Sydney-based jeweller Mark Vaarwerk makes objects from re-purposed everyday materials, especially focusing on experimentation with plastics to question ideas around value.

While most teenagers fell for the excitement of outer space and futurism, my curiosity was gripped by a more earth-bound and introverted fiction. Was it that this simply suited my character? Or were the novels I devoured, like Jules Verne's A Journey to the Centre of the Earth, to blame, where adventures unfolded deep within the earth or the ocean rather than in deep space?

For my first ever date, we went to see Honey, I Shrunk The Kids. It was easily the highlight of the 80s. What more would a crazy nutty inventor-scientist dream of than the ability to shrink matter? To kids rendered a mere quarter inch high, even the suburban back yard is instantly transformed and becomes a giant safari. Cinematic heaven.

Mark Vaarwerk