About Robyn - Who personalizes the plates for you.

I grew up in the small country town of Riverstone, NSW, Australia were I met my future husband Ron. Ron had been working for years on a dream to be able to reproduce fine works of art onto ceramics in full detail of the original artwork.

At the time I though that this was just curious persuit of my husband and I wished him all the success. A few years later I came across a porcelain plate depicting a nursery scene which had baby names of children and their birth details painted onto the plate.

I thought to myself that this would make a wonderful keepsake that can be given by parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts and friends. This cherished gift would never be forgotten as I would hand paint the persons giving this gift onto the back of the plate. My only criticism of the plate was that the nursery scene was poorly reproduced that my husband suggested that I have an artwork specially created for me by a professional artist and he will then use his newly developed process faithfully reproduce the artwork, in all it’s splendid detail and colour, to the plate.

The choice for the artist was easy. Our friend, Tony Oliver (late), was recognised throughout Australia as a leading illustrator in both Australian wildlife and children’s book. Tony’s commisions included many illustrations for The Australian Geograghics which culminated in successive editions of the extremely successfull yearly calender which was sold out in each edition.

When I approached Tony with my concept of a naive nursery scene with juvenile Australian wildlife welcoming the arrival of a new born child he was excited by the concept and went on to create our first plate which we called “Precious Moments” . I started hand painting the name and birth details onto the beautiful Precious Moments plates, which my husband created, for family members and friends.

The demand for these plates increased so much that I decided to form “Gumnut Collectables” and since then I have expanded the range of designs created by both Tony and other wonderful artists.