Hunting the ultimate South West souvenir

Beyond a stubby cooler from your favourite brewery lies a thriving hub of craftspeople and artists, offering products made with skill and love on Wadandi Boodja (Saltwater People’s Country).

The range is broad. You might fancy a custom-shaped surfboard or a hand-painted serving platter. There’s olive oil soap, upcycled tableware and cottage craft for every taste and budget. Makers often weave, etch and hammer their magic in tucked-away studios down meandering roads, guarded by roos and hidden among trees, so finding them becomes part of the adventure.

Witchcliffe chandler Kirsten Jackson insists The Margaret River Candle Company is a souvenir shop, despite Google ejecting it from the category every time she places it there. The tranquil retail space boasts the collected works of around 45 community artists. Shelves are decked with woodwork from local forest timber, vivid prints of the region’s wildlife and homewares with connections to wine, surf, and all the spoils we’ve come to associate with Australia’s South West. “To me, a souvenir is a memento of a place you’ve been,” Kirsten says. “Something made in the place you’re visiting”.

John Miller Design has been in the business of beautiful, wearable art since 1973. The jeweller is best known today for his silver bracelets, depicting natural and rural scenes, some with a bright gemstone as the setting sun or sparkling around a flourish of fins. Totems of the region’s flora and fauna are found on the heads of the stamps John has personally crafted for his work, including eucalyptus leaves, grevillea blossoms, starfish, grass trees and whales.

John’s studio spills over with the organised chaos of someone deeply impassioned by their craft. His visual diaries burst with ideas about the myriad ways to execute a piece. You’re sure to find a reflection of your South West experience in John’s work, maybe the flickering foliage of the overstory as you drive Caves Road, a playful seal or a mob of kangaroos. Treating yourself to a John Miller piece is a true Yallingup party favour – shiny, precious and one of a kind.

In a blue sea container in Vasse, Tammy Scott has taken what was her own therapeutic woodworking hobby to the next level. In Tammy’s hands, slabs of local timber are fashioned into furniture, homewares and wall hangings, frequently transformed with a river of resin containing florals or coastal finds. Tammy tends to multiple patches of everlastings around the Heartwood Timber Designs studio. Once blooming, they’ll be brutally beheaded and dried for future pieces.

Tammy’s previous life working with at-risk youth, and her own connection with the land through her farming family are elements of a wider story she tells within her creations. The signature intricate cross sections and vivid colours exemplify the essence of the region in each piece, some even featuring fragments of the old, burnt Busselton Jetty. There’s a match for every budget and baggage allowance, from a Karri keyring to a custom Marri kitchen island.

Through a spattered glass studio window at Sensei Pots, located in Quedjinup, visitors are mesmerised by Ian Beniston throwing clay with over 40 years of experience in the mix. In a world that has grown to celebrate ceramic arts once more, there’s a greater appreciation for the intricate craft and its layers of demands – artistic, cerebral and scientific. Ian keeps it simple by dividing his time between the wheel and the waves, a clear and focused surfer’s mind being the vital tool in the production of complex glaze pigments and shapes that marry form with function.

Ian has an instinctive process, driven by inexplicable forces to translate a design from his mind directly to the clay, concocting his own bespoke glazes and overseeing the kilns at night. Each piece sings with the sometimes months-long meditation of anticipating the unpredictable and tirelessly fine tuning the balance. Ian wants you to use and enjoy your pottery daily. Feel the pleasing way a teacup fits your palm or admire a centre-piece rice dish full of steaming basmati, a souvenir to serve and delight you.

Back in Witchcliffe, Kirsten has you covered on the deeply personal side of choosing your memento. Her intimate candle workshops offer the ultimate gift – a souvenir you craft yourself. Dip beeswax, build kaleidoscopic colour or choose and blend bush scents in soy and return the next day to collect your unique, self-made memory.

• Stephanie Stokes Pottery
• Happs Pottery
• Jacob Lyon Pottery
• Wilyaburp Dreaming
• Sensei Pots
• Commonage Pottery
• Busselton Pottery
• Dilkes-Hoffman Studio Ceramics