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HAVING recently returned to Ballarat, artist and designer Nicola Cerini took time to answer Your Homes questions about her own place, what inspires her and what she loves about this city.
YH: What changes have taken place to Ballarat since you last lived here?
NC: For me, Ballarat has always been a creative hub. I moved here as a 16-year-old with two years of school left and discovered a thriving creative community of artists, musicians and fun. My world revolved around Lespresso/Black Swan Records (my first part-time job), op-shops, and Ballarats music scene. It was an exciting time, but it didnt really reflect what was happening in the broader Ballarat community and I couldnt wait to get to Melbourne. Coming back 30 years later, the city is alive with creative people making a living from what they do, right here. There isnt the need to go away to do this kind of work anymore, theres a much broader appreciation for the arts, culture and the environment. With access to global design trends at our fingertips and a proliferation of home renovation shows on TV were all far more sophisticated in our knowledge of design these days. Im happy to base myself here at this stage of my life, its a beautiful city with some incredible architecture from a time when craftsmanship and detail were highly valued. The possibility of working in some of these spaces is exciting!
YH: Where are your favourite places to shop in Ballarat for the home?
NC: My favourite new store is The Foundry run by Liz Green. She has a great eye and sources interesting products from designers in Australia and overseas. Liz stocked my previous range of handbags and clothing and likes to support locally made, small scale designers. Im excited about the revitalisation of Tunbridges, the Ballarat furnishing institution under new ownership which has just relocated to the Mall. They stock some beautiful high-end lighting brands including New Zealand designer David Turbridges stunning woven timber lights which are really works of art. Ive just discovered the Crafty Squirrel for unique gifts and kids crafty ideas, and there are always gems to be found at Mill Market.
This article is from the new edition of Your Home. Grab your copy of the magazine in The Courier today.
YH: How would you describe your home?
NC: Its pretty eclectic, a total assortment of objects Ive collected along the way, things I love. Ive just moved back to Ballarat after many years based in Melbourne and the surf coast. My house is not what I expected to buy when I moved here, but I love it. Its brand new, warm, a neutral colour palette, a clean slate really. So Ive been madly hanging artwork and arranging things by colour. Each room has a loose colour theme, but having said that, I tend to mix a LOT of patterns and colours together. Theres usually a central colour palette of two to three colours in each room, I group things together that relate to each other in some way and sometimes its more about the contrast. Theres a kind of inexplicable magic that sometimes happens in a room when all the ideas come together and it works. Ive really just collected things I love over the years, furniture, artwork, prints on paper, paintings, and textiles in a whole lot of styles and colours so its been really fun pulling it all together in a new way. I love swimming and were right next to Lake Esmond so we have our very own fresh waterhole just over the fence to jump in when it gets hot this summer!
YH: What are your current design inspirations?
NC: Ive recently been designing a new collection of wallpapers and furnishing fabrics where Ive used a lot of botanical designs. Im always inspired by native flora but I also love the way spring in Ballarat is such a vibrant and methodical display of all kinds of flowers blooming one after another as the weather gets warmer. Mixing fl oral patterns with geometrics is another passion of mine - Im definitely not minimalist in my approach! Other favourites for interiors that everyone seems to be loving right now are herringbone wooden parquetry floors and deep ocean blue or forest green velvet sofas. Large scale wall art is a daring addition to a space and has the capacity to really transform it.
YH: What projects are you currently working on?
NC: I've been shortlisted to design a large scale artwork for the new WorkSafe building facade in Geelong. My concepts are based on the themes of maps, native flora and local landscape. So I've created images of large Banksia Marginata cones and Golden Wattle superimposed over silhouettes of the You Yangs and a map of Corio Bay and the Bellarine Peninsula. It's been a fun project and I'm hoping it goes ahead.
YH: What are your favourite recent projects?
NC: A couple of years ago I was commissioned to produce another large artwork for the new Ballarat Base Hospital front of house. Inspiration for that design came from Ballarat's native flora, local landscape, history and gold. I created images of Acacia, Pink Heath, maps of Ballarat's Deep Lead, and a geometric pattern inspired by a geological structure called a chevron-fold, which occurs only in gold rich regions. These images and many more were arranged in a hexagonal pattern and would have been digitally applied to a combination of plywood, glass, aluminium. Unfortunately the project was put on hold, but I'm hoping it will come alive one day and be installed in that great new entrance to the hospital.
YH: Three things you cannot live without?
NC: My family, exercise and the spice cardamom.
Nicola also runs at interior design consultancy called Pattern House Interiors. For more information, visit nicolacerini.com