Opening the 2019 series of featured artists at The Gallery in Mogo is fabric and jewellery craft artist, Anne Boardman.
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Many readers will know Anne from the Moruya Sewing Centre which she owned and managed for over 20 years and the workshops she conducted there in fabric printing, dyeing, texturing and patchwork and for another 10 years from her home.
On show at The Gallery is a range of Anne’s work, from exquisite drawstring jewellery bags with Japanese style pouches to larger bags with beading chosen to subtly enhance the pattern of the fabric; from jewellery featuring handmade glass beads to turquoise, black bead and silver necklaces; from decoupage boxes in various sizes to small pastel and watercolour paintings.
But Anne’s first love is fabric.
“Fabric speaks to me”, she says, “I study its colour, feel and pattern and decide what to make. I designed and made clothes for my dolls at a very young age and from 10 years old started to make my own clothes.
Anne will go online, especially to ‘Pinterest’, to keep up with trends in jewellery and fabric craft, as well as talk to her daughter and granddaughter about what is of interest to them and their circle of friends.
“There are endless ideas to explore,” she said.
But Anne does not go online to source her materials. Rather she prefers to feel its quality, to pick it up and study its design – thus she collects her fabric from all over the place including on a recent trip to England.
Anne came to the coast over 40 years ago with her first husband Keith Heron.
“We fell in love with the place and eventually bought and built in Mossy Point.”
Readers may remember Keith as an economics teacher at Moruya HS and, more likely, as a member of the popular local band, ‘Nightshift’.
Sadly Keith passed away in 1996 and Anne later married Alex Boardman.
Alex and Anne have built up a small farm of sheep, goats, ducks and chooks, vegetables and many fruit trees – with the aim of being self sufficient.
Anne makes preserves from their produce as well as practising her craft in the huge strawbale shed (now studio) they built, and Alex works in glass, including making some of the beads that Anne uses in her jewellery.
As she says of life and her craft, ”challenge makes life interesting”.
Anne’s work will be featured at The Gallery in Mogo throughout February and into the early part of March.
The Gallery is a co-operative venture of CABBI, a society open to local arts and crafts practitioners. People interested in finding out more about CABBI should drop in to The Gallery or phone 02 4474 2243.
