Peppercorn Gallery

Textile Artist

I have been making things for as long as I can remember- originally inspired by my Mum who was a keen crafter too! When I was a child I thought it crazy to be playing with dolls when you could be making them!

I became a Home Economics teacher and specialised in the teaching of embroidery. I also worked as a teacher and project designer at Country Bumpkin Publishing in Adelaide. I contributed to their main publication “Inspirations” embroidery magazine as well as some of their books such as “A-Z of embroidered motifs” and “Inspirations Baby”.  I also have a Bachelor of Design in Illustration. 

I use all of these skills in the creation of the little dolls. Pipe cleaner dolls were traditionally made to live in doll houses – often called ‘half-penny’ dolls as the raw materials are easily obtainable! I love making them and particularly love seeing children fall in love with them!

Ekko Glass Design

Chris Eaton from Ekko Glass Design began working with glass ten years ago after a visit to her home state of Tasmania, here she had the opportunity to work with world renowned glass artist, Jan Ridgen Clay from The World of Marbles in Sheffield, Tasmania. Chris was enticed and inspired by the beauty, vibrance and luminance of working with glass.

Ekko Glass Designs produce contemporary styled jewellery; pendants, necklaces, bracelets, beads and earrings along with a decorative functional homeware collection; salad servers, cheese and pate knives, teaspoons, and tea strainers - each individual and unique in every way.

Chris is continually honing her skills as a glass artist and still sees lamp working glass as a kind of magic where coloured glass is melted in a mesmerising flame to create beautiful unique glass jewels.

Painter

Maureen has been a lecturer, consultant and researcher in educational drama and visual art at the University of Tasmania. Her enthusiasm for each creative area spills into the other.

'I am often asked why I paint flowers. I wonder if this is linked to my early life on the west coast of Tasmania where I spent hours watching my mother work as a florist. The flowers I choose to paint are the ones I love. Flowers are uncomplicated, beautiful, and full of serenity in this challenging world.

In painting flowers I find that my subject matter is unlimited. Every flower has a different texture, form and colour. With every painting I challenge myself to express not just the format also the essence of the form. I choose to work with the acrylic medium using a palette of mainly transparent colours. Within my work I aim to achieve an exceptional three dimensional quality describing lecture through the subtle manipulation of tone, making each flower vibrant and full of life. I like the viewer to feel they can see into and beyond the heart of the flower.'

Maureen is self taught but has also spent time at the Tasmanian School of Art and recently spent 10 days painting in the Barossa Valley and hope to do this again in the future.

Celtmania - Tasmania

Celtmania's jewellery is handmade and cast in our studios in South Hobart at the base of Kunanyi/Mount Wellington and Cygnet. Our range includes brooches, earrings, pendants and charms, with an extensive variety if designs, mostly Celtic and animals.

We cast in lead free pewter, using rubber and silicone moulds. All brooch pins are soldered for strength and all earrings are beaded with sterling silver eye pins and earring hooks. The finished product is silver plated, oxidised and hand polished.

We have been market stallholders since 1988 when we began at Brisbane's Riverside Craft Market. We moved to Tasmania at the end of 2000, having done a decade of summer trading at Hobart's iconic Salamanca Market. We continue to sell our jewellery there every Saturday, all year round.

Bibiani & Prue Quarmby Designs

I explore techniques with metal, wood, paper, polymer clay and textiles. Sometimes these mediums are used together in design, sometimes by themselves for texture and form. My Tasmanian Collection contains jewellery of fine and sterling silver, cast on real foliage of Tasmanian Endemic species, Tasmanian stones such as East Coast granite, and designs using polymer clay colour mixes redolent of particular areas of Tasmania such as Freycinet Peninsul

Bags from Rags

Karen has lived in Tasmania since 1981 when she moved here to begin her career as a scientist. 

She has always enjoyed arts and crafts and has dabbled in all sorts of crafty things in her spare time. 

In 2014 she joined three other very creative friends to form Functionart, a cooperative with a passion to recycle and repurpose old and unwanted materials and things into creative and useful pieces. Karen started making bags from scraps and old clothes for presents for her friends and also various market stalls. 

Her passion for textiles and colour and reusing old clothes, particularly jeans lead to her creating Bags from Rags. Each bag she makes is unique and incorporates embroidery, sashiko stitching, free motion quilting, old buttons and recycled yarn to form a unique piece of fabric art.

Felting

I love using beautiful soft merino wool to create my handmade felted hats and shawls. I have always had a passion for hats, especially those from the 1920's. Before turning my hand to felting I was an artist for many years, my choice of medium was acrylics and oils, then I moved on to pastel. Now I prefer to 'paint' with wool. Designing my hats is great fun, and seeing what you have in your mind come to life is definitely a labour of love for me.

I live in New Norfolk, Tasmania, which is a lovely little country town, very friendly and quiet. Even though I have travelled Australia extensively I would not choose to live anywhere else after moving here 10 years ago.

Photography

Judy has enjoyed photography, as her main hobby, for over 30 years. Having returned to her home town of Hobart, after spending many years in Sydney pursuing a science career and then running her own business,

Judy is now enjoying more free time and has combined her picture framing skills with her photography to present a variety of quality images taken around Australia, from dramatic and colourful Arnhem Land sunsets to quiet, reflective days on the Derwent River in Hobart or wildlife photography on the Tasman Peninsula .

Inspired by nature's ever changing vistas and landscapes, her artists eye has captured these inspiring images for all to enjoy and in January 2015 Judy won the Best Nature Photography Award at the Tasman Art and Craft Exhibition for her Rosella at Sunset, this features the Green Rosella, one of Tasmania's endemic bird species.

IN2 WOOD - Woodwares

Scott has been IN2 WOOD for about 20 years after many years of enjoying working with wood as a hobby. Scott makes a wide range of finely crafted domestic wood wares such as cutting boards, trays, lazy susans, as well as jewellery boxes and numerous other items from Tasmanian timbers.

Scott's work is exceptional. He knows how to make the most out of our unique Tasmanian timbers, often combining different woods to great effect in the beautifully finished pieces that he produces. 
Scott has a sense of playfulness about him which is evident in some of his work.