Junkies Issue 16

9 772201 555009

ISSN 2201-5558

AUS: $12.50 NZ: $14.50

04

Rethink

Reuse

Reduce

Recycle

People & Places Artists and Designers

Shops and Retailers

Dan Tanenbaum @watchpartsmotorcycles

That Little Vintage Shop @thatlittlevintageshop

Jun Nakamura @junnakamura_

Munash Organic munash.com.au

Annette Young annetteyoungdesign.com

Blarney Books and Art blarneybooks.com.au

Melissa Laffy reddyreborntextiles.com

Food and Health

Victoria Konash vixecodesigns.com

Jacki Haddock @jackihaddock

Photographers and Illustrator

Rebecca Sullivan rebeccasullivan.com.au

Louisa West Studio Junkies Photographer/Illustrator louisaweststudio.com.au Sian Blohm sianblohm.com

Organisations Trashless Takeaway trashlesstakeaway.com.au

Bella L. Day bellaldayphotography.com

Grampians Central West Waste & Resource Recovery Group recyclingrevolution.com.au

Sherif Tamim sheriftamim.com

Natalie Isaac – 1 Million Women 1millionwomen.com.au

Pixie Rouge Photography pixierouge.com.au

Bureaux bureaux.co.za

Nassima Rothacker nassimarothacker.com

The Odd Sockery @theoddsockery Ballarat Apron Festival ballaratapronfestival.org The Sustainable Home Hub helenedwardswrites.com.au sustainablehomehub.com.au

From the Editor Hello fellow Junkies!

First things first. I would just like say thank you to all our readers and subscribers for being patient and waiting an extra month for this edition, which is a little later than usual. However, we think you’ll agree it was well worth the wait!

“Will it be easy?

Nope.

Will it be worth it?

Absolutely!

One thing I’ve learnt is that we don’t always have the right answers to the questions life throws at us, and we shouldn’t assume anything: we can only give advice from our own experience and what we know to be right for ourselves. I think if we can live as closely as possible to nature’s template and begin each day stepping as lightly as possible on our planet, then we can only be heading in the right direction. I call this “eco-mindfulness”, and it simply means stopping before we consume; pausing to think, “Is this really important to me in this moment and does it fit with my concept for a better world?” If we collectively make similar decisions, we know we are going in the right direction, creating footprints that our children can follow in.

In this edition we highlight those who inspire us, those who make us think and those we admire. We look back at our Rethink Exhibition and fashion parade from November 2018. We introduce Dan Tanenbaum, who makes intricate miniature motorcycle watch sculptures.

We hope you enjoy our chat with Natalie Isaac from the climate change organisation 1 Million Women. We show you some nifty money saving hints for your garden. And we entice you into the kitchen with our usual mouth-watering recipes.

So, in the spirit of our women in trade article, lets tool up and pass our trade secrets along; let’s create something wonderful!

Selena xx

Hello there!

Send us some Junk Mail – tell us what you love about Junkies and you will be in the draw to win a one year subscription! You can reach us at: hello@junkies.com.au or

PO Box 509 Buninyong VIC 3357 Congratulations to our winners: Letter to the Editor: Rosie New Subscriber Prize: Lynda

Letters Dear Junkies,

Hi there at Junkies HQ,

I just wanted to drop you a note to say firstly how much I love your magazine, from beginning to end. All the articles represent your ethos, which is shared by myself and so many of my friends. I particularly like the recipes which I look forward to recreating in my home each time. The middle eastern Koshari was one of my very favourites. The photos are beautiful and after reading the text I’m hooked. My family are grateful too. We are big fans!!!

My best friend lent me her copy of your magazine. As a designer myself I wanted to congratulate you on a truly beautiful creation. The clean lines and the use of space complimented by stunning photography and eloquently written text inspires me. I’m definitely not giving this back until I secure a copy of my own.

Cheers,

Dear Selena,

Jessica, New Castle

Thanks so much for another great issue of Junkies. I savoured every article and am now a huge fan of Rachel Brice. After reading about her in Issue 15, I jumped online in search of her.

Hey Junkies team, I’m a fan, just wanted to put it out there.

Secretly stealing my girlfriends copy and was pleasantly surprised. Definitely know what to get her for a present! Shhhh – don’t tell her.

Pete, Brighton East

Love, Mary XX

I was awe struck by her dancing style and it inspired me to take belly dancing lessons. I also adore her many costumes and have even started to make my own costumes from repurposed fabrics in anticpation of my first performance!

Love from, Rosie, QLD

Editorial Editor and Chief Junkie Selena Buckingham ‒ selena@junkies.com.au Editorial Team Copy Editor/Writer Michelle Coxall – theknownworldbookshop@ gmail.com Contributors Selena Buckingham, La Vergne Lehmann, Kirien Withers, Jacki Haddock, Lou Ridsdale, Anna Tunock, Rebecca Sullivan and Jo Canham Design Content Design and Layout Design Studio Ballarat designstudioballarat.com.au Photographers Louisa West Sian Blohm Illustrator Louisa West

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Advertising Advertising Coordinator Kirien Withers – kirien@junkies.com.au Website junkies.com.au Subscriptions junkies.com.au/subscribe Social Media Facebook facebook.com/junkiesmagazine Instagram instagram.com/junkies-magazine Pinterest au.pinterest.com/junkiesmag Print Blue Star web Printing Program for Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC™), Chain of Custody certification Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®), Chain of Custody certification,ISO 14001 certification, ISO 9001 certification, ISO 27001 certification Distributor Aust & N.Z. Distributor Gordon & Gotch For retail distribution and sales email advertise@junkies.com.au Disclaimer Junkies Magazine Australia Pty Ltd takes all care but accepts no responsibility for unsolicited materials.

Junkies Magazine Australia Pty Ltd holds copyright to all content unless otherwise stated. While every effort has been made to ensure accuracy of the information in this publication, the publishers accept no responsibility or liability for any errors, omissions or resultant consequences including any loss or damage arising from reliance on information in this publication.

Creative Concept & Design Reddy Inc Reborn Textiles Photography Jane Dunning Model Brianna Morgan Hair and Makeup Melissa Laffy

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62 Contents Features 18 About

~ Natalie Isaacs

~ The Art of Weaving Baskets

~ Lady Tradies 30 Art Junkies

~ Rethink 36 Design Junkies

~ Discarded in Time

~ Handcrafted Traditions 48 Fashion Junkies

~ Afterlife 54 Cover Story

~ Threads of Life 62 Home Junkies

~ Room to Grow

Regulars 04 People And Places 05 Junkies Mail 08 Vintage Finds 10 Things We Love 12 Junkies News 16 Community 68 Food Junkies 72 Craft Junkies 78 Garden Junkies 82 Sustainable Junkies 84 Little Junkies 94 Health Junkies 96 Book Junkies 98 Your Junkies

That Little Vintage Shop Evening dresses throughout the eras Words by Selena Buckingham Photography Sian Blohm

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One of our favourite things to do here in Ballarat is to pay a visit to Jenn and Christine at That Little Vintage Shop.

It’s the best I have ever been to (and I have been to a lot!).

There are vintage clothes packed to the rafters, along with hats, gloves and accessories.

It’s not just me – most people turn off their phones when they enter the shop. This is a vintage emporium where you don’t want to be disturbed. Prepare to be completely lost in another world of vintage gorgeousness.

Owner Jennifer Bottomley has been in the vintage business for years, and has many a story to tell. She has a wealth of knowledge, not only about where her vintage clothes came from, but the material, the designer and the stories about the people who entrusted their gorgeous garments with her.

The shop has been open here in Ballarat for 14 years, but Jenn’s story begins way before this. Jenn migrated to Australia from England with her late husband Phillip. She recalls that she always loved dresses, and would take great pleasure in dressing her dolls and remaking their wardrobe. From there as a young girl she studied art and design in the ‘60s, which was when all the fun was to be had at art school. Jenn progressed to window dressing for some of the major stores in Melbourne.

Jenn’s love of fabric has always driven her love of fashion. Her skills were honed when she worked in the textile industry in quality control, making sure fabric swatches were correctly coloured with each batch. These fabrics were made into kilts and other garments.

After this Jenn ventured out into her own shop in Melbourne.

Called Diamond Dog, and located in Seddon, it quickly became one of the most famous vintage shops in town.

Jenn has been a collector of vintage apparel her whole life; she lives and breathes vintage. It’s not just clothes you’ll find at That Little Vintage Shop – it is a living repository of the stories the garments embody. As Jenn says, “I’m like the RSPCA for lost vintage clothes, just waiting for the right home”. As we chatted further I asked Jenn to tell me what she thought were the biggest changes in the fashion industry over the years. Jenn lamented that she was saddened by the low quality of garments in the fashion industry, and can’t understand why people would want to wear what she emphatically calls “plastic clothes”. “It’s like wearing a plastic bag”, she tells me. “They are all made of acrylics and rayons, and that can’t be good for us”. Even the choice of material today is so limited and the quality is poor compared to the beautiful fabrics of the past. “People are just not sewing their own clothes today, partly because of the fast fashion mentality, and partly because the fabric quality means nothing lasts long enough to take all that time to make it”.

Everybody is cutting costs. Previously there were only four different seasons where fashion would change; now every 10 days or so it seems there is a new look. As Jenn observes, “This generation has not been exposed to quality, so they haven’t got much choice if they buy new. Today’s generation is being robbed of the anticipation of waiting for the sales to come so you can get a bargain. The mass trade industry has killed that by manufacturing sale lines, which are even further discounted lines to further cheapen the industry.

― vintage finds ―

I asked Jenn where she gets her clothes, and she tells me that many of the garments in her shop are from her own collection, which she acquired over many years, and others are brought in on consignment. Jenn often heads to Adelaide to buy from other vintage stores.

The owners of these shops have grown to know her and respect her love of quality apparel, and sell her their vintage clothes that they had been keeping for many years. She has many connections in Toorak and, of course, she is an avid op shopper, unable to resist a bargain when she sees it.

“I’m like the RSPCA for lost vintage clothes, just waiting for the right home”.

Sadly it is becoming more and more difficult to find quality items.

As she notes, “It’s the materials that make the garment special”.

When you’re next in Ballarat, make sure you find your way to That Little Vintage Shop. It’s big on vintage wonderful and Christine, who helps Jenn, will welcome you and make sure you are fitted out beautifully. Christine is herself a fashion icon here in Ballarat; she’s the most fabulously dressed women I know, so you’re in good hands. ― vintage finds―

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Things

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Junkies News Hi and welcome to Junkies news. It’s a little bit from us, it’s a little bit from you and a little bit of eco-news we picked up along the way.

What is wish-cycling?

Wish-cycling is the phenomenon of tossing anything and everything that could possibly, maybe, sort of, be recycled into the recycling bin.

This inconsistent separation of household recycling from rubbish contaminates otherwise reusable materials, increasing costs and the amount of recyclable waste being dumped.

BYO or not to BYO? At Junkies HQ, we often find ourselves asking: “Can you bring your own containers to the supermarket?” < 12

Coles and Woolworths have reportedly said they don’t have any immediate plans to start letting customers bring their own reusable plastic containers to fill at their delis, while IGA report they leave it up to individual stores to make the call.

Vinnies Re Sew, a Wellington based community sewing initiative, will be creating a large textile piece celebrating the lives of the women who signed the suffrage.

The finished piece will be 274m long (the length of the original petition), consist of 546 panels (the number of pages in the petition), and finished with 25,521 hand stitches (the number of votes in the petition).

“Hmmm…Why won’t supermarkets let people use their own containers?” we ask again.

Coles reports that its no-reusable container policy is based on hygiene concerns. Coles has been reported to state that it does not allow customers to bring in their own containers to use as it poses a health and safety risk. Woolworths has reported a similar view stating food and safety issues.

According to the information that can be found on the Food Standards Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ) website, there are no safety laws in Australia that say customers can’t use their own containers. It states: “There are no requirements in the Food Standards Code regarding people bringing their own containers to purchase food from supermarkets, cafes etc. It is reported to be up to the retailer to determine the measures they put in place to ensure food is safe and suitable”.

In short, smaller retailers tend to be more open to the idea of letting customers use their own containers for takeaway food rather than larger retailers but it’s worth bringing along your own containers the next time you go grocery shopping to test your store’s response.

For more information head to: choice.com.au/byocontainersvvvvvv

Going Green The Victorian Government has recently said that it will ban e-waste to landfill on July 1st this year. Over 1 million mobile phones are discarded in Australia every year. If we recycled all of them, we could recover up to 16 tonnes of copper, 350kg of silver and 34kg of gold. E-Waste is growing three times faster than any other council waste.

― junkies news ―

How to cut down on single-use plastic containers Trying to reduce plastic when getting takeaway food?

Trashless Takeaway has these tips:

•• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• ••

If a restaurant won’t let you BYO containers, eat in instead of getting takeaway.

Choose food that’s wrapped in paper rather than plastic, such as wraps rather than sandwiches.

Keep spare containers in your car or office drawer.

Be nice! Accept that it’s within a business’s right not to let you use your own containers if they wish.

Spend your money with businesses that do let you BYO container.

Read their story next!

Trashless Takeaway We started Trashless Takeaway early in 2018. We were new parents, tired, and getting takeaway food more often than usual.

Becoming skeptical about how (and if) our plastic waste was getting recycled, compounded by China’s ban on importing plastic waste and having just watched Blue Planet II and ABC’s War on Waste, we decided to start taking our own containers to get takeaway.

Junkies is happy to see that “single-use plastic bag consumption in Australia has reduced by over 80% following a ban by two supermarket giants last July”. According to the National Retail Association (NRA), up to 1.5 billion plastic bags have been spared from landfill since Woolworths placed a ban last June, and retail giant Coles following a month later.

This was met with some curious looks by takeaway shops – but usually they were happy to use them. However, some businesses were not so sure. We thought “wouldn’t it be nice to know beforehand which businesses would accept our containers?” – so we created trashlesstakeaway.com.au The Food Standards Code in Australia doesn’t actually mention BYO containers – so it is purely a business decision as to whether or not a shop will accept your own container.

We currently have almost 1,000 businesses Australia-wide listed on Trashless Takeaway where customers have had success using their own containers. Anyone can add a business through our website, and businesses are able to verify their listings to add their own additional information, including discounts for BYO containers.

Our website maps and sorts all these businesses so you can search by location or by cuisine type such as Indian, Thai etc.

We also list bulk wholefood shops, milk glass bottle exchanges, delicatessens and butchers! It is a fantastic resource for people wanting to reduce their use of single-use containers and packaging.

Winning!

Federation University announced it would ban the sale of single-use plastic water bottles on its Victorian campuses.

The ban, which will be phased in over the coming weeks, will see students and staff encouraged to refill their own reusable water bottles from taps around each campus.

― junkies news ―

Make sure you join the 1 Million Women revolution and download the app for real time news. Find it on iTunes or Google Play.

