Who is Tineke?
Tineke Van der Eecken is a Belgian-born Fremantle (Western Australia) based artist. She established ‘Tineke Creations’ in 2002 as a sustainable business and has been designing and exhibiting jewellery in Australia, Belgium and the United Kingdom for over 15 years.
Born in 1967 in Sint-Niklaas (Flanders, Belgium), Tineke grew up with a healthy obsession with art and culture. She has lived and worked in many countries, including Burundi, Zambia and Australia and travelled to remote parts of the world such as Papua New Guinea, Easter Island and Madagascar. The family, including Hannah (23) and Toto (20), and their dog 'Moose' live in Fremantle, Western Australia.
Tineke studied Jewellery Design and Fabrication at the West-Australian TAFE as a mature-aged student and quickly developed her own style. She combines working with wire with traditional jewellery–making techniques and setting of stones, and ‘organic casting’ to recreate original forms from nature in previous metal.
Tineke Van der Eecken has exhibited her jewellery at various galleries around Perth with solo exhibitions at Monart Studio and Gallery, Elements Gallery and Gadfly Gallery among others. As a member of the Jewellers and Metalsmiths Group of Western Australia (JMGA WA) she takes part in group exhibitions and the annual Bazaar.
Tineke is also a writer and lover of languages. She writes poetry and travel memoirs. Find out more about this here.
Workshops
2008 Guest Artist/Mentor/Jewellery Artist for Allsorts jewellery workshops Arts Access Central Australia (disability and the arts)
2006-2007 Workshops facilitator jewellery, textiles & writing Vrije Ateliers, St Niklaas
Artist/Curator
2006 Forest Floor traveling exhibition Victoria Park (WA) – Sinaai (Belgium) – Newark (UK) showcasing the work of Stitch‘n Bitch artists
Artist Residencies
2017 Artist in residence Callosa d’En Saria, Spain.
2011 Symbiotica Biological Art Residency
2007 Collaboration with stylist Sylvia Hatzl in Brussels – dance & photography
Awards and achievements
Fine Metal
2004 Melville Sculpture Award (runner up)
2004 Highly Commended in Works in Fine Metal/Jewellery, York Art and Craft Society Awards Melville Art Awards, runner-up for sculpture award
2004 Memento Awards, finalist.
Poetry and writing
Winner of Katherine W Treanor Poetry Award 2011
Ubud Readers and Writers Festival 2011 Poetry Slam Festival Choice Award
2012 OOTA Poetry Award second prize.
Shortlisted for 2016 TAG Hungerford Award for unpublished manuscript.
Memberships
Member of the Design Factory (UK) in 2007
Jewellers and Metalsmiths of WA (JMGA) (ongoing)
Qualifications
2002 Cert IV Jewellery design and fabrication (part-time)
Fremantle TAFE Fremantle Prison campus.
Publications
Van der Eecken, Tineke. Traverse. Wild Weeds Press, 2018. ISBN ISBN 978 – 0 – 6483206-7-8, Paperback, 220pp
Van der Eecken, Tineke. Cafe d'Afrique. YouwriteOn, London, 2008. ISBN 978-1849233200.
Poetry: publication list and details on www.readtraverse.com.
Other professional interests
Representative of Vlamingen In de Wereld for Western Australia