own practice, I’ve been involved with Gallery 

1855 and on the advisory group for four years, so that’s always 

running in the background of my own practice. At the moment 

I’m working on a couple of shows that I participate in annually 

for the South Australian Living Artists (SALA) Festival. I’m 

looking at developing a range of cooking wares, things that 

are great for baking but designed with simple lines; high-fired 

stoneware that would look in place on any dining table in a 

variety of dishes whose purpose it is to share from. It’s kind 

of what my mum’s dinner table looks like at a family feast. 

She, of course, owns some of my favourite pieces! 

Words by Lara Merrington 

Lara is Assistant Curator at JamFactory. 

LM Your staple range, Li’l Birdie, features mid-fired pieces 

with bird, moon and sea details, and is a perfect meeting of 

your two practices of graphic design and ceramics. Do you 

see yourself incorporating more of these layering techniques 

in the future? 

Left: Angela Walford in her Seppeltsfield studio 

Photographer: Derek McClure 

ISSUE 04 / 57

JAMFACTORY 

PRODUCTS 

JamFactory studio production focusses on the design 

of useful, well made products. These objects highlight 

the craft methods behind their production and the 

specific characteristics of the materials used. 

JamFactory products are designed in-house by creative 

staff or through collaboration with independent designers. 

Each piece is manufactured or hand finished within one 

or more of JamFactory’s four Adelaide based studios 

in ceramics, glass, furniture, and metal design. 

This range of products is designed by Kristel Britcher, 

Daniel Emma, Liam Fleming, Jon Goulder, Christian Hall, 

Deb Jones, Tom Mirams, Damon Moon, Brian Parkes, 

Alice Potter and Daniel Tucker. 

All products are available through JamFactory’s online shop. 

jamfactory.com.au 

Photographer: Sven Kovac

CHOP 

Board 

SERVE 

Board 

SHARE 

Board 

JAMJAR 

Storage Jar 

KINK 

Oil Bottle 

KINK 

Vinegar 

Bottle 

ECLIPSE 

Pinch 

Bowls 

ECLIPSE 

Nesting 

Bowls 

CURVE 

Salad Servers 

GRIND 

Pepper Mill 

GRIND 

Salt Mill 

DROP 

Small Vase 

DROP 

Large Vase 

STORE 

Desk Tidy 

CUBE 

Paperweight 

FOLD 

Card 

Holder 

FOLD 

Letter 

Holder 

FOLD 

Bookends 

FOLD 

Clock 

TRIO 

Nesting 

Trays 

TURN 

Small Bowl 

TURN 

Large Bowl 

THROWN 

Short 

Vase 

THROWN 

Medium 

Vase 

THROWN 

Tall Vase 

THROWN 

Planter 

THROWN 

Espresso 

THROWN 

Mug 

THROWN 

Cup & Saucer 

THROWN 

Cup 

THROWN 

Small Dish 

THROWN 

Side Plate 

THROWN 

Dinner Plate 

THROWN 

Platter 

THROWN 

Pasta Bowl 

THROWN 

Dessert Bowl 

THROWN 

Small Salad 

Bowl 

THROWN 

Salad Bowl 

ISSUE 04 / 59

Enjoy more… 

Join as a member from just $45 a year 

• A year of exclusive offers, previews, events 

and behind the scenes access 

• Special talks and insider knowledge about 

buying and collecting 

• Opportunities to meet artists, designers and 

like-minded contemporaries 

• Delivery of Marmalade magazine and event 

programs 

• Partner discounts and offers 

INDIVIDUAL MEMBERSHIP 

Cost: $45 Student/Senior: $25 

10% discount on purchases in JamFactory shops and online, 

including workshops and gift memberships. 

CORPORATE MEMBERSHIP 

Cost: $120 

20% discount on purchases in JamFactory shops, team building 

sessions and venue hire. 

