Tag: art

  • Designing communication

    Language is complicated, isn’t it? With over 7,000 languages in use across the globe (if you want to know more head over to Ethnologue), and more than 270 scripts used to write those languages, communication can be complex. Add visual impairment into the mix and it gets even more so. Five years ago, a Japanese…

  • Winter knits by Jenny Kee

    A new book of fabulous winter knits by the Australian designer, Jenny Kee, has just been added to the library. Jenny Kee started working in the 1960s in Australia before moving over to London where she worked with Vern Lambert at Chelsea Antique Market. Here she developed an interest in vintage and antique clothing, and…

  • How New Zealand flax changed the world

    New Zealand flax is a tough plant from the lily family. It is completely unrelated to true flax, Linum usitatissimum, from which linen is made, but the plants, unique to Aotearoa New Zealand and, it is said, Norfolk Island, yield tough fibres that resemble linen flax, hence the sobriquet. The NZ plant has an astonishingly…

  • India’s deaf-run lifestyle brand

    There are 18 million deaf people who live in India so Smitri decided to do something about it. Coming from a family where hearing impairment affected her older siblings, Smitri became fluent in sign language and was the youngest news anchor for the deaf community. At the age of 23, she began Atulyakala, a company…

  • The emotional pull of British Quilts

    The history of textiles is chequered and long, and deserving of study and appreciation. Deborah McGuire has an ongoing PhD research project that uncovers the life and loves of the British Quilt. An historian, writer, hand-quilter and teacher, McGuire is based in London at the College of Fashion, and she researches and writes about the…

  • The Web and its Chief Spider

    Recently two sets of booklets, all neatly filed in their own green leatherette-covered folder, have been donated to the studio library. The Web was a “Magazine registered art Post Office Headquarters, Wellington, in the 1980s and was issued once a quarter by the New Zealand Spinning, Weaving and Wool-crafts Society Inc. Founded by Eric Powdrell,…

  • Holi 2025

    This week was the annual Hindu celebration of colour in India: Holi. The festival rejoices in the return of Spring to the north and brings people together to celebrate the triumph of good over evil, life over death, and happiness over sadness. You can read more about Holi here and, if you happen to have…

  • Modern Daily Knitting

    Thanks to a reader who sent in this link about a podcast on the Haptic and Hue channel, if you enjoy knitting this is the website for you!

  • This week’s Spotify playlist

    As usual, this week there is a soundtrack to go with the blog and readers can listen to it by clicking the player above or by searching for the playlist on Spotify. The tracks are related in some way to the entries on the blog, although it might not be obvious what the relationship is.…

  • Visitors to the studio

    As the season turns the flow of visitors to the studio seems to increase. Māwhera Greymouth is at the end of the rail trip from Christchurch Ōtautahi over Arthur’s Pass in the mountains to the West Coast. The train follows the same route as cars and trucks but, instead of going over the mountain it…