Here’s an interesting story from the Melbourne jeweller Katherine Bowman, who seems to be expanding her practice in all directions. Earlier this year she had an exhibition of ’embroidered’ paintings based on the poems of Rilke. Now she is working with a group of older Turkish women based at Banksia Gardens Community Centre.

Embroidery is a familiar craft for these women, but Katherine has intervened by asking them to draw some original designs. The plan is to exhibit these newer designs along with the more familiar floral motifs, drawn from the objects like towels, shawls and doilies that are part of the everyday domestic fabric.

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The final exhibition The Wisdom of Worldly Women will be held in October. To frame the works, Katherine is using a quote from the Vietnamese filmmaker, Trinh T. Minh-ha, used as a caption to an image of a woman spinning wool: ‘"May my story be beautiful and unwind like a long thread…," she recites as she begins her story. A story that stays inexhaustible within its own limits.’

Katherine’s project demonstrates the expanding field of individual craft practice nowadays, as well as the potential for innovation within traditional collective crafts. The individual artist becomes more collective, while the collective expresses greater individuality. We’ll see the results of this experiment in October.

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The artists are:

• Peter Bauhuis, Munich, Germany
• Doris Betz, Munich, Germany
• Andi Gut, Zürich, Switzerland / Pforzheim, Germany
• Sally Marsland, Melbourne, Australia
• Mascha Moje, Melbourne, Australia
• Manon van Kouswijk, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

This is the second such exhibition. The first was at Rathausgalerie Munich in 2004. While there is no collaborative works, there is a definite shared aesthetic framing the exhibition. The exhibition opens jewellery up as a space for poetic tinkering, moving away from the highly polished masterpiece to the object that whispers something strange in your ear. The works display a series of subtle interventions into the everyday material world. The bench is never far from the kitchen table.

One of the most striking elements in this exhibition is the different coloured table tops. They are actually parts of a platform that have been separated, so are a little higher than the average table. And they have been each painted different colours to complement the works – Sally Marsland’s Almost Black on a hot pink surface is certainly a sight to behold.

This exhibition certainly demonstrates the fecundity of contemporary jewellery. The broad range of experimentation and jazz-like improvisation around a theme creates a visual and sometimes tactile feast.

But nothing is sufficient to itself and such this exhibition can’t speak for the entire breadth of contemporary jewellery. It certainly does not speak for jewellery that seeks an engagement with the collective world. The formalist use of colour provides a supportive framework for the modernist projects on which the individual jewellers have embarked. These certainly advance jewellery, but something else needs to connect it to the world.

Salon International is the second instalment in what is a major concentration of jewellery in Melbourne. Following Marian Hosking’s Living Treasure exhibition at Craft Victoria, we look forward next week to the Otto Künzli show at Funaki from 29 July and the Karl Fritsch show at RMIT from 6 August.

It’s Cicely & Colin Rigg award time. This recurrent prize exhibition is a significant opportunity to promote and recognise those artists specialising in particular craft media. Nurtured and hosted by the National Gallery of Victoria, it has previously featured the best of Victorian ceramics, metalwork, jewellery and textiles. Now the focus is on furniture, in particular seating.

Despite its positive impact, something irks about this award. Since the NGV move into Federation Square, the award has undergone a significant name change. Initially a craft award, it has been re-titled as an award in ‘contemporary design.’ This name change reflects the aspirational nature of the NGV, particularly its celebration of architecture as a creative practice. There’s nothing wrong with an overtly elitist institution, even it if only provides something to react against. And Melbourne’s thriving design culture is certainly to be celebrated (with two simultaneous international design festivals, two fashion festivals and a design-focused Melbourne International Festival, there’s certainly no lack of celebration).

But should design come at the expense of craft? Information about the award retrospectively categorises crafts like ceramics as ‘contemporary design disciplines’. While craft and design are certainly complementary, it is a serious mistake to think that one is simply a more updated version of the other. The focus of design is its utility in everyday life. The emphasis is less on how something is made, than what it is made for. By contrast, materials and processes are intrinsic to our apprehension of ceramics. As widely recognised in the many craft texts published recently, materials have their own powerful language of expression.

As our leading state institution, the NGV has a responsibility to teach audiences about the nature of craft, and how it informs and adds value to our appreciation of objects.

While ‘craft’ might be a dirty word at the NGV, its revival is being lead by designers themselves, such as the Dutch Maarten Baas. How does the NGV engage with the craft boutiques mushrooming around Melbourne?

The day will come when the NGV can show an appreciative audience the wonderful stories of craft that are housed in its vaults. Indiana Jones as curator?

The talk at Craft South on Monday was the scene of a very interesting conversation as many contributed their experiences in working with artisans in other countries.

The purpose was to open up dialogue about the changing relationship between first world countries like Australia and the ‘developing world’ in the light of climate change. It is in this context that the activity of ‘world craft’ seems particularly relevant.

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The following kinds of rich-poor relationships were discussed:

1. Natural

Wealth is the natural reward of the stronger and more talented. The poor can improved their position if they work hard enough or put up a better fight. With wealth comes great advances in knowledge and art. Consider Medici, Darwin and Nietzsche.

2. Feudalist

It is the responsibility of the rich to care for the poor. Their wealth contributes to the prosperity of society as a whole. Those who are unable to care for themselves need special attention. Consider missionaries, celebrities in Africa and Make Poverty History.

4. Spiritual

With wealth comes spiritual decay. The abundance of goods leads to a moral torpor and alienation from the world. The poor have the rigours of necessity to sharpen their senses and the camaraderie of people brought together in adversity. Consider primitivism, the Slow Movement and world music.

5. Revenge

The rich countries have outsourced the bulk of their labour to the hard-working masses in the third world. Their increasingly passive consumer lifestyle and growing debts have made them weak and vulnerable to future challenges. They will be eventually outpaced by the confident and energetic developing world. Consider the new superpowers of China and India, Hegel’s master-slave dialectic and the Sermon on the Mount.

6. Partnership?

The Titanic has been hit by an iceberg. All classes, from the poor immigrants in steerage to the aristocracy in the cocktail bar face a similar grim horizon. Unlike Titanic, climate change prompts a cooperative response, but one where first and third worlds much recognise each others needs and aspirations. Is there a mutually beneficial and empowering relationship between rich and poor? Consider craft-design collaborations?

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Here’s a quote from venerable Japanese glass-blower Yoshiharu Shinohara:

Lately, parents of young people will come up to me, and say “My child is really quiet and withdrawn, and just likes to stay in the house all the time, so I want him to become a craftsman.” But this is what I tell them: “Lady, you’ve got it all wrong. It’s tough to be a craftsman these days. You’ve got to find your own way to market your product, explain it by yourself, and add value to the product so it will sell for a good price. If you’re quiet and withdrawn, you’d better forget about being a craftsman."

It’s an interesting point of view, at odds with the museological approach to traditional artisans. The rest of the article is well worth a read.