MEMBERS’ EVENTS 

Enjoy a calendar of exclusive, tailored events with a focus on enjoying 

contemporary art and design with curious like-minded people who 

want to deepen their involvement with designers, makers and 

influencers associated with JamFactory. 

GIFT MEMBERSHIP 

Share the love of design with a gift membership, and support something good… 

SUPPORTING JAMFACTORY 

Every membership supports the promotion of good design and fine craftsmanship, 

and the professional development of creative entrepreneurs in Australia. 

Left: Furniture Collection launch 2016. Photographer: Andre Castellucci 

ISSUE 04 / 61

MAJOR 

PARTNERS 

SUPPORTING 

PARTNERS 

JamFactory is a unique, iconic 

and important South Australian 

organisation, and ANZ is proud 

to be a sponsor again in 2016. 

With a priceless legacy dating back 

to 1851, Seppeltsfield is one of 

Australia’s finest wine estates and 

JamFactory’s exclusive wine 

partner. Their partnership with 

JamFactory brings together two 

significant South Australian icons – 

both with a commitment to 

premium quality and bespoke 

production, providing a unique hub 

for craft and design in the Barossa. 

The University of South Australia 

is a progressive international 

university, and through the School 

of Art, Architecture and Design has 

a long history of leading the way in 

arts education and contributing to 

the vitality of the creative economy. 

The University of South Australia is 

pleased to be working closely with 

JamFactory to further enhance 

opportunity and viability for 

creative entrepreneurs. 

Established in 2003, Canvas Group 

is a multi-award-winning creative 

agency based in Sydney. With over 

9,000 projects for clients around 

Australia, Europe, Asia and the 

Americas, they are proud partners 

in the JamFactory brand, website 

design and Marmalade. 

A leader in the design industry, 

Stylecraft has been providing 

furniture of original contemporary 

design for over 60 years. Now 

together with JamFactory, they are 

proudly presenting the Australian 

Furniture Design Award, Australia’s 

richest and most prestigious award 

for furniture design that encourages 

innovation in furniture design and 

will foster new opportunities for 

furniture manufacturing in Australia. 

62 / ISSUE 04

GOVERNMENT 

PARTNERS 

CORPORATE 

COMMISSION 

CLIENTS 2015/2016 

Adelaide Airport 

Adelaide Cabaret Festival 

Adelaide City Council 

Adelaide Oval Hill of Grace Restaurant 

Almond Glassworks 

ANZ 

Art Gallery of New South Wales 

Art Gallery of South Australia 

Articolo 

Arts South Australia 

Athletics Australia 

Australia Council for the Arts 

Australian Fashion Labels 

Barossa Trust Mark 

Brand SA 

Cara 

CRC Care 

Department of Education 

Department of State Development 

Divinity College 

Fino 

Food South Australia 

HYLC Joint Venture 

Jacobs Creek 

JK7 Skincare 

KWY Aboriginal Corporation 

Le Cordon Bleu 

Meals on Wheels 

Media Resource Centre 

National Pharmacies 

Ngeringa 

Pernod Ricard 

Robinson Institute 

Ross Gardam Design 

Royal Adelaide Show 

SA Health 

SA Media 

Santos Tour Down Under 

Sentek Technologies 

Seppeltsfield Wines 

Snøhetta 

South Australian Musuem 

South Australian Tourism Commission 

St George Church 

The Australian Glass and Glazing 

Association 

The National Association of 

Women in Construction 

Tulum Turkish Restaurant 

ISSUE 04 / 63

JamFactory is a not for profit organisation promoting good design and fine 

craftsmanship. All donations to JamFactory directly support our education, 

training and exhibition activities. JamFactory would like to acknowledge and 

sincerely thank the following donors for their support: 

