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Talismans for the soul

20 December 2022

Every piece of jewellery tells a story. Jewellery embodies the tale its maker wants to share and creates new dialogues with wearer and viewer alike.

Objects kept and collected, semi precious stones, driftwood, song lyrics that pop into my head and remind me of people and places, pebbles from beaches -totems of place and belonging grounding connecting us back to the ocean and memories of where we come from. Memory and story are ascribed to objects.

Some pieces are inscribed with secret/hidden text ( shared with the wearer)… messages of hope, strength, discovery and joy for passage through liminal spaces of transition and uncertainty. Created with intention at every stage of the process and rituals to imbue each object with positive energy.

I invite you to select pieces that resonate – connecting through colour form, memory and story and/or unconscious needs and to wear them to promote/reflect on self-discovery, self-expression and self-love. Designed to be worn to inspire you on your journey of a unique life filled with great stories, love and beautiful memories.

The how...

I use recycled sterling silver, copper, brass and aluminium. Creating each piece through manual processes. Some objects are hand cast from recycled scaps of silver, cold connected with hand made rivets or soldered. Bezels, wire cages, hollow form “message” boxes, signature chains and connections are all hand created. Each piece is truely unique to itself and the energy of story that it contains.

Talismans for the soul adornments

Click on any image for more details.
Purchase available from studio only for existing clients (prior to public exhibition/launch in 2023).
Please get in touch via contact page details. Private appointment studio visits only.

My colours

21 October 2022

Coloured rhymes with othered,

The “other” no one understands

Not black or white,

In betweenish, but not even.

The “left overs” that the man did not care to define too carefully by design.

Coloured the word,

Enslaved is the history.

Forced couplings and sexual assaults,

My grandmother’s, mother’s, mother.

Herstory, my story,

Intertwined through trauma intergenerational

Now inspirational…

Because your white is somehow,

No longer something more normal than…

Your white is no longer the default,

By which you get to judge me now,

In this other place,

Twice removed from belonging.

Othered again as immigrant,

“Where were you born and bred?”

Left considering my confusion and delusion,

The toxicity and irony of if or how or why,

I identify with the word “coloured”.

But I can walk the ambiguity of the now,

So much better than you!

Because the unknown…This in between-ness? This fluidity?

…it runs through my blood… my bones…

It is part of my rich tapestry…my story.

I am culturally abundant.

I am colourful.

So I reclaim it!

And whether or not I choose to rename it,

The word is mine.

It is a verb.

I will walk it,

I will cook it and eat it,

Creole delights in constant transition and migration,

I will unlearn it and redesign it.

I will write it and sing it.

I will colour in the erasures,

That you applied to my rich, cultural heritage

When you gave me that word,

Race classification: coloured,

The birth certificate,

Documentation of coloniality…

Not my identity.

Who I am and who I am still becoming,

Is more colourful than the kind of coloured you feared and imagined unworthy.

I was given a name before you called me coloured…

My ancestor was given a name before you enslaved her…

These are my colours, the palette I use to reclaim my story!

The girl who transitioned from an elephant to a mouse and back again

9 March 2022

“

Fragments, kept and collected… a memory unravels. …At 10 yrs old she was cast as a baby elephant in a ballet concert and learnt the difference between petite, and short and fat. She remembers longing to be the beautiful, delicate little mouse- If only that 10 year old knew that one day she would no longer hope or wish to be anyone other than herself.

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Process: Refabricating cloth from scraps… past made present. All the discarded, forgotten things of memory and self- remixed, reimagined, reconstructed, woven together into a totem of strength and love. Kept and collected, vintage thread and textile remnants, and scraps of tangled threads are reconstructed into “fabric” – patch worked together. The two process of creating fabric – using formal, practiced crochet stitches and the organic process of tangling, weaving and patching threads and scraps together, symbolise the nature of both identity and memory – their malleability and construction. This piece symbolises the bits of our identity that we think we have carefully constructed. The things we present on the outside – the costumes and masks we wear; and – the bits we draw together in past made present – through memories and stories. The things we recall and share and all the tangled threads we keep hidden on the inside to meet expectations and/or to protect ourselves.

Re-emerging

21 December 2021

The door is open…

The gate too…

Still drifting here in the space between…

One foot inside the threshold, the other out…

Why am I not moving?

Everything, absolutely everything… needs to be done yesterday.

While everyone tries to clamber their “normal” back

Into lives and a world that has already shifted

From where we left off, before disrupted.
Is “normal” somewhere I need to be?
Was I there before?
A friend suggests ” I’m that age now”… like this is a secret code about
Not knowing anything about anything anymore …

As if age makes you incapable of unlearning”…

Is that where normal is and where I should return to?

Now?… right now, I want to be still and quiet

I need to be… still and quiet

But ‘normal” asks me to return … to be productive and recover

Produce and return,

Re-emerge…

From what ? … did something stop?

I feel like I’ve been on forever…

Always on but maybe not on the right channel

… produce and return?

My making isn’t for production,

It’s for being…and becoming

It’s for drifting between until something emerges…something comes

To unlearn, listen and discover…

To speak … sometimes in half completed sentences

To manifest then dissolve… repeat…

To hear …words in my ears that I can’t form into sounds in my mouth
Ssssssssssssss… ssssssshhhhhhh
Sometimes I speak and it’s all shit I don’t believe and it goes unnoticed…
Maybe that is when I return to normal?…
Ssshhhhhh…

Close the door.
Listen.

