Cairns Regional Council have undergone an upgrade to the city and part of their new look is an Australian Indigenous artwork in the heart of Shields Street recently completed by The Orchid Group^ team.
We previously featured “Where it all began” with the New York Skyline. This week we uncover the great opportunity that came from a disaster.
The Global Financial Crisis took a few years to reach Regional Queensland, but when it did, it hit very hard. Contractors everywhere were closing up shop and moving to larger commercial centres or to the lure of big money in the mines.
It was 2013, it had been a really tough year for The Orchid Group^ team. Don landed a large multi-million dollar luxury home contract that had seven glass mosaic bathrooms. Every room had a different design from 10x10mm hand-cut to 20x20mm designs.
“The work was stunning and everyone loved the workmanship but the original quoted sum, which was deemed ‘really expensive’ by the builder, was exceeded by nearly $20,000. Making that kind of loss could ordinarily be absorbed, but on the back of a really tough year…it was career changing.” Don was faced with a choice, either do the work of the average Joe or muster the courage to break new ground and forge a pathway to find new markets where their expertise and workmanship were valued and sought after.
Don realized his team was so highly skilled that there was very little market for their level of workmanship especially in Regional Queensland. Since the success of the New York Skyline of 2010 Don often thought how ideal it would be to translate Aboriginal artworks into mosaics, it seemed a natural fit.
Twelve months before the financial disaster of the mosaic bathrooms project Don had completed a small job for a client and on every wall of their apartment was the most beautiful and priceless Indigenous art. He wondered to himself if he should approach the client about his idea of translating Indigenous art into mosaics. Read the full story here.
Next time, "More Artworks Follow" – The team broadens their artistic abilities.
Contact us on 1800 331 012 for technical support, arrange a demo, free samples, a trade event, or to discuss your next project or contact us here.
^The Orchid Group is also known as Symmetry Mosaics
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