Meet the Artists and Creatives
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Bianca Harrington
Bianca Harrington is a multi-disciplinary artist from Melbourne Australia.
Her creative breadth spans painting, printing, collage, sewing, and accessory design. Her background in textiles took her to London, where she studied and worked as a milliner. Working with London’s most prestigious milliners gave her a chance to observe and learn from others in their creative practice, seeding her own path to becoming an artist. It was through this experience that she refined her skills in combining and balancing texture, form and colour.
Common themes in Bianca’s work portray simplified table scapes and botanicals with threads of folk symbolism.
Her work reveals subtle symbols arising from sparks of awe witnessed in day to day life, past travels or a museum trip. Small marks and imperfect shapes, aesthetic gestures of the lived experience.
Bianca’s lifetime of dedication to creative disciplines contribute to the narrative of her work, producing her own distinctive and ever-experimental articulation of contemporary art and design.
Website: biancaharrin.com
Instagram: @bianca.harrin
Bianca’s workshops:
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Little Patch Project
A food lover, a mumma, a permaculture enthusiast. All roads lead back to the kitchen in Jordy’s home.
With 30 years working in and around the food industry, Jordy’s passion for an ethical food system has only deepened. Jordy’s areas of interest include permaculture, food preservation, edible gardening, food security, food education, community building through food, waste minimisation, traditional kitchen skills and homesteading.
Jordy is the owner of Little Patch Project and runs workshops from her property in Montmorency and by private arrangement.
Website: littlepatchproject.com
Instagram: @littlepatchproject
Jordy’s workshops:
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Kindred Women
Erin and Abbie are the founders of Kindred Women.
They educate and empower women to hold space for themselves, and each other. The containers Erin and Abbie create cultivate a connection to community and to Self: a sense of spaciousness to support the many transitions and transformations throughout womanhood.
Abbie and Erin weave together their personal journeys, powerful practices, teachings and techniques to create gentle spaces of exploration and connection.
Website: kindredwomen.com.au
Instagram: @kindredwomen
Kindred Women’s workshops:
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Emma Sjaan Beukers
Emma Sjaan Beukers is a designer, illustrator and esoteric practitioner working from her home studio in Naarm.
Emma's animist, ancestral and spiritual beliefs and practices are explored within, and guide, her work; filled with magic, nostalgia, adventure, mystery, whimsy and folklore that makes you feel warm, comfy and as if your inner child is being nurtured.
This work was born out of the knowledge that nature is a living and breathing entity we are in constant reciprocity and symbiosis with, as well as all the magical spirits and energies we find when we take the time to notice them.
Emma is a creative all-rounder who refuses to stick to one style or medium for her artistic expressions.
Website: emmasjaanbeukers.com
Instagram: @emmasjaanbeukers
Emma’s workshops:
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Every Little Breeze
Louise is the owner of Every Little Breeze Flowers.
Every Little Breeze Flowers was born out of a love for creating beautiful floral arrangements with an emphasis on weddings and other special moments that deserve flowers.
From there Louise has found a passion for teaching others to create their own masterpieces!
Instagram: @every.little.breeze
Louise’s workshop:
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Storyholding
Eltham (Melbourne)-based artist, Rochelle van der Merwe is the founder of Storyholding - a small studio with a big heart, based at Montsalvat. Rochelle is a multidisciplinary artist with a special interest in storytelling through written word, contemporary collage and fine art photography.
Born and raised in a small Zululand town in South Africa in the mid-70’s, she found solace and beauty in books, and the surrounding wild beaches and bushveld, a constant whilst growing up in a political landscape she could really never make sense of.
Rochelle’s work creates a portal to a wondrous, fantastical world that celebrates the powerful healing nature of simple, mostly every-day pleasures, transcending external societal values, such as status, race and gender.
Apart from national South African newspaper, The Rapport, Rochelle’s portraiture photography has also recently been featuring in Australian media, such as The Age, The Weekend Australian Review and The Big Issue.
Rochelle’s been a two-time winner of Montsalvat’s Art Festival Photography competition (2015 & 2017).
Website: storyholding.com.au
Instagram: @storyholding
Rochelle’s workshops:
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The Workshop Buffet
Annie is the founder of The Workshop Buffet.
Annie is an unabashed creative who sews, paints, sculpts and who is a plant enthusiast and gardener.
Annie is passionate about her local community , loves being involved from a grass roots level and is constantly inspired when people’s creativity and purpose align.
Instagram: @the_workshop_buffet
Annie’s workshop:
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Wudtjameen
WUDTJAMEEN offers workshops in the traditional Aboriginal art of basket-weaving, a practice deeply connected to both function and storytelling. Traditionally woven by Aboriginal women, baskets were used for gathering food and everyday necessities, but the act of weaving itself also created space for yarning, sharing knowledge, and strengthening community connections.
WUDTJAMEEN is run by Georgia and Olivia, Central and Eastern Arrernte women and sisters, both living in Naarm.
Georgia is multidisciplinary artist, who uses her decade of weaving experience to create large-scale woven sculptures for galleries and public installations, blending cultural practice with artistic exploration.
Olivia is a talented musician and weaver.
Website: wudtjameen.com.au
Instagram: @wudtjameen
Georgia’s workshop: