MENINDEE resident and Barkindji/Malyangapa Nghuungku (woman) Barb Quayle has been making jewelry for the better part of her life and offers buyers a little piece of Barkindji country in each piece she sells.
“I started off making beaded jewelry and I went to a course my cousin Kim ran,” she said.
“She was making stuff with gumnuts and painting them.”
Quayle said she didn’t have the finesse to be able to paint such intricate pieces, but she loved being on country foraging for plant life to incorporate into her craft.
“I absolutely loved being out on Barkindji country, it’s my favourite place to be,” she said.
“When I’m out there I’ve always picked up different things and kept them over time. Then I went on a workshop run by West Darling Arts, a lost wax workshop, and because I couldn’t make things I sent some of the things I’ve collected away to be cast.”
Quayle said she was thrilled to receive her first piece back from the casters.
“It’s an extraordinary looking piece, quite heavy, and I still have it,” she said.
She began casting gumnuts, though she said it’s difficult to identify the tree each gumnut came from as there are so many gumnut tree varieties.
“So all the gumnuts you see in my work, 90 per cent are from on country in Menindee, whether around the lakes or along the Barka,” Quayle said.
She began selling her jewellery through her shop called Palirika Barka Jewellery, meaning beautiful river, and said her work is created and inspired by her ancestral homeland at Menindee.
She’s now gone on to cast a variety of found natural objects such as mussel shells, echidna quills, quandong seeds, emu and other bird feathers, and more.
“I’ve sold to most part of the world now and I always feel like somebody’s taken a piece of Barkindji country home with them, which is a joy,” Quayle said.
Ultimately she converted her spare bedroom in her Menindee home into a studio and workspace.
“I keep all the pieces I’ve collected in there, and I work from there when I can, though I have to do stuff outside too because of the fumes and things!” she said.
She occasionally hosts workshops at the Broken Hill City Art Gallery or out at Menindee, where she teaches the art of lost wax and making things from found objects.
Quayle said she’s received support from West Darling Arts and the Broken Hill Art Gallery who’ve allowed her to host workshops and sell her work in the gallery shop, and Slag Heap Projects Gallery.
“I’ve made so many friends through the art world who have supported me,” she said.
But she’s not stopping and now Quayle was preparing for a trip to Portland in south west Victoria next week where she’ll be learning to cast sculptures in bronze.
Her work is for sale at the gallery or on her website palirikabarkajewelery.com.au.
