Textiles on the Edge... (of the Planet)

Tokyo Quilt Show 2012, Bernina NZ icons challenge

2012-01-31T15:04:00.000-08:00

Sadly I didn't go to the Tokyo Quilt show this year but someone else did and has posted their photos on Flickr.
Tokyo Quilt Show 2012 . My personal favourite is 'Born Free' by Miyoko Miyata, the quilt which is grey with a green seedling. Looks a bit like the idea for the movie WallE.

Here is my entry for the Bernina New Zealand Icons Challenge. I had real problems coming up with an idea for this quilt challenge. I felt I had 'done' New Zealand icons already, NZ cabbage trees (Cordyline Australis), lancewoods, Nikau palms etc. In the end I made a quilt because I had told Mary from Nancy's Embroidery shop that I'd enter. I had to make it in the time between getting back from Hong Kong and going off to the Coromandel on holiday with the family. I didn't bother about housework or anything anything for that week even though we took down the Christmas tree and the floor was covered in bits of Xmas tree plastic.

While I was away I got a text from a friend saying "Thankyou for telling me about the Bernina challenge, I entered and I made a bach quilt". Groans from me, as I made a bach quilt too!
Congratulations to the winner of the sewing machine, Rosemary Rush from Auckland for her Tuatara quilt.

Which brings me back to the idea of Challenges and theme exhibitions. Are they a good thing? They break you out of a rut, get you making something and get your stuff out there and on show. OR do they take you off track and distract you? I'm not sure myself, all I know is that my quilt will be a useful image for this year's Christmas card and I finally got around to making a quilt with a picture of a pohutukawa tree on it (the tree with the red flowers).

Well, back to work. 2 things to work on - an entry for the Nelson exhibition 'Changing Threads' due on the 17th of Feb and getting my eldest son organised. He has been accepted for music school in Auckland so will be moving out of home and into the student residences for a year.

Last thing
I went to the wedding dress exhibition at Te Papa in Wellington and it is great. Take your friends (and your Mum).

Holiday in the Coromandel

2012-01-28T16:14:00.000-08:00

Just a few shots of the Coromandel area of New Zealand for those who live outside of New Zealand and are interested. The weather is warmer than Wellington, the vegetation can be quite tropical looking and there are lots of holiday homes for those from Auckland who can afford it. We just borrowed a house in Whangamata for 12 days and used that as a base to see the rest of the peninsula.

This tree was laden with epiphytes (plants growing from the branches)

Punga (tree fern)

Froth on the river, possibly caused by pollen as we all got hayfever that day.

View from the top of Driving Creek Railway, Coromandel Town.

Driving Creek Railway

Waihi Open Cast Gold Mine

The New and the Old - Macau side trip

2012-01-27T22:45:00.000-08:00

I am writing this retrospectively because I didn't have time before I left for a 2 week family holiday in the Coromandel .

Anyway I'd heard a lot about Macau from a friend whose daughter worked there for 6 months as a singing gondolier at the Macau Venetian Hotel. I thought the idea of a singing Gondolier in Macau was so incongruous that I had to see it myself.
It is true! they have made Venice inside the hotel except that everything is way cleaner than in the real Venice and there are lots more fancy shops. I think the sky changes colour from day to night as well, like Venus Fort in Tokyo, very disconcerting.

Check out the blue water in the canals.

The Venetian Hotel/Casino was bad enough but the Galaxy Casino and Hotel was just completely over the top.

The main audience is Mainland Chinese and the shops are very fancy brands. Loved the gold and red tiled floor though.

The other casino that I saw was the Grand Lisboa.

It was like the architects were able to go with their wildest design ideas.

However I was really more interested in the older historic parts of Macau but I don't think I found what I was looking for. Maybe I would need to more time to find the heart of Macau.

Spiral incense burning slowly

Older style letterboxes in a crumbling apartment building

Narrow streets with local shops and apartments, a far cry from the glittering casinos.

Caged birds taken out for an outing in the park.

Incense sticks sprouting from a crack in the pavement

A poster for an exhibition that I would love to have seen, except that I never found the gallery

Christmas decorations in the older part of Macau

What happens to Christmas decorations on about the 4th of January. Poor old santa...

Hong Kong Shibori Symposium

2012-01-06T21:13:00.000-08:00

The first day of the Symposium had registration, an exhibition opening and welcome speeches etc. The second day was pretty much all the talks in 2 concurrent sessions. Luckily we were all issued great big conference proceedings books because we missed a lot. Most speakers tried to do their talks in English but a large part of the audience were Chinese or Japanese. Simultaneous translation was too expensive so there was a little catchup at the end for non-English speakers which must have been very frustrating for them. A few talks were in Mandarin or Japanese and it really made me realise how important it is to have great images on the screen if you don't understand any of the talk. One speaker did his whole talk in Mandarin and his only image was the title of the talk (also in Mandarin) so I still have no idea what he was talking about.

I enjoyed most of the talks but the demonstrations and mini workshops were my favourite. Unfortunately I missed most of the demonstrations as they were the same day as the trunk show.

My favourite was a mini workshop on Lazer engraving on fabric. This was lead by PhD student 'Carson' (Guoxiang Yuan). Carson also won at least 2 prizes in the exhibitions for some amazing work using the laser engraving. Here are some images.

The jpg image is loaded into the laser computer and re-sized then the piece of clothing or fabric is put onto the bed of the laser 'cubicle?'. In this picture the laser is engraving the jeans across both legs at once. It is removing the colour from the fibres rather than the top layer of fabric.

Here is an example of a students laser engraved design.

Here I am with Carson in front of his winning work in the Energy Nexus exhibition. The paler areas are made with laser engraving. This method can be used to simulate worn areas on clothing such as jeans much quicker and without use of so much handling, water etc. Look out for Carson I am sure he is going to go far!

Another workshop I really enjoyed was with Michel Garcia. He teaches natural dyeing from a chemist's point of view. He explains why you need certain chemicals and uses non-toxic (often plant based) replacements for most of the dangerous chemicals used previously. I highly recommend his class to anyone who gets a chance to attend one of his classes on indigo or tannins.

I love the idea that I can make an indigo vat with indigo, fructose and lime. Or Indigo, natural henna and lime. Or even indigo, ripe bananas and lime.

Michel Garcia demonstrating how to make two different Indigo vats using henna powder in one and fructose in the other.

Demonstrating the mixing of mordants which were then printed on white cotton cloth (see below)

Then over dyed with crushed, cooked pomegranate flesh and skins. Each mordant takes up the colour from the pomegranate differently. I will make a link to some websites for Michel Garcia's workshop when our internet is not as slow. I think the kids have pushed the broadband over the limit for today!

I also went to a demonstration/talk by Mr Hiroshi Murase, about Persimmon juice which is used in Japan as a dye and is called kakishibu. It not only fixes to the fabric with no mordant but can also be used to waterproof things. It reacts to UV so instead of going paler in our high NZ UV, it would go darker. So if anyone in New Zealand - probably in the North - has a source of green persimmons (maybe they fell off your tree in a storm) please let me know!

Lastly for the day - WOW is going to Hong Kong. A highlights show is going to the Hong Kong Arts festival. The posters were up in MTR stations.

Trip to Hong Kong retrospective...

2012-01-06T20:19:00.000-08:00

I've just got back from Hong Kong and had to fly back via Bangkok which added on quite a few hours. Hong Kong was fascinating and exciting. I've never been there before, my stopovers to Europe have always gone via Singapore before. I look forward to going back to Hong Kong some time but maybe avoiding the both European New Year and Chinese New Year as the accomodation prices skyrocket at those times. We ended up staying in a small apartment in an area called Mong Kok which is the most densely populated area on earth (or so I am told). I can well believe it as it was a struggle to walk back to our apartment at night through the crowds. We booked the apartment through WIMDU after finding all the hotels and hostels put their prices up 80% over New Year.

Hong Kong is a shoppers paradise especially if you are a size 8-10 and have small feet (which I don't). Fabric is very cheap and I bought mostly silk to keep the bag weight down. Silk organza was about NZ$7 a metre as opposed to $20 + in New Zealand. The area for fabric, sewing supplies and trims is Sham Shui Po. In the same area is Dragon shopping building which was great for shopping and had wonderful gibberish t-shirts for kids.

On my first day in Hong Kong I was struck by the contrasts I saw in different areas of the city.
Down near the Star Ferry there are lots of very expensive shops, and this Christmas tree made of Fererro Rocher Chocolates. The attendants were replacing a few that must have been broken or eaten the night before.

Tiny old ladies pushing heavy carts along the roads on Hong Kong Island while fancy cars whizz by.

Snoopy bike leaning against a wooden carving made of what looks like a gnarled root.

Man Mo temple seen between older apartments with new apartments towering above.

In fact many of my photos over the 10 days were taken of apartment blocks.

At New Year we attended a banquet for the shibori symposium then watched fireworks from the roof of a large hotel. It was a good way of avoiding the huge crowds of people on the streets that night.

A few days later a group of Shibori Symposium people went on a boat trip around the harbour to see the nightly light show.

This was the best photo, most of the others look like I was a bit drunk but it was a sailing junk so I have an excuse :-)

Imagine the amount of electricity used in this nightly light show, not sure why I bother going around the house turning off lights each evening.
At the end of the symposium we went on a walking tour of an area of Hong Kong lsland. Hollywood Road and some of the market areas. The most interesting bit for me was the shops where they sold paper food and money to buy for the dead so they will have stuff in the afterlife. At least I think that is the story.

Paper cakes

paper seafood

Paper gold bars

Paper meals including tofu blocks

Paper ducks and chickens.
There were also paper Ipads, Ipods, cellphones, cars and much more. I did think about bringing back some paper Ipads for my sons but thought that would be a bit mean.

Above - Chinese New Year decorations including Dragon Puppets as the new year will be the Year of the Dragon.

A market stall in 'Cat' Street which has many years of items piled on top of each other. Would make a good archeological dig.

The next post will have more about the Shibori symposium itself.

Hong kong

2012-01-02T02:18:00.000-08:00

I have just spent the last few days at the shibori symposium in hong kong.there have been some very interesting sessions including a short workshop on laser engraving of fabric and a natural dyeing workshop by MIchel Garcia which demystified indigo. I am keen to try his version of an indigo vat which uses indigo , lime and either fructose, henna or fruit peels. all are way nicer to use than the nasty chemicals in most other recipes.

New years night was quite fun as we bought tickets to a cocktail party on top of a hotel where we could se the fireworks which came out of the tops of the skyscrapers down at the waterfront.

I have some nice photos but I don't seem to be able to find a way of putting them in the blog using my iPad.

I have finally stopped rushing around sightseeing and shopping as I have caught a cold and feel rather miserable and drippy. Tomorrow we are doing fabric shopping for silk and I don't want to miss that! sham shui Po apparently is the place to go for fabric and trim.

The shops here are amazing but I haven't bought much as the sizes are a bit small. I have bought a few antique bits and pieces, heaven knows whether they Are authentic but they didn't cost much so it probably doesn't matter. Of course I have also bought books which is usually my downfall.

I wish I could include photos but I can't find a way so will post some after the 5th of January when I get back to new Zealand. I recommend hong kong as wonderful place to visit.

.clare

Hong Kong trip

2011-11-29T03:37:00.000-08:00

I have spent the last week booking a trip to Hong Kong for 10 days over Boxing Day- New Year. Aren't airpoints great! I'm going to the World Shibori Symposium in Hong Kong from 28th Dec to 3rd Jan. The tickets were easy, it was finding accomodation at that time of year that was difficult. Who would have thought that backpacker hostels would put their prices up by 80% over New Year's night and the 1st of Jan! It isn't as if it is Chinese New Year or anything.

Last year I spent a lot of time learning how to dye wool and playing with wool shrinkage and shibori on merino knit fabrics. Then I had this year off for the costume course but now I seem to be going back to wool. I'm nearly ready to combine the two.

Yesterday I finished the capes for the pre-school circus class. The first two I made had a certain wizardish look about them. I discovered that screenprinted random stars makes a cape look like it is for a wizard and that circus has organised stars instead. They are stars in rows. Not something I had ever thought of before.

Extreme Craft

2011-11-23T12:40:00.000-08:00

A favourite new blog called Extreme Craft. Learn about how food photographers build catapults to fling the food in the air for ads or consider glazing pottery plates with the aid of a paintball gun.

Indigo

2011-11-20T15:33:00.000-08:00

While I am researching websites and blogs for the Websearch article I write for New Zealand Quilter I often find things that aren't appropriate for a quilting magazine but are still amazing.

This is from an exhibition called Japanese Suppleness

Then Deb Donnelly sent me a link to another website which had indigo dyed clothing. Called
Heartwear.

Above is an installation called 'Universal Blue' which was at a shop in Paris.

Hand Eye magazine has had some great articles in Indigo. Here is an article on their blog which I subscribe to. Hand Eye.
Hand Eye is a great magazine and I used to subscribe to it but unfortunately the price for a subscription has gone up a lot since the beginning so now I just buy the individual magazines from Minerva Gallery.

Fabrications

2011-11-16T01:02:00.000-08:00

This saturday

Fabrications
10-4pm Horticultural hall, Lower Hutt.
30 Exhibitors/vendors, craft and textile supplies, exhibits of works, classes , café, lots to do, buy and see.

Costumier and textile Artist!

2011-11-14T12:23:00.000-08:00

I found the little quilt above while tidying up my sewing room. It won a prize at Coast to Coast Open day last year and is called ' Going to Nana's at Christmas'. In New Zealand we leave for our summer holidays at Christmas and it is always sad to have to leave the Christmas tree, presents and decorations and go off to some other part of the country. I have made Christmas cards using this image on Snapfish.

So I've graduated from the Drama School costume course. I feel like I only went through orientation week a few weeks ago but I started in March and finished last week and the year has flown by.

So now of course I am looking for work and I have my first little costume job. I am making some little capes for pre-schoolers.

So now I have to make decisions like - do I gather the cloak at the neck or make a half circle cloak and what fabrics can the client afford while still paying me actual money to make them?

Whew, so many decisions...

And then I am designing some quilts for exhibitions and writing my Websearch article for New Zealand Quilter for the next edition.

One of my quilts is on the cover of the last edition. I can't find a picture of the magazine online so here is a picture of the whole quilt. On the magazine cover they have the quilt on the table as a table cloth.

It is called Granny Smith's Airing Cupboard and is made of doileys and placemats.

I have also spent the last 3 days tidying up my sewing room. There is a big wide bench in there which I haven't seen in a couple of years. I usually end up working on about a 30 cm square area because I can't find any more space. The photo makes it look quite cluttered but there is enough space to actually make something now.

Whats On - quilts and Textiles in NZ

2011-10-31T14:57:00.000-07:00

Auckland Patchworkers Quiltfest 2011. A Nautical Calico Christmas. It is this weekend 4,5,6th November at North Harbour Stadium, Albany, Friday 10-5, sat 10-5, sunday 10-4pm. Merchants , show etc. Free parking.
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Fabricabrac
5th November
St Anne's Hall, Newtown

Fabrics, buttons, beads, lace, scissor sharpening, Mary Potter Hospice stall selling donated fabrics.
www.fabricabrac.co.nz
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Wine Country Quilts 2012 exhibition. 23-25th march 2012. Pukeora Estate, Waipukurau Open 10-4pm daily. $5 entry. You can enter the exhibition if you live on the east Coast from Hicks Bay to Cape Palliser.
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Other stuff that has arrived
Fibre and Fleece exhibition Opotiki. 6-8th July 2012.Anyone can enter the exhibition and fashion show, $20 entry. Lots of categories but everything has to be 90% natural materials (wool, cotton, stone, fur etc). For further information or to get an entry form contact Opotiki Information centre infocentre@odc.govt.nz or 073153031
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The Great Kiwi Icon Challenge.
Create a wall hanging of kiwi icons.
A2 sized quilt, feltwork, embroidery or other textile. Must be original. Entries to your local Bernina shop by 15th January. Forms at Bernina shops.
2 entries will be chosen by each Bernina shop to go forward to the main competition. Prizes are sewing machines for Best of show and Most humorous.
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Mini Symposium
Patches of Tasman
www.patchesoftasman.co.nz/

I really enjoy the mini symposium as it is much easier to keep track of friends as they are so much smaller than the main symposium.

There are lots of classes by NZ tutors. Dates are 12th - 16th April 2012

There is also a competition 'Patches of Tasman'. Maximum size is 1m in any direction. See the website for details of how to enter.
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Costumes
If you would like to see some of the costumes the Costume Construction class at Drama school made this year, they are up on display in the foyer of the drama school this week and next week along with the models made by the student designers. We also made costumes for 'Love's Labours Lost' which is the graduation show for the 3rd year actors. On till friday. $5 for students and $25 for adults.
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Exhibition
Beneath the Southern Skies
http://fiberartcalls.blogspot.com/2011/07/beneath-southern-sky.html
Beneath the Southern Sky
Deadline: 25 January 2012 (ONLINE)

Beneath the Southern Sky
A traveling exhibition of contemporary textile art
Curator: Brenda Gael Smith
Confirmed venues:
Craft and Sewing Show, Auckland: 15-18 March 2012
Australasian Quilt Convention: 12-15 April 2012
Textile Art Festival: 9-11 June 2012

Size is 40X100cm banner shape.

cherry blossom in NZ

2011-10-08T22:38:00.000-07:00

Check out the incredibly blue sky behind the blossom. We get beautiful days at this time of year interspersed with horribly cold days like yesterday. In Japan the cherry blossom was incredible but the sky was usually grey in the background which I only realised when I took these photos.

I got my latest copy of new Zealand quilter and I'm very excited because one of my quilts is on the cover. It is very different from the dyed and painted quilts that I usually make - this one is made of lace doileys.

Arohanui

2011-10-08T01:34:00.000-07:00

In between making costumes for the two plays which are coming up for Toi Whakaari, I have also been helping out a bit with the costumes for a show called Arohanui. It is a Maori musical with dancing, singing, traditional martial arts and poi. It is a great show, I really recommend it and I really enjoyed the chance to see the final tech rehearsal, dress rehearsal and opening night as it gave me a chance to see how changes to the lighting made a real difference to the mood of the show.

I don't have any photos of the costumes which I was helping with, but here is a Youtube 'taster' from the rehearsals and if you get a chance to see this show I encourage you to go and take any visitors you have staying, with you.

Arohanui and Youtube clip

There is one more show in Wellington then it moves to Auckland for a week.

Textile Whats on in Wellington

2011-09-30T21:36:00.000-07:00

I am going to have a stall at
Tawa Art and Craft Expo 9-3pm, Saturday 8th October

Tawa Comunity Centre to show some of my costume work and quilts. I will also have some merino wool scarves and cards for sale.

Other

Minerva gallery - a selection of small quilts inspired by New Zealand landscapes.

Kapiti Coast Quilters Spring Show in the Memorial Hall, Pehi Kupa Street (turn right at the lights by the railway crossing into Elizabeth Street, and Pehi Kupa Street is next left. Open from 9.00 am - 5pm Saturday 1st and Sunday 2nd Oxtober as part of the Arts Trail.

19th November - Fabrications- Horticultural Hall, lower Hutt
http://fabricationsnz.blogspot.com/

Quiltfest Levin 9-4pm.

Maori Art Market, Te Rauparaha Arena, Porirua
6 — 9 October, 2011.
Thursday 6 October, 2011: 9.30am - 6.30pm
Friday 7 October, 2011: 9.30am - 6.30pm
Saturday 8 October, 2011: 9.30am - 7.00pm
Sunday 9 October, 2011: 9.30am - 4.30pm

Pataka art and craft market
10-4pm on Saturday 8th October

Tawa Art and Craft Expo 9-3pm, Saturday 8th October
Tawa Comunity Centre

Reticella Lace

2011-09-30T02:27:00.000-07:00

Costume Showcase is over and it is less than 8 weeks till the course is over for me. It has been a bit of a roller coaster ride and it seems like I only started yesterday. We have 2 shows to complete costumes for in the next few weeks. They are 'The Putnam County Spelling Bee' and 'Love's Labours Lost' then it is all over and we all need to look for work.

While working on the costume for Showcase I have become interested in lacemaking. I have been taking lessons with a local teacher and have completed several very very small and very simple samples of bobbin lace. Unfortunately I don't own any bobbins or a cushion so it makes it difficult to actually finish anything larger than a half a book mark but I am finally getting the hang of the basic stitches. I wonder if I could get a few people and make lace with rope and use people as the bobbins? Sounds like the perfect drama school collaborative project :-)

Although I am learning bobbin lacemaking I keep finding photos of reticella lace which I really like.
http://lace.lacefairy.com/Lace/ID/ReticellaID.html

Reticella lace is made by stitching over linen threads. The Duchess of Dunfermline's ruff was probably made this way.

In her Ballyhoo Blog, Carlyn Beccia gives a Adobe Illustrator tutorial on ruffs.

Here Cal Lane shows his lace sculptures

The Countess of Dunfermline final photos

2011-09-22T22:18:00.000-07:00

This is Crystalyne Willis, a design student at Toi Whakaari who was the model for my costume.

