The stunning timeless work of Hazelbrook basket makers and sisters Jillian Culey and Carolyn Dance is currently on show at Gang Gang Gallery in Lithgow in an exhibition called Adrift.
It is featured alongside the work of two other Mountains artists - multimedia fibre artist Kaylene Brooks from the Kanimbla Valley and Wentworth Falls painter Michiyo Miwa with her ink wash painting. The exhibition opened on November 4 and runs until Sunday November 28 at Gang Gang Gallery in Lithgow.
The Mountains sisters began their basket weaving business about eight years ago. Called Branching Out Designs it was born from a love of weaving and a keen interest to support fair trade and upcycle objects. They both live and work in Hazelbrook, collecting much of their materials and inspiration from their bush backyards. Although the work in Adrift is focused on driftwood collected from the NSW South Coast.
Mrs Culey learnt the ancient art of weaving while working as a maths teacher in Kiribati in the Pacific. She has continued developing her craft in Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory and throughout Europe - using mathematical patterns to create magic. She has then taught her sister.
As well as selling and exhibiting their functional vessels, woven lights and sculptural forms, Branching Out Designs has been running weaving workshop in and around the Mountains for the past six years. These book out quickly.
Mrs Dance said she loves the way the workshops bring people together to create a unique and beautiful but functional basket. "It's a meditative process the weaving and opens up conversations. We love the harvesting, the creating, the whole process." The pair use any flexible material - jasmine, wisteria, passionfruit vines, fruit trees and red hot pokers, spraying with bug spray and linseed oil to set.
"Weaving is one of the largest traditional crafts still going," she said.
Adrift is focused on the array of gnarled wood that get washed onto the shores every day. Every piece has been shaped through storms, currents, tides and fires.
The Gang Gang Gallery is on 211 Main Street, Lithgow and open Thursday to Sundays from 10.30am to 4.30pm. It is free to enter, work is for sale priced from about $55 to about $1000.
