Category: Travel
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Conversation and Cloth: Caroline McQuarrie
The last Conversation and Cloth event for the year will be a chat with artist Caroline McQuarrie. Caroline has roots in the West Coast and explores histories through photography, video and domestic crafts. In this Conversation With we will be talking about her works in woven images. The venue for the event will be the…
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Of cloth, peacocks and Scandinavia
Each month a talk about something in the textile collection in Greymouth Mawhera is held in the Regent Theatre. This month’s event was about art textiles including textiles as artistic mediums, art on textiles, and textiles as art. The subject ranged from the French mid-century printed, woven and needleworks, created by artists and designers as…
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This week’s Spotify playlist
Each week a new audio playlist is curated to go with the blog. The pieces chosen relate to the stories on the blog or to current events. To listen click on the player above. If you have a paid subscription to Spotify you will hear the compete tracks, while free subscriptions will include advertisements. If…
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The New Zealand Agricultural Show 2023
There cannot be many things more pleasurable than going to an agricultural show, especially when there are highlights like lambs, calves, tractors and duck herding! The show is held in Otautahi Christchurch each year and we have been eagerly anticipating going to see the wool on show and to speak to farmers and producers. It…
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Lincoln University’s art collection
This week a visit to Lincoln University library led to the campus collection of art. The University, the oldest agricultural teaching institution in the Southern Hemisphere, was created in 1990 when Lincoln College, Canterbury, was made independent of the University of Canterbury. There was no collecting policy in place but after the sale of cigarettes…
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This week’s Spotify playlist
Each week a list of music that relates to the blog or to current events is curated on Spotify. Readers can listen to the songs by following this link or by clicking on the play button on the player above. Paid subscribers will hear all the music, free-to-listen subscribers will hear the music with advertisements…
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The shape of wool
Fire! The word sometimes is warming and comforting, and sometimes it is terrifying, especially when it comes to the power fire has to destroy lives and livelihoods. In 2021 a fire ripped through a large area of land in the Xhariep District of the Free State of South Africa, destroying, amongst others, a merino wool…
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Madras check
The familiar sight of Madras check has a long heritage, and has its origins in everyday casual wear. Born in what was Madras, now Chennai, the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the hand-woven cotton cloth was originally dyed with vegetable colours that ran together when washed, giving a blended look to the soft fabric. It…
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This week’s Spotify playlist
Each week a new playlist of music related to the blog contents and to world events is created. All the playlists in the series can be seen here and this week’s one can be heard via the player below or directly from the link. If you are a subscriber to Spotify you can hear all…
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Men of the Trees
Trees feature heavily in this week’s blog. Perhaps it is because the first part of the week was spent planting new trees where the studio-on-the-hill is nearly complete, perhaps it is because of the less-than-judicious pruning and cutting out of invasive trees on the land, or perhaps it is just the zeitgeist. Whatever it is,…