This is the original picture which is held in the Dunedin art gallery. The photographer was taking pictures in the foyer and I managed to sneak in a shot, unfortunately the only shot was with the model facing the opposite direction to the original portrait, maybe I can flip it in photoshop some time.

Onstage it looked like this. The background is Dunfermline Abbey and the music was a Northumbrian small pipes tune with a walking rythmn which I liked.

I was very pleased with the background, lighting and how the costume looked. It was a great night.

Above, the Countess uses her cellphone whilst waiting for her cue and with the Kings Guard. Outfit by Oliver Black. The model is Leroy who is a drama student at Toi.

Costume Showcase, Toi Whakaari

2011-09-22T21:57:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Costume Showcase, thank-you to all the family and friends who came along. The 2 shows were sold out by Tuesday which is great (although not so great if anyone left it too long to buy a ticket). This post is a photo essay of the order which the garments are put on.

The above item is the shift or chemise. It would have been worn to keep sweat off the more expensive dress. It is easily washable. It is a very basic shape with a gusset under the arm and a drawstring at the neck.

This is the corset from the front and back. I made it out of some fabric I found in Warehouse Fabrics in Wellington ages ago. I don't really know the fibre content.

Then the bumroll gets put on and this holds up the back of the farthingale which holds the skirt out and slightly tilted. In the photo the skirt is very tilted up at the back but this maybe because the Countess is sitting.

Then the farthingale which is made of mattress ticking fabric. The Farthingale is the predecessor of the ballet tutu I'm told.

Then the petticoat which is made of 2 layers. The top layer has gathers and the bottom layer has box pleats. It is really heavy and stops the skirt from caving in when the wearer walks around.

The dress. This was made as separate bodice and skirt. I started with the skirt because that seemed easiest and then did the bodice when I had learned a few more techniques (such as boning a bodice and making the pattern fir the wearer!) The patterns are all screenprinted with 'Bright Gold' ink from CCG in Auckland. Bright gold is a metallic gold and this glittered in the theatre lights. The sleeves were the hardest bit. They have an under sleeve which is slit at the front so the chemise shows through, then they have a pleated puffed top part with a narrow ribbon like hanging sleeve and epaulettes. I had to do some incredibly carefully placed screenprinting to get the patterns in the right place.

Then the ruff and cuffs. The ruff is made of very fine screenprinting mesh which is printed with cream opaque screenprinting ink. The cuffs and lace around the decolletage is printed onto silk organza. The reason for the different fabric is that the ruff needs to be washable as theatre makeup gets onto it and it is the wrong shape to wash and iron easily. Tudor/Jacobean washer-women used to unpick the stitching them wash them and remake them. The cuffs are organza to be more see through and can be more easily washed and ironed.

Above is a detail shot of the bodice showing the buttons which I made by hand. They are thread wrapped around a single bead. Then they have plexi glue on the spines and gold foiling on that and a single rhinestone in the centre to make them glitter.

This is a nice shot of the ruff showing the screenprinted 'lace'. This didn't show very well on stage but looks good close up.

Then all the jewellery. I used bead caps, op shop brooches, $2 shop pearls, wire, beads (thanks to my cousin Sue for quite a lot of these). There is a lot of glue involved in making these jewels.

Lastly she gets her fan which is made of a wooden spoon handle, a base which I cut from customwood and the design was cast in a mold I made in the Special Effects class.

The next post has the final costume

making costumes for wolves

2011-09-05T05:22:00.000-07:00

Toi Whakaari Costume Showcase

2011-09-02T15:15:00.000-07:00

Here is the poster for Costume Showcase. The dress was made by Marly Doyle who graduated last year.

I have been working the last two days on costumes with the Monster Burlesque team and next week make the last push to finish my costume for Costume Showcase. Monster Burlesque has it's final dress rehearsal on Wednesday and starts on Thursday.

Costume Showcase, WOW, Minerva gallery

2011-08-26T04:41:00.000-07:00

Costume Showcase
Showcases the graduating costumiers' major works and other exciting projects including millinery, corsetry, masks and a variety of costumes from recent Toi Whakaari productions.

Where:
Te Whaea Theatre, Te Whaea: National Dance & Drama Centre, 11 Hutchison Road, Newtown, Wellington
When:
Thu 22 September
6.30pm & 8pm
Price:
$15 full, $10 concessions (includes drink and light refreshment)

Click here for
Bookings
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WOW - World of Wearable Art. Currently on in Wellington.

To see the costumes have a look on the Dompost website
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Minerva Gallery
237 Cuba Street
Quilted coats by Katherine Morrison
Jewellery by Elsie Fourie
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Monster Burlesque
Starts on September the 8th.
It's getting really close and I am part of a group working on getting the costumes ready for the performers to rehearse in. This weekend I am making wolf suspenders and girdles!

Snowing in wellington

2011-08-14T16:49:00.000-07:00

Last night it started snowing in Wellington about 5pm while I was at the Drama School in Newtown. I packed up quickly, dropped a couple of people home and drove home to tawa and it was a pretty freaky experience. We are not accustomed to snow in Wellington and people were taking it very carefully but it was pretty slushy and icy. I didn't realise that the mudguards on the car had built up a lot of slush behind them and nearly flooded the floor of the garage with melting ice and snow. I didn't get any photos last night because I was driving and when I got home it was dark but here re some photos from this morning.

Above are pictures of Porirua Harbour and below is a picture of my broccoli garden.

Monster Burlesque

2011-08-10T02:56:00.000-07:00

For the last few weeks I have been spending one day a week working on costumes for a show called Monster Burlesque which is on in Wellington at the same time as the Rugby World Cup. This is Vaune who designed the costumes and also performs in the show. She gives me bags of fur and spandex and scraps of paper with instructions and says "go make a girdle for a wolf". It is great fun even if it means I end up staying up late to get things done. One day a week a group of us have been getting together at the Wellington Arts Centre to form a sewing circle to work on the costumes. There are people dotted across wellington working on bears and wolves and monsters.

Here is one of the rooster heads which I was making last week

As well as the costumes for Monster Burlesque I am also continuing with the costume for the Duches of Dunfermline and yesterday I completed the sleeves which were the part of the dress I was most worried about. They are very tight and have a slit at the front and a puff at the top with ribbons and the braid carries on up the arm and onto the puffed top area. It took a lot to work out which bit went underneath or over the top of another bit. I am really pleased with the way they turned out and will post a picture of the finished item when I find my camera.

Here is a picture again of Margaret Hay, Duchess of Dunfermline. I am now working on the epaulettes and cuffs.

If anyone would like to come to Costume Showcase which is where the Costume students show what they have made this year - here is a link to the drama school booking page.

Bookings.

This annual event showcases the graduating costumiers' major works and other exciting projects including millinery, corsetry, masks and a variety of costumes from recent Toi Whakaari productions.

Where:	Te Whaea Theatre, Te Whaea: National Dance & Drama Centre, 11 Hutchison Road, Newtown, Wellington
When:	Thu 22 September 6.30pm & 8pm
	$15 full, $10 concessions (includes drink and light refreshment) We are also doing classes in historic undergarments and in special effects. For the underwear class we had to make an 1870's petticoat which has approximately 12 metres of ruffles. Because it is such a lot of fabric we could only use calico, so I screenprinted mine to make it more interesting. Here is a picture of the petticoat frill drying in my garage - note the use of garage 'props' . When the frill was laid out across the garage. it looked a bit like snake skin. The pattern is actually the lace design on the Ruff I made for the Jacobean costume.

