Tag: craft

  • 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…

  • Baye Fall – patchwork in a Muslim community

    The Baye Fall, Senegalese Muslims, believe that hard work and service to their communities expressed their faith, but their clothes honour the founder of the movement. In the 19th Century Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba established the Mouride brotherhood, an offshoot of Sufi Islam, in Senegal. It is believed that Ibrahima Fall, the founder of Baye Fall,…

  • The start of creating yarns

    The challenge of finding 100% wool yarns in Aotearoa New Zealand that are suitable for weaving with is tricky. The yarns that The Shetland Tweed Company used in production came from the sheep on the islands, and are blended colours. The blend allows for different colours to be highlighted in the weaving and makes for…

  • The subtleties of kimono

    This wedding kimono from the textile collection was exhibited in the Left Bank Gallery in Greymouth in 2023. As regular readers of the blog will know, there is a collection of Japanese garments upstairs in the Regent Theatre in Māwhera Greymouth. The garments were brought into the collection a few years ago and came direct…

  • Peter Collingwood in New Zealand

    In 1984, Peter Collingwood, the British weaver who was the first living craftsperson to have work exhibited in London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, visited Auckland. The New Zealand Spinners, Weavers and Woolcraft Society toured a British Council exhibition of textile art that included the weaver’s work. The exhibition in Aotearoa included local weavers from Auckland,…

  • 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…