Our first Maker to inhabit the shop is Susan Gamble, the multi-talented artist behind the label Gambled Genesis.
Gambled Genesis is a boutique art + media studio + label for artist and musician Susan Gamble. An animator, composer, experimental filmmaker, fine artist and musician, Gambled Genesis is the umbrella under which her many and varied creations reside. Relevantly it is an art label for a range of handmade original works of art and whimsy - designed to be worn!
Tell us about the process of creating your products, from concept to finish?
Ingredients: wanderings, shutter box, clay, two creative hands, a 1930’s Metters speckled green oven, lacquer and a pinch each of love and luck! The initial impetus for Gambled Genesis' jewellery was born from the idea of making wearable photographic art, a way of taking art off the wall and into the street, making moving art pieces that each tell a story.
Most works are made using polymer clay, each is hand-shaped to form a ceramic base and baked in my vintage oven where images undergo a form of heat transference then, depending on the range, images are sealed with varnish and finished or button centres are stitched in matching threat. Other works involve collecting of plants, drying and pressing onto a birchwood base and then sealing with lacquer.
Most works are made using polymer clay, each is hand-shaped to form a ceramic base and baked in my vintage oven where images undergo a form of heat transference then, depending on the range, images are sealed with varnish and finished or button centres are stitched in matching threat. Other works involve collecting of plants, drying and pressing onto a birchwood base and then sealing with lacquer.
What’s in the name?
‘Gambled Genesis’ is positive spin on my surname! By ‘gambling’ on my creativity one receives the flowering of an original ‘genesis’. Further I have two very green thumbs and grow a lot of my own food and love taking inspiration from nature and the majesty of found items of antiquity! The name and visual aesthetic of the label is intended to reflect this earthy and hands on ethos.
What do you make?
Gambled Genesis’ first range of jewellery - photographic brooches and pendants - features treasured images captured on my many and varied roamings, pieces come in a range of 3 sizes and each is accompanied with a small note of place - you could say each is a potential ‘conversation starter!’ If however you prefer your art more traditionally located (on a wall instead of your person!) photographic prints are also available in A4, A3+ and A2 sizes.Next to genesis were brightly coloured ceramic cardigan and scarf buttons - a handmade playful solution to the ever roving neck scarf and the many lost cardigan sticks!
The latest range to manifest itself drew inspiration very close to home - from my backyard garden in the form of a native four-leaf clover. I figured we all need a little luck in our day and I decided to turn my pond flora into pretty birchwood brooches. A hardy native that is very adept at surviving Australia's variable conditions it can lie dormant for a century as a spore and when the conditions are right - lovely and wet - it sends its spores adrift sometimes resulting in a majestic carpet of four-leaf clovers that stretches for miles!
What do you love about what you do?
I love dreaming up new ideas, I love the tactile process of making and I love seeing people enjoying and wearing my creations!
The nitty gritty…
Gambled Genesis’ first range of jewellery - photographic brooches and pendants. Jewellery items start at $20 for a ceramic button, the photographic range comes in small $30, medium $40 and large $60 sizes in both brooches and pendants and a four leaf clover brooch for a bit of good luck is $30. Photographic prints range from A4 $48, A3+ $80 to A2 $120.