Catch up and jacobean sleeves

2011-07-23T05:00:00.000-07:00

Long time no blog...

Since I last checked in, I have spent 2 weeks doing work experience in Wardrobe at the South Australian State Theatre in Adelaide which was great, even if I did do an awful lot of unpicking. They are working on the costumes for Checkhov's 3 sisters. It was great to see the staff working on the first stages of the process from getting the designs from the costume designer, ordering materials, pulling costumes from the store, and watching the cutters start to draft patterns etc. I wish I had been able to stay for the whole time to see how it all comes together.

Now I am back at the course and working on my outfit for costume showcase. I have completed most of the jewellery and most of the bodice and am working on the sleeves. So far I have made 3 toile versions of the top part of the sleeve. Tomorrow I think I should make the definitive version :-) Basically the top of the sleeve is like a puffed sleeve except that it has 'panes' (like strips of ribbon) and tucks in between with fabric showing through. The sleeve is very tight under the armhole and shaped differently to modern sleeves. There is also a hanging sleeve and tabs (not sure what they are called) at the top of the shoulder seam. All that, plus I have to get the patterns in line with each other - wonder whether I can just screenprint the design in the right place on the fabric. I will explore that tomorrow.

Yesterday I spent the day doing work experience making costumes for a burlesque show which was great fun and today I had a 2 hour lacemaking lesson - quite a contrast...

Photos of progress

2011-06-17T03:37:00.000-07:00

Here are a few details of the things I am working on at the moment. Unfortunately the mannekin is a bit bigger than the actual model I have made the garments for so the corset doesn't lace up correctly.
The top photo shows chemise, corset, bumroll and farthingale, the middle one just shows the detail of the skirt showing the cartridge pleating and the bottom photo shows the back of the corset. I'm saving the rest for the actual show.

I was very pleased with the way the screen-printing came out on the skirt so here is a detail of the front.

I am about to start on the jewellery and have been trying to get better detailed pictures of it. The painting is part of the collection of the Dunedin Art Gallery and the staff there have been extremely helpful and have sent me extra photos and descriptions of some of the dark areas such as the head dress. Ultimately this is a theatre costume not a replica thank goodness. The jewellery is completely over the top, hundreds of precious stones. I had trouble seeing what the brooch was and was excited to find a picture of a similar item in a book called 7000 years of Jewellery edited by Hugh Tait. A locket called the Lyte jewel is very similar although it has different initials. Heaven only knows how to go about making this!

The jewels of the duchess.

2011-06-16T00:49:00.000-07:00

I managed to blow the picture up a bit and discovered the big brooch on the right is a giant locket with jewels all around the outside. I reckon I need about 200 fake gem stones For the locket, head dress and pendant and chains. More pics of everything tomorrow when I have a photo session planned.

Catching up

2011-06-11T16:05:00.000-07:00

It has been a long time since I last wrote anything on this occasional blog. I'm at Drama school doing the costume construction course. At the moment I am spending pretty much all my spare time working on making the costume for my 'Major Work' for the Costume Showcase on 22nd of September.
Costume showcase shows all the costumes that the students have completed this year. For the graduating students it is a chance to really show off.

I am trying to reproduce the costume worn by this lady below.

This is a portrait of Margaret Hay, the Duchess of Dunfermline in the 1600's. It was painted by Marcus Gheerarts the younger, in 1611 and the portrait is held in the Dunedin Art Gallery. A very potted history - Margaret and her husband were left in charge of Dunfermline castle when James 6th of Scotland became King of England and Scotland after Elizabeth the 1st died. Evidently they were extremely rich. Margaret is wearing a silk satin dress embroidered with gold thread, a bobbin lace ruff, cuffs and partlett, she is dripping with jewels including a big pendant, a huge brooch and a jewelled coronet in her hair.

My challenge is to try and make her whole outfit with a budget of a bit over NZ$200. I spent weeks going into every fabric shop in Wellington trying to find suitable red fabric within my budget which also had to include money for lining fabric and all the other layers she is wearing. In the end I had to use cotton drill and overdye it to get the right colour. Then I screenprinted in on the table tennis table in my garage. I'm really happy with the way it turned out. Luckily we are also allowed to use stuff that is in our own personal stash (like lace and stuffing and beads).

The photo above shows the cotton chemise I made for underneath, (this is an item which can be washed easily and keeps sweat off the main outfit)
The corset (next time I might choose to use a smaller print fabric)
A drum farthingale
A bumroll (hidden)
The petticoat in the photo is a borrowed one but mine is similar.

I have also made
The ruff- an 8 metre length of printed mesh in his case instead of real bobbin lace
A petticoat (made of 10 metres of calico in two layers. In my opinion making this was about the equivalent of machine quilting a king size bed quilt.
The skirt - 4.5 metres of fabric which I have hand dyed and screenprinted with gold ink

I'm in the middle of completing the buttons which I am making by hand by embroidering around beads. I got the instructions from a website but can't find the address right now.

I don't want to show all the pieces until after the show but will try to put some detail shots up of the printing and beading.

Next I have to start on the bodice and sleeves but they may have to wait till next term. During the next holidays which start this Friday 17th June, I am off to Adelaide to do work experience in the costume room at the State Theatre. I'm hoping to work on some of the jewellery while I am over there staying with my cousin.

If you are having a clearout and want to get rid of lace, ribbons, beads, feathers (particularly ostrich feathers) and costume jewellery please consider sending them my way :-), I'll refund postage. I am also looking for hat-making blocks and will swap for hand dyed fabric.

Housework has been a bit neglected recently and today is the first non-rainy day for quite a while. I think I had better go and wash 4 loads of washing. Tune in for more costume making catch-up over the next few weeks.
Clare

Textile Events In New Zealand

2011-04-24T15:24:00.000-07:00

The next New Zealand Quilt Symposium is in Taupo which is in the centre of the North Island of new Zealand. The dates are 18-23rd July 2013. Click here if you would like to register to receive information about Taupo symposium.

There is also a mini symposium to be held in Nelson in 2012. Patches of Tasman will be held from 12th - 16th April 2012. I will be teaching my 'Modern Wagga', 'Fabric Painting & Printing' and 'Putting it into Perspective' classes there.

Queenstown Quilt Symposium

2011-04-24T00:03:00.000-07:00

I have just got back to Wellington after a week as a tutor at the Remarkable Symposium in Queenstown. We all had a lovely time and it was nice to catch up with old friends (and new) in such a beautiful place. The autumn colours were really beautiful.

I arrived 15 mins before the tutors meeting on Monday because the plane was delayed due to high winds in Wellington. There was snow on the mountains as we flew over the South Island. I then worked 5 days without a day off to look around. There was an exhibition at a church that I never even managed to see because by the time I finished in the evening it was usually too late to get to it. It was very frustrating to not be able to see all the exhibitions but the quilts I did see were pretty amazing.

This morning I managed 1.5 hours looking in the Queenstown shops so I feel like I've done more than teach, eat, talk and stay at the hotel.