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Ballarat Begonia Festival The Ballarat Begonia festival took place recently and we snuck down there to take a peak. We’ve been looking forward to this for months! The specially decorated tram – with recycled plastic bottles and bag flowers – was on display. Fantastic job by the team at Ballarat Tramway Museum.

Of course we ran into Costa and Dirt Girl along the way and hung out with some of our other favourite peeps – La Vergne and Paul from Grampians Central West Waste & Resource Recovery Group.

So much to see and do – just as well you get three days to take it all in!

Do you really know what can be recycled? < 14

Buninyong Sustainability Festival

Here at Junkies HQ we have always thought we were pretty savvy when it came to knowledge of what things we can recycle and what we can’t, but then we found a quiz online while surfing the internet that enlightened us as to the errors of our ways.

Apparently, you shouldn’t recycle anything smaller than a stickynote because they’re too small to be picked up by sorters and therefore end up as contamination. But you can compost them instead!

Junkies recently attended the Buninyong Sustainability Festival.

It was fantastic to see an event like this so close to home. We fell in love with the tiny custom-build house – the Deluxe Cabin from Nord Trondelag, the electric bikes and cars, and the vintage food van with the wall of mugs and lots more. Despite being a fearfully hot day we were lucky enough to be under cover and ready to chat to many keen sustainability enthusiast from the newbies to the seasoned experts.

Looking forward to next year’s event.

Here are some YESes and NOs of what you can and can’t recycle:

••

•• •• •• •• •• ••

Chip packets. According to recyclenow.com: “An easy way to find out if an item is foil or metallised plastic film is to do the scrunch test. Simply scrunch the item in your hand – if it remains ‘scrunched’ it is foil and can be recycled; if it springs back it is probably metallised plastic film and not recyclable.”

Glass bottles can definitely be recycled. (This one is a nobrainer.)

Junk mail and magazines can be recycled no matter if they’re glossy or not. Any kind of carboard or paper that has been in contact with oil/grease can’t be recycled as it contaminates the process.

And here’s one that surprised us: shopping receipts can’t be recycled either. It’s because they’re printed on thermal paper that contains the chemical Bisphenol A.

So next time you’re unsure of what you can and can’t recycle in your household, do a double-check; you’ll be surprised what can’t enter the recycling stream. ― junkies news ―

Food Waste Costs The government estimates food waste costs the Australian economy $20 billion each year. Over 5 million tonnes of food ends up as landfill, enough to fill 9000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

One in five shopping bags end up in the bin; this equals $3800 worth of groceries per household each year.

When you dump a glass bottle in landfill, it takes around 4000 to 1 million years before it disintegrates. The good news is glass materials can be recycled over and over again.

You will be surprised to learn that when you recycle aluminium material, you can conserve a good amount of energy. The energy saved can power a television for three hours!

Pet food, soup and tuna cans are the most common steel products put in the rubbish bin. Aerosol cans are one of the easiest of all the steel cans to recycle. However, on average only 35% are being recycled.

The Story of Glass When you dump a glass bottle in landfill, it takes around 4,000 to 1 million years before it disintegrates. The good news is glass materials can be recycled over and over again.

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The Power of Recycling

Road Trip

You will be surprised to learn that when you recycle aluminium material, you can conserve a good amount of energy. The energy saved can power a television for three hours!

Next month the Junkies team are heading down to the local library at Warrnambool to chat about the magazine and the publishing industry, and then of course, hitting the local op shops.

After we’ve op shopped the town dry we’ll make our way to Adelaide to attend the Bowerbird design market. Catch us if you can!

Pet food, soup and tuna cans are the most common steel products put in the rubbish bin. Aerosol cans are one of the easiest of all the steel cans to recycle. However, on average only 35% are being recycled.

If you would like Junkies to come along to your event or want to create an event for us to come to and speak at send your details to : hello@junkies.com.au

― junkies news ―

Chocolate in Crisis < 16 Words by La Vergne Lehmann Photography Supplied

We have all heard about peak oil – the point at which – and we may well have passed it already – there is less oil available than the amount that we have already used. In other words, the maximum rate of extraction of petroleum is reached and the rate of production is expected to enter terminal decline.

But what about the prospect of peak chocolate! Apparently this is a possibility in the next decade or so if large chocolate manufacturers fail to address some critical issues with cocoa farmers.

Productivity in Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire – which together account for 60% of global cocoa production – is expected to see a drop in production due to land degradation, lack of investment by smallholder farmers and the declining availability of suitable land due to climate change.

Combine these with rising demand for chocolate from Brazil, China and other emerging markets, and the $9bn cocoa industry is likely to face supply shortages unless it takes action now.

Major chocolate companies, all claim to have invested money in sustainability programmes designed to support smallholder cocoa farmers – who still account for more than 85% of global production. However, this is not likely to be enough to stop poverty-stricken farmers switching to more lucrative crops like palm oil or rubber.

Growing economic inter-dependence means that sustainability pressures in commodity producing countries are more likely than ever to trigger economic risks across the globe. This means that the onus will be on multinational companies to work much more closely with their supply chains to help manage future risks.

In the case of chocolate, climate change and unsustainable farming techniques have already decreased the amount of land for cocoa crops by 40% in the past four decades. At current production rates, the shortfall is expected to reach one million tonnes by 2020.

In key producing countries such as Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana, cocoa is grown by more than a million small-scale family farmers, most of whom have never tasted a bar of chocolate and live in chronic poverty. A lack of capital and poor governance is holding back much needed investment in productivity, logistics and rehabilitation of land.

Yes, the lack of chocolate will undoubtedly be a first world problem but you can’t sustain a booming chocolate industry worth billions while the producers are living in poverty.

Something to think about as we start buying chocolates for the Easter season – enjoy while we can.

― community ―

Produce Swaps 17 > Words by La Vergne Lehmann Photography Pu Far

Produce Swaps are local gatherings where people exchange excess homegrown produce and gardening extras. Items may include fruit, vegetables, herbs, eggs, seeds, seedlings, gardening tips, jars, pots, magazines and worm juice, just to name a few. It can, of course extend to sharing skills, stories and seasonal recipes.

Swaps are generally money free and run on an honesty system.

Swappers bring their produce and then ‘shop’ from the table of goods left by others. The exchange should be a fair reflection of what has been given; i.e., eggs for lemons and seeds for stories.

All around Australia, fruit and vegie swaps are taking off, and they offer a real solution for that overabundance of lemons going to waste at your place. These are generally noncommercial events (meaning no money changes hands), and many “fruit and vegie” swaps will allow you to swap other types of items as well, from worm wee to chutney, chook poo to strawberries.

Beyond supporting local producers where we can – to ensure that people can still make a living from agriculture and food production – the urban produce swap is a significant step towards urban sustainability, reducing our carbon footprint and promoting community involvement. And what better way to meet other keen gardeners, swap your produce, reduce waste and have a chat.

After all, one gardener’s glut is another gardener’s lunch!

Like so many simple ideas, swapping food is a craze that’s catching on. In the last three years, there’s been a surge in the number of people turning up at scheduled “food swaps” around the country.

A place for people to trade their home-grown surplus with other backyard growers, food swaps are a relatively straightforward affair. Each has a place to meet on a regular basis, a table for swapping and a handful of volunteers to keep it running. What you won’t find at most swaps, however, is a rule book dictating the worth of your items, guaranteed supply of a particular produce, or money changing hands.

With no set prices to refer to, it’s up to swappers to decide for themselves what constitutes a fair exchange. One of the funny things that people find hard to get used to is that it’s not a straight swap for anything. It’s a take what you feel, and what you feel is right situation … Often the problem is getting people to take enough!

― community ―

Natalie Isaacs 1 Million Women

Words by Natalie Isaacs Photography Supplied

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Natalie Isaacs is the founder and CEO of 1 Million Women, a global movement of women and girls who take practical action to fight climate change by changing the way they live. A former cosmetics manufacturer, Natalie realised that individual action is key to solving the climate crisis.

She decided to leave behind the overpackaged world of skin and beauty care, to create an organisation that inspires and empowers women to act. Under Natalie’s leadership, 1 Million Women has become one of Australia’s largest networks acting on climate change. It is rapidly expanding internationally and has grown to more than 800,000 women and counting.

Are you an avid op shopper?

A pioneer in the gender and climate change arena in Australia, Natalie’s climate journey from apathy to action cuts through complexity and delivers a simple message that resonates with women and girls of all ages. As the Australian Geographic Society’s 2017 Conservationist of the Year, Natalie is a soughtafter presenter and is recognised and supported by some of the world’s most influential women as a climate leader.

Vegan vs leather? Do you have a preference, and why?

Junkies was lucky enough to catch up with this inspiring women when she recently visited Ballarat. Natalie was in town to present a talk to our “Hello Sustainability” book club at an evening hosted

by Grampians Central West Waste & Resource Recovery Group at the Health Hub in Ballarat. Natalie spoke about her book Every Woman’s Guide to Saving The Planet. She talked about her life before 1 Million Women and the light bulb moment that changed her thinking forever, leading to the beginning of what is now a leading voice of change in 1 Million Women.

Hah! Not really. I’m really not a shopper at all. Not even op shops.

Shoes are one of the hardest items in our wardrobe to recycle/reuse. Do you have any suggestions for us?

I love boots. I have three pairs and I’ve had them for years. The zips have broken twice and I just get them fixed. I don’t own a lot of shoes. I really mean that. I think I have three pairs of shoes plus my boots. I bought my latest pair of shoes from a fabulous secondhand store to wear to a swish event I was going to but didn’t have any high heels.

Vegan for sure. No animal produce.

Do you have time to get out into the garden?

I try my best. I LOVE my garden. It brings me calmness and utter joy. I love nothing more than to be dirty. I think I am at my happiest when I have dirt on my face, dirt under my nails and a bunch of leaves and branches in my hair.

Do the belief systems you have today come from your family background?

What is your favourite experience?

No. I had an epiphany in the middle of 2006. But I was always a passionate person about life and I’ve always had a deep love of the earth, but it was a one-way relationship. I took what I needed without really thinking about what I should give. Now I deeply understand my place and connection and that I have to love the earth like I love my family. That’s the only way the relationship shifts and you deeply want to do all you can to live with the least impact.

I love to walk in a rainforest or swim in the ocean with my family more than anything else in the world.

What books and films most influenced your thinking? Was there any one book or film that completely changed you?

What is your most treasured object?

I get incredibly affected and moved by movies. There are so many.

But when I was young the movie that really changed my thinking was Cry Freedom about Steve Biko, a South African anti-apartheid activist. That movie opened my eyes and changed my world view.

It took me many months to get over that. I wrote a poem about how I felt after seeing that movie – I can’t remember the full poem but it started off:

We managed to get some one-on-one time with Natalie to ask her a few off-the-cuff questions.

My plants are my most treasured things in my house. Those and the paintings done by my kids that are hanging around the walls.

Actually I think all my paintings. They are big bold and colourful – filled with a lot of ruby reds and aquas. My paintings always make me feel happy.

― about ―

Where did it all go wrong in a land so rich in gold When men would all be equal but be forgotten to be told That a man is only white and white is all they’ll be.

The rest is insignificant for eyes closed tight can’t see.

Tell us what’s involved in becoming an ambassador for 1 Million Women.

There were a few verses in the middle but I can’t remember them now.

The last verse went And I sit here so far away and write some poetry.

Ashamed of life’s cruel twist it seems that I can be so free Where did it all go wrong, the kaffirs hanged and died.

This inhumane supremacy South African Apartheid What are your top rituals that we can adopt to help make change?

We have a new App coming out and we are looking for 10,000 ambassadors from across the world to help build our movement.

We are now 880,000 women and girls but climate change is a critical issue and it needs millions of us building a lifestyle revolution. So being our ambassador is all about spreading the word and influencing others to get involved. You can email us at enquiries@1millionwomen.com.au if you are interested. Or follow us on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter and join on our website 1millionwomen.com.au and you will be able to stay up to date with what’s happening.

You ask your members what gives them joy. So what gives Natalie joy?

My family, my beautiful granddaughter and 1MW are my life.

I spend most of the time (when I’m not thinking about 1MW) thinking about what is the next memory anchor I can create for my family. It doesn’t have to be anything big. Dinner, a weekend away, a holiday or just a walk. But these are all memory anchors that last forever and I really do spend my days working out what the next one will be.

Do something small and see a difference.

Repeat.

Make memory anchors instead of buying stuff.

Take a breath before you buy something and ask yourself – do I really need it?

Tell us about the 1 Million Women Tara Fellowship.

Tara Hunt was my beautiful and amazing partner at 1MW and she was my beloved friend. She came on board as my partner in 2012 and we would spend our days strategising and planning 1MW. We loved each other so much and we spent so much time talking about our love of this planet, our children and how we were going to reach millions and millions of women and girls across the world. In September 2016 she found out she had stage 4 lung cancer. She wasn’t a smoker. We lost her beautiful soul on 28th May 2017. It has taken me a long time to adjust to her not being by my side at 1MW. We set up the Tara Hunt Fellowship in her honour and memory. Her love of this earth was incredible and her love for 1MW was the same.

I heard you received a special mention on International Women’s Day. Do tell!

Yes. We are all feeling a little excited at 1MW because Leonardo DiCaprio, across Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, posted a beautiful message and picture saying “This is International Women’s Day and I’m celebrating @1millionwomen, an incredible organisation building a lifestyle revolution to fight the climate crisis”!!!

― about ―

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The Fine Art of Basket Weaving Liz Souter

Words by Penny Woodward Photography Dan Coates

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Liz Souter’s passion for baskets started when, as a small child, she played with buttons in her grandmother’s covered sewing basket. This early experience instilled in her the awareness of baskets as containers. Twenty years later, after completing a fine arts degree, Liz travelled overland from England to Australia through Iran and Pakistan. Here she observed migratory tribes harvesting wild rushes for baskets. As they moved on, they left no imprint on the environment. This triggered in Liz an urge to work with and use renewable resources.

The material Liz most often used was rattan. These canes come from tropical climbing species in the Palmae and Araceae families, and had to be imported. Liz always claimed that it had no equal for strength and versatility, and was sad that she was never able to find a good locally grown substitute. Outside the back door of their Brown Hill house was a large rectangular pool, originally designed as a home for fish and interesting water plants, but once basket making became a passion this pool was the obvious spot to soak the rattan to make it malleable.

“I am so lucky to have been able to spend so much time working at something I love” – Liz Souter.

After many years spent following her schoolteacher husband around small country schools and raising their three children, Liz and her family at last settled more permanently on 10 acres at Brown Hill near Ballarat. Here Liz began to establish a garden to feed the family, and she also attended basket-making classes at the YMCA. Two years later she was running the classes.

For four decades Liz constructed beautiful baskets that were true to her early experiences: they were containers, and, as far as possible, they were made from renewable resources. Many of the materials for her baskets were grown in her own garden.

