Tag: travel

  • The Dick Van Dyke show and a textile

    The small township of Ross is south of Hokitika on New Zealand’s West Coast and is an old gold-mining settlement. Ross is now a stop for tourists who come to look at the history of the area, walk the old gold-field paths, and experience gold-panning for themselves. It also has an op-shop, short for “opportunity…

  • 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…

  • This Week’s Spotify playlist

    Each week a playlist of audio on Spotify is curated to go along with the blog. Each item has something to do with the articles on the blog, although sometimes the links are not obvious. To wisent either click on the Player above or go to the Spotify app or website and search for “Music…

  • 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 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…

  • Walking Two Worlds

    In these days of climate emergency, fashion can be a platform to raise awareness. Quannah Chasinghorse, an American supermodel who is from Oglala Lakota and Hän Gwich’in tribes, has been taking the fashion world by storm. With her distinctive looks and Yidįįłtoo tattoos, the model has been the face of campaigns from Ralph Lauren and…

  • 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,…

  • 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…

  • Natural colours

    To the first-time visitor New Zealand Aotearoa seems to offer little in the way of natural colour, especially in the heavily wooded South of Te Waipounamu/ The South Island. Green is the predominant hue. Many different shades and tones of green, but green nevertheless. However, there is plenty of colour around, and possibly none more…

  • 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,…