/ Creative Projects / General Assembly

General Assembly is a collaborative jewellery project conceived, designed and made by Phoebe Porter and Blanche Tilden, aka Studio Hacienda. The project invites the public to participate by selecting from pre-fabricated parts to create their own souvenir brooch.

General Assembly was first staged at Craft Victoria in 2007 as part of Solutions for Better Living curated by Kate Rhodes. Since then, Porter and Tilden have held a number of General Assembly events in both Melbourne and Canberra.

In 2008 General Assembly was awarded a Victorian Premier’s Design Mark in the category of self initiated, handmade objects. The judges made the following comments:
“General Assembly highlighted important concerns within contemporary design practice with both practical and conceptual outcomes. The interrogation of the local, the importance of social networks, the interactive customisation and the adding of value through the application of a good idea are all elements that make this project intriguing and outstanding.”

A review of the General Assembly project by Merryn Gates was published in Craft Culture magazine in 2008.

Most recently, Porter and Tilden created a Limited Edition series of brooches for the 2022 DESIGN Canberra Festival. These are available exclusively through the Festival Hub Shop courtesy of DESIGN Canberra.