My students did amazing work in the 'Next Step' class which was on Tuesday and Wednesday. My class sample for them looked like this

and the students were warned beforehand that their designs would not look anything like mine because of the process we would be following.

Here are some of their designs, published on this blog with the students permission. NB. If you made one of these quilts please email me you name so I can put it beside your quilt.

I was blown away by how different they all are. Thank-you to the Remarkable symposium 'Next step' class for letting me share these photos on my blog.

On Wednesday I taught the class' Modern Wagga'. A wagga is a 'utility quilt' often made with old clothes, tailors samples or whatever is to hand. Here are some examples of quilts made in my class.

We were lucky to have a small class and a large classroom so each student was able to use 3 or 4 tables to construct their 'wagga' and each was at least single bed sized which made them hard to photograph even when standing on a chair. Again, if your quilt is here tell me the colour and your name and I will attribute your work.

Here are some images from the flight home

Costume making

2011-04-13T04:48:00.000-07:00

It has been a busy couple of months with study for the costume course and a few extras. We have to do an industry placement and I have been working with Mr Peter Rigby who is a well known Wellington character and Tailor to make a jacket for a member of Alf's Imperial Army. Each week I have been going over to the Hutt Valley to learn how to do the next step in making the jacket. I have never made a mans jacket before so I have been learning about shoulder pads and sleeve head caps!

The jacket is pretty lurid and has strange badges and buttons but I have learned a lot about its construction and fitting. pretty much every seam has been unpicked and resewn at least twice! Unfotunately I don't have a male mannekin so it doesn't show how fitted it is (I tried it on my son but he is so skinny it looked ridiculous).

As part of the course I have also made a corset and combinations and am in the process of designing and making costumes for dance. After that a few of us will start making enormous hats for a show in May.

Not much time for quilting but I will be teaching at the quilt symposium in Queenstown so am making class samples and writing notes for a new class on Sashiko stitching.

Tsunami in Japan

2011-03-12T22:32:00.000-08:00

We were glued to the TV on Friday night watching coverage of the Tsunami in Northern Japan then started emailing our Japanese friends to see whether they are all alright (yes but shaken mostly).

Today it became more obvious which areas were affected and one of the worst places seems to be Matsushima which we went to in January and really liked. I bought two Kokeshi dolls in a little shop there from an elderly couple and I do hope they managed to evacuate the shop before the tsunami hit. Here are some photos of Matsushima.

Costume Construction Course

2011-02-28T23:49:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone
Last week went by in a whirl. The whole week was filled with orientation activities, done in mixed groups of acting students, entertainment technology (backstage) students and theatre design students as well as us costume makers. One of the days we had to run around wellington on the Amazing Race. My team insisted on running and I felt bad that I was holding them up. Here is a photo of the whole of yellow team stuffed into a red phone box.

Above is our 'artsy' photo of the team silhouetted against the architecture in the tallest building in Wellington.

Unfortunately the week was marred by the Christchurch Earthquake. Many of the students had only just arrived in Wellington from Christchurch and were very worried about their families.

Thank goodness this week is normal classes and we can stop running around or putting on group 'plays' (script by committee, aaargghh) and get on with the business of making 'double piping pockets with a flap' - this tailoring class is HARD!

Here are some links to some non-quilting textile events/workshops.

http://www.hellodollies.co.nz/classes.php Hat-making classes with Jill Taylor

Blog for Leimomi Oakes who is a textile historian and also reproduces historical garments and is a great speaker too

Handmade 2011
This is a weekend of craft classes being held in Wellington at Queens Birthday weekend.

Ghost House

2011-02-08T19:25:00.000-08:00

I haven't done much of anything quilty since I got back from Japan as my sewing room is very hard to get into (all the tidying up from Christmas is in my sewing room).

So here is something that caught my eye over the holidays. My son and some of his friends went cycling in the Wairarapa and I was 'support person' for a day. Near Stonehenge Aotearoa (a replica Stonehenge in concrete) is this house which locals call the Ghosthouse. Apparently a local farmer bought the house and transported it to his property in 4 bits. Unfortunately he didn't have the money to get it completely sorted and it has been slowly decomposing ever since the 1980s.

It also reminds me of the Andrew Wyath painting 'Christina's World'. Which seems to be a woman having a picnic in a field until you find out that she is paralysed and has to crawl to the house.

Classes
I have two public classes coming up
Machine Quilting - 20th March 9-4pm
Fabric Dyeing- 20th february 9-4pm

Both are at Tawa College, Wellington, NZ on Sundays. For information and to enrol please go to www.tawacomed.co.nz

Tokyo Quilt Show Flickr slideshow

2011-02-04T02:15:00.000-08:00

I hope this works. Click on Tokyo Quilt show photostream at right side of blog.

Classes I teach

2011-02-04T01:28:00.000-08:00

One day classes

Crossing the line - machine quilting

This machine quilting class will offer an alternative to stipple quilting!

Give yourself permission to cross your quilting line and try free machine

quilting spirals, suns, amoebae, animals, lettering, the 'Hokey-Cokey' and

splatter quilting. This class is designed for those who are ready to drop their feed

dogs.....

Materials fee approx NZ$5

Sashiko by hand or machine

Learn how to mark out fabric and hand or machine stitch, Japanese Sashiko patterns. Instructions will be given to complete a bag, place mats or coasters. Students can choose to stitch by hand or machine.

Materials fee $2 (for photocopied notes)

Cabbage Trees and Lancewoods

This is a shortened version of the class ‘Spiky Trees and Plants’. It is a one day class in which students can make a Cabbage tree quilt or lancewood Quilt using fusible webbing.

Materials fee approx NZ$5

A Modern Wagga

Making a quilt was historically about recycling. In this class , make a ‘wagga’ or ‘utility’ quilt. Clothes your kids have grown out of? Things that used to belong to your granny , old doilies, aprons, teatowels?

Use recycled clothing or linens to make a quilt for the home, the bach or as a wall hanging.

No Materials fee

Fabric Painting and Printing

Paint and monoprint on fabric using water based inks and resists (similar to batik).

This technique class will also cover printing with found objects such as fruit and leaves as well as making print-blocks from carved erasers and lino blocks.

Materials fee approx $20 (covers inks, resist, lino blocks)

Fabric Dyeing

Learn how to dye fabric using Procion dyes. Methods include scrunch dyeing , basic shibori and tie dye, multicoloured dyeing and dyeing in plastic bags. Students should end up with approx 6 metres of dyed fabric.

Materials fee approx $25 (covers dyes )

Make a photo album or project book (Half day class )

Learn how to make a photo album or project book suitable for documenting your quilts, embroidery projects, or craft projects.

Materials fee approximately $20 (covers card, paper , glue and brass hinges)

Handsewn Books

Learn how to make basic hand sewn books. These can be used as note or sketch books, photo albums, quilt record books or diaries.

Materials fee NZ$20

Fabulous Fusibles

Use a design provided by the tutor to make a fused quilt top. Suitable for beginners.

Choose from guitar, cat, or letterbox design.