She’s singing … “give me the beat girl to free my soul I want to get lost in your rock and roll and drift away”

Eyes closed… one foot on the threshold

Drift in between…

Be…

Become…

Re-emerge…
Repeat.

Embracing the space between

14 September 2021

Potential,becoming, being- gathering tales that bring learning and change

Last week I attended the Regional Arts Australia Artlands conference. ( thank you for the participation grant Regional Arts Australia and Regional Arts Victoria) The conference theme this year was the space between.

There were many sensational discussions and presentations about this idea and theme= particularly around many and diverse cultural ways of knowing/seeing and being and the importance and value of these as we connect and utilise creativity to innovate and co-create, to give voice to stories and issues and to find better ways forward out of the wicked problems we currently face- locally and globally.

In one of the presentations at Artlands 2021, artist Carin Wilson – talked about the Maori concept of Wā. (pronounced waa). In Te Reo Māori, Wā means time, season, period of time, interval, term, duration. Carin spoke of Wā as a place and space between and emphasised that…” we are built to live in this space between”- particularly as creatives. Carin spoke about paying attention to ‘potential’ …’becoming’… and ‘being’…on our journey – to be silent… listen… and feel… so that we can gather tales that will bring learning and change.

This concept of the space between has been resonating with me the last 18 months or so in this seemingly relentless, space that we find ourselves in during the COVID-19 pandemic. Personally I think of creative/ making time as being in that space between. I think that for me practicing art is about journeying into that space to explore boundaries between self and the world – to connect/reconnect memory, emotions, identity and make sense of everyday happenings, to discover/uncover different stories, actions and possibilities for the future. For me this is a liminal space, a space that is about crossing over. A liminal space can be defined as a threshold, a space where we have left something behind, but are not yet fully in something else. It’s a transition space …a transformative space.

I love being in that space. For many creatives being in a place of liminality, of transition, is a state of creative being. It is the place where there is potential to act. For me it’s a place of being aware, active but still. Its a space of trusting that, in the unknowns, and uncertainty, I will find direction. Carin Wilson described this as standing still in our journey and letting the destination come to us. As a designer and creative I’ve always felt comfortable, grounded and my authentic self in that liminal space. Going into this space to create has also been important to self care, mental health wellbeing and resilience.

We are currently, collectively living through the space between, and a period of transition. The disruption of COVID 19 pandemic has brought about events outside of our control, and we’ve had to negotiate through more uncertainty and unknowns and rapid change in our daily lives. The crossing over of that liminal space from a space I go to in my creative practice, into daily life has felt overwhelming. Liminal spaces can bring us face to face with inner fears about who we are, how we show up in the world, our strengths, vulnerabilities, our values. It may also prompt us to question our core values, beliefs and our identities. It may also impact on our resilience and mental wellbeing. Like many others I’ve felt overwhelmed by that over the last 18 months.

It may feel as if the only option is to hold onto “business as usual” as an anchor and to hope that things return to “normal” as soon as possible. Understandable right? Yes.. but as creatives we know there’s another possibility. The possibility of the potential power of the space between, of that liminal space. That it holds potential power to interrupt our habitual lives and draw us out of “business as usual“, of what we know into the unknown and potential of what’s next – transformation.

A friend recently shared this poingnant article with me.. Between depression and flourishing , theres languishing. The article describes the state that many find themselves in as a holding pattern and highlights that…

“On a personal level, the pandemic has made worse the practical and psychological struggles of many people; they’ve lost their job,opportunities or business, they are disconnected socially, and are barely getting by. The future is unknown, and that’s where the anxiety and angst comes from. Every day and week we are confronted with something new.”
It goes on to explain that…
“People are questioning the future for themselves and others. They are blocked from achieving things that are meaningful to them, whether that’s entertainment or connecting with other people or travelling, starting a new business, getting married or having children. All of those things seem pretty risky. The languishing mindset can lead people to be paralysed in many spheres of life.
This is because clear, meaningful goals drive us forward, they give us hope and energy and a positive mood, too. They provide a sense that we are making progress. If those goals and hopes are dashed, it can produce a whole host of negative emotions.”

This makes sense. But what if we reconceived the holding pattern as a transitional space instead of a blocking space? What if instead of instantly questioning or judging ourselves, or perceiving the unknown and new as a threat we take an opportunity to strengthen the way that we hold space for ourselves so that we can find the way through the space between?

That same article suggests some ways to address languishing in the space between. One suggestion is to “give yourself some credit for what you are achieving and to acknowledge the positive impact you are already having.”

What if instead of just “giving our self credit” we focus on holding space for ourselves?… on giving ourselves permission to suspend all the usual judgements we hold about success and value and worth, must dos/should dos – to instead check in, reflect, be self compassionate and self aware – or as Carin Wilson shared… to listen and feel and gather what we need to bring learning and change.

Personally, I figure that is a good place to start. I figure that by holding space for self … by paying attention to potential, becoming and being … not just in my creative practice but in all that I do… I might be able to embrace the space between – embrace opportunities to surrender, to give over to something larger than self and trust that I will be held and supported with whatever is needed to navigate through uncertainty during this time. It’s a big learning when we are kind of programmed to be anxious about the unknown… or when “making progress” is noted by certain kinds of achievement or measures of success..

My sense from listening to stories and voices from other creatives at the Artlands conference and elsewhere, is that while artists and creatives in Australia have faced challenges about our worth and value over the last decade – heightened by current circumstances… we also know how to work through the space between… we are built to live in it and can lead the way through it. Personally, there is much hope for what comes next in that thought!

Lenni Morkel-Kingsbury

design...make...grow...become