Some of the first trees Liz planted at Brown Hill were hazels (Corylus avellana). These were coppiced and the pieces used for the bases of baskets or to reinforce the structure. Hazel is an excellent material because it can be picked all year round, it splits easily and can be used green, and it doesn’t shrink or crack. Liz also loved to use walnut and rowan, but these had to be harvested when the sap was down (in winter) and then dried for six months. Other plants she harvested from her garden and used in baskets were jacaranda, wisteria, willow, grape vine, fruit tree prunings, red hot poker and hops, with each having different characteristics. As well as this she recycled materials such as rubber to enhance the interest and textual qualities of her baskets, and she often used recycled timber for the bases of baskets.

All the baskets Liz made are containers of some sort. They are made to hold firewood, pinecones, kindling, eggs, onions, breads, nuts and numerous other forms of produce, as well as embroidery cottons and, of course, sewing materials. On a larger scale Liz also wrestled into shape pack baskets for donkeys (these went to the tourist village at Coal Creek), wheeled wood baskets and harvest baskets for grapes. She also made domes to protect precious young plants in her own and others’ gardens.

One of my favourite pieces is a large, legged storage basket made from walnut, hazel and rowan, as well as rattan. The method was based on the way the people of Hunza made use of every piece of material, while the shape was modelled on the South Channel buoy in Port Phillip Bay.

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One of Liz Souter’s larger baskets. The Homage to Hunza basket includes walnut, hazel, rowan and rattan and is modelled on the shape of the South Channel Buoy in Port Phillip Bay.

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Liz used bone, pottery beads and medallions and collected other beads and old medallions and coins to decorate her baskets.

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Baskets made to be used in the vineyard to collect grapes and store wine bottles.

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Liz usually worked in a style derived from traditional English basket making but she always incorporated influences from other countries, especially Asia, Africa and the Middle East. In Africa she observed how, if a basket was broken, it would be patched and used again and again. Often the patch enhanced the appeal and interest of the basket. Although all Liz’s works are useful and long lasting she believed that as they occasionally might need to be repaired, it was worth repairing them in a way that added to the quality of the work.

As well as experimenting with different materials, she loved to work with different saps and dyes to stain the rattan and other woven materials. One favourite was sap from the dragon’s blood tree (Dracaena draco), which imparts a deep red lustre to the basket.

“Liz’s baskets became a celebration of the richness and diversity of materials.”

One day when I was sitting talking to Liz while she stripped another piece of hazel, she gazed down the hill, over the asparagus bed and the paddock beyond, and said, “I am so lucky to have been able to spend so much time working at something I love”.

Liz was a judge of the basket exhibits at the Royal Melbourne Show and her works have been displayed in exhibitions all over Australia. Some of her baskets are in the Victorian State Craft Collection and form part of the permanent exhibition in the Jewish Museum.

Liz died in October 2017. Her family and friends have collected some of her most loved and beautiful baskets for one last exhibition of her work.

Having travelled extensively to observe how baskets were made in traditional cultures, Liz’s baskets became a celebration of the richness and diversity of materials. Her travels also taught her the importance of adornment and the way things are presented. This, combined with her artist’s sense of proportion and eye for colour, led to the creation of some really beautiful pieces. She fashioned small pieces of fig and olive wood into beads, used bone and pottery beads and medallions, and collected other beads and old medallions and coins to decorate the baskets.

LIZ SOUTER RETROSPECTIVE Selections from four decades of basket making Backspace Gallery, 5 Camp St, Ballarat Central, VIC 3350 (03) 5320 5858 Thursday 30th May to Sunday 16th June (closed Mon-Wed) Opening night Fri 31st May 6-8pm

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WOMEN, TOOLS AND TRADES It’s a changing world girls; pick up those tools and go for it

According to the National Skills Needs List (2019), 65 trades are experiencing national skills shortages, and 62 of these are heavily male-dominated roles.

Gather your tools, girls, thicken your skin and head for the workshops.

Words by Kirien Withers Photography Supplied

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Numerous initiatives are underway in Australia to address the chronic lack of gender diversity in trades services and related industries. Pathways for women to pursue careers in trades are just beginning to be lubricated with the good oil. The motors are just beginning to hum. But it is a beginning.

It’s not just about careers and as a woman being able to hire a female tradie. It’s also about girls and women naturally being proficient with tools and able to effectively deal with their own trade-based problems. The days of clear role demarcation such as guys doing the hardware types of repairs, while the girls do the clothing, cleaning and feeding, are long gone. But whilst the roles are increasingly blurred, our societal reality has not quite caught up.

Initiated by NAWIC’s Women On Tools Committee, the strategy is to ultimately achieve 11% women in frontline trade roles in the construction industry. Its strategy is to achieve an 11% women purchasing policy ruling for all government-funded construction projects.

The government has met the call to date by ensuring that the recently formed Ministerial Construction Council has the 11% Strategy high on the agenda. At a state level the committee has secured funding from Construction Skills Queensland (CSQ) to raise awareness and assist organisations like TAFE Skillstech QLD to create courses for school leavers to get them job ready in support of the 11% Strategy.

Whilst the 11% Strategy will encourage the big company players in construction to up their diversity strategy and employ more women, it will take a while to filter down to small business.

Whilst educational rhetoric and theory is now quite firmly focused on gender balance, with girls equally encouraged and accepted into the metal, timber and construction tech streams and boys welcomed into textiles and food tech, the uptake by the nondominant genders in reality is still low.

A girl coming out of a male-dominated trades technology stream at school is still likely to hit gender-based barriers when she applies for apprenticeships. It’s not quite the same for boys: males have penetrated the food and textile spheres long ago as chefs and fashion designers.

The 11% Strategy According to the champions of change, such as the TradesWomen Australia Foundation (TWA), the National Association for Women in Construction (NAWIC), the Women on Tools Committee and the Supporting and Linking Tradeswomen organisation (SALT), change needs to be effected at many different levels. Working from the top down, one such initiative is the 11% Strategy. ― about ―

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Team tradies builder Laura Madden, carpenter Juanita Mottram and furniture designer Kitty Danger sporting 2678 pants in Navy, Coffee and Denim â&#x20AC;&#x2022; about â&#x20AC;&#x2022;

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Women learning hands-on skills at Orange Women’s Shed

Finding a Tradie Anyone who has tried to hire a tradie lately is likely to be aware of the rather drastic tradesperson shortage. We all certainly pay high fees for services to mend our pipes and wiring, so why this disconnect?

The National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) figures on apprentice and trainee numbers in the March 2017 quarter showed apprenticeship commencements had dropped 44% since 2013, with completions down by 49.9%. A quick scan of the NCVER site only shows ongoing decreases since then.

Why? It’s not just a question of gender diversity when even males are not entering male-dominated roles as a career choice.

Research generally indicates the pay rates for apprentices are traditionally so low that they are prohibitive when balanced against the average young person’s cost of living. Award rates in trade employment post-apprenticeship are not great, either, which must be an influencing factor for many young people with only the most entrepreneurial able to see the end-result of high returns as a sole-trader or tradie employer.

This unbalanced return for output perhaps needs addressing as much as the diversity imbalance if we are to be able to get someone who really knows what they are doing to fix our plumbing and electrics. But for young women, women seeking a career change, or older women re-entering the workforce who can see themselves as an independent operator – a world awaits, literally. As Laura Madden of Eve Constructions says, “as a woman with a trade you can work anywhere in the world”.

The two organisations supporting women working within a range of trades in Australia are TWA and SALT. TWA was formed in 2013 to bring industry and tradespeople together to increase diversity within the Australian trade workforce and is focused on long-term strategic change. SALT, founded in 2009, drives events and activities to provide support and mentoring to tradeswomen and apprentices. It has run over 200 SkillWomen workshops, with almost 10,000 participants teaching women and girls in high schools, primary schools and communities how to use tools with its unique mobile workshop. It has delivered talks in over 160 schools, taken teams of tradeswomen to help farmers in drought-stricken areas and worked with government departments and peak trade bodies to increase their employment diversity in trades.

Importantly, its workshops have continuously empowered women from very diverse backgrounds including those who have suffered domestic violence, and women from multicultural and indigenous communities, to be able to handle their own tools and ‘be their own tradie’.

The cultural shift needs to begin with every woman and girl.

We all need to be able to handle our own tools to handle our own repairs and handyperson jobs, a fact well recognised by an increasing number of Women’s Sheds. Following on from the contemporary tradition of Men’s Sheds, Women’s Sheds are increasingly reducing their focus on women-crafts, and getting stuck into the urgent upskilling of women to look after their own living environments.

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The organisers of the Orange Women’s Shed in rural NSW put it this way: “The price of house maintenance callouts in Orange is around $150 for an hour, even for simple things”. For many women who attend the Shed, their husbands have either died, are in care, or they are their husbands’ main carers and hence have a garage full of tools but do not know how to use them. Others may not be in that situation but grew up in a time when it was not the thing to do to become a carpenter, but are now hungry to add tool training to their natural hands-on abilities.

The key take aways of an analysis on the future of women taking up their own tools to build, create, repair or have a tradie career are that it is already happening. There is a flow of support and action underpinning change, a huge need on so many levels and so many challenges to be addressed. But the exciting news is – change is happening. Don the workwear, girls, get training and support if you need it, amass the tools and get to work. You are not alone.

National Association of Women in Construction nawic.com.au Supporting and Linking Tradeswomen Inc. saltaustralia.org.au Tradeswomen Australia Foundation tradeswomenaustralia.com.au Orange Women’s Shed facebook.com/Orangewomensshed Eve Renovations everenovations.com.au

Making it as a Mechanic We spoke to 19 year-old Bronte Jordan who is just completing her four-year apprenticeship to qualify as a Motor Mechanic. We asked her how she became inspired to make mechanics her trade and how she approached her employer, Poletto’s Mechanical Repairs in Lismore, NSW, to take her on.

“When I was growing up my uncle and grandfather were always working on cars. It just became natural for me to be around mechanics. Polettos was a bit worried at first that older men would not be comfortable having a female working on their vehicles, but it has turned out to be the opposite – they love it.

Older women also are really happy; they feel they can explain the mechanical problems they are having a lot easier to another woman and understand the way I explain what is going on with their car better, too.”

We asked Bronte about the reality of entering a male-dominated work environment and her advice to other young aspiring tradeswomen. “You just have to go for it and not let guys intimidate you. They can get a bit put out when they see that a woman can do exactly what they do just as well, but women have a right to be in a workshop just as much as guys. You just have to have thick skin.”

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Leading the way

“Our job is to make sure they get the maximum out of their investment for their resulting lifestyle, return on investment, and, as much as possible, their enjoyment of the process.”

Eve Constructions was born as Australia’s only all-female construction company circa 2010. Laura Madden had been working in Ireland as a tiler. On arrival in Australia she undertook a carpentry apprenticeship to upskill. Over a glass of champagne one balmy Queensland evening, whilst discussing her friend Juanita Mottram’s frustration with hitting her head on the corporate glass ceiling, the pair decided the construction industry needed a feminine shake up. < 28

Jumping into trades with Laura and completing her carpentry apprenticeship, Juanita joined Laura in forming Eve Constructions Pty Ltd, also trading as Eve Renovations. As they developed the business, working as a duo focusing mainly on renovating older homes, their attention soon turned to the lack of women’s-fit tradie workwear. For a couple of can-do girls, the answer was simple: they would design and have manufactured a range of workwear to suit women tradies everywhere. Easy!

“In keeping with the RePurpose leadership message of this edition of Junkies, we always prefer to renovate and renew older buildings rather than build new”, adds Laura. “We also work hard to salvage and repurpose materials and look forward to making more connections that better facilitate this process. Our mandate is to support other women of all ages into the trades as a career, working with and contributing to this end with the National Association of Women in Construction and the Women on Tools Committee, whilst lobbying government to hurry up and introduce the 11% women ruling on the frontline on all government projects, thus encouraging employers to take on female apprentices that has in the past been a major barrier to women securing entry into the trades.”

Eve Renovations grew steadily. Half of their business was won on the strength of being women, the work commissioned mainly by a female clientele that appreciated the unique strengths of women at the helm. The balance was made up of their appreciative word-of-mouth referrals. Soon Eve by two became Eve by seven, as more staff and apprentices joined the crew.

Laura believes their unique advantages as a female construction business are largely around the ways in which they consult with their clients and their appreciated, more feminine, style of communications.

“As we are very often ‘building someone’s dreams’”, says Laura, “we prioritise fully understanding our client’s vision and making sure that vision fully optimises all the potential benefits for their current and future hopes, dreams and lifestyle. Before we begin, our Structural Designer, Michelle Savoury, fully analyses the client’s needs and assists their decision-making throughout their journey, ensuring their perfect personal choices in layout, fixtures, fittings, finishes and interiors. Attention to detail in this way ensures very happy clients. They are involved in our decisionmaking every step of the way. From materials, through challenges and delays, we make our decisions with our clients not for our clients, so they are fully engaged in their own process. ― about ―

STYLISH, FUNCTIONAL & TOUGH WOMEN ONLY WORKWEAR

Builder Laura good to go in grey Strong Mid Rise Pants

Furniture Designer, Kitty Danger wearing 2607 Dungarees in denim

Work ready in denim 2678 Shorts and a Toolbelt by Buckaroo buckarooleather.com

Looking good in 2678 White Painters Pants

Sara on the job in pink Believe Lightweight Workshirt and grey Strong Shorts

+61 7 3899 5020 eveworkwear.com.au

info@eveworkwear.com.au

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Rethink The sequel

Words by Selena Buckingham Photography Louisa West

We knew 2017 was going to be huge for us here at Junkies HQ. This was the year of the inaugural Rethink exhibition, where artists from across Australia and New Zealand were invited to be part of this wonderful event hosted by Junkies and Grampians Central West Waste & Resource Recovery Group. The response to the first exhibition was overwhelming, with positive feedback from both the artists and the general public who came to support us.

We were lucky enough to have the work of three well-known artists: Marina Debris, with her three statement pieces made from ocean debris; Donna Dinsdale, with her woollen jackets from her New Zealand Aroha Atu project; and Kate Hannah’s colourful pom pom style. All three featured in the last edition of Junkies.

“It always amazes us how all the creativity, enthusiasm and commitment collectively embodied in a team of ecowarriors coalesces into such a great event.”

In its second year, the exhibition was held at the George Farmer Building, once again in Ballarat, which one can only describe as rustic ambient heaven. The George Farmer Building was formerly a bacon factory, and still has a lot of its original factory/ warehouse charm – concrete rooms with steel girders, basement doors thicker than a bank safe and other industrialana.

The calibre of artists who were accepted into the exhibition was exceptional, and artists came from far and wide: Marina Debris, Kate Hannah (aka P’junked), and Jenepher Walker from Sydney; Donna Dinsdale from New Zealand; Massimo Corsini, Carolyn Cardinet, Louise C.U. Munday, Annette Fitton and Patricia Pino from Melbourne; and artists who came from further afield: Eva Michelle Redux, Kathleen Hunt, Chris MacIntosh, Sue Garrard, Kate Judson and Corinne Heintze. There were also many talented local artists including Jade Walsh, Seona Murnane, Paula Rigby, Debbie Weston, Bethany Alice, Annie Drum, David Nix, Melinda Muscat, Linda Blake, Cathlin McDiarmid and Alison Curtis.

