BARBARA NANSHE

Australian Sculptor & Jewellery Designer since 1989. Artist Barbara Nanshe lives and works in Newcastle NSW. Born 1964 in Tasmania Barbara has a successful jewellery and art business which values and practises sustainability principles.

Lead by her intuitive use of ethically sourced materials and her loyalty to the story and positive energy principles, Nanshe produces vast styles of adornment from simple to intricate. Barbara enjoys embellishing the stories with vintage and antique objects to tune the message and produce truly unique and meaningful pieces.

Nanshe has been accepted into Romanian Jewellery Week 2023 in Bucharest, to exhibit her recently made jewellery Collection.

This collection uses materials, that by their very presence, symbolises the impermanence and transformation of all life. The past often informs the future. All the materials used in this collection come from another life, another existence, from the past to the future in another form.

Pendant Carried Forward 2023 Recycled Sterling Silver Black Patina Recycled 9ct Gold Post 1750 One Use Clay Tobacco Pipe Part, Thames River London Posca Paint Vintage Baltic Amber Citrine Synthetic & Linen Cord 9.5cm x 4.2cm. Barbara Nanshe.

Pendant Transported 2023 Recycled Sterling Silver Black Patina Recycled 9ct Gold Post 1750 One Use Clay Tobacco (opium) Pipe Part, Thames River London Posca Paint Ammonite Tasmanian Amber Citrine Gold Leaf Synthetic & Linen Cord 13 x 7cm. Barbara Nanshe.

Tasmanian & Baltic Amber, more than 52 million years old, is the epitome of transformation.

Having once been fluid inside a living tree, the Amber now carries ancient tiny forms to a new world where its fossilised, brittle form imparts a new cosmic light. Cephalopods died out 66 million years ago, as Ammonites, they represent the cyclic earth and sea.

Tasmanian Serpentine is formed by the mineralisation of volcanic deposits.

Alchemy changes the nature of silver & gold. That which is broken, when transformed with gold leaf or paint, honours flaws and imperfections as new life.

This collection changes all to adornment to honour connection and transformation with the symbols of earth; lotus, tree; light and moon.

Barbara has a deep connection to the forest and ocean having grown up in the wilds of Tasmania. The stories inherit in her jewellery naturally connect the wearer to higher purpose because at the heart of every piece is Nanshe’s crusade to inspire and nurture personal connection to the planet through adornment.

https://nanshejewellerystudio.com/

Pendant Folded Into Time & Light 2023 Recycled Sterling Silver Recycled 9ct Gold

Post 1750 One Use Clay Tobacco Pipe Part Thames River London Tasmanian Amber

Citrine Gold Leaf Synthetic & Linen Cord 12 x 5.5cm. Barbara Nanshe.

Earrings Time Lines I 2023 Recycled Sterling Silver Black Patina Recycled 9ct Gold

Post 1750 One Use Clay Tobacco Pipe Part, Thames River London Posca Paint

Vintage Baltic Amber Black Amber 10.5 x 3cm. Barbara Nanshe.

Earrings Time Lines II 2023 Recycled Sterling Silver Recycled 9ct Gold Post 1750 One Use Clay Tobacco Pipe Part, Thames River London Vintage Baltic Amber Black Amber Copal Amber Citrine Each 8.5 x 2.2cm. Barbara Nanshe.

Pendant Tree Light 2022 Recycled Sterling Silver Tasmanian Amber ChinchillaFossilized Wood QLD Enamel Coated Copper Synthetic & Linen Cord 7.5 x 6cm. Barbara Nanshe. All Rights Reserved on article and photographs Barbara Nanshe © 2023.

The Firestick Farmers

(inspired by Fiona Hooper’s painting, Sunset Drama)

Firesticks lick greenery black. Crackling leaves breathe white yellow and purple into an evening sky. A rainbow lorikeet opens its wings adrift upon a warm current of air. A platypus dreams in a tea brown creek safe in a womb-bag of water. Hardwood seeds burst open to wait for a darker soil mixed with ash and humus and moisture.

A nearby valley echoes a fire dance –didgeridoos commune with spirits who dwell within a timeless realm –their dark eyes spill tears into a smouldering cloud.

A still lake mirrors swirling figures while red flames leap from fern to shoreline where tribal tongues sing life into a hungry land.

- Reese North © 2023

The Tall Ships Of 1788

The camp was quiet only the old ones and the watchers were wide eyed and listening.

The watchers stood silently on the cliffs looking out to sea. The moon was full and stars were fires in the timeless black.

The coals on the fire exploded the sea raged on the rocks and the watchers stood mute on the cliffs looking out to sea.

The dingoes slept fitfully evil gounges* tormented their dreams. Occasionally a growl a moan a bark would echo through the stillness.

The old ones quivered they sensed the birth of a new horizon without a sun. The moon crept higher its light was filled with bad dreams.

The Elders knew that the bourais* who slept had to be protected their dreams kept sacred as the dreams of bourais must if they are to see with the light of the sun and touch the dreams of the stars.

Two dingoes roused from their sleep they glared in rage.

The dust sprang to life between the two and they lunged at one another with claws and teeth bared.

They grappled in a tearing scream of hate! They cowered as the wind sighed in the trees and a tiredness overcame the watchers who stood mute on the cliffs looking out to sea.

The young warriors whispered in their sleep drew a breath and heaved a sigh as an old one waned tired –death jangled in his chest.

A howling of the people rose with the waning moon. The sun rose blood red and the watchers knew the first blood of their people had been drawn when a white sail burned on the horizon.

The Elders roamed quietly around the camp they placed an initiation tooth in the sacred bag of each newborn warrior. The Elders knew they could not sleep. They knew a battle was about to occur no spears or nulla nullas* would be called for only the power of their totems.

A sour smell fouled the air and the dingoes growled their omens.

A cruel wind growled in the hills and the air in the camp grew ugly. The old ones sat stifled by the presence of alien totems.