Category: Textiles
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How AI is helping the Indian carpet industry
These days the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI), machines that can compile and analyse enormous amounts of data to create just about anything, is concerning for some and a boon to others. AI has been the predicted next stage in the evolution of computers and technology and nowadays it is seemingly everywhere. The technology can…
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This week’s Spotify playlist
Each week a Spotify playlist is created to go with the blog articles and to respond to current events. For those with a paid subscription to Spotify you will hear the whole list without interruption, those with a free subscription will have adverts every so often, and everyone else will hear excerpts.
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A skull of lace
The Swedish textile artist, Esther Magnusson, has created a life-size skull out of lace. The skull was created from old bobbin lace made from cotton or linen and was stitched and glued together with cotton thread and wood glue. Wood glue was also used to starch the piece. The artist added teeth, crocheting them as…
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A Knitting Song
The company, Chappell & Co., began life in England in 1811, selling sheet music and musical instruments including pianos from its premises in London’s Bond Street. By the 1970s it had expanded its operations worldwide to include the North America and Australasia. Chappell and Co. began concentrating solely on its publishing business in 1980, selling…
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Travels in the South
Over the festive season we travelled through the central part of Te Waipounamu/ the South Island of Aotearoa New Zealand. The journey of more than 1,500 kms, once all the side trips were taken into account, took ten days and covered some of the most spectacular scenery and sights of the island. One of the…
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Of a scarf and a song
On Thursday this week the new choir met as usual. Being so close to Christmas, with all its activities and dinners, there were only a few of us, but more than one is still an opportunity to sing together so we met. When I arrived at the usual venue the alarm kept going off and…
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Christmas 2023
It is time for the blog to take its annual rest for the Christmas celebrations, and this will be the last one for a few weeks. Thank you all for taking time to read, write and comment over the last year. Your support has been tremendous and I have loved discovering a different rhythm to…
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Workshops for summer 2024
Over the next few months – after the Christmas and New Year break – the Southern Hemisphere summer really gets into its swing with workshops. Over the next few months there are lots of events and activities in Aotearoa New Zealand. Here are a few that are happening up and down the West Coast. Down…
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Left Bank Art Gallery show
The Left Bank is the regional art gallery for the West Coast, housed in what was previously…wait for it… a bank! The gallery shows exhibitions every month and has two spaces, one larger than the other. This month the large space is hosting the Member’s Show, an event dedicated to the artworks of the members…
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Eerie Pageantry
The City Gallery, Wellington/ Te Whare Toi is currently hosting an exhibition of “folk-horror-infused art” by Don Driver and Julia Robinson. Sculptures and assemblages present a view of the Gothic from the Antipodes; Julia Robinson hails from Australia and comes from English ancestry and Don Driver is from Aotearoa New Zealand. Julia uses textile techniques…