The exhibition space was transformed with white walls into a contemporary art space showcasing 2- and 3-dimensional work, mannequins draped in the many wearable fashion garments that were submitted, plus sculptural and installation pieces.

The emphasis this year was on fashion garments and accessories, of which there were many forms: jewellery items made from recycled silver, electrical wire, paper and magazines, bottle caps and toys. One highlight was the astonishing millinery pieces made by the fabulously artistic Jenepher Walker.

We were thrilled to be able to showcase such a feast of creative talent. The garments submitted were made using a variety of media, including hay bale twine, farm equipment, table cloths, plastic milk bottles, op shop clothes and reused jeans.

The evening fashion parade was the weekend’s show stopper.

Following his inspiring speech, our MC, the one and only Costa Georgiadis, commented with his usual irrepressible enthusiasm on each and every artist’s work. Costa was in awe of the designs, and of the amazing building.

It was wonderful to finally get to see all of the garments on our beautiful models, to whom we give our grateful thanks for their poise and professionalism. We would also like to thank Mane Hair Boutique, who came to our rescue yet again. The whole marvellous extravaganza could not have been possible without the help and support of some multitalented friends, who brought all of the elements together, from make-up to choreography, stage design, music and visuals, model wrangling and more. A special thanks also to Le Vergne and her team from Grampians Central West Waste & Resource Recovery Group for their continued help and support and, especially, to our star attractions over the weekend: Costa Georgiadis and Erin Rhoads.

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Erin Rhoads, aka The Rouge Ginger, discussed her book Waste Not and her zero waste journey, and launched the newly established book club “Hello Sustainability”, started by Junkies, Bianca Flint from The Wardrobe Green and Stacey Lea Gibson from the Healthy Hub. This nonfiction book club features books like Erin’s that inspire us and provide learning materials in a fun atmosphere. Erin’s book was the first on the list, so it was an absolute pleasure and perfect timing to launch the club at the exhibition.

We really would like to emphasise the collaborative nature of this event, which is only made possible by the continued support of the participating artists and the enthusiasm and interest of the general public.

It is a such a privilege to be involved in Rethink. It always amazes us how all the creativity, enthusiasm and commitment collectively embodied in a team of ecowarriors coalesces into such a great event. And somehow, in the middle of all this planning and celebrating, we manage to prepare our next edition of Junkies for publication!

We now affectionately call November ‘No sleepvember’, as we put a magazine together, organise an exhibition and a fashion parade, and then head to Adelaide for the unmissable Bowerbird design market.

If you want to be a part of the 2020 Rethink event, start now: send an email to hello@junkies.com.au to express your interest, and we will keep you posted via our website and on social media.

Love from the Junkies team xx ― art ―

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Discarded in Time Dan Tanenbaum

Words & Photography by Dan Tanenbaum

After looking at Dan’s work one might imagine that he exited the corporate world full throttle, hair in the wind, on a Harley Davidson bent on a new creative life, but there is a lot more to this story. Dan preserves the once-beating heart of the watch and gives it new life in various forms, but his favourite works are replica motorcycles, rendered in miniature form.

Dan constantly scours flea markets, antique and estate sales for his watch gold. He exited the corporate world with a desire to creative, shedding his role as an art director of a global advertising company. His fondness for watch parts metamorphosed into his art, rendering miniature motorcycles and other objects by painstakingly piecing together intricate watch parts and fashioning these into stunning creations.

Are the parts from vintage watches better than those in modern-day watches, or are they pretty much the same?

Some of the vintage watches I use are from pocket watches and some of the movements are beautifully engraved and are pieces of art in their own right. What is interesting is that not many people would have the opportunity to see inside the watch, and this attention to detail on the inner workings really speaks of how watchmakers took such great pride in their craft down to the finest details.

What do you love most about your work?

Most people wear their watch for a big part of their lives, through birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, good times and bad times… watches become a real part of someone’s personality. I find it sad that one day they end up in a junk pile for one reason or another. The idea that I can imbue them with new life and turn them into pieces of art for others to admire makes me happy.

We chatted with Dan to find out more.

Tell us what led you into the world of watch parts and sculpture?

How important is it for you to create art from discarded objects?

I was an art director in advertising for many years and then started some technology companies which I built, grew and sold.

While working on these start-ups I found that I wasn’t accessing my creative spirit and I felt the need to tap back into it.

I have been a collector of many things in my life and one of my biggest collections/obsessions have been timepieces. I’ve always been fascinated by their intricate movements, and when the opportunity presented itself to be creative again, I started to use vintage discarded watch parts.

I guess the obvious questions come to mind when I see your work. Why watch parts and why motorcycles?

I love that no matter how beat up or broken a watch might seem to be, the actual inner workings of the movement are preserved like a time capsule in an airtight casing. I started making cufflinks with the watch parts and sold them very successfully through some high-end retail stores in Toronto. Eventually I didn’t find the cufflinks enough of a creative challenge and tried to figure out my next model. Since the case of a watch is the biggest part I figured it looked like it could be a wheel, and I thought a motorcycle might be fun to produce.

I’ve only used watch parts in my artwork and have never “killed a watch” for a piece. I think that it is sad that the “watch” is a dying art form as the newer generations lean towards electronic devices to tell time. Using discarded watch parts is important to me on many levels, but I hope the objects serve as a reminder that the art of time is a true art form.

Are the motorcycles an exact replica of full-size models?

I make close representations of motorcycles I’ve seen, but mostly I freestyle my builds without any reference to a specific bike.

What I love about making motorcycles is that as long as it has two wheels, a gas tank and handlebars you can’t really go wrong.

Most motorcycles are custom made anyway, so it allowed me to really be creative with the design.

Do you own a bike yourself?

I always dread this question as my specific focus is on motorcycles. The truth is that not only do I not own a bike, but I’ve never even ridden one!

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This is the letter he wrote to my sons:

What is your favourite motorcycle?

I really love the line of a café racer, but I feel that choppers come most naturally for me.

March 2, 2009 What other artists inspire your work?

Dear Oliver,

I love Sue Beatrice’s work, particularly her unique steampunk and pocket watch sculptures which continue to blow my mind.

What are you working on at the moment?

I’ve been encrusting objects with watch parts lately, such as skulls, Darth Vader helmets, Kidrobot figures etc. It’s been fun seeing how these objects transform into a steampunk version of what they used to be As an avid collector of these fine timepieces, which one out of all your collection is your favourite, and why?

I’ve been collecting timepieces for around 20 years now and have many favourites to be honest. My Urwerk 103.09 is definitely near the top of my list, but my Rolex Submariner is my favourite. Here’s the story behind it.

I hope this letter finds you well. Your father has asked me to write you a note to tell you what I know about your gift from him. As you can see it is an old watch. My guess is that by the time you receive it, it will be about 70 years old and you are very fortunate as this is no ordinary watch. Indeed, it is a very special watch.

You are holding a rare vintage Rolex model 6538 from circa 1958.

It has a calibre 1030 movement in it. This watch is much sought after as it is the same model of watch as the one worn by Sean Connery when he portrayed James Bond in the 1962 film “Dr No”.

It is my understanding that the watch is in original condition and was owned prior to myself by a gentleman who lived in Australia.

It is obvious that he wore this watch for countless hours in the sun, perhaps scuba diving or sailing, because the dial on it shows a deep rich bronze patina. I have myself owned the watch for many years, saving it for something special though I had no idea what.

When my twin boys were born I purchased two watches for them to give them on their 21st birthday (they turn eight years old today). When I purchased the first watch I asked the owner of the timepiece if he would write a letter to my son as provenance to the watch that I would present to him along with the watch. ― design ―

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Recently word came to me that your father was looking for a watch such as this and it turned out that he had a special purpose in mind for it; that it should become a gift for you on your 21st birthday. And since I believe a watch like this needs purpose and deserves more than a solitary existence spoiled away in some dark locked box, I released it to your father.

Albeit for a fairly tidy sum.

The third thought that I had as I held this watch was of its value and the power of saving and investing. Surely without saving there is no future nor any prospect of security for yourself or your loved ones. Nor is there the ability to help the man who has stumbled that he too might go on to help others. This watch should serve as a reminder that wealth with conscience is a powerful gift.

Fourth, I thought that this watch represents the importance of practicality and purpose in our lives. There is an old saying that goes “If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light”. The same holds true in life. This watch should be a reminder to remain free of the burden of things that serve no good purpose, things that rob us of our happiness, our dignity and our time.

Once, a good many years ago while holding this watch and contemplating its lessons, I was struck by five thoughts. I’d like to share them with you with the hope that they might help you on your journey.

The first thought I had was of the beauty and art and emotion expressed by it. These are all the things that give our world life and colour and love. It is a reminder that we should paint the world as we go, returning the love that we’re given and sharing the love that we have to give.

The second thought I had was for the marvel of engineering and human perseverance that made this watch possible. Boundless is the limitations of the human mind and determined spirit combined. This watch should serve as a reminder that we must be the engineers of our lives, doing what is right in life and persevering to leave all things better than when we first came upon them.

Which brings us to the fifth and final thought that I had which was about time itself. This watch like all timepieces should serve as a reminder to us that time is the great equalizer and it is all we really have. In time all will be lost for each and every one of us but for the good deeds we have done. Your deeds of hope are your seeds of hope; plant them everywhere you can.

Remember, Oliver, God winds our hearts but once, just how tightly is his secret. I hope you spend your time wisely and that your deeds carry both you and the lives you touch to great and wonderful places. Wishing you well in your travels.

Sincerely, Rob xxxxxx

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Handcrafted Traditions Jun Nakamura

Words by Jun Nakamura Photography Supplied

Jun Nakamura is a designer based in London who combines the traditional Japanese handcrafted technique of shibori with modern aesthetic design. Jun has engaged in exhaustive research to realise the creative potential of shibori, and, whilst respecting its age-old heritage, has given it a modern twist to make it relevant in the 21st century. Jun tells us more about his creative journey.

The Japanese traditional handicraft of shibori has declined in recent years, but my research suggests that mixing this traditional technique with modern practices can introduce an innovative new aesthetic into the fashion industry. My family operates a kimono company in Japan, so I have been immersed in kimono practices from my childhood. I also worked in the Japanese kimono industry, where I learned many traditional techniques. However, about 12 years ago, the kimono industry started to decline significantly, after shrinking gradually over the preceding years.

The kimono industry has been shrinking because Western clothing has become increasingly popular. Most Japanese people wear kimono only on particular occasions such as at wedding parties. Now, sadly, many Japanese do not even know how to wear kimono.

I started to work for a company that sold kimono after I graduated from university. This gave me an opportunity to work with kimono designers and enabled me to learn many traditional techniques in kimono construction. Most of these techniques are done by hand and each has unique features. Kimono-processed shibori is one of the most expensive pieces and it takes a very long time to make. Aside from shibori, there is also hand-brushing dyeing, organic indigo dyeing, hand-drawing dyeing, and Japanese batik, which are all very beautiful.

“The shibori structure on the printed fabric had a unique appearance – it was something I had never seen before.”

Shibori is usually used for the tie-dye effect and processed on a plain colour fabric. However, I focus on a 3D structure, which the shibori bits create, and process it on printed fabrics. I have been working on this new technique with a few Japanese companies and artisans, exploring and overcoming many technical restrictions. My research has resulted in nominations for awards by international fashion design competitions Mittelmoda 25th Edition in Italy and Fashion Scout in UK in 2018.

Can you tell us about the early influences that evolved into your style today?

When I was a child my father, who wore kimono every day when he went to work, sometimes took me to the family kimono workplace. Although I did not understand the value of kimono, this experience affected me and influenced my path in life. My grandfather, who was a founder of the company, lived in a very traditional area in Kyoto prefecture. I used to enjoy visiting his house with its very traditional features and its surroundings, which gave me a unique feeling, as if being in a fantasy world.

Tell us more about your research on shibori technique.

After I left the Japanese kimono industry, I studied fashion design in Japan. Since then, I have wanted to incorporate some traditional kimono techniques into fashion design. I tried to work with some Japanese kimono companies about a decade ago.

However, this was not successful because their facilities were developed only for kimono products and I could not adapt this adequately to my designs.

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My research on shibori began when I discovered a material called dida at an art library in London. Dida is an ancient tribal textile made in the Ivory Coast. The unique structure of this material reminded me of shibori and inspired me to use shibori’s 3D structure for shaping garments.

Shibori is processed on plain colour fabrics and widely used for tie-dyeing effects. However, I used a printed fabric for my collection. A modern approach was the key for me in order to develop new features. On the printed fabric I simply started to make shibori pieces, using a thread and a needle. Although I did not have a proper tool, this trial made me acknowledge that shibori artisans must have special skills, which cannot be obtained easily. Instead of using the traditional method of steaming in my practice, I used a microwave to heat the textile and to make the fabric memorise the shape. After removing all thread, the fabric still maintained the 3D structure and became very stretchy. The shibori structure on the printed fabric had a unique appearance – it was something I had never seen before.

I approached kimono producers and we started to make samples on printed fabrics. There were many challenges in this process, and it took almost six months to produce a first sample.

For my collection, I chose three printed fabrics and applied three different sizes of shibori pieces on those fabrics. The results were quite beautiful. Aside from the appearance, fabrics moved quite flexibly, as if they were alive. This flexibility, however, caused technical problems, with pieces quickly losing their original shape. Overcoming this problem required us to pay great attention, especially while sewing. ― design ―

“Although I did not understand the value of kimono, this experience affected me and influenced my path in life.”

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Tell us about your unique style of designing.

“Shibori artisans must have special skills, which cannot be obtained easily.”

Abstract art has always inspired me. A lot of my work is based on my favourite art pieces, which I have researched extensively.

I use textiles that have a unique character. To begin, I put my work on a stand and look for an interesting silhouette based on my inspirations. I then start drawing and considering the design, which often develops in ways that I did not expect in the beginning. Another technique I use is to take photos of something in particular ways based on my inspirations and then draw on/ with those photos, sometimes using Photoshop.

In addition to creating my collection, interviews with artisans and shibori companies were also conducted. I learned that most Japanese artisans started practising shibori during their childhood in their villages. They used to be regular workers at shibori companies, but today they work individually from home.

This is because the structure of many shibori companies became smaller and companies could not afford to keep artisans as regular workers. In addition, the majority of manufacturing was moved to Korea and then to China due to rising labour costs. As a result, in Japan today, shibori is practised predominantly in two prefectures.

Shibori artisans are aged between their 60s and 80s, and there are almost no young generations of potential shibori artisans to whom to pass this heritage on to both in Japan and China.

Aside from that, I like to interpret tradition in my own way and combine it with modern aesthetics. It is very interesting to consider the detailed processes in traditional techniques and to acnowledge the artisans’ skills behind those crafts. However, I like to create something new, something that did not exist before.

