SADIA BOUZEGANE

Artistic discipline/s: Jewellery and stationery creator

Location: Brisbane’s inner suburbs

My creative space is…I usually create facing my kitchen on the dinner table. I need a table to spread out and I follow the light, like a plant:) I work in a creative mess, I never know what I will create so I have a mix of tidy boxes with findings and buttons and beads that I dip into.

The last piece I created is…a pair of earrings ordered by a friend. I made the button from scratch, a button made of a fabric given by another friend to make a ring. This time I was ordered to use my handmade buttons as studs. A very new process, which is still in the process of crash test for now. It is exciting to try new things.

Inspiration for my art comes from…ceramists, calligraphists, embroiderers and watercolor painters! These fields of art open up worlds in my mind! Definitely, anything colourful can inspire me. Since I moved to Australia from France, huge plants, trees and flowers blow my mind. The colours are so bright!

What is unique about your work? I think it is my use of buttons. They come from everywhere and all of them are special. Some I found while travelling, others I received as donations. Most of them have a story: where they are from, the relationship I had with the person who gave them to me, why I chose them, the material, the colour. I name each piece of jewellery. Sometimes the button inspires a name, sometimes I hear words around me that inspire me and I keep them aside until there is a perfect match.

What my art has taught me…to slow down, have patience, and to take time to create. I am a defender of handmade and sustainable, so I wish for my customers to keep my items forever. It has also taught me that we can invent anything and make something abstract become real. 

My favourite tool for creating is…my main tools are pliers. However, I would say my favourite tool is my hands. I feel very grateful that I can make ideas become realities through my hands. I am a self-taught, so when I started I used my hands and tools very awkwardly, but over tie time I became more flexible and now it feels like the most natural thing to me—to make. 

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