My name is Kate Gardiner and I have lived in and travelled to remote places, regional centres, and metropolitan communities throughout Australia.
The jewellery series and associated stories of my Rangelands Revealed project captures colours, shapes and experiences of the landscape of central-western NSW. More broadly, the project aims to draw attention to the vital environment of the rangelands.
In late-2023, I relocated to Nova Scotia with my husband Wade and our dog Bess, and in time I look forward to visiting the grasslands of central Canada.
Workshop Experiences
In 2015, I began undertaking metalsmith workshops run by artists local to Canberra. I forged Damascus steel and made Japanese knives at Tharwa Valley Forge, and I made metal spoons at the studio of highly regarded silversmith Alison Jackson. Throughout 2018 to 2020, I attended evening workshops lead by goldsmith Katie Shanahan at KIN Gallery, where I started designing the Rangelands series. For a glimpse into my rewarding ventures into metalsmithing, please see the images here.
Since late-2023, I have been undertaking workshops in Halifax at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University, as well as self-guided practice at the Centre for Craft.
Showcasing the Rangelands
I am particularly interested in designing jewellery that simultaneously refers to small and large-scale features of the landscape in western-New South Wales, Australia.
The shapes, sizes and colour of the pieces I create are similar to the bark of the Leopardwood tree that flakes off in jigsaw-sized pieces. Using liver of sulphur, I oxidise the sterling silver to create a dark grey similar to the tone of the bark. On a much larger scale, long sandstone ridgelines stretch through the rangelands south-west of Cobar, including where I spent my formative years on my family’s farm, and so the shape of these geological features inform the curved detail cut from the lower edge of each earring.
In designing the collection, I aim for a considered distillation of natural forms rather than a replica of nature.
Featured
Starry Night
Earrings (large), oxidised sterling silver and 9ct yellow gold
Ngarrkaray / Leopardwood tree bark
Accent materials include gold and silver wire, as well as coloured silk thread.
The silks refer to features in the landscape including the pink feathers of the galah, or shadows cast by bark on tree trunks, or the light-green leaves of the Leopardwood tree.
In other designs, small pieces of wire beaded at each end are inserted across the surface of the earrings. The wire is incorporated into the design so as to move slightly, creating a tactile quality like the tiny bits that crumble off the Leopardwood tree bark.
As well as the texture of crumbling bark, the arrangement of the gold wire across the blackened silver simultaneously refers to the star-speckled night sky. In a similar arrangement, sterling silver wire set across hammered, brushed silver recalls the effect of rain splashing the surface of puddles, dams and creeks.
Considered as a whole, and while I continue developing the collection, each piece sits in relation to the others, and in turn the wearer of each piece connects them to the wearers of the other variations. In this way over time as the pieces go out into the world, there is an ever-growing group of wearers showcasing features of the rangelands.
Featured
rangelands rain
Earrings, sterling silver, 9 carat yellow gold wire, sterling silver hooks
Ngarrkaray / Leopardwood tree bark
A combination of techniques and equipment are used including a rolling mill, saw piercing, drilling, and a dapping block.
Oxidised pieces are finished with a layer of museum-grade wax to protect the blackened surface. Then I sew the silk thread into the silver. For other designs, I create a hammered surface across bright silver, and on others I use sandpaper to gently polish the small pieces of beaded gold wire.
I enjoy the challenges in each stage of crafting jewellery in precious metals and continue to explore techniques. I’ve explored the lost wax method to create pendants from casts of antique buttons and ancient fossils I collected in the rangelands many years ago, and in 2023 I extended my skills to include brooch making which resulted in pieces being shown in two exhibitions in Australia. I continue to explore processes including beading tools to etch the pattern of water flowing through the rangelands seen in aerial photography, and copper enamel to capture the speckle and crust of flaking bark of the Leopardwood tree.
I hold current memberships with Craft Victoria in Australia, and with Craft Nova Scotia and Craft Ontario in Canada.
My practice keeps me alert to a range of key topics including the history of Craft, contemporary jewellery design and critically-informed land management, and I regularly undertake workshops as well as self-directed exploration to refine and broaden my skills.
Because the shape of the Leopardwood tree bark is infinitely varied, I don’t use a template.
This aids in producing line elements that are as varied as the bark itself. Although the steps I take to make the jewellery are consistent, no pair of earrings, for example, are identical to another, and so each pair is one-of-a-kind within the collection.
Leopardwood trees grow throughout western NSW, and they are typically found on stony outcrops. The tree is called ngarrkaray by the Pilaarrkiyalu language group of the Ngiyampaa Wangaaypuwan people, Traditional Custodians of country south-west of Cobar. In Latin the tree is classified as Flindersia maculosa. For the geographical location of the country of Ngiyampaa speakers, please see the maps HERE.
Through learning about the Ngiyampaa language, I am constantly reminded that the features of the landscape including the ngarrkaray have been named twice: eloquently storied by First Nations people, and later labelled by colonizers on lands never ceded. Bearing this in mind, the morphology of the word ‘Pilaarkiyalu’ declares possession, wherein ‘-pilaar’ means ‘owner’, and ‘-kiyalu’ means ‘belonging to’.
Acknowledgement of Country
I acknowledge the Ngiyampaa Wangaaypuwan, the traditional custodians of the rangelands in the past, today, and in the future. It is a privilege to design jewellery that derives inspiration from a landscape where Ngiyampaa Wangaaypuwan have handcrafted decorative and functional objects for thousands of years.
Commitment to Environmental Education
This contemporary jewellery project builds on my advocacy of critically informed environmental education.
The legacy from my years working as a Primary School teacher takes the form of a prize I initiated and continue to fund, awarded annually since 2004 to a student who has demonstrated the careful use of environmental resources in a metropolitan context.
While studying for a Master of Art Administration, I observed a synergy between Environmental Art and the increasing global focus on regenerative agriculture. With this focus, I concluded my degree by analysing trends in the representation of both Land Art and agricultural land management in my thesis titled Environmental Issues and Critical Thinking in Art Gallery and Museum Exhibitions.
Throughout my career in education and public programs 2004 - 2021, I worked with colleagues, experts and stakeholders to champion environmental literacy in the museum sector. Of note during this time was a five-year long project focussed on Natural Temperate Grassland in the Australian Capital Territory, and this was instrumental in achieving grant funding for land management across the whole site. That project is summarised here, and more examples raising awareness of youth, cultural and environmental capital are listed within this website here.