Handmade jewels shine

THE latest exhibition to come to the Bendigo Visitor Centre’s Living Arts Space is a celebration of two central Victorian jewellers.

Bendigo’s Milton Long has joined forces with Maldon’s Tony Kean to deliver The Town Jewels featuring handmade, unique pieces of jewellery and sculptures made of semi-precious and precious metals.

Long said the exhibition is a chance for him to show off what he’s been occupying himself with over the last two years.

“I’ve been doing quite a bit of work the last couple of years in the workshop and I haven’t had a chance to share what I’ve done with people, so it’s a good opportunity to have an exhibition like this and share my work,” he said.

He said most recently he has been working with vitreous enamels fired in a kiln.

“They are very colourful and can have fantastic effects,” he said. “Not all of this exhibition is about enamels but there are a number of them.

“That’s something I’ve been working towards, it’s quite a challenging area to work in and things don’t always turn out the way you want them to.”

Tony Kean has exhibited across Australia and internationally with much of his work capturing the essence and charm of Australian animals and birds.

Long said the Living Arts Space is an example of the City of Greater Bendigo support for, and championing of, local artists.

“The City have put aside this gallery for just this sort of exhibition of local creative people, we’re indebted to them to put that space aside and pay people to curate, it shows a level of maturity in terms of the arts scene,” he said.

The exhibition officially opens this Saturday at 2pm and is on display until Sunday, 11 September.