On the outskirts of Canberra, buried in the industrial areas of Queanbeyan and the forgotten back streets of Oaks Estate, a series of creatives is producing some of the region's most stunning artworks.
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Bree Winchester spoke to three artists preparing to open their busy and deeply personal studios as part of the 2018 Design Canberra festival.
Hiroshi Yamaguchi, Koitoya studio, Oaks Estate
Hiroshi is a woodworker obsessed with making furniture and homewares that retain the natural shape, colour and patterns inherent in wood.
What's one thing people don't know about your art form?
One of the things I think is an important role for me is to show the customer the background story of where my timber comes from. I use Canberra street trees, and I often take students or customers to visit Gordon Smith who mills street trees.
I have a chestnut wood connection with Sassafras Nuts near Nowra, and we are organising a Green Woodwork tour to the farm on November 3-4, where people can make a Japanese traditional Wagata tray using their farm trees and hand tools, as well as eating great food.
What inspires you about working in Oaks Estate?
My neighbours include an antique conservation workshop and shop-fitting factory.
Oaks Estate has a unique mix of industrial and residential uses. My workshop faces onto the beautiful Queanbeyan River and the old railroad bridge. It's a great space and location. I walk on the path along the Queanbeyan River every day. The changing of the seasons, different shapes of gum nuts, visiting blue tongue lizards and echidnas, all give me time to reset my mind and get ready for my next creative job.
Oaks Estate is well connected to nature and trees. It feels like a country town while being close enough for people from diverse backgrounds to visit my workshop or attend my woodworking classes.
What are the challenges of your studio location?
For my students and I, driving in the dark with the risk of hitting kangaroos on the way home is the worrying part of this location!
How do you stay inspired?
The houses and buildings I have seen in Japan, and the skills, crafts and traditions I have encountered continue to spark the ideas for my work.
I was born in a traditional Nagaya-style wooden house in Osaka, and I lived in a traditional post-and-beam house in Takayama in Gifu, a small city famous for its timber and wooden culture. I also lived in a traditional washi paper-making town called Mino in Gifu.
I've seen great skills and philosophy among the people I've worked with, and I've walked through many forests - starting from my undergraduate research in Hokkaido to now where I maintain a beautiful sustainable hardwood forest in Shirotori, Gifu.
Now that I'm in Canberra, I'm trying to connect myself locally and use local timbers. When I talk to customers, I want to be able tell the stories of the local timbers that come to my workshop. I sometimes take my customers and students to local timber sources.
Design elements come from my traditional Japanese woodwork background but are also about local connections to people and trees.
What will people experience if they visit your studio on November 17?
My studio is open from 10am to 4pm – people will be able to make wooden Japanese chopsticks or spoons, look around the workshop at work on display, and purchase small crafts.
I'll be selling a selection of one-off pieces including children’s stools, wooden spoons and plates, and accessories produced from the Japanese sustainable hardwood forest project.
Gretel Harrison, FINK Design, Queanbeyan
FINK has an international reputation for producing stunning tableware, hollowware, jewellery and lighting.
What role does Queanbeyan play in the success of your business?
The community around us in Queanbeyan is amazing and super supportive. There are some incredible businesses here that provide highly skilled services ensuring that our products are produced at a high quality. We couldn’t do what we do without them and they are pivotal to our success.
Being outside the major cities, our catchment for skilled employees is far smaller. Finding the right people can sometimes be challenging.
Where do your new ideas come from?
For me, it is imperative to keep Robert Foster’s design legacy alive and we are incredibly lucky to be able to draw on his wealth of ideas and designs to continue producing his products and to come up with new designs. He is my inspiration and motivator.
We're currently working on four new products; some of these are extensions on current designs or extrapolations of an on old design, and one of them is a combination of both.
This is only possible due to the endless research and development that Robert did which has allowed us to utilise his innovative production processes and techniques to come up with new products.
Our first ring, which is designed to complement the FINK Bangle, will be in stores this month. Our new Fruit Tube will be launched in early December.
What time are you 'in the zone' creatively?
I find that a lot of my ideas or the ability to come up with a solution to a problem, happens in the middle of the night. I have to wake myself up and quickly write them down before I forget them.
How is FINK unique?
Everything is made in the FINK workshop. Production is a team approach. Each piece goes through many pairs of hands on its way from raw material to finished product. In the making of all our products there is a lot of hand-finishing requiring lots of skill and training.
What's planned for the open studio on November 17?
We'll have a number of our "seconds" products available for sale and we'll be showing small groups through our workshop to show just how much hand-working and time goes into creating our products.
Our production manager Bengt Cannon is an avid blacksmith and in his own time he creates his own unique knives. He and some of the other FINK staff members will be demonstrating their passion for this labour-intensive craft.
Jeremy Lepisto
Jeremy is a glass artist, specialising in kiln-formed works.
What inspires you about living in Queanbeyan?
I call Queanbeyan 'Dreambeyan'! (I like to think that I coined the phrase, but I am sure others would have said the same sooner!)
As a resident, the city is an easy and comfortable place to live. It's easy to move around the city and it has all the day-to-day things I need.
For my studio practice, Dreambeyan is extremely accessible. Many great artists live here, there are several other key studios and businesses here that I use, it's close to Canberra and Hume (where there are other like industries, institutions and individuals) and I can walk to my studio from my house. As well, my studio has an amazing view of the Brindabellas and Canberra. It's inspiring just looking out the window every day.
How do you stay inspired?
I'm inspired by the elements and evolving histories of the built environment and the spaces we all share. To find out new things I travel and walk around cities, check out purpose-built places (like factories, powerhouses and stations) as well as go to museums and lectures. I get inspired by any opportunity to learn more about history and the connections between the development of people, places and objects.
Is there a time of day you're at your creative best?
Currently, I'm 'in the zone' any minute that I have the time to be in the studio!
During the week, I work at the ANU School of Art and Design and I'm also finishing up a PhD in sculpture. At the studio, I'm finishing up my PhD work, making a couple of pieces for exhibition and building a few custom projects for my clients. I probably shouldn't even leave the studio! If I had my choice though, 10am until 6pm is the best working time for me.
What's a misconception about your art form?
I think it might be hard for some people to understand how difficult glass can be as a medium. It demands some technical prowess and is an expensive medium (both in terms of equipment and material) and so mistakes will be made, and they can be costly. It takes years to gather enough knowledge and courage to take on difficult projects. I think for this reason, some of the most exciting developments in glass come out of areas that have a concentration of glass workers who work together to answer the hard questions.
What will people experience if they visit your studio on November 17?
With the Design Canberra open day, the studio will be open for people to look at all the equipment and my set-up. I'll also have design samples that show the types of glass and metal projects I've created for others. Visitors can also see a collection of pieces I've made as well as the work I'm getting ready to present for my degree.
Design Canberra Open Studios, Saturday November 17, various artists' studios across the ACT and Queanbeyan. For more information, head to www.designcanberrafestival.com.au
