Malcolm Heberle

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At the age of thirteen, Malcolm worked on a milk run after school in Katanning to save up for his first camera, a Kodak Instamatic 33.  It was the start of a lifelong passion!  Throughout his career Malcolm has worked in many areas of photography, working in the industry for over fifty years.  Always very involved in the photographic industry, he was a WA council member and President of the Australian Institute of Professional Photography (AIPP) and has received a number of awards in professional photography over the years.

Now he considers himself lucky to enjoy his photography at his own pace and finds helping others learn and improve their skills very rewarding.  Malcolm’s images have always covered a large range of genres; soft and light, dark and moody, romantic, harsh, still life or action as well as street photography.  He particularly loves to take images of anything old and rusty!  It’s very rarely that he crops an image, most are composed in camera.

Creating images always has been and continues to be a huge part of Malcolm’s life.  

Rachael Van Den Hoek

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Rachael was born in Fremantle and moved to Albany as a teenager.  She has always loved to learn and gravitated to craft through that love and her family's strong craft background.  She comes from a long line of crafty women (her grandmother was a skilled puppet maker), so she feels like she’s genetically programmed to craft!  She loves to dabble in three-dimensional work - constructing and creating.  Rachael is a habitual maker; you will always find her with a project on the go - even when she’s out socialising, you’ll often find Rachael with her crochet hook in her hand!  Giving personal gifts is something she gets a real kick out of!  

Robyn Heritage

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Robyn has been designing and creating jewellery for the last thirty years.  Recently moving to Kalbarri, she’s loving being surrounded by national park, ocean and river.  Both flora and fauna feature in her pieces and her metal clay ring designs are incredible.  Her favourite metals to use are bronze and sterling silver, as they create beautiful texture and colour contrasts. 

Rochelle Stuart

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Rochelle Stewart is an Albany local who hand pours a beautiful range of gorgeously scented soy candles for us.  Born and raised in Albany, she is currently studying Teaching online through Curtin, whilst looking after her little boy.  She loves being outdoors and going to the beach. Her favourite thing to do is going fishing with her Dad.

She started making candles over 5 years ago as she wanted something to do in her spare time, as she loves to be busy.   

Ron Edwards

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Ron was born in Perth, and has worked with metal, professionally, all his life.  Now working at Albany Hydraulics during the week, Ron loves to have a play in his shed when he has some spare time - when he's not brewing up a batch of his latest favourite beer of course!  He has had his metalwork at Designer Dirt for over seven years now and while he was making larger works in the past, he has found his current niche making mozzie coil holders, stakes and planters, which are proving very popular with locals and tourists. Always up for a challenge though, he has new designs happening all the time.  The latest theme … cacti … large and small! 

Roy Townsend

Roy is an old school carpenter and joiner, living the good life in Little Grove, just out of Albany, together with his wife Tania.  Now retired, he spends his days down in in his shed repurposing pallet wood into garden décor and ornaments: like birdhouses, potting benches and mud kitchens for kids.  He also splits pallet wood for kindling over the winter. 

Tania Townsend

Tania is an Albany based potter specialising in raku firing and whimsical garden art.  She, and her husband Roy, spend many happy hours whiling away the time in their shed, with their Australian terriers, Cricket and Maisie, in tow.  Her little pottery birds are always popular. 

Wendy Thorne

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Wendy is the photographer behind our popular rural themed gift cards.  A Riverina girl, she married her husband Geoff and moved to their farm in Kojonup in the late 70s. Her framed photographic prints can be found from Perth to Melbourne and her gift cards are enormously successful.  Just to prove that she doesn’t take herself too seriously though, Wendy has done several photo shoots with “Father Christmas” involving his favourite farm antics! – after enticing her neighbour with a carton of beer!  He can be seen bogged in the creek, fishing at the dam, feeding the chooks and riding the 4-wheeler.  These have been so popular; they are ridiculous, but they are clever because they’re not just beautiful, they’re funny. “Photography is all about evoking emotion” she confides, “I think that is what I do best.”  These days she loves taking photos on the fly, in particular beautiful, local landscapes and wildflowers.

Meet the rest of our creatives