Heart of glass

Carly Andrews takes something of a bowerbird approach when collecting items for her new Oxford St store/gallery, Connie and Vi. Rather than limiting her collection to a single genre, she cherrypicks across her favourite things; namely, vintage glassware (mostly mid-century Scandinavian), fine art lithography (mostly Mark Chagall) and collectables (a variety).

To that disparate collection she adds her own handmade jewellery range. The result is a store so utterly unique, it could not possibly be created by anyone else.

“I’m trying to marry my two main loves (vintage glass and jewellery) into a gallery,” Andrews says. “It’s a lot, but I think it works.”

Originally trained as a fashion designer, Andrews owned and ran Constance and Violet, a label with a store on Queen St, Woollahra. About 15 years ago, she decided to retrain from fashion design into gemology and relocated to London.

While creating her Connie and Vi jewellery line, she also developed a fascination with vintage and collectable glassware. Her passion morphed into a career as she started trading pieces for collectors.

The Connie and Vi Paddington store is, in essence, the melding of two interesting careers in one space. In the sunny corner terrace store, cabinets of jewellery twinkle alongside shelves of brightly hued glass vases and bowls, while lithographs, etchings and other items — lamps, candelabra, art books, vintage furniture — are scattered about to endearing effect.

Her collection of glassware is already one of the largest in Sydney — “you can’t find these pieces in Australia” — with works by, among others, Nils Landberg, Vicke Lindstrand, Fulvio Bianconi, Göte Augustsson and Bo Bergstrom.

Andrews says collectable glass is often appealing to younger art collectors attracted to its colour, form and price (pieces are mostly $300-$4000).

“Most of the pieces I collect are Scandinavian, Italian and Czech,” she says. “They had a really interesting movement in the postwar era, with so much light and colour. I really love them and love finding them. Sometimes I put together pieces and then find I have a whole set.”

Much of Andrews’ collection remains in London, but will gradually be moved to Sydney, though she still plans buying trips to Europe.

“It was time to come home,” she says of her return to Sydney. She mentions her children, who now are in local schools.

“We are loving being back and loving being in Paddington. Everyone is so kind and so open.”

Connie and Vi

72 Oxford St