Even as a child in Northern Ireland Bridget Farmer always loved birds.
When she came to Australia at the age of 27, Bridget says she was “blown away” by the variety of native avian life around her.
Now living in Guildford, Bridget turns her appreciation for her “little winged muses” into unique art pieces.
She’s now one of a number of local designers and artisans whose creations will be part of this month’s Big Design Market Online.
In previous, non-Covid, years Bridget has personally taken her work to the Big Design Market at both Melbourne’s Royal Exhibition Building and also Sydney’s foreshore Barangaroo Reserve.
“The Big Design Market is a real buzz. You get to meet your customers in person,” says Bridget of the last two year’s markets that she attended along with “boxes and boxes” of her creations.
“People tell me their stories of their affinity with birds – so I get to hear the most beautiful stories.”
Due to the Covid pandemic this year’s Big Design Market is shifting online offering pre-Christmas shoppers a chance to peruse the original work of more than 200 designers, over 100 of whom run Victorian based small businesses.
“I concentrate on Australian native birds,” Bridget told the Mail during a visit to her Guildford studio this week.
“Essentially I’m a printmaker mainly focusing on dry point etching.”
Her designs celebrate the native birdlife she sees around the local area and she turns these into items including linen tea towels, bird mobiles and desk sculptures, enamel lapel pins and original etchings.
The hugely diverse range of products on offer in the Big Design Market Online include a swag of new kids’ books by independent publishers including The Very Hungry Bum by Castlemaine based Atlas Jones & Co.
The Big Design Market Online happens over Wednesday November 18 to Sunday November 29 with a website, instagram and Facebook.