In this way, I reference and respect the artisanship of traditional practitioners and their craft, whilst overlaying this with my own modern interpretation and aesthetic My collection shows an innovative evolution of the longstanding traditional heritage with a modern aesthetic. It is hoped that this practice will encourage the preservation of Japanese shibori heritage.

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Afterlife The collection and the people behind the clothes

Much of the fashion industry has become a scourge on the sustainability landscape. The clothing and textile industry is leaving a trail of social and environmental destruction from deadly working conditions to soil damage and toxic waterways. As the second largest industrial polluter in the world, next to oil, fashion is making a significant contribution to the global environmental crisis: and not in a good way.

Words by Annette Young Photography Jessica Garcia

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What if we could re-imagine the entire fashion industry to become one that is a leader in ethical and sustainable production? Is it time for the fashion industry to lead the next social, economic and environmental revolution?

This was the question that emerging sustainable fashion designer Annette Young asked herself before creating her brand. We chatted with her to learn more “Fashion is undoubtedly powerful and transformative. That’s what I love about it”, she says.

“If we look back through the 19th and 20th centuries, fashion has been a visual and political indicator of each period, bringing a beauty and richness to the historical landscape. Think the 1920s flapper that put the spotlight on the freedom of women, the 60s mod girl who redfined the notion of youth and the current genderless fashion trends.

“Fashion has this wonderful accessibility and relatability and is able to spark conversations and social change. Right now, I think we are on the brink of a seismic shift towards sustainable and ethical fashion.

“For me, that is not only about creating fashion that considers its impact on the planet, but fashion that connects with the maker and wearer in a meaningful way.”

Launching her fashion label last year, Annette Young creates clothing with consciousness and compassion: for the planet and the people who make and wear the clothes.

“I grew up in country Victoria and have always felt connected to the environment. As fast fashion evolved I felt devastated to see fashion, human life and the environment devalued to make clothing. So I wanted to create the opposite to this: meaningful fashion made with respect for the environment and people balanced with the prosperity of the brand.”

Each collection is designed in Melbourne and then made ethically in Vietnam. Annette shows images of the tailors and factory on her website, so you can meet the maker of your garment. She uses natural and upcycled fabrics, committing to no more than 10% synthetic fibres and aims to eliminate polyester altogether from her fabrics. Every garment is made to measure to avoid waste.

“Sustainability is at the core of the brand. Every design and production decision considers the impact on the planet and people, now and into the future, and I always choose the most sustainable option available. I hope that if people connect to the garment, they want to hold onto it for longer, and it helps to shift our perception of value in fashion.”

But Annette admits creating a sustainable and ethical fashion label was not the easiest journey.

“Many of the global fast fashion businesses are built on exploitation of the environment and people”, she says. “It’s profit at any cost. Creating a brand that was the opposite to that was a lot harder than I expected. It made me realise it’s not as easy as just deciding you want to be sustainable.”

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To create her first collection, Annette travelled to Hoi An, the tailoring mecca of Vietnam, to experience garment manufacturing in Asia, where 90% of Australia’s garments are made. Determined to create clothing ethically, she inspected workrooms and factories, asking about employment conditions and working hours.

“They had never been asked for fabric scraps before and I was met with shocked faces! But they were happy to oblige. I made accessories and shoe details from the scraps so they didn’t go to waste.”

Despite all her challenges Annette worked directly with the tailors in two factories to create her unique designs.

She found that of the 400 tailors in Hoi An, only four could prove that their clothing was ethically made in safe working conditions. And those four tailors were at least double the price of the other tailors.

“Fashion is undoubtedly powerful and transformative.

That’s what I love about it.”

“I was presented with the first challenge that every retailer faces in creating ethical fashion: it costs a lot more!”

Annette said she was determined to use natural and single fibre materials (like 100% wool), because they are easier to recycle and better for the environment in their raw material extraction process than synthetic fibres. But she soon discovered that only two factories in Hoi An used fabrics that did not contain polyester and only one had single fibre materials: and those fabrics were 30% to 50% more expensive.

“Although natural fibres cost so much more, they are significantly less damaging to the environment, so to me they were worth the cost. All the garments and linings were made with natural fibres, which are also a lot better for your body and skin than synthetic fibres.”

She also wanted to avoid fabric waste and asked the factories to reduce their waste as much as possible in the layout of patterns, use offcuts to create garment details like ruffles and give her the remaining scraps.

“It was amazing to see how much they enjoyed the challenge of making my complicated garments and to be able to work directly with them to solve pattern making and construction problems. In fast fashion a lot of the tailors are doing mindless and repetitive work so it was incredibly rewarding for me to know they enjoyed working on my designs.”

Her latest collection, called Afterlife, explores our connection to loved ones who have passed and the future of fashion. “This collection was inspired by an experience I had when my mother passed away and a giant black moth flew into the room. It was so surreal because I’d never seen anything like it.

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“I was so struck by it that I researched it online and found countless similar experiences all over the world: a parent had passed and immediately afterwards a black moth flew into the room. I discovered that Celtic and American Indian cultures believed this was the spirit in another form, not ready to leave the world. I thought this was such a beautiful idea and it became the inspiration behind the whole collection.”

“Fashion has this wonderful accessibility and relatability and is able to spark conversations and social change.”

The hero piece of the collection is a floor length wool cape in the shape of moth wings featuring hand-sewn crystal embellishments representing the eyes of the moth. Annette also designed a crisply tailored silk jacket with wings hand-sewn on the back and delicate cotton lace dresses with layers of silk ruffles representing the wings.

The collection is also named Afterlife because it considers the second and third life of the garment.

“One of the greatest challenges in the industry right now is that it is impossible to recycle garments when we don’t know their history, such as where they are made or the composition of the fibres. To combat that, my website has details of where the garments were made and the composition, which opens the door for each garment to be resold or for the fabric to be recycled.

“It’s also impossible to recycle blended fabrics right now, so I included fabrics made from 100% wool, silk and cotton as often as possible. This is something I would like to expand on in future collections to optimise the recycling of fabrics. I am also looking in to biodegradable fabrics, plant-based silks and recycled nylon for knitwear.

“My brand isn’t perfect right now, but if we wait for perfection we never make steps towards change or learn from each other.

Every time I learn something new about sustainability or learn about new fabrics, like corn-based leathers and plant based biodegradable silks, I get so excited and incorporate that in to my next collection. My goal is to keep learning, evolving and sharing what I know to move towards a vision of creating clothing – and hopefully an industry – that has a positive impact on the world.”

― fashion ―

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Threads of Life Reddy Inc Reborn Textiles

Words by Melissa Laffey Photography Kate Elmes & Jane Dunning

It is said that it is always darkest before the dawn, and this is certainly true in the case of artist and sculptor Melissa Laffy, who has passed through grief and loss, and woven her experiences there into her work to make sense of life’s transience and the enigma of death and regeneration.

This is her story.

On our return we were a bit unsettled and decided to work our way halfway around Australia. It was a very basic set-up with a ’68 Ford Falcon for wheels, a small dome tent and a picnic basket. Oh! And two spare wheels!! It was a great experience seeing parts of our own land. On our return we settled in East St Kilda, and it was there that our profession grew and we had our two beautiful children.

I am a creative soul who has been lucky enough in life to realise that this gift of creativity not only nourishes the mind, body and spirit, but also, when channelled in the right way, can help you earn a living. I love the saying “working so hard...I’m hardly working”. This actually sums up the feeling of finding your life’s purpose and how I feel just about every day now.

“I create…to make some sense of our mortality.”

Don’t get me wrong, I have done the hard yards, too! This I believe gave me the grit and determination to get to the happy place I inhabit most days now.

I started out my working life as a hairdressing apprentice in Geelong. The science and art of hairdressing really interested me and sometimes the clients you attract become a big part of your extended friendship group. As they say, “Your vibe attracts your tribe”.

I married my soul mate when I was quite young, and we took off to London four days after we married to work, travel and explore together. This was an amazing time of our lives and the memories, experiences and friendships forged are second to none. I ended up working in a small private salon in Notting Hill and had the pleasure of tending to some amazing people’s hair – Bjork being one of them!

In 2006 we decided to sell our St Kilda apartment and my hairdressing salon and move back home to Geelong to raise our children and to be near my dad who was gravely ill. At first I was a little concerned that Geelong was too far removed from the arty bohemian lifestyle of St Kilda. However, I easily tapped into a creative mob and became involved in artist markets in the local area. With a friend, I went on to coordinate these seasonal events. It was then that I unleashed all of my creative juices into handmade goods. When I discovered fur balls turning up in our dinner at night due to my upcycling garment projects, I knew I needed a dedicated space to work in other than the kitchen table!

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We ended up building from scratch an incredible space in which I not only create, but that also serves as a teenagers’ retreat and a place for our friends to sleep when they visit from afar.

I am a crazy collector of all sorts of things, and rusty items are one of them. I use a method of rust-dying and eco-dying in my upcycled garments.

As a child my brother and I were always foraging for different things. We would sometimes go for a family drive on Sunday to the bush at Steiglitz, and my sister, brother and I would collect old bits of china plates from the gold rush days. Dad’s friend would pan for gold dust there and we would have a big roaring fire and swing from an old tyre that dad roped up to a tree.

We lived near the You Yangs, where we spent a lot of time, especially on holidays with our cousins. Dad was very handy at making just about anything and mum was very crafty as well. My Brother Chris was always finding electronic things and taking them apart to see how they worked then putting them back together.

Meanwhile I was making my own clothes with mum’s help. ― cover ―

“We all come from seeds and then grow with the help of love, food and water…”

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“As a child my brother and I were always foraging...”

My brother suffered from mental illness and struggled to get the correct medication for his bipolar disorder. My dear Grandmother (to whom I owe everything I know about art and craft) struggled all her life with mental illness, and it seems that my brother also had this debilitating condition. He was struggling to hold down work and relationships and very sadly took his own life in 2018.

This of course was shocking and I think I just went into work mode and buried it for a while. I was given lots of beautiful flowers by my friends and one day I was thinking about how plants and flowers and us humans are so alike. We all come from seeds and then grow with the help of love, food and water, we flourish and then die and return into the elements.

This is where my art therapy journey started: with MATTER. Everything is made of matter! The assimilation of birth, life and death informed my work. I create (including with the dried or pressed flowers I was given) to make some sense of our mortality.

The form this has taken is in sculpture, assemblage, paintings and textiles. It has been a wonderful vehicle with which to navigate my own mental health during this dark time.

By some form of synchronicity, my exhibition of MATTER (at Karingal Gallery/James Street Geelong) in the month of May coincides with Geelong after Dark, which is apt, as I have come out of a dark tunnel into the light, and I have the opportunity to use light in my art as well. I feel at peace with my brother’s decision to end his life as I know he was in great mental and physical pain. I like to remember him in the earlier days when he was a wild and free little sun sprite. I also have a son (and daughter) and I hope they always have love and light and good mental health in their lives. ― cover ―

Room to Grow

For two wedding and event planners, a centuryold barn in Wellington, South Africa, provided the perfect setting for raising their young family.

Words by Jessica Ross Styling Sven Alberding Photography Warren Heath

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With the all the requisite characteristics of a modernindustrial barn, from lofty pitched ceilings and corrugated roofing to solid raw brick walls, Hannes and Tina Maritz’ home has been brought to life out of a former dairy. “Old buildings have fascinated me ever since I can remember”, says Hannes, who together with wife Tina owns Kraak, a South African wedding and events company. “When our relationship was still in the early stages, I remember telling Tina that I wanted to live in a barn one day”, he recalls, “and that I wanted to be able to pull my car right up into the living room and get onto the couch. It was the ultimate bachelor vision”.

After trawling through property sites to find his dream barn, Hannes soon landed on this storage facility – a century-old dairy in the small agricultural town of Wellington, located 45 minutes outside Cape Town. The building’s bones were in good nick, but it was desperately lacking infrastructure so the couple set out on a nine-month-long renovation installing plumbing and electricals and building a bedroom. While this reno didn’t include Hannes’ bachelor-fantasy car hatch, the simple yet effective configuration was perfect for the two of them: one long open-plan ground floor living space, comprising kitchen, dining and lounge areas, with their bedroom, a peaceful whitewash room, upstairs.

“When we found out Tina was pregnant with Jacob (now four), we realised we needed a space for him. We got this crazy idea to build a Wendy house inside the downstairs area”, Hannes remembers with a chuckle. A few years later, the pair prepared to welcome their youngest child, Kranhold (now one and half years old), into the fold, and they knew it was time for another major renovation, eschewing the Wendy house for two additional living zones.

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Big swathes of glass were installed to separate the kids’ bedrooms downstairs from the communal living zone, but still let the sense of openness on the ground floor prevail. Another narrow pane on the opposite side of the space intersects the wall, reaching right up to the roof of the top floor bedroom. True to the style of the building, the glass sheets recall old factory windows and make it feel airier, more elegant and doubly spacious.

Tina’s and Hannes’ decor has undergone something of a metamorphosis, too, since the first time they moved in. “In the beginning we tried to fit in as much as possible. We packed two lounge areas and two kitchen tables to fill up the ground floor”, Hannes explains. “And when we brought our furniture together it was difficult to make it work.” While Hannes’ style lent more towards extravagant pieces in bright, bold colour, Tina’s aesthetic comprised elegant lines in white and oak. Today their look is a sophisticated blend of warm wood pieces in neutral tones with eye-catching vintage furnishings and accessories.

Avid collectors, the two hunt secondhand and antiques stores in search of covetable antique objects and lucky finds. They especially seek out items from old factories in the area, rescuing retro pendant lights from becoming junkyard scraps. “We are at a place now where we both really feel comfortable with each item.” Most of the pieces that decorate the home have a story, like the extra-length Chesterfield couch that belonged to a friend who passed away, or the piano that sits in the kids’ room, inherited from Tina’s family, and the Etsy stove, a rare find which took eight people to lug indoors. ― home ―

“I wanted to be able to pull my car right up into the living room and get onto the couch.”

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“I’m very sentimental”, admits Hannes, a self-confessed hoarder, who likes the proximity of an on-site storage unit for when the urge strikes to revisit the interior. “Because we are creatives, we get bored with things quite quickly, so we change it up a lot – and I don’t sell anything!”

“Most of the pieces that decorate the home have a story…”

“We’re constantly stimulated with events and designs of spaces, so we are trying to keep it very natural and neutral at home”, Hannes says. Wooden tables and wicker seats texturally play off the soft velvety feel of the cushions, pouffes and an outsize deep-buttoned ottoman in the living area. Against the exposed brick walls and screed flooring, the earthy tan and leather tones are complemented by the wealth of indoor plants. “It’s a bit of a greenhouse”, muses Hannes, surveying the botanical element that pops against all the industrial finishes. Tropical hues spill out to the verandah seating area, which features a green velvet sofa set – the vestiges of Hannes’ flirtations with colour – surrounded by fresh bursts of flora. “The house is built under two gigantic ficus trees and nothing can really grow under them, so we built the stoep (a South African verandah) to fill it up with plants. It’s very cool there in summer.”

