Wild to Ware streamlines the material’s journey while producing items at a higher ethical value.
It’s officially spring here and we've got the door open because the smell of fresh wattle is quickly making the rounds. There are baby buds sprouting and birds scampering amongst the citrus trees in the garden. But whilst I've pulled my summer dresses to the front of my closet and started to wear shoes, sans socks, we packed for a very different weekend away, as if we were escaping this nirvana.
It’s easily the best time of year for camping in central Victoria, Australia. The days are getting longer and are sun-drenched and mild – perfect for taking advantage of exploring the rugged wild.
This is the tale of one such weekend, at a little spot about 3 hours north of of Melbourne. Once you get north of Castlemaine, the hills start getting a little less green and the bushland more sparsely populated. Heaven. We cruised down early Sunday morning to a semi secret spot in the central Victorian Goldfields, discovered by my partner about a year ago. An unmarked trail off one of the main roads leads you down a rabbit warren of bush tracks, many kilometres from the nearest town. After we parked the car precariously between to gumtrees, we hurried to grab our gear (and bulk snacks, of course) and headed out into the scrub, not to be seen again for several hours.
Once the sun started to dip below the horizon, we threw a teapot on the fire, filled it with pre-prepared mulled wine to start warming our bellies and began assembling the tent as night fell and the bush mice started creeping into the firelight of the camp. I’m not going to lie to you—we didn’t find a thing. We simply packed up camp after we had regained the ability to move, sore from a couple of long days sourcing materials, and completely content. That’s what makes unearthing these natural materials (gold, in this case) all the more rare and mysterious. Undeniable excitement because of the unknown, but the experience and chance to be active in a natural setting while achieving our ‘flow’ is what it’s all about. For us, its like a hard reset. It instantly puts life into perspective; any of the nagging issues of the day.
And that’s where our concept ‘Wild to Ware’ comes in. To be specific, it means that the product’s journey directly from the source to the ‘sale’ is direct and traceable, aka, we find it in the ground/river/fallen tree, make something with it, and pass it along to its new home. I believe it matters a great deal how many hands the product comes across before it reaches the consumer and for most of us, the likelihood of finding a product that bypasses all the middlemen is extremely rare. Very few businesses have the ability to trace their product directly from the source, which takes valuable time and energy (but is worth it!).
Now, people are realising they don't need a lot of possessions to live a happy and simple life. They make sure that all the stuff that they do have isn't disposable, or isn't going to break after the first time they use it, lasting a lifetime or (at least) a very long period of time. Wild to Ware streamlines the material’s journey, all the while producing items at a higher ethical value.
The pieces I create aren’t just products; they’re objects that tell stories with which people can form a connection.