LOCAL artist Kelly Leonard has been a weaver most of her life, but since joining the Broken Hill City Art Gallery’s Jewellery Club she’s become passionate about jewellery making and will be selling her creations at the upcoming Twilight Christmas Markets.
Ms Leonard moved to Broken Hill back in 2019 to work at West Darling Arts, though she’s had ties to the town that extend much further back.
“My grandparents met here, and my mother lived here in the 40s and 50s,” she said.
“So I grew up with stories of Broken Hill at the kitchen table.”
She visited town in 2018 on a road trip with her sister, and jumped at the opportunity to work at West Darling Arts when it came up in 2019.
“I’d always wanted to work in regional arts,” she said.
“It was a really tight ship – just three staff, and I really loved working there.”
Ms Leonard is now a full-time artist, weaving textiles and hand-making jewellery using the Lost Wax Technique.
“There’s looms all through my house,” she said.
“As a teenager I went to art school and met a German master weaver and it just did it for me, meeting the right person at the right time.”
She practiced her wearing alongside working in commercial kitchens as a cook.
She only began jewellery making this year at the Broken Hill City Art Gallery’s Jewellery Club get-togethers, hosted by local jeweller Cathy Farry.
“I hadn’t done jewellery making before, I had a silversmith in my family so we grew up with beautiful objects on tap,” she said.
“We grew up with five girls and my mother always wearing silver jewellery, it was a bit of a thing for us.”
Ms Leonard said she was excited to try her hand at the skill when the jewellery club opened.
“I attended jewellery club, which a number of people come in and out of it. It’s wonderful because it’s made the craft available and affordable to anyone,” she said.
“I’ve been going to the workshops and teaching myself since then,” she said.
She’s currently working on pieces to sell at this Saturday’s Christmas Twilight Markets, and also for a potential makers markets next year hosted by the Art Exchange.
Ms Leonard said she feels excited about the current arts climate in Broken Hill.
“I’m excited about the local developments and developing this context for art, artists and artisans here,” she said.
“I didn’t spring fully formed out of nowhere – there’s a zeitgeist going on locally and I feel a real resurgence for celebrating handmade.”
She said initiatives like the recently formed Slag Heap Gallery that gave a platform to local artists was changing the local art scene for the better.
“Slag Heap are really promoting and championing artists,” she said.
“This town relies on creatives to bring vision and energy, we’re all in it together.”
She said she feels privileged to be a part of the Silver City’s creative culture.
“It feels like we’re at the beginning of the wave and it’s so exciting,” she said.
“We’re a part of engineering the future. It’s not all about selling work – it’s about creating the future we want to see.”