As you walk from the verandah indoors, you can’t help but stop to study the detailed Delft tiling that covers the front steps. It’s then that you remember Kraak, their brand name meaning ‘crack’ in Afrikaans, is also a type of Chinese porcelain which influenced the painterly blue-and-white Dutch ceramic in the 17th century. “We absolutely love Delft”, Hannes enthuses. It’s yet another of the couple’s precious collections imbued with history and character – just like their family home. ― home ―

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A Falafel Burger With a flavour-centric twist Out with chickpeas, in with the favas. Fava beans, blended with gorgeous aromatic herbs, create the world’s greenest falafel. Known as taameya, and uniquely Egyptian, the little fava falafel patties pack a flavoursome punch and set the tone for a vegetarian burger experience beyond compare.

Words & Food Styling by Jacki Haddock Photography Sherif Tamim

Eating Green

Method

Let’s consider one of the most frequently asked gastronomic questions of the modern age. What makes a burger great? In my humble opinion the answer is the sum of two important factors. A burger should be delish, without a doubt. However, the texture is what makes a burger shine. It has to have just the right amount of stability and structure in every bite. Yet, each mouthful should be moist and juicy.

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The below burger recipe satisfies on every level. It more than ticks the taste box, is an advocate for healthy eating and is easy to prepare. The falafel mixture can also be frozen in airtight containers and stored in the freezer for up to two months.

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Ingredients Fava Bean Falafels

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2 cups dried yellow split fava beans 3 peeled and minced garlic cloves 1 medium brown onion 3 green spring onions 1 tsp baking soda 1 Tbs corn starch 2 tsp cumin powder ½ tsp fenugreek seeds ½ cup fresh coriander leaves 1/3 cup fresh parsley leaves 1½ tsp salt ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper 1 Tbs sesame seeds 1 Tbs coriander seeds, crushed Your preferred oil for frying

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Artisanal burger buns – slightly toasted and sliced in half Beetroot dip 1½ tsp sumac (stir into beetroot dip for extra flavour) 2 thinly grated julienne carrots ½ cup finely shredded red cabbage 2 small cucumbers sliced into ribbons or discs Handful of cherry tomatoes Green leafy mesclun mix Microgreens (optional)

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Soak the favas in a bowl of water overnight. Rinse and drain water completely and place in a food processor.

Add all of the remaining ingredients and blend until the mixture forms a firm, sturdy paste.

Scoop out mixture and form the falafel patties with your hands. A diameter of around 5-6 cm will be perfect.

Press the top of each patty gently into a plate of crushed coriander seeds and sesame seeds. The seeds should lightly coat the surface of the falafel.

Heat oil and when hot enough for frying fry in batches until the surface of the falafel appears crispy and golden brown.

I like to break open the first one to double check the inside is vibrant green, cooked and fluffy.

Place falafel on two layers of kitchen paper to absorb any cooking oil.

Finally, here comes the creative part, which I find super satisfying: building your burger. Spread the beetroot dip onto the surface of the bottom bun.

Add two or three pieces of falafel. Add a layer of the grated carrots, red cabbage and cucumber slices. Top with your leafy green mix and bejewel with cherry tomatoes.

Crown the top of your burger with the bun.

Falafel mix will make 12-16 patties – depending on your preferred size.

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Peanut Butter Mousse Bowl A seductive vortex of swirling goodness

As far back as I can remember the most comforting, effortless snack my mother made was peanut butter and honey toast. Fast forward to the present day, I still adore the nutty, naturally sweet, earthy flavour combination, paired with crunchy textures.

Words & Food Styling by Jacki Haddock Photography Sherif Tamim

Sweet Pairings I always feel comfortable having a few dessert recipe faves memorised that promote joy from within. The below mousse bowl is super easy to prepare, is conducive to good health and is created from basic pantry staples. You may substitute the suggested toppings with what you have on hand. Impromptu desserts are meant to enhance the present, not to add stress to it. To feel extra special, slice the pears thinly on a mandoline. It really elevates the appearance of this inviting treat.

Ingredients

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4 ripe medium bananas ½ cup crunchy peanut butter Juice of half a lemon 1 store bought muesli bar, crushed Golden flax seeds Sesame seeds Handful of pecan nuts Handful of hazelnuts Dark chocolate (optional) 1 small ripe pear (thinly sliced on a mandoline) Honey to drizzle

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In a large bowl mash two ripe bananas with peanut butter.

Combine with the lemon juice.

Add mousse in a swirling motion to your serving bowls.

Decorate your mousse with suggested fruit, crushed muesli bar, nuts and seeds.

Drizzle with honey.

Serves 2

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The Odd Sockery Bringing sock-making back to a small town one sock at a time Call it serendipity or love at first sight – it’s a coming together of minds and machine; in fact, a Gearhart Circular Sock Machine circa 1904.

The attraction between two creative women and a 114-year-old Circular Sock Machine (CSM) was immediate.

Words by Barbara Curzon-Siggers Photography Ann Jeffree

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So, when they answered the call of the CSM they felt they were onto a business opportunity tailor made for them, and, with careful handling of limited resources, an opportunity they could develop using a complementary range of skills – “I’m the dreamer”, explains Leanne, “and Janine keeps me grounded”.

One look at the intriguing Gearhart and Janine Wilson and Leanne Wills – The Odd Sockery team – knew that here was an opportunity to bring their love of history, textiles and emphatic commitment to local, sustainable production into being. Within 24 hours they had purchased their first machine and come up with a plan.

“We had no experience of these machines”, Leanne jokes, “and they’re as rare as hens’ teeth, but we were determined to do this!” After a coffee the following morning, they resolved to locate and purchase within Australia another circular knitting machine. Within the next 24 hours they’d arranged the transport, via relatives and friends across the country, of a machine located in West Australia.

“The first one arrived in pieces”, Janine jokes. “I cleaned 114 years of grease from those parts before putting it together, bit by bit – I needed a change of clothes and a packed lunch and dinner for that one!”

The team has many years behind them as textile practitioners and small business people committed to self-sufficiency. At the age of 17 Janine, living in a small town, approached the bank manager for a loan to purchase a spinning wheel and a cow – the latter because she was intent on getting milk directly from the source! Leanne began weaving and knitting as a young woman, too. In 1985 as a much younger weaver, she hand wove the bodice of her wedding dress and part of her husband’s wedding shirt from raw cream silk.

Both Janine and Leanne are now residents of Clunes, in country Victoria, and during the past two years they’ve been searching for a way to make an income from their passion for all things twined, woven and spun. As middle-aged women they’ve experienced a fickle work environment that doesn’t provide steady employment or adequate remuneration.

Circular knitting machines are still manufactured in different forms and used across the globe. Gearhart opened in 1888 in America and operated until 1925. The English Golden Fleece company manufactured the Beehive brand, which made its way to Australia during the Second World War. Charities encouraged ordinary folk on the home front to make socks for servicemen overseas, with a machine plus a ration of wool provided to any willing woman or man. Theoretically, there could be forgotten CSMs in many a farm shed or town and city spare room!

Instead of hand-held knitting needles, the machines are hand cranked. Small ‘needles’ are placed evenly around the top of the machine and the yarn is threaded through and over. Once the meticulous setting up is completed, hand cranking enables the knitter to turn out a sock in a fraction of time taken to hand knit the same sock in identical yarn. A keen eye is required to ensure the thread doesn’t dislodge from the multitude of evenly placed small needles catching the yarn as it progresses around the machine top. Now and then the inevitable slipped stitch or machine malfunction occurs and Janine is at the ready – “She’s the essential engineering department and the maintenance crew”, Leanne quips. “I do the banking and cranking.”

To get the ball rolling, between ordering and receiving the first machine, The Odd Sockey team approached Ballarat-based woollen garment maker Interknit to purchase ‘raw’ or undyed socks for home dyeing. The Interknit socks are a durable combination of 80% wool and 20% nylon and the thin bamboo socks are 95% bamboo and 5% elastine. The results of the careful colour matching and hand dyeing with commercial artisan dyes are long, wintery-warm and mild-weather ankle length socks to brighten any pair of jeans or suit.

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“Our imaginations went into overdrive – the colour combinations are endless”, Leanne exclaims. When the pair have time they experiment with different yarns and dye types including dyes developed from local flora.

The Interknit connection links past and present sock making in Clunes. The then Interknit (Hosiery Company) was based in Clunes producing socks from the building now known as the Lee Medlyn Bottle Museum, and although the old machines are now silent, socks for the armed services and police force were produced there from 1939 until 1984. There are Interknit employees living in Clunes today including one gentleman who has worked for Interknit for 30 years. Interknit is enthusiastic about The Odd Sockery endeavour and stocks the dyed socks in its Ballarat shop.

As part of their approach the women take a machine and their products to makers’ markets, expos and wool shows around Victoria. They want to engage their audience in their journey involving heritage, the artisan, an entrepreneurial spirit and a desire to contribute to the nascent textile culture that is developing in Clunes.

“We want to do the ‘paddock to feet’ (thing)”

With four – three restored and one reproduction – machines now operational, the hand-cranked socks are central to The Odd Sockery brand. It’s important to the pair to research and source locally scoured and processed Australian wool. “We know that Australian wool is subject to high standards of processing consistent with Australian environmental laws”, Leanne tells us.

They source 2kg cones of machine washable four ply wool and combine it with half a gram strand of lycra for stretch to create the 80% yarn used. The first sock came through a machine holey and “lacey”; now, the team makes perfect socks with a deft hand and a focus on quality with a rustic finish for all age groups.

Eventually they want to use wool grown by Janine’s flock, using one fleece at a time to develop a range of premium 100% locally grown, processed, spun and hand-cranked socks. Currently, wool from a ewe called Woolamina, an English Leicester Corriedale cross sheep, is featured in several pairs of hand-cranked socks: “We want to do the ‘paddock to feet’ (thing)”, the pair tells us.

“People of all ages stop to see the machine working and they want to hear our story and hear about the machines”, Janine explains. “They might buy the hand-cranked or hand-dyed product or they might not, but they’re fascinated by the machine in motion.”

The Odd Sockery is based in Clunes with a number of retail outlets carrying its products including The Red Door Gallery, Clunes, Hattie and Wolf and Interknit, in Ballarat and Rundell and Rundell, in Kyneton. Ultimately, they’d like to find more outlets for their products.

So what’s in the pipeline?

The two are emphatic: “We want to stay local and manageable, doing slow production here in our community, with our people and our history”.

For The Odd Sockery, small is beautiful in more ways than one.

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Apron Envy Ballarat Apron Festival One of the highlights for the Junkies team last year was attending the Ballarat Apron Festival (BAF). Who would have thought that the humble apron could inspire such astonishing creativity or speak so eloquently about our shared past? This festival is all about the apron, in all its glorious, colourful and cultural iterations. With plans for the 2019 Apron Festival well underway, Luci Wilson, Vice President of BAF, tells us more about this unique cultural event.

Words by Luci Wilson Photography Selena Buckingham

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The Ballarat Apron Festival is the only apron festival in the world. Established in 2013 it is a volunteer-run community-based organisation that aims to provide a platform for people to express their creativity, artistic ability and individuality through the wearable medium of aprons. BAF encourages local community participation and cohesion by bringing together a diverse range of arts, business and community professionals, organisations and sponsors, all of whom contribute to the success of this unique and celebrated community event.

The festival features a variety of apron displays, showcasing the hard work of the apron community and the significance aprons have held throughout history. Our heritage and artistic displays are coordinated in collaboration with community and cultural organisations including the Gold Museum, the Ballarat Society of Artists, PINARC Disability Services and Phoenix Primary School.

Each year we hold competitions to foster community involvement. We encourage anyone with an interest to enter, whatever their age or skill level. The categories for the 2019 festival include activist apron, sustainable apron, vintage/heritage apron, travel apron, wearable art apron and trade apron. Each year apron lovers from all around Australia submit spectacular aprons. The festival is a fantastic opportunity for anyone who wants to demonstrate their artistic and sewing abilities. We display each competition apron and our sponsors pick winners in each category and generously supply prizes. We also ask festival patrons to pick a people’s choice apron.

One of the highlights of the festival is getting school children involved. Each year we supply blank-canvas aprons to Phoenix Primary School on which kids can paint their own designs.

We display these throughout the festival and our sponsors provide prizes for the winners. It’s a great way to get the children of Ballarat involved and excited about aprons and we love helping to foster creativity in the next generation.

The Ballarat Apron Festival has achieved international recognition, with the Apron Artist, Marissa Solini, travelling all the way from Oregon, USA, for our 2018 festival. Marissa displayed her apron paintings and participated in Ballarat Heritage Weekend festivities.

Each year we curate an exhibition called Apron Tails, which showcases aprons and the role they have played throughout history. Aprons have been used for practical, decorative, and even ritualistic purposes throughout the ages. They communicate social status, the wearer’s employment, their affiliations and personal tastes. They are literally part of the fabric of society. The aprons on display at the festival come from public and private collections. We encourage community involvement; if you have an apron with significant historical or social attributes, we would love to hear from you! Even better, we would ideally like to display these important but undervalued cultural artifacts at the Ballarat Apron Festival.

The 2019 Apron Festival will be held over Ballarat Heritage Weekend on Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 May at the St Patrick’s Cathedral Hall. Junkies is proud to be one of the sponsors for this fantastic event.

For more information about the festival, or if you would like to submit an entry, head to: ballaratapronfestival.org

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Nourish & Grow Guerrilla gardening Words by La Vergne Lehmann Photography Tom Ezzatkh

‘Let’s throw a bomb!” is what we hear as a small group approaches an unkept vacant block in their local neighbourhood. They take aim and bombard their target.

But these bombers will probably not get arrested, let alone be accused of acts of terrorism.

The bombs they are throwing are “seed bombs’,’ golf-ball-sized clumps of mud packed with flower seeds, clay, and a little bit of compost and water. These bombers have learnt to make their ‘weapons of mass germination’ at a seed-bombing workshop for guerrilla gardeners.

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This harmless bombing is part of a larger phenomenon known as activist gardening and it is taking off in cities around the world.

These radicals are redefining the seemingly innocuous pastime of gardening as a tool for social activism.

Guerilla gardening tactics have been used as a way of communicating a variety of messages. Paul Harfleet’s the Pansy Project uses the subtle approach of planting pansies at sites of homophobic abuse – in short, marking places of violence with “disobedient acts of beauty”. Starting in 2005 the simple artwork of a planted pansy has operated as a gesture of quiet resistance.

Harfleet initially planted the pansies to mark his own experience of homophobia on the streets of Manchester. He now plants them internationally as part of various events. So far, he has planted almost 300 individual flowers at sites of homophobia.

In some places there are organised guerrilla gardening events.

In May 2013, more than 2,000 people committed to planting sunflowers beyond their borders for International Sunflower Guerilla Gardening Day in the UK.

“The simple artwork of a planted pansy has operated as a gesture of quiet resistance.”

