Craft Culture Alive and Kicking

Claire Watson It’s a full house for the 2015 Australasian Craft and Quilt Fair now underway at the Perth Convention Centre.     More than sixty vendors and exhibitors were included in this year’s event, with 12 guests from around the country showing off their competition-winning crafts, quilt work and designs. Brisbane born artist ‘Svenja’ has one of the most popular exhibits this year, displaying her abstract, ‘dark fantasy’ take on wearable art. She takes her inspiration from Nature, designing gowns and headwear pieces like something out of a children’s fable. Svenja says her work has attracted attention from a much broader audience than the typical craft goers. ‘I’ve had a few men through here in the last couple of days who have just been blown away. I found that really interesting and quite lovely,’ she says. While she has been predominantly designing for personal and competition uses, Svenja says the positive reception has pushed her to more commission based designs in the future. Fellow Brisbane guest vendor, Kerry Gurney, demonstrates more traditional craft work, such as scrapbooking. A regular at craft fairs, she says the impressive turnout can be attributed to the closure of local stores and suppliers. ‘It’s harder to find what you need locally now. A lot of the exhibitors are from interstate, so people get to see way more products.’ Kerry has been involved in stamping, scrapbooking and paper craft for more than 20 years and been involved in demonstrations and expos around the country. She believes that crafts such as scrapbooking and patchwork have a more sentimental value than increasingly popular social media forums such as Instagram. ‘Nobody prints photos anymore… it’s all digital. But there is something so much nicer about sitting down and flipping through a scrapbook or album.’ The Perth Craft and Quilt Fair is running until the 24^th of May before moving on to Sydney. Hear Svenja talk about the inspiration behind her designs below.