Materials fee $10 (photocopy of design)

Two day classes

Putting it into PERSPECTIVE

Learn how to draw in perspective, how to show the sides of buildings and how to make things come forward or recede into the picture. Everything from landscapes with buildings, beach huts, country cottages, letterboxes or sky scrapers.

Materials fee $5 (photocopying notes)

Spiky Trees and Plants quilt.

Learn how to fuse and sew a quilt depicting one of New Zealand’s (or your own country’s) unique, spiky trees ie. The Nikau Palm, Cabbage tree, flax or toetoe, palm trees, grasses, or cactii or thorn trees. Some fast workers even manage to quilt their picture on the second day.

Materials charge approx NZ$10 (covers inks if students choose to paint a sky fabric for their background)

The Next Step

Are you ready to take the step from traditional quilting into something unique but don’t know where to start? Are you scared of the word ‘Design’ or feel you can’t draw? Learn how to make an art quilt using an art-school design trick. No two quilts the same! Use fusible webbing to put it together and quilt it on the second day.

NB The class samples are not what you will make in class, they just reflect the technique of putting the quilt together. Your quilt will be your original design.

Materials fee - $5 (OHP sheets )

Tokyo Quilt Show 2012 tour

2011-02-02T18:41:00.000-08:00

Here are more details and photos about the Tokyo Quilt Show. If enough people are interested I am going to lead a tour to the 2012 Tokyo show. This would be for people who are nervous about going there on their own but who are fairly independent with a minimum number of 6 and maximum of 8.
The itinerary would be something like this...

Fly into Kyoto
5 days Kyoto with day trips to Kurashiki and Nara
Visit Kinkakuji, Ginkakuji and Kiyomizu temples.
Various textile venues including shibori workshops

2-3 days Nagano or Matsumoto
Visit Matsumoto castle, buy fabric in Matsumoto, visit the snow monkeys near Nagano

6 days Tokyo
2 day visits to Tokyo Quilt show
Visit Asakusa temple, Amuse gallery
Visit an antique dealer who deals in antique fabrics.
Fabric shopping and antique kimono exhibitions (depends what is on)

If you are interested let me know and I can send details. Costs would depend on the number of people.

Here are some more photos of quilts from the quilt show to inspire people. They are all from the framed quilt section. Probably they would be in the miniature quilt section in NZ.

Other things of interest in Tokyo in January are the displays of dolls and temari balls. They are leading up to Girl's Day or Hina-matsuri on the 3rd of March.

The picture below is from an exhibition in Ginza at Matsuya department store (7th floor) . The maker is Aiko Sakai who is 87 years old and has published several books of her designs. We talked to her daughter who was minding the exhibition, her name is Makiko Tada and she has been to Nelson teaching Kumihimo braiding.

There are also displays of Emperor and Empress dolls in many of the department stores.

Tokyo Quilt Show

2011-02-01T16:52:00.000-08:00

I managed to miss a week or so, with no access to the internet or limited access via Ipod touch. So this is a catch up. My kids and I flew back to Tokyo where my elder son went missing for three days while he attended 3 Jazz gigs and went to 7 Jazz bars (despite being under age in Japan). His brother tells me that he came home at midnight and was still in bed when I got up.

I caught up with Chris Kenna from Wellington and the 'Toerags' from Lower Hutt and we went to Tokyo Quilt Show. I first tried to go on the Saturday but after seeing the queues to get in, went off with my son to the Hakone area (near Mt Fuji) for the day. I finally got to the quilt show on Monday and it was amazing. Although the Japanese quilters are not so hot in the non-traditional 'art quilt' area and some of the machine quilting was pretty bad, the hand applique and hand quilting sections would blow us out of the water. Here are just a few that caught my eye. I'm doing a talk for Cotton On quilters in Wanganui on saturday so will add more photos as I get myself organised.

Here is a picture of the inside of Tokyo Dome with the booths in the middle and the crowds of people. The main people to watch for are the little older ladies. They are a head shorter than me so about 4ft nothing and their elbows are at kidney height. They have no qualms about bulldozing their way through.

Here is the winning quilt - Twelve Days of Christmas' by Osami Gonohe. Most of the day, you couldn't get closer than 4 metres because of the crowds but I stayed till closing time one night so I could get a shot of it without the crowds.

Above is what it normally looked like.

Above is 2nd place winner which was even more amazing in my opinion. Unbelievable points!It is by Emiko Yoshino

But what about this quilt in the Tradtional quilt category which didn't get a prize? The pieces are smaller than my fingernail (don't worry, I'm not touching it, my finger is about a cm away). I'm sorry, the catalogue name is in Japanese.

I think this is based on Ainu decorative work. The Ainu are a tribe from Hokkaido.

This is made using a lot of antique indigo cottons

I think I like the detail even more

This looked like a prizewinner till you see the one that actually won!

This quilt is incredible - it is - Scherenschnitte (Chris Kenna told me) - like a papercut. It didn't win a prize!

Centre of the Scherenschnitte quilt.

There were also a large number of amazing quilts from famous Japanese quilt makers who were invited to show their prizewinning quilts. The one below is called 'Nostalgia' and is by Tsuneko Shimura.

Okinawa City and America Town

2011-01-18T03:59:00.000-08:00

I have been searching for information on other things to do from Nago and found this blog for a tour guide, which gave all sorts of useful information about Okinawa which I wish I had known before...http://blog.livedoor.jp/marshcnet/

We spent most of the day on buses and it cost a fortune ( 3 people X NZ$60 return trip by bus). We went from Nago to Okinawa City first and it took 1hr 15mins, all I can say is 'don't bother'. After over an hour of passing American army bases we got to Okinawa City which seems to have been badly hit by the recession, or maybe it just closes up for the winter. No-one in the tourism ofice spoke any English but we managed to get a timetable for the free bus which does a circuit of Okinawa City. Didn't see any reason to get off the bus but the zoo might have been Ok if the kids had been younger. The zoo is at the stop labelled (on the English timetable) 'Children's Playground'.

I did find some nice pieces of kasuri fabric in the shopping street near Goya bus stop (also opposite tourist information).

From there we went to Mihama/America Village on the other side of the island. Pretty deserted, very American. Complete contrast to Okinawa City. Didn't stay long. No-one in the tourist office spoke English - they had to call Okinawa 2 Go, Tourist information 098-916-6180 who translated the bus information to us which was great except that we were specifically told that our bus (number 120) would not go past the Ryukyu Mura park that we wanted to visit. We were sitting on the bus when we heard it anounced by the onboard bus info system so we hopped off the bus and found it was a lovely place worth visiting. The bus trip up the West coast to Nago was much nicer than the trip down the East Coast past the army bases. That coast is all prettified and covered in resort hotels, nice beaches and cute eateries.

My recommendation for Okinawa? Stay in Naha! If there is more than one of you, hire a car.

Some interesting things

2011-01-17T05:06:00.000-08:00

Pucho flavours in Okinawa - from top - mandarin, Pineapple, mystery flavour, a different version of pineapple

My kids are mad on these chewy sweets called 'Pucho'. They are chewy fruit flavoured sweets with small jelly lumps in them. Everywhere we go we have to go and check out the flavour available in the local convenience stores, because there are different Pucho flavours in different parts of the country.