It is civil disobedience with a twist: vegetable patches and flower gardens planted on barren median strips and in vacant lots in an effort to bring life and greenery to urban eyesores or grow healthful food in neighbourhoods with limited access to fresh food.

Guerrilla gardening dates from the 1960s establishment of People’s Park in Berkeley, California, when a patch of land near the University of California campus was co-opted by the community and reimagined as a public green. These days guerrilla gardening activities take place in more than 30 countries.

Guerrilla gardening can be a blend of urban space gardening and food justice. It has the potential to rejuvenate spaces that have lacked care. But it can be controversial, too, as not everyone sees others planting out vacant land as positive when they don’t own it. Essentially it is occupation without ownership and that is still seen as radical.

Of course, every radical movement needs graffiti. The graffiti tool of choice is a food processor to make the green “spray-paint’’, a biodegradable moss graffiti. The ingredients are moss, a half teaspoon of sugar, and beer or yoghurt, which, when blended, will stick to walls. The activists use the gloopy mixture to write their own version of graffiti messaging like “Nourish & Grow” in big, moss-green letters.

The sanctioned equivalent of guerilla gardening was the government-endorsed Victory Gardens, often in public places, during World War II. Civilians were encouraged to grow as much food locally as possible during the war so the bulk of agricultural production could be dedicated to the war effort. Today we are now seeing public place gardening being supported and endorsed by local councils. Ballarat’s Food is Free Laneway now has a wicker bed verge garden approved, and is an example of what can be achieved as food justice advocates work alongside local authorities.

All of this highlights the important role that gardens can play in the social fabric of our communities: whether formally endorsed by authorities or not, pubic place gardens will always be part of how we live.

Activist gardening is the latest face of social justice. Don’t worry about demonstrations and marches to make your point. Try pulling on muddy work boots and dumping fertiliser and mulch on a vacant lot, then planting tomatoes and basil. ― garden ―

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Words by Lou Ridsdale Photography & Illustrations Louisa West

Gardening for the Planet < 80

Plus your Pocket Gardening doesn’t have to be expensive. As a gardener, in a perfect world, it’s nice to make a pact with Mother Nature that not only will you strive to make the world more green, you’ll also aim, where possible, to use recycled items, and non-toxic organic products.

Upside down eggshells: Place empty half eggshells upside down next to plants to deter White Cabbage Butterflies. The butterflies see the eggshell and think it’s another butterfly, so flutter on by over the fence. Particularly effective with brassicas (cabbage, kale, cauliflower etc).

For the welfare of our planet, whilst keeping a keen eye on all things green, we plunge into the world of how to keep it on the right side of sustainability and bring a big old green love bomb to our world.

Insecticides: Perfect for the environmentally-conscious and thrifty gardener; here are some simple recipes to assist making your patch pest-free. These are great combined with growing beneficial insect-attracting plants, and managing your own backyard chickens.

Pest control from the pantry Broken eggshells: Pop a sealed container on your kitchen shelf to collect a stash of egg shells as you use them. Give them a quick spell in a cool oven for about three to five minutes (they burn quickly so keep an eye on them!) to dry them out, then whizz them up in a blender, and scatter directly onto garden beds to deter snails and slugs, which hate the jagged surfaces.

Spent coffee grinds: Available at any local café (just ask; baristas LOVE giving them away). Sprinkle all over your garden beds. They not only break down to add organics to your soil, but encourage those worms to dig, dig, dig after a little hit of caffeine to aerate your soil and add their castings to the earth to nourish your plants. Bonus: snails and slugs hate coffee, as do mice.

Most of the spray recipes are best if made and left to settle for a few days (at the very least overnight), making the concoction stronger and therefore more effective.

All of these recipes are easy to make, very cheap and most contain articles that exist in your pantry. Most importantly, all are organic and not harmful to our planet.

Caterpillars 2 Tbs soap flakes 1 L warm water Mix until dissolved, place in a clean spray bottle, shake well and spray onto plants.

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General

General

2 cloves garlic 4 chillis 4 onions, chopped

1 tsp vegemite into water. Dissolve. Pour into a clean spray bottle, shake well and spray onto plants.

Add soapy water. Strain liquid. Add to 5 L water and mix until dissolved. Pour a portion into a clean spray bottle, shake well and spray onto plants.

Snails Dig a hole in your garden and place a small bowl into the dirt so it’s flush with the surface. Pour beer into bowl. Snails are attracted to beer, so will slip into the bowls and drown.

Blackspot Mix 3 tsp bi-carb soda into 1 L water and stir.

Add few drops of dishwashing liquid. Mix until dissolved and pour into a clean spray bottle; shake well and spray onto affected areas.

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Earwigs Twist up a sheet of newspaper so it forms a stick shape. Place in the soil and hold down with an object like a tent peg or wire.

Return next day and open up newspaper to reveal earwigs who love to hide in paper. Squish them.

General 1 clove crushed garlic Cover with veggie oil. Stand for 2 days. Strain liquid. Add 2 drops dishwashing liquid. Add 1 ml of concentrate to 1 L water. Pour into a clean spray bottle, shake well and spray onto plants.

These are only a few of the eco solutions that we recommend, but there’s a million more. Be creative, be inventive but most of all be mindful of our Planet. There’s a slew of practical, cheap options to tend to Mother Earth.

Munash Organics is a family-based business run on a farm 10 minutes outside of Ballarat in the hamlet of Pootilla. We specialise in a special range of organic gardening products – all derived and recycled from nature.

Every day at Munash Organics we celebrate life. Human life. Plant life. Soil life. Made with love from our family to yours.

Weed kill 1 cup salt, into 1 L vinegar. Dissolve. Brush onto weeds, but no other plants as they will die.

All of Munash Organics products are NASAA certified, 100% nontoxic, 100% organic input, and totally safe to use around kids, other humans and pets. Aligning with Mother Nature means you and your garden will be rewarded. ― garden ―

The Sustainable Home Hub Helen Edwards

We all spend so much time trawling the internet and looking at what other people are creating out there in cyber land. When we came across Helen Edwards and her fantastic site the Sustainable Home Hub we decided to chat with Helen and find out more about her and her award-winning blog.

Words & Photography by Helen Edwards

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Helen Edwards is an award-winning blogger and author.

She is mama to three sons and lives in Adelaide with her family and two cats. She adores writing stories for children and teens, and likes to include themes of nature and our environment in all of her books. Helen also loves writing nonfiction books about sustainability, eco-living and wellbeing. She is a freelance writer and speaker, talking across topics of sustainability, eco-living, design and decoration, wellbeing, mental health, reducing ecoanxiety, and the importance of nature in our lives.

The Sustainable Home Hub is an award-wining blog and directory for eco+handmade+ethical brands. It is one of the most popular sustainability blogs in Australia. Helen’s focus is on reducing ecoanxiety, removing barriers to sustainability, and helping people to take small, simple, actionable steps towards a sustainable home and life. She advocates celebrating diversity, loving your own style, and connecting more with each other. According to Helen, if we stop worrying about what other people think and focus more about what we can do to be happier, healthier, and create a home we love, then that’s better for us, our family and our planet.

Helen has been writing and reading since before she went to school and says she wanted to be a writer for as long as she can remember. She spent much of her childhood with her head buried in a book. Helen is passionate about nature and about making sure we hand a healthy planet to our children: we do not own the earth, it does not belong to us – we are borrowing it from our children.

“It is one of the most popular sustainability blogs in Australia.”

Helen has lived with type 1 diabetes since 1979 and has multiple, chronic, hidden disabilities and conditions, alongside her type 1 diabetes. She manages all of these with grace and resilience. In 2001 she founded a ground-breaking online diabetes counselling service to support people living with diabetes, which was a huge hit. She ran this for more than 16 years and won many awards for this work, including being a state finalist in the Australian of the Year Awards in 2016. In 2013 she started a blog called Recycled Interiors, which is now the Sustainable Home Hub. She successfully built an online platform of over 140,000 people who joined with her in their endeavours to work towards a healthy planet, healthy people, and a healthy home.

In her spare time, Helen is completing her PhD in Psychology (due for submission in July 2019; wish her luck!). When not writing or reading, she enjoys watching quality drama, comedy and nature programmes, listening to music, walking in nature, especially trees, being near the ocean, road trips with her family, and caring for her many potted plants. Helen has some exciting book projects underway for middle grade and younger teens. She is also available for all sorts of freelance writing and speaking work.

See more at: helenedwardswrites.com.au sustainablehomehub.com.au

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A Story of Two Bears, Seven Buttons & Why I broke My Toothbrush Words by Victoria Konash Photography Supplied

We love to hear from all of you creative folk who form such an integral part of the Junkies community. We were sent this story from a reader in Victoria, and we know that you will find it as inspirational and heartwarming as we did here at Junkies HQ. It is not only a great example of reusing, rethinking and recycling, but it is also a heartfelt story about respecting the past, honouring the life cycle and celebrating families and the memories they embody. < 84

My name is Victoria and I am a dressmaker. I live in Melbourne although I’m originally from Belarus and came to Australia with my family five years ago.

I believe that energies fill the Universe. Everything within us and around us is energy and any of our actions and thoughts are exchanges of this energy with the surrounding world. I admire nature and everything I do is influenced and inspired by the powers of our planet.

In my practice I offer creative transformations and alterations of clothes, as well as basic clothes repairs. I believe that happy memories should be preserved and valued, not discarded into the landfill burdening our planet.

Today I want to tell you a story of a family that came to Australia in search of a better life 20 years ago. This family never managed to return to the place they left behind. But they had several objects that came with them as memories of their life in Ukraine.

One of these items was a brown kids’ winter coat made from artificial fur. This was a very typical piece of children’s clothing produced in the USSR for cold winters. I had a very similar coat to that one when I was little. The family could not bear to give that coat away when their daughter grew up, as the memories this simple coat held were just too valuable to be discarded. So they brought the coat to me and asked me to transform it into a toy that could be passed on to the next generation.

“By throwing away our old clothes we throw away our precious memories.”

Sustainability is at the core of all my designs. I think that it is important to understand the consequences of our design processes, because design, manufacturing and business practices affect our consumption patterns with products influencing consumers.

I also believe that we are who we are thanks to our experiences.

They can be sad and traumatic, or comforting, uplifting and filled with happiness. We don’t carry all our memories in a clear form around in our heads all the time, but they’re there, floating around – all they need is a trigger to bring them out. And very often clothes are these triggers.

Every piece of clothing has a memory: the memory of people holding, touching or wearing it; the memory of their emotions.

Memories make clothes come alive, rendering them more interesting, more relevant and imbued with meaning. The interlinking of these memories and views gives the garment a new identity, a “soul”, almost, something that sums up the essence of it. Clothing ceases to simply be a thing and becomes something of significance. By throwing away our old clothes we throw away our precious memories.

It was such a pleasure to unpick a piece of vintage clothing and discover how it was made! The whole coat was put together with invisible synthetic thread and the lining, which was really good quality cotton/poly sateen, was doubled with real cotton batting.

This batting was used a lot in the old days for winter clothing.

Interestingly, cotton batting pieces like that were also used to wrap around the feet instead of winter socks by folk who often had to work outside. I know this because my father is a builder (he is a professional welder) and people such as my father work outside regardless of the weather, even if it is minus 20ºC. In those really cold days he wrapped his feel with pieces of batting to keep them warm.

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Originally I planned to make one large bear from the coat. I wanted to make a bear that looked like a real animal. To develop the pattern myself from scratch I studied bear shapes for quite a while.

After cutting the bear pieces, though, I thought that some of the fur scraps were too big and I decided to make another, little, bear for the younger child in the family – a cute little teddy bear.

I keep them for other creative projects. But this time I felt wrong keeping these memories. It was a very special order filled with very special family memories and I wanted to keep them intact.

I used all the fur and lining scraps as well as all the threads from the unpicking process as a stuffing for both bears, adding some natural latex pieces as needed.

I started looking into teddy bears and I loved the image of an oldfashioned teddy dressed in vintage clothing, with movable joints, a traditional English toy. I came across a free vintage 1907 teddy bear pattern and I knew that this was what I was going to make.

I studied how teddies were made in the old days, how to connect the joints, what materials to use, how to embroider the nose and create facial expressions – there is a whole science and a lot of little secrets to teddy bear making!

“…the memories this simple coat held were just too valuable to be discarded.”

The free pattern I found included only the bear itself, so I created the clothes patterns myself to make them the way I imagined they should be. A very talented friend of mine Yulia (from Birka Design) made beautiful glass eyes for both bears. She designs and creates unique glass jewellery pieces. I have been trying to practice a zero waste working process for quite a while, so any fabric and thread leftovers never go into the bin in my house.

After both bears were complete I only had seven buttons left from the fur coat I was originally given, and a broken toothbrush that snapped when I was turning the little bear’s pieces inside out. I now use this toothbrush as a multifunctional tool in my sewing machine tool box.

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Words by Anna Turnock Photography Pixie Rouge Photography

Anna & Frankie Eco-friendly tips to help with taming your toddlers The other day as Frankie and I were leaving the busy bustling supermarket, I was a few paces ahead of her as we walked past the liquor store. Frankie yelled to me in her loudest, most serious voice ‘MAMA! MAMA – have you got your wine’? Hey – at least she has my back! Bless the three year olds…

Becoming a mum kick-started a big move for me to make our home as chemical free as I could. Working towards a chemical free home was a gradual process; it’s not something I did all at once, it’s a very big job. I decided to make as much as I could naturally for our home and Frankie, and now it’s just a normal way of life for us. I make my own cleaning sprays out of the lavender that grows in our garden with vinegar and water, I make super-smoothies for Frankie which she drinks each morning – I add lots of banana and frozen raspberries, some cinnamon, hemp seeds, coconut water and honey to disguise the spinach, beetroot, avo, spirulina, turmeric and reishi powder; ha! Frankie also loves helping me make these – it keeps her busy for a good hour. We make soaps together, dishwashing liquid and deodorant. It’s all been a work in progress but these are small steps to a chemical free home. It’s extremely enjoyable making these potions with her, and she has a love for natural products at the tender age of three.

Here is a handy tip for parents – it is very easy to make your own baby wipes. I buy paper towels and push them into a Tupperware container that fits the whole roll snugly. In a separate jug I pour about one litre of hot water and add a big tablespoon of coconut oil, a teaspoon of pure castile soap and one drop of lavender oil.

I stir this up and slowly pour into and over the paper towels. They slowly absorb the liquid and you can easily pull out the middle roll – they tear off like magic, last over a week and are lush as!

I also use re-usable cloth wipes, but these wet wipes are great to have for on the go or for messy hands and bums. You can also compost these if they are not soiled.

I want our home to be homely yet still cater for a toddler. I’ve seen playrooms in some homes that are strewn with a million toys – the door is just shut to hide the mess. Toys get discarded easily and interest is lost quickly with this method. So I joined our toy library. Frankie gets her hands on a bunch of brand new toys weekly. It’s amazing. It keeps our home free of cheap toys, it teaches Frankie about the importance of looking after them, it keeps her mind creative, and we have access to an entire library of toys that we would never be able to afford ourselves.

