It has been an exciting week in the studio, which began with a visit over the mountains to our nearest city: Christchurch Ōtautahi.
The visit should have happened last week but, upon arriving at Otira, the start of Arthur’s Pass over the Alps, my travelling companion, Maria, and I discovered that a lorry had spilt a load of tallow and the pass was closed to traffic. Rather despondently we returned home but managed to lift the mood with some investigation into wool colours and sorting out of various things that will make weaving lengths of cloth easier.
Monday this week was clear and warm and so we set off on another attempt to cross. The purpose of the trip was to meet up with a pattern maker and tailor, and to have a conversation about getting yarn made from the dyed wool that I have had in the studio for a little while. We headed over to Lincoln to meet Katinka from Patternworks first.
Going across the mountains is always an adventure; no two trips are the same. At this time of year there is snow to look forward to on the peaks, and the wintery colours of the Alpine grasslands and lakes. This time was no exception: golden waves of tussock and the grandeur of the mountains with their flanks of grey gravel and tawny slips, black trunks of beech, the olive green of thorny matagouri bushes. There was plenty of inspiration and ideas for colour palettes.
The town of Lincoln is known for its university where agriculture has long been a specialism. That will be no surprise because it is in Canterbury, the largest and flattest of the areas in the country, making it ideal for farming. Patternworks operates from a residential suburb where a room full of sewing and machining equipment, and another building with cutting table and storage makes up the operation. I had previously sent over some cloth to Patternworks, and we met to discuss what to do with this and with future cloths.
We spent about an hour with Katinka, looking at some outfits, both men’s and women’s and we came away with a plan. Katinka will be creating a pattern for a woman’s coat first of all and then making a sample that we can have in the studio for people to try on so we can get an idea of what people like and would be prepared to spend money on. Once that pattern is created and refined we can offer pieces for sale that can be tailored to fit and that can have details altered such as collar and pockets. then we can move onto men’s pieces. By following this process I am aiming to have pieces that can be made from my cloth on sale in the studio. A long-held dream is coming true!
Our next visit was to Green Acres, a scouring and spinning mill not too far away from Lincoln. We met with Leo who owns and runs the equipment, some of which is almost a century old. Maria and Leo chatted knowledgeably about the processes, and we showed what we were looking for from the handspun yarns that we had been working on. Ultimately we are looking at have yarns spun for us and this, it appears, is achievable by working with different businesses that do the various processes on a small scale. Another long-held idea looks like it might be feasible.
The return home went quickly. There was plenty to talk about and there is still much to do. We are on our way and the future is looking positive.
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