Bladesmith 

Karim learnt to be a blacksmith, knife and toolmaker from the master bladesmith Thomas Gerner of Western Australia.  The tools made are designed to be not only of excellent quality but pleasant to use. Each item is individually crafted to fit the owner's hand.

Karim learnt the ancient craft of forging pattern welded steel. Often called "Damascus steel" after the city in which the technique was mastered over 1000 years ago, the process produces a superior steel with as many as 2000 layers. Intricate patterns are worked into the steel, giving a distinctive "watermark".

Other blades Karim forges are from High carbon steels - first hand forged then precision ground to it's final form, before being heat treated and tempered.

Karim also hand makes the handles from wood, bone and metal, as well as leatherwork for the pouches and sheaths.

Specialties:

• Carving sets
• Custom made hand forged knives
• Cutting tools
• Decorative steelwork
• Knife and tool repairs
• Sharpening

Potter

Michelle has had a life long affiliation with the natural environment surrounding her. Michelle's latest venture in ceramics has allowed her to further explore this connection and presented numerous opportunities to discover different mediums to express herself.

Michelle takes pleasure in shaping pots which feel comfortable and balanced.

"The inspiration for my latest glazings has been drawn from the watering environments so important to me through out my life; the greens of Tasmania's oceans, the blues of alpine rivers  and the constantly changing hues of inland lake systems."

Painter 

My paintings are abstract in nature and as such my aim is to describe not nature as I see it with my eyes, rather the experience of nature and the study of it, that I take away with me. I explore the capacity of texture, colour and line to convey a sense of place and experience in the same way that a composer uses the notes and melodies of a piece of classical music to describe a place or experience. The viewer or listener accesses a different language to classical perspective or words to respond to the works.

Photographer 

Nahila was given a camera as a gift at the age of 11 and has never put it down. She uses an SLR with 125 ASA film, although periodically finds herself fixated with the Polaroid.  Her subjects share a distance with their own environment and with the audience. It is a distance that through her eye allows us a quiet understanding not only of their reality but also of our own.

“I love to travel to beautiful places, vast spaces and mad mad cities...Paris, Alaska, Tripoli and New York are among my favourites. I walk through the streets and spaces not ever looking for moments to be made into memories, but sometimes I find them...some happy, some sad, but all tell a story. 

I love to capture people's dreams and realities...falling in love, stolen memoires, lost innocence, awesome landscapes...they all can happen. They are my dreams and realities.”

Painter 

As a child, I was surrounded by art in all its glory and form, style, colours and textures.  My mother was a potter and painted with watercolours during her "leisure" time.  As  a consequence of this art-infused up- bringing, I have a deep appreciation for and awareness of beauty and art combined, especially in nature.

I have not sat still for very long, and as a result my watercolours and drawings have been crammed into visual journals accompanied by inspired ramblings and found objects.  Since putting down firmer roots I have been experimenting with different media - pastels, oil and acrylics, but as yet nothing has cemented as "the one art form."

Change is the only constant...

Photographer 

Viewing subjects through the finder of her medium format SLR, Ali endeavours to capture her subject as a part of the landscape, if not the landscape.  Images that are not quite, 'under the microscope', close up shots do however form a large part of her works.  Close ups which allow the viewer into the landscape and to escape into it.

"I believe an image in monochrome is one that can provoke a response or triggers the audience into comment.  With the body as a part of the landscape or as the landscape itself it allows me the escapism I am searching for and when I photograph I escape into my landscapes."