Tania Paterson

We love...

Tania has the ability to transform her fine detail workmanship from her jewellery to these new scultpures. They tell a story, little sweethearts purched on a stand or branch, with such character that you assume them to break into song any minute. Who knows, maybe they do at night.....  ARTFORM.

Feature

Since graduating from Unitec 1989 with a diploma in Craft Design, Tania has worked as a self employed jeweller exhibiting in group and solo shows throughout New Zealand and Australia. After many years in Auckland she now lives and works in rural Waipu.

“My designs are for the most part drawn from my fascination with nature. Seedpods and their wonderful forms have been an inspiration and I have made many variations of opening pods with carved wood interiors. I also have an interest in the museum experience of nature and a series of my work looked at the aesthetic of the obsessive collector. Other work explores the patterns and colours of leaves sometimes using enamel paint to intricately render the surfaces. I very much enjoy the variety of processors involved in jewellery making, from the designing of hinges to cutting and soldering to carving wood and painting surfaces”.

We have known Tania for many years, and are delighted about having her sculptures in Artform. They are quintessential New Zealand: beautiful with iconic New Zealand birds, quirky, sleek and resolved. You fall in love with the little fantails, because as a Kiwi, who hasn't walked through the New Zealand bush, and been followed around by the 'peep-peep, flutter, flutter' of the fantails following you. The standing sculptures represent just that - a walk in the bush and a conversation with some birds.