In August 2006 Craft Australia launched its second online forum, Youth@craft·design, targeting youth and emerging makers. The forum identified new pathways to sustainable practices in the arts and included the sage mentoring of emerging makers who have successfully negotiated these issues in the establishment of their artistic careers.

A significant component of the site was the online gallery showcasing the work of students and emerging artists. Craft Australia invited practitioners to participate in the program with the view that a selected artist from each category would be awarded a feature story, profiling their work, in 716.

Craft Australia is pleased to announce that the artists in both the student and emerging maker category have now been selected.

Labour by singing light by Gaida Macs highlights the practice of Rhonda Lin, winner in the emerging maker category.

Rhonda Lin

Congratulations to Rhonda Lin from Sydney, another metalsmith and the winner of the Emerging Artist category of the Craft Australia Award. Rhonda has been juggling the roles of maker and new mother for the past 2 years and is thrilled with this public acknowledgement of her work. She enrolled in the competition at the suggestion of her colleagues as a way of getting her work exposed to the wider craft community. View images

Rhonda's first career in graphic design was curtailed when she and her family immigrated to Australia in the mid-nineties. Her family and their connections both to Taiwan and China continue to have a significant influence on Rhonda's creative imaginings.

She initially enrolled in an Advanced Diploma at the Enmore TAFE. As someone who had worked with 2D images for some time - it occurred to Rhonda that working in 3D would be more fun. However, she stressed, "I never think about sculpture ... I'm not good at big things".

To her pleasant surprise she discovered that designing and making small objects was something she fell in love with. Transferring her studies to Sydney College of the Arts, Rhonda majored in Jewellery and Object design. Like many others before her, it was not until she first sat at the work bench that Rhonda realised that "this is what I want to do in my future."

She speaks with gratitude of her teachers and colleagues , citing Karin Findeis as a prime influence. Rhonda maintains that it was Karin's encouragement that got her through the tough times. She graduated with Honours in 2005.

For Rhonda, the family is a primary source of inspiration for her creative endeavours. Her grandmother, who passed away a few years ago, and her stories, are particularly important.

She remembers watching her grandmother sitting in a chair looking out of a window for long stretches of time. She did not seem to be looking at what was outside the window, or so it seemed to the young Rhonda; she seemed to be looking 'inside' at another garden altogether. Were there stories about old secret gardens - perhaps in long-ago China ?

These imaginary places are evoked in Rhonda's 2005 work Secret Garden - what appears to be a strange airy field of flowers, red and silver stretching out in front of our eyes. A secret garden which is real but references other gardens maybe unreal, which no longer exist, or never existed. The seeming insubstantiality of the work somehow communicates both the fragility of the flowers and of the memories themselves. It's as if a strong wind could blow them all away.

While a similar floral motif, taken once again from old fabric of her grandmother's, appears again in her work "Secret Boxes" - these pieces are quite different in their haptic quality. They are very present and juxtapose slashes of red perspex in precisely incised sterling silver. This melding of traditional pattern with contemporary materials shows that Rhonda is very much a maker of the current zeitgeist. She says that the pattern on the bottom of these boxes references her grandmother while the graphics around the sides are more about her own life and concerns.

Her enameled fish pendant is similarly personal, but this time, it's about her father; she has often used the fish symbol, she says "... one day I suddenly realised it's all because my father who loves fishing." Rhonda goes on to admit that she sometimes finds it hard to communicate with her father so tries to use her work to talk to him.

When asked her favourite process of the many she uses, Rhonda admits that while soldering is pretty well top of the list - she is entranced by all of them; the cutting, the filing, the hammering, the polishing - she finds them soothing and welcomes the variety and rhythms of making.

Being the mother of an active 2 year old means that Rhonda hasn't had as much time as she would like in her workspace of late. Nonetheless she keeps up to date with the craft community and what is happening on the exhibition front by setting up and maintaining active networks. One of the founders of the group 'Makers Manifold' Rhonda, together with another five friends, has committed themselves to an annual group show. This group provides a communication and information framework as well as support, technical assistance and other expertise and contacts.

Rhonda has exhibited her work at Metalab and Gaffa Gallery during 2006 and is also presently working as a Technician Assistant at Sydney College of the Arts on a part time basis. She currently lives with her husband, Andrew and her son, Ethan near Sydney's Olympic Park. She describes herself as a jeweller and metalsmith.

Having recently discovered that she is pregnant with her second child, she is anticipating the new arrival with some excitement. As if that won't be enough she is also looking forward to completing a Masters degree in five years time.

Rhonda is keen to get back to her workbench, "every time I sit there I feel I'm myself. I'm doing something I love. It's like the whole world is mine and I'm the king."

Gaida Macs
June, 2007

Gaida Macs graduated with Honours in Sculpture from the ANU School of Art in 2004. Currently living in northern NSW, she is preparing work for a number of exhibitions in 2007.