Looking forward to supporting a makers’ market for Goulburn, Cathy Hutton will be selling Italian-inspired necklaces made of red and green buttons for Christmas and one-off, original pieces of art. Photo: Gallery on Track.
Goulburn Farmers Market will finish 2024 with a creative flourish, combining for the first time a makers’ market.
On Saturday 21 December, Goulburn-made jewellery, pottery, fabric accessories and artwork will be on sale at the Peden Pavilion, next to the local food producers’ stalls.
Goulburn woman Cathy Hutton, who travelled regularly to Italy to became fluent in the language and later discovered the enchanting beauty of vintage buttons, will be selling from her ‘Vintage Caterina’ collection.
Travelling to several places including Veneto north of Venice she discovered at small antique markets women selling their grandmothers’ craft items, sewing accessories and buttons.
“One day I found this amazing tin of beautiful old buttons and thought, ‘They are too pretty; they are treasures; they can’t stay in this little tin, I need to make them into something so that I can actually wear them and people can see them,’” she said.
“There is still a real tradition of manufacturing buttons in Italy; all the little towns and big ones have a monthly market; that’s where you find their little treasures,” she said.
Since turning a hobby into an enterprise, she has been selling her earrings and brooches at markets and shops including a vintage shop in Braidwood.
“I’m not in it to make money; obviously I am not going to make any money. It’s the pleasure of making it. It means people can buy a necklace and wear a little piece of Italy,” Cathy said.
Working with fabrics, fibre and beads, Fiona Hammond makes purses and accessories. Her fabric purses have different themes, designs and varying sizes which she machine stitches and finishes with hand stitching at the top.
“I also have loved making earrings, pretty much my whole life,” Fiona said. “I was a self-taught jewellery-type person from 1981, it is my go-to fun craft thing.
“I like doing things a little bit different, a bit quirky,” she said. “I love colourful stuff; I don’t do middle-aged beige even though I am middle-aged,” she says with a good laugh.
When she was 10, her mother taught her to sew on her machine. “Like most people who love to sew, if they start in childhood it is usually making their dolls clothes, so my Barbies were fairly well outfitted in the day,” she said.
Discovering patchwork quilting in 1998, it left her gobsmacked how gorgeous it was, and she decided she too had to do it, which explains why so many different fabrics feature in her purses.
Fibre artist, designer and tutor Fiona Hammond above, and below, a selection of Fiona’s purses. Photos: Supplied.
Also at the makers’ market will be a signwriter who learned her trade with the Department of Main Roads more than 40 years ago. These days Karen Davis paints acrylics on canvas and turns them into jigsaw puzzles. She then packages them up as a mindfulness practice.
Her Joyful Jigsaws are machine-cut in Queensland into 506 pieces, ready for problem solving.
“It can be quite challenging, but it’s not too hard so people can have some satisfaction of completing it,” she said.
“When you get a jigsaw you also get a keepsake painting card which tells you the story and symbolism behind the painting, perhaps a journey or experience I have learned in my life which I wanted to share with others,” Karen said.
“I also give you an amethyst crystal and teach you to use that and attune it to your energy,” she said.
Colourful, stylistic, joyful and symbolised, Karen’s jigsaws are spiritual by design, which she has created by drawing on her experiences and what she sees around her.
Karen Davis uses her jigsaws in her work in aged care. She says the brain uses both sides at the same time when people are putting together jigsaws. This provides a sense of accomplishment. Photo: Supplied.
Learning pottery at Goulburn TAFE College over many years from the late 1990s, another stallholder, Helen Eatough, continued developing her craft at the Australian National University where she completed her diploma of ceramics.
She then returned to Goulburn and continued her studies at Goulburn TAFE.
Moving to Eastgrove, Helen established her own studio, and these days teaches three classes a week, over six weeks during the school term.
Helen also teaches at the Canberra Potters Society. Based in Watson, the society promotes excellence and innovation in ceramics, and encourages the professional development of its members.
She will have functional pieces including cups, plates and bowls, as well as sculptural pieces at the Goulburn Makers’ Market.
In the meantime, Goulburn Farmers Market founder Rita Warleigh is looking for more volunteers. If you are interested, email [email protected]
Goulburn Farmers Market and Makers’ Market, 21 December, 8 am – noon, Peden Pavilion, Goulburn Showground, Braidwood Road, Goulburn.
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