Category: Art

  • The Dick Van Dyke show and a textile

    The small township of Ross is south of Hokitika on New Zealand’s West Coast and is an old gold-mining settlement. Ross is now a stop for tourists who come to look at the history of the area, walk the old gold-field paths, and experience gold-panning for themselves. It also has an op-shop, short for “opportunity…

  • Lighting the way

    Around the world lighthouses guide marine traffic safely in dangerous conditions. Lighthouses come in many forms but they all fulfil the same essential function: acting as beacons to warn of danger or act as signallers to safe havens. In Shetland some of the lighthouses that dot the coast were designed and built by the Stevenson…

  • Textile song, work and memory

    Weaving has been associated with music and rhythm for centuries, a strong connection that helps guide the weaving itself and also makes evident the links between personal practice and growth in the Indian Subcontinent. From mystics, who use weaving as metaphors in verse for Buddhist philosophy, to women who gather together to spin cotton while…

  • Irene Sharraff

    Costumes are always an important ingredient in making a successful play or musical. Meet Irene Sharraff. Irene trained in fashion illustration and excelled in colour and historical details, employing these to brilliant effect in musicals such as West Side Story and Call Me Madam. Her work was recognised in 1993 when she was awarded the…

  • The Spotify playlist

    In this, the first of the playlists for 2025, a selection of audio pieces has been collected to go along with the blog. To listen, click on the player above or head over to Spotify and search for “Music to read a blog by”. Paying subscribers to the platform will hear all the audio without…

  • Janet Frame House

    56 Eden Street, Oamaru, was once the home of Janet Frame, the famous New Zealand author. The Janet Frame House has been restored and is opened in the summer months for visitors to experience. It is a pretty, uncomplicated building, filled with charm and crocheted bedspreads and rag rugs, a sewing machine and a typewriter,…

  • The crocheted wharenui

    A few months back the blog featured Lissy Robinson-Cole and Rudi Robinson-Cole’s crocheted sculpture: Wharenui Harikoa. A wharenui is a large building for people to gather in and is usually on a marae. They are usually lavishly decorated with symbolic artworks and the various parts of the structure have particular relevance, which you can read…

  • Happy New Year

    Welcome blog friends, old and new. I hope you have had a good festive season, wherever you are and whatever you did. This year we are going to be opening the new textile studio in Greymouth Māwhera, and starting our workshops. The weaving equipment from the UK will be arriving in Aotearoa New Zealand in…

  • The last blog for the year

    Hello, dear readers, It is the end of another year and the last posting for 2024. What a year it has been. We have been lucky enough to travel and also fortunate enough to have stayed home. It has been a year of creativity, a new studio space, singing in waiata groups and with choirs,…

  • The Spotify playlist

    This week’s Spotify playlist features, as always, audio that relates to the articles on the blog. In addition there are some extras, it being the festive season for many across the world. To listen to the playlist click on the player above or go to Spotify on the Web or in the app and search…