It means we do not have to buy toys from Kmart and I have met some wonderful people through the toy library community. Win win really! Each toy library has slightly different fees, but we pay about $90 a year to access the library. It’s amazing!

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All of Frankie’s clothes are op shopped or found at markets. Here are some of my tips for buying toddlers’ and kids’ clothes that will last and stand the test of time.

“When kids hit one year old, it’s like hanging out with a miniature drunk.

You have to hold onto them. They bump into things. They laugh and cry.

They urinate. They vomit” – Johnny Depp.

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•• ••

I always hunt for 100% cotton clothes: they last longer and are gentle to touch.

When buying leggings, look for good stretch; if you get holes in the knees, cut them off and ta-da – shorts!

I buy oversized clothes A LOT. If I like the look of a size 6 or 8 top, I’ll turn it into a maxi dress until Frankie can wear it as a top. So don’t just look in your child’s size section, always check the T-shirts and singlets that can potentially be dresses or sleepwear.

ALWAYS look at shoes. Good shoes are hard to come by. If you look carefully you will likely find quality brands. Again, I buy for a few years in advance if I find quality brands (check the Velcro still works if that’s how the shoe is fastened).

SAVERS Moorabin has been my go to for children’s clothes and shoes. The key to Savers, though, is to go without your toddler for 100% concentration.

Happy hunting! You can find recipes for my concoctions on my website pixierouge.com.au under the She Hunts tab.

Love Anna x ― little ―

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From Packaging to Portraiture Words & Photography by Gemma Patience

With our planet under increasing strain from the current waste crisis, we are more reliant than ever on creative solutions to address the problem of waste materials. So when we spotted a striking portrait of Frida Kahlo made using fabric offcuts and packaging from a Japanese restaurant, we just had to find out more.

We chatted with dynamic mother-daughter duo Takako and Hanako Okada at Manmaru, their cosy restaurant on a main street in Sydney’s inner west. We are surrounded by their re-use projects – cutlery holders crafted using tomato tins, collages and garlands, along with lettering made from vegetable boxes and fabric offcuts, and the Frida in the Jungle artwork that first drew us in.

Kahlo’s distinctive facial features and signature hairstyle are stitched onto fabric, contrasted with lush green leaves cut from edamame and okra packets. Submitted as part of an exhibition held by the Inner West Women’s Shed, ‘Something From Nothing’, this vibrant artwork shines as an example of the beauty and creativity that can emerge from re-use.

Hanako speaks with joy and enthusiasm about the wide variety of creative projects that she has taken on at the restaurant. “I don’t want to do the same kind of thing every day. Here I can break down a wall”, she says with a laugh. “Or sew some crazy bunting, or do tonnes of other different things.”

Along with creativity, a key part of the philosophy that underpins the business is sustainability. Hanako tells us that she and Takako are frequent visitors to the local community garden, taking food scraps to the communal compost bin and catering for the working bees held at the garden. “Local community members come together and we make them cakes so everyone can eat and enjoy that really good vibe”, she tells us.

Boomerang Bags are another initiative that the dynamic mother and daughter team keenly support, with their enthusiasm for this free bag-share scheme spreading to surrounding businesses. Takako tells us, “The business is small but we have engagement in the community”, adding that Boomerang Bags went on to make cloth serviettes especially for the restaurant vvto further reduce waste.

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It is clear that Takako and Hanako are passionate about efforts to reduce their footprint as much as possible. Their approach to sustainability extends beyond stringent waste minimisation practices and a preference for preloved items to storing clean waste packaging for various decoration projects in the restaurant.

Hanako describes the system they have employed to wash and store packaging so that it is easily accessible for re-use projects.

“It’s a little more effort when you first start”, she tells us, “but after a few weeks, it’s just routine”. It also means that packaging that may otherwise end up in landfill or recycling stockpiles can then be repurposed into an object of beauty.

The dedication that Takako and Hanako have for their business shines so brightly that it’s hard to imagine there was a time when the business almost didn’t come into fruition. Takako’s idea to open a restaurant catering for vegans, meat-eaters, those on gluten-free diets, and everyone in-between was almost extinguished by self-doubt.

Despite Takako’s culinary training, previous successful cafés, and medals won at the Sydney Royal Fine Food Show (for her popular vegan pies and decadent gluten-free treats), she was fearful that her idea would not be well received. Hanako recalls her mother being hesitant to take the plunge and adds that there were “lots of late nights, yelling at her to do what she wants to do”, with this recollection accompanied by laughter. “She’d say, ‘I’m too scared, what if people don’t like it?’. Then we’d have to go back over and start at the beginning of the conversation.”

Takako adds, “I’d been wanting to undertake this different concept for a long time but I wasn’t confident enough”. Telling us about her vision to create a place where dietary requirements would be catered for with knowledge and respect, she reveals her own experience of struggling to find a restaurant where her vegetarian/vegan-leaning daughter and enthusiastic meat-eating son could eat together without fuss. Takako notes, “If they go out, she has nothing to eat or he has nothing to eat. Why do you have to compromise?”.

With her daughter’s firm support, Takako’s dream became a reality in 2017. Manmaru, meaning ‘perfect circle’ in Japanese, opened with a focus on quality, originality and creativity. The philosophy behind Takako’s carefully crafted dishes is that dietary considerations should be taken into account from the onset so as to remain authentic to the cuisine, rather than having a dish from which ingredients are then omitted or substituted.

With practices in place to avoid cross-contamination between veg and nonveg dishes, and a careful knowledge of the ingredients, it is clear that Takako’s commitment is not lost on Manmaru’s loyal customers.

We couldn’t help but wonder what Takako would be doing if she hadn’t taken this leap of faith. As she pauses to ponder this, we can see that this thought is now inconceivable. “This is my life, this is my life story. I don’t know what I would do”, Takako tells us.

“I just love what I do. At the end of the day, I feel good.”

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Win a pair of Merrell Gridway shoes worth $199.95

Merrell Gridway Collection The launch of Merrell’s new Gridway Collection brings to life the adventure brand’s holistic approach to sustainability, with all knit uppers and laces made from 100% recycled materials. Merrell’s ethos is founded on enjoying the outdoors and so it is important to the brand to consider its own impact on the environment.

Merrell President, Sue Rechner, explains that the brand is committed to reducing the impact on the planet wherever possible. “We know we’re not going to single-handedly save the planet. But when your passion and your business is getting people out into nature, trying to minimise your environmental impact is just what you do”, Sue says. The company’s focus is on conserving resources and reusing materials during manufacturing, and on making durable products that don’t prematurely wear out, reducing both consumption and landfill waste.

Senior Product Director, Johanna Koeberle, stresses the importance of having an empathetic ear to the consumers’ needs and desires when designing Merrell’s footwear. “It can be challenging to meet all the requirements consumers look for in sustainable shoes – recycled components and mindful manufacturing processes, yet durable and stylish.” Johanna adds, “With the feedback we’ve received, we feel the Gridway Collection merges all those needs in the way we intended”.

The Gridway collection includes the following recycled materials: 100% recycled knit uppers and laces, 50% recycled EVA footbeds, 40% recycled EVA midsoles, and 30% recycled postindustrial scrap rubber outsoles.

The Gridway collection was launched in March 2019. merrellaustralia.com.au

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in.cube8r Gallery & Emporium

Blarney Books & Art

in.cube8r is a gallery and emporium space where more than 90 Australian creatives rent cubes to sell their handmade wares, such as jewellery, ceramics, prints, clothing and more.

Visitors to Port Fairy, a gorgeous historic town on the southwestern coast of Victoria, are spoilt for choice when it comes to food, coffee, wine, beautiful coastal scenery and historic streetscapes. Blarney Books & Art has become a much-loved institution in the township for the last 13 years. As well as selling new and secondhand books, it also has a book-related art space, a stage for performance and is both dog and kid friendly.

in.cube8r truly believes handmade is best, and dares visitors to look through every cube and not to fall in love with something. Each cube is like a window to the soul of the artist who inhabits it, which is very special indeed!

Based in Fitzroy, Victoria, but available to artists around Australia, in.cube8r also hosts exhibitions, free marketing workshops and more.

Creatives keep all profits they make, and cubes are available now – mention this ad to get free enrolment normally valued at $50.

A highlight of the Blarney Books & Art annual calendar is the BiblioArt Award, which is now entering its tenth year. This book-based art competition is designed to give new life to old books by repurposing them and using them as touchstones for new artworks. Entries come from all over Australia (in fact, the world!). The grand prize currently sits at $2000, and there are smaller prizes of $250. Visit the Blarney website or their Facebook page for more information.

incube8r.com.au

blarneybooks.com.au

321 Smith Street Fitzroy 3065

37 James Street Port Fairy 3284

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Bringing Sustainability Home in NZ

The Known World Bookshop and B&B

Learn and share ‘future living skills’ for a zero-waste, lower-carbon lifestyle. Facilitators and tutors are now sought across New Zealand by the Sustainable Living Education Trust to use our learning guides with community groups, at high schools, environment centres and in libraries. Topics include waste minimisation, water, food, organic gardening, home energy, house eco-design & renovation, low carbon travel and community resilience.

The Known World Bookshop and B&B is in the historic township of Linton, about 30 minutes drive from Ballarat.

Learning guides and activities for groups are published on the web, for solo and group use – simply register your address. This community education programme is financially supported by New Zealand local government so it’s free for kiwis and edited by an independent charity, with no commercial advertising.

The bookshop features a curated collection of interesting and intriguing titles, whilst the B&B offers self-contained accommodation in a heritage building in the heart of the township.

Contact Michelle for more information. theknownworldbookshop@gmail.com 64 Sussex Street Linton VIC 3360

Guest 12 month individual subscriptions are available for Australians at NZ$39 per person: enquiries to rhys@sustainableliving.org.nz www.sustainableliving.org.nz

― allies ―

Avocado & Rose Face Oil Words by Rebecca Sullivan Photography Nassima Rothacker

< 94

Perfect for dry skin.

Avocado and rose are both super-nourishing and hydrating, making this the perfect moisture treatment whilst you sleep. Rose is said to be anti-ageing, so here’s hoping that you wake up having shed a few years as well.

Ingredients

•• •• •• •• ••

6 Tbs avocado oil 1 tsp rosehip essential oil 2 tsp rose water 8–10 drops of rose essential oil sterilised small bottle

Method Put all of the ingredients into a sterilised small bottle and shake to mix. Keep in a cool, dry place or in the fridge for up to three months (see Tip).

To use, wash and dry your face before bed, then put a few generous drops of this oil on your fingertips and rub them together to warm the oil. Apply the warm oil to your face, leaving it to soak in while you sleep.

Makes 100ml Tip – To extend the shelf life of this oil to about six months, add two drops of pure Vitamin E oil.

― health―

Natural Salt Hair Spray Words by Rebecca Sullivan Photography Nassima Rothacker

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Perfect for that ‘just been for my morning swim’ look.

This will work wonders for adding texture and curl to your hair.

Spray and scrunch on towel-dried hair for best results. It’s a great way to achieve a styled look without the nasty chemicals.

Ingredients 250ml hot (not boiling) water 2 tsp sea salt 1 Tbs coconut oil or argan oil

Method Mix the ingredients together and pour into a spray bottle. Shake well before each use. This will keep for up to three months.

Makes 250ml

Extract from The Art of Natural Beauty: Homemade lotions and potions for the face and body

by Rebecca Sullivan.

Published by Kyle Books ― health―

Book Reviews Reviews by Jo Canham

The Road to Tralfamadore is Bathed in River Water Blaise Van Hecke Busybird Publishing RRP $18 This is a joyful account of an unusual childhood, by Melbourne author and publisher, Blaise Van Hecke. In the 1970s, Blaise and her siblings were taken to the east coast of New South Wales to join an off-the-grid commune known as Tralfamadore, and a lifestyle sustained by homegrown produce, river water and fresh air is documented in this small book. Blaise’s love for this land, and for this period of her life, flows through the text much like the river on which she was situated, and the voice of a younger Blaise is clearly heard. This was also the time of the Bagwan Shree Rajneesh, and many of the Trafalmadorians became Sannyassins, including Blaise’s own mother. Blaise’s love of learning and language, her love of education, was not compromised during these years – indeed, her experiences at Tralfamadore may have given her a greater lust for them. Watership Down, by Richard Adams, is a foundation stone of this book. This is a little gem! < 96

Bees of Australia: A Photographic Exploration James Dorey CSIRO Publishing (2018) RRP $49.99 After the excitement of the discovery of Wallace’s giant bee recently, it’d be very remiss of me not to highlight this particular book in this issue’s round-up of readables. Gloriously photographed by James Dorey, this is a book to open and gasp at with every page. It is guaranteed to change the way you see these little pollinators who we – and our environment – rely upon so heavily. The gorgeous photographs are accompanied by articles

by James, as well as other bee experts from around the country.

This is a book to really buzz about and will open your eyes to the incredible diversity of our bee wildlife in Australia – and it will almost certainly have you wishing you had a macro lens fitted to your own camera.

― book―

A Hole in My Genes: A Memoir Dr Jodie Fleming Moshpit Publishing RRP $27.95 Dr Fleming was a health psychologist specialising in psychooncology when she was diagnosed with breast cancer, and this memoir explores the profound impact the diagnosis had on her life, both privately and professionally. Jodie has come through the experience and been declared cancer free, and now that her book is published, she is being asked to relive the journey again and again on author talk rounds. She recently spoke at our own bookshop, Blarney Books & Art, and you could have heard a pin drop as people took in her words. This is Jodie at her most generous. She is as warm as an individual can be, and brutally honest in her memoir and in answering questions in person. The popularity of her events (she recently packed out Warrnambool’s Lighthouse Theatre when she held a conversation with her treating oncologist), the numbers of questions that follow each of her interviews, and the fact that breast cancer affects so many, illustrate clearly that there is a pressing need for Jodie’s honest memoir.

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PIP MAGAZINE

THE AUSTRALIAN PERMACULTURE MAGAZINE ELECTRIC BIKES . MUSHROOM GARDENS HEALING HONEY . ETHICAL CLOTHING . CARROTS PERMACULTURE DESIGN . NATIVE BEES . APPLES

SUBSCRIBE SUBSCRIBE ONLINE Also available at newsagents and selected stockists

www.pipmagazine.com.au

― book―

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Tell us what you would like to see more of in Junkies: more news, more art, more junk, more upcycling tips. < 98

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We are excited to announce a special edition of Junkies which will be on sale in December called “The Makers Edition”.

If your crafty endeavours align with the Junkies ethos and you want your work showcased, contact us asap.

For more details head to our website under The Makers tab to find out more information on how you can become part of our coffee-table edition of Junkies.

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Supporting Australian Makers since 2007

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Be Square - Get cubed!

321 Smith St Fitzroy VIC & 116 Greville St Prahran VIC www.incube8r.com.au @incube8r