Kent Aughey and Louisa Scott 

Susanna Bilardo 

Ganesh Balakrishnan 

Sandy Benjamin OAM 

Catherine Buddle 

Noelene Buddle & David Shannon 

John Caporaso 

Jim and Helen Carreker 

Annette Coleman 

John Chambers & Dawn Taylor 

Michael Darling and 

Manuela Darling-Gansser 

John Diekman 

Eugene Fleming 

Shane and Kate Flowers 

Dr Hugh Greville & Trish Roche Greville 

Steve Grieve and Dr Christine Putland 

Denise George 

Colin & Marie Goodall 

Stephanie Grose 

Sanghamitra Guha 

Deb & Craig Hosking 

Diana & Philippe Jaquillard 

John Kirkwood and Wendy Alstergren 

Diana Laidlaw AM 

Kay Lawrence AM 

Margaret Lehmann 

Nicholas Linke 

Jane Lomax-Smith AM 

Anne Maroney 

Penny McAuley 

Paul and Fatima McHugh 

David and Pam McKee 

David & Sue Minns 

Pam O’Donnell 

Libby Raupach OAM and Mark Lloyd 

Richard Ryan 

Roger & Helen Salkeld 

Patricia Stretton 

Caroline Treloar 

Peter Vaughan and Anne Barker 

Robina Weir 

Alan Young AM and Sue Young 

Jane Yuile 

Australian Decorative and Fine Arts 

Society 

Ballandry Fund 

JPE Design Studio 

The Thomas Foundation 

To donate visit jamfactory.com.au/pages/donate-membership 

JamFactory is approached for support by countless charities, not for profits and 

community groups annually. We strive to support those who support us, and celebrate 

generous and valuable individuals in our community. Below are some of the groups 

we supported in 2016 

10x10 Philanthrop 

Adelaide Festival Centre 

Adelaide Symphony Orchestra 

Adelaide Victory Football Club 

Australian Ballet 

Australian Medical Placements 

Barossa District Football & Netball Club 

Barossa Visitor Information Centre 

Barossa Wine Show 

Bellevue Philanthropy 

Catherine House 

Connecting Up Inc 

Conservation Council SA 

Feast Festival 

Flinders Medical Research Foundation 

Foodbank SA 

Hang it up for Poverty 

Heart Foundation 

Helpmann Acadamy 

HYPA Two Feet Campaign 

Lions Club 

Loreto College 

Make-A-Wish Foundation 

Mary Potter Found/Channel 9 Telethon 

Mother’s Day Classic 

National Breast Cancer Foundation 

Pinery Fire Recovery 

Quarter Club / South Australian Games 

Appeal 

Grow SA / Red Faces 2015 

Ronald McDonald House 

WaterAid 

SA Games Appeal 

SA Museum 

SA Olympic Council 

Sammy D Foundation 

Sight For All Foundation 

St Ignatius College 

Starlight Children’s Foundation 

State Theatre Company 

Cerebral Palsy Alliance 

Tanunda Hockey Club 

Tanunda Primary School & 

Disability Unit 

The Adelaide Youth Orchestra 

The Australian Refugee Association 

The Hospital Research Foundation 

The University of Adelaide 

The University of South Australia 

Vitalstatistix 

64 / ISSUE 04

Green Tea, 2015, porcelain, agate 

ware, wheel thrown, oxidation, 

teapot: 144 x 185 x 186 mm, 

cups: 105 x 46 mm. 

Daniel Jo, 

Bachelor of Visual Arts graduate. 

Leading the way in 

arts education since 1856 

The School of Art, Architecture and Design at the University of South Australia has led the way 

in arts education for more than 150 years. We are proud of our contribution to the vitality of the 

arts locally, nationally and internationally. 

Our award-winning students, graduates and academics excel in their chosen fields and aim to 

inspire the next generation. 

unisa.edu.au/aad 

CRICOS PROVIDER No 00121B

JamFactory thanks 

our major sponsors. 

Proudly investing in 

Tomorrow. Talent. 

Ceramic Studio Associate Connie Augoustinos. Photographer: Sven Kovac

Marmalade Issue 4, 2016

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