Category: Uncategorized

Over the last few weeks some new publications have come into the library. The Web was a quarterly journal that was produced by the New Zealand Spinning, Weaving and Wool-crafts Society from the 1970s through to the 1980s. The library already has a set of The Web but an addition has just come in that…

As regular readers of the blog will know, the Textile Trust, Aotearoa is a new charitable organisation that has been set-up on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand to promote textiles through education, training and appreciation. The Textile Trust was established in July 2025 and our small team has just begun…

Some recent visitors to the studio in Māwhera Greymouth have prompted a change on the website. I get to meet many interesting people in the studio. Visitors look through the windows and come in, intrigued by the displays and the weaving equipment. Lots of those visitors are creative people and so I have started a…

Weaving is a complex task, although it looks deceptively simple. The routine passing of a shuttle between sets of threads, packing it into place and then changing the sets to make patterns belies the amount of work, time and thought that goes into the process of a woven cloth. So it is no surprise that…

Last week the blog passed a significant milestone. Regular readers may have noticed that the blog did not come out as usual on Sunday. Every week I write blog articles that are all date-stamped automatically. When Mailchimp, the service that I use to email the blog, puts the articles together to send those articles are…

The blog this week is shorter than usual because of the studio opening. Normal service will resume as soon as possible!

We have returned from our holiday to Africa where we had a fantastic time with family and friends. There is lots to tell about our trip. Five weeks in the African sun, two in South Africa and three in Zimbabwe, has been life-affirming and wonderful. Next week’s blog will include stories about the trip and…

Quilts can these days be considered art, rather than simply utilitarian textiles, thanks in part to Shelly Zegart. The “Queen of Quilts” as she was once called, Shelly Zegart was not a quilter, nor even a stitcher. She became interested in quilts after tea in the 1970s with Bruce Mann, a collector from Louisville, Kentucky,…

Most weeks the blog features a playlist of audio curated on Spotify, the streaming platform. The playlist tracks are linked in some way to the blog entries and paying subscribers will hear all the tracks uninterrupted. Those with a free subscription will hear the tracks with advertising breaks and anyone else will hear short extracts.

Thank you to everyone who sent emails and comments about the blog last week. This weekend I am away to Rotoiti to give a talk at the Creative Fibres retreat. As we are leaving on Friday, the normal day for writing, time is short so the blog will be too! Normal service will be resumed…