So many artists and artisans make the Southern Highlands their home that you can barely scratch your nose without knocking something valuable off a shelf. A tour of a small area - from Mittagong to Berrima, Robertson and Fitzroy Falls - can reveal some outstanding work.
Always worth a look, the Sturt School in Mittagong teaches fine woodworking, ceramics, weaving, jewellery-making and metalwork. The quality of the students' work is outstanding, and the Sturt School for Wood in particular has honed some exceptional talents.
As well as the teaching facility and its wonderful grounds, the complex also has an exhibitions gallery and a large retail crafts shop that sells the work of students and some of Australia's leading craft workers.
Housed in a glorious sandstone building in Mittagong, Minnikin Lodge Gallery is an arts and crafts gallery with a superb range of paintings, decorative and domestic pottery and glass sculpture by local and interstate artists.
On the Hume Highway at Welby, just south of Mittagong, Berrima Blacksmiths is an old-fashioned smithy where you can admire the muscular skills of the blacksmith and purchase some of his fine work, but you'll need to call in advance. There's a great range of hand-forged ironwork to choose from, including fire screens and tools, lanterns, candelabras and weathervanes. If you're after a set of iron gates for the driveway to your mansion or a wrought-iron balcony you've come to the right place.
Handsome and historic, Berrima is a prime candidate for arts and crafts, and the town lives up to its promise with shops that lure you with eye-catching displays.
Berrima Gaol is Australia's oldest operating jail and the town's most impressive building. Housed inside the former superintendent's house, the Berrima Correctional Facility Craft Shop is a shop with a difference. The pottery, woodwork and paintings are made by the gentlemen detained at the facility.
The Bell Gallery is for the serious collector, exhibiting works by such esteemed Australian artists as Bert Flugelman, Miranda Keeling, John Olsen, Madeleine Winch and Max Miller. Even if your purse strings won't stretch to the prices these painters command, this is a superb country gallery that exhibits work at the leading edge of contemporary painting.
Berrima Patchwork is a specialist supplier to quilters and sells a range of American handicrafts imported from the quilt-making capital of the world.
A trailblazer in the arts and crafts industry for more than 20 years, Berrima Galleries continues to showcase a fine collection of Australian paintings, pottery, hand-knits and jewellery. And don't miss the Berrima Village Pottery, where you can purchase all kinds of practical items as well as decorative pieces, direct from the craftsman who made them.
Just outside Berrima, Berkelouw's Antiquarian Books is a barn full of literary cast-offs. The shop claims to stock more than 200,000 quality pre-loved books covering every subject under the sun.
Want the countrified look? Take a look around Robertson, a fine crafts centre with the focus on rustic. Village Woodworks recycles timbers into handsome kitchens, desks and other country-style furniture, as well as gazebos, arches and chunky outdoor benches and tables.
Also in Robertson, The Old Cheese Factory has a huge range of toys, handmade childrens' clothing, stained glass, leadlights, dried flowers and kitchenware. And take a look at the Robertson Pottery, which exhibits the work of half-a-dozen potters, plus stained glass and general glassware.
You'll need to phone ahead to arrange to visit the Fitzroy Gallery, but it's well worth the call. Neil Broughton's Fitzroy Falls gallery specialises in raku-fired pottery - a technique of earth-firing that originated in Japan - and the results are sublime decorative pieces of great character and originality.
If you're looking for a concentrated dose of arts, crafts, rural produce and conviviality, there's nothing quite like a country market. Bowral has two regular markets, and it makes good sense to time your visit to coincide with one of these.
The Bowral Arts and Crafts Market is essentially a craft market, but the standard and the sheer inventiveness of the goods are way above average. Recycled timber products, miniature castles, lavender soaps and oils, honey and beeswax candles and beautiful crystalware are just some of the standout items from a catalogue of treasures that never fails to delight and surprise. This is also a great one for children.
With a range of organic produce fresh out of the farm gate, homemade pasta, honeys, plants, trees and shrubs at bargain prices, the Bowral Country Market is well worth the drive from Sydney. There's also entertainment, rides, music and craftspeople hard at work at their looms, wheels, lacework or anvils.
Spend a night at one of the Peppers' properties and enjoy a complimentary breakfast when you book with your NRMA Member Card. Find out more...
For the most unusual arts and crafts shopping in the region, visit the Berrima Gaol's shop, where products made by the inmates are sold to the public.
Terrie, Mittagong.
4WD
