Blue Mountains contemporary jewellery collective Mountains and Metal will be exhibiting at historic homestead Macquarie on April 6 and 7 at 0’Connell, this side of Bathurst.
Part of an Open Weekend, Macquarie’s Open events can attract well over 2,000 people so makers Christina Mija, Sondi’s Studio, Fliss Grover, Val Aked, Jane Tadrist, Megan Turton and Bonny Hennessy, also owner of Macquarie with husband Paul, have been hard at work.
This is the first time the group has exhibited outside the local area although all members of the group have their own well-established solo careers. Val Aked and Sondi, for example, are both silversmiths who have pieces in both public and private collections.
Fliss Grover’s pieces exhibit a tribal aesthetic influenced by her background living in Africa and the Pacific while Megan Turton’s architecture background informs her approach to jewellery-making.
Macquarie is the first farm and oldest residence just over the Blue Mountains and a wonderful example of Georgian simplicity. Established by William Lawson, who with his rudimentary knowledge of surveying, famously recorded the Mountains crossing in 1813 and after further exploration, discovered an abundance of pasture. Records show that in May 1815 the site of Bathurst was proclaimed and just two months later Lawson delivered 100 head of cattle to Macquarie, determined as he was to be the first settler in the west.
Macquarie is at 3397 O’Connell Road. Exhibition in Convict Barracks. April 6-7 10am-3pm.
