Jacky Winter is pleased to present our final show for the year, Nestling, a group exhibition celebrating the launch of a collection of products for children’s nurseries of the same name. Nestling is the latest project from The Jacky Winter Group and Lamington Drive Editions – pieces designed to enchant both young and old. An ode to the nesting rituals of expecting parents, preparing for their new arrival, the range comprises of carefully crafted and functional art objects to feather the nests of young hatchlings.

Scrolls
Over a dozen artists were engaged to bring to life an assortment of educational and aesthetically pleasing art scrolls.

• Count from one to ten with Andy Joyner and the help of his jungle friends."

• Identify opposites with Beci Orpin: up and down, smile and frown.

• Learn about sometimes foods with Ben Sander’s upside-down food pyramid.

• Discover different shapes with Carla McRae and her helpful pals.

• See, hear, smell, taste and touch as Eirian Chapman awakens the 5 senses.

• Climb, bend, kick and jump along with Grace Lee’s active bodies of all shapes and sizes.

• Go on an in-depth journey through the human body from your eyebrows to your toenails with James Gulliver Hancock.

• Spot a red car, a blue umbrella, a yellow butterfly and more in Jane Reiseger’s rainbow colour chart.

• Kat Macleod leads you through the four seasons with some of her favourite flowers.

• Journey to the mines with Lachlan Conn, to find out what Australian gems and minerals you can find.

• Jump on a spaceship and explore our pocket of the Milky Way zipping through Nancy Liang’s solar system at the speed of light.

• Tour the zoo through the colourful work of Rilla Alexander.

• Practice your alphabet with the The Letterettes, as you trace the letters from A to Z.

• Take a trip back in time and explore the prehistoric era with Tommy Doyle’s friendly dinosaurs.

Each artwork comes with a pair of custom Tasmanian Oak hanging bars designed and purpose built by United Measures for Nestling. The wood grain makes each hand-sanded, angle-faced bar unique. The top bar features an inbuilt hanging fixture of coated electrical wire available in four customisable colours – blue, red, yellow and white – to complement the artwork. Red spade connectors crimp the wire at each end and are integrated into the top of the bar, fixed from the reverse side through a thinner piece of timber that clamps the fabric and allows the artwork to sit flush against the wall. Embellishing the right side of the bottom bar is a Nestling wood branding, laser etched for a neat and textured finishing touch.

The textiles are produced to order, locally printed and sewn in Abbotsford onto natural cotton twill – a durable, slightly textured fabric that’s soft to the touch. The fabric panels can be conveniently removed from their bars, washed and ironed where needed. As children grow and their interests change, the panels can be easily removed and replaced with new work.

Flooring
The other new release product created for Nestling, has certainly been the hardest to keep a secret – international art and design duo Craig and Karl have designed a set of interlocking foam mat flooring tiles like none you’ve ever seen. Each pack contains an array of blue, yellow, black and white tiles that offer up a host of different pattern combinations. Locally sourced and cut in Melbourne, the EVA foam is 2mm thick and will create a soft surface in any space. They’re extremely versatile, easy to assemble and clean – the perfect way to brighten up a playroom, or a quiet meditation and yoga space for adults.

A limited supply of the foam flooring will be available for purchase during the Nestling exhibition, afterwhich they will be available for pre-order via the Nestling website. By producing objects to order and fulfilling needs as they arise we endeavour to make a shift away from the flood of mass produced nursery products and objects currently on the market. Indeed the project came about in response to typical nursery wares – the over- saturation of blues and pinks, poor quality or difficult to source locally designed and manufactured items.

While we want to provide a beautiful life for our children, we also realise that some children are living a life put on hold. In support of the emancipation of children in Australian-run detention centres, a percentage of the profits from Nestling will be donated to ChilOut (Children Out of Immigration Detention), an organisation that works towards releasing children from detention centres and putting legislative safeguards in place for future protection.

Exhibiting Artists: Andy Joyner, Beci Orpin, Ben Sanders, Carla McRae, Craig and Karl, Eirian Chapman, Grace Lee, James Gulliver Hancock, Jane Reiseger, Kat Macleod, Lachlan Conn, Nancy Liang, Rilla Alexander, The Letterettes and Tommy Doyle.