Appropriately, Okinawa is the only place we have found pineapple flavour and Shikuwasha flavour (a tpe of orange grown in Okinawa). We also try to find the local flavour for the chocolate bar - Kitkat. In Kyoto the flavour is green tea, in Okinawa it is purple yam. The Kitkats here are purple coloured but to me they taste like white chocolate. In Takayama which is north of Kyoto, Kitkats were white bean paste flavour. You can also get red bean flavour and Oolong Tea flavour.

Cigarette warning signs

How does the Guide Dog know where the toilet is?

A big cushy Kokeshi doll

Thigh length furry boots

A very low beam in Matsumoto Castle. Even I had to duck and James could see over the top.

Chiraumi Aquarium, Okinawa

2011-01-17T05:04:00.000-08:00

I took the kids to the Aquarium today. It is variously listed as the largest or second largest in the world. My son remembers that the Genova Aquarium in Italy we visited a few years ago listed itself as the second largest in the world as well.

This aquarium is amazing because of the huge Whale Sharks they are breeding. Here is one swimming overhead. It is like a small cruise ship.

There were lots of amazing real fish and then in the grounds some weird flower sculptures including this one.

There were amazing dark clouds, not much rain fell but it is still quite cold and windy.

For those fabricaholics out there, Nago is a fabric wasteland. The only shops of any interest are bakeries and second hand musical instrument shops and both shop types are really only interesting to my kids...

Nago, Okinawa 16/1/11

2011-01-16T03:58:00.000-08:00

Er....I don't recommend this place at all. After a couple of hours walking around we hopped in a taxi and went to 'Pineapple Land' which is what the kids call 'incredibly cheesy'. We rode in a special pineapple car which runs automatically although you can pretend to steer. After the ride in the cart, you get to taste pineapple wine, biscuits, fruit drinks and cake. The food is the best bit, the rest is good for a laugh only.

Pineapple car

Pineapple soft toys

Then we went to Fruits Land. The butterfly house was semi-okay.

The Chrysallis looks like it is made of gold.

At this stage the kids and I are wondering whether we should have stayed in Naha but if the weather improves and the shops open (it is Sunday today) things may improve :-).

Okinawa

2011-01-15T05:56:00.000-08:00

Hi from Okinawa. I see that all the previous posts have got themselves in a mess with dates but we are in Okinawa now and it is the 15th of January.

Fuji from the plane (14/1/11)

All I can say about Okinawa weather in January is that it seems a bit like Wellingtons weather. We were promised warm weather but it is nasty, the wind is blowing and the rain is going sideways.

Today I have been to see the underground bunkers where the Japanese Navy officers committed suicide as the Americans invaded during WW2. I went there because I have some Japanese friends whose father was one of the officers who died. His poor wife was left with 8 children to bring up alone.

I got horriby lost getting there and had to hail a taxi and pay heaps to get back to civilsation - so much for following the brochure instructions to catch bus 33.

Then I went to Shuri Castle which was the centre of the Ryukyu Kingdom, who were the rulers of the Okinawa Islands before the japanese. from there I walked down the hill to see a Bingata fabric workshop and couldn't find the other two I was hoping to see. I then walked all round the market and in and out of every fabric shop. I didn't buy any fabric because it is all in big rolls, or is small pieces of incredibly bright 'fake Bingata' which is so bright it looks like Hawaiian fabric. The real Bingata is so much more subtle!

Bingata display at Shuri Ryusen studio

Bingata at Shuri Ryusen Bingata studio

Geta sandals in the market

Bingata in the market (on the left)

Kimono fabric rolls and geta sandals

Window stacked with kimono fabric

The fake bingata is luridly coloured machine-printed cotton (see the yellow item in the photo below)

Then I went to the Naha City Museum of Traditional Arts and Crafts, followed by the Okinawa Prefectural Art Gallery and Museum. There are good examples of hand stencilled Bingata kimono in both museums and a good video showing in the Craft Museum on how the fabric is decorated. First a stencil is cut, then rice paste is squeegeed through the stencil and allowed to dry on the fabric. Coloured dyes are pasted onto the fabric where there is no paste resist, then after all the fabric is coloured in, the dye is fixed then the paste is washed out. The colours are often beautifully shaded from light to dark within the coloured areas.

My feet are dead and I feel like I need tomorrow to recover. We are off to Nago which is further North as my husband is going to a conference there.

Kyoto (9/1/11) and daytrip to Takayama

2011-01-14T06:53:00.000-08:00

We have been in Kyoto for the last 2 days. Tomorrow is the day when the 20 year olds dress up and go to the shrine. We saw some of the girls today (maybe they can't get time off work tomorrow) wearing the brightest kimono (garish really) with their hair in an 'up-do', tons of makeup and with white fake fur draped around their shoulders. I didn't like to take a photo. Maybe tomorrow when there are more of them.

This is a bit out of sequence but I forgot that one of my sons and I did a day trip up to Takayama from Kyoto to see snow. I have been to Takayama before in Spring but it looks very different at this time of year. No cherry blossom, no hordes of people and man of the shops are closed but it is still lovely, but bitterly cold after dark - I thought my nose might freeze.

Okinawa 14/1/11

2011-01-14T06:47:00.000-08:00

We are now in Okinawa for the next 7 days. This place is really different from the parts of japan I have seen before. The temperature is about 18C as compared with minus figures in Kyoto and snow on the ground in some places. The colours are brighter, fabrics look more like Hawaiian fabrics and people seem louder. The prices also seem much cheaper. We have quite good sized rooms in a business hotel for the same price as the one room in the scummy hostel which 3 of us squeezed into last night. The room was so small that two of us had to get onto our beds to allow the other person to walk into the room. My husband stayed at a rather better place than us as he had to fly to Okinawa from a different airport. I don't have any photos but wil post some tomorrow.

from Nago, Okinawa
Clare

Kyoto 10/1/11

2011-01-14T06:39:00.000-08:00

t has been a bit hard to update the blog because of a lack of internet access. We had a house to our selves in Kyoto which was great but the internet either wasn't working or when it did work the whole family seemed to get there before me. Anway, now I'll do a bit of a catch up.
We travelled down from Matsumoto to Kyoto and moved away from the snow on the ground but it was still freezing in Kyoto and it did snow on oe of the days although it didn't settle.

One of the highlights of our week in Kyoto was Seijin-no-to, which is 'Coming of Age day' when 20 year olds dress up on kimono for women and traditional outfits or suits for the men. (20 is the age when you can legally drink alcohol and smoke cigarrettes). The women appeared incredibly overdressed and were wearing heaps of makeup, hair extensions, fake fox furs, incredibly bright kimono with furisode sleeves (very long). It reminded me of NZ girls dressed for the school formal.
It was interesting to see them all dressed up in traditional clothes with a ciggie in one hand and talking into the cellphone with the other hand. By the end of the night there were loads or rather 'trashed' 20 year olds all over Kyoto.

The same day, our Japanese friends took us to a shrine in Osaka which is dedicated to the god of commerce - Ebisu. People were being given branches of bamboo then buying charms to hang on the branches. We got swept along with the crowds but didn't managed to get too near the money collection point or the branches. We had to throw our money into the collecting box over peoples heads!

Above you can see someone with one of the branches getting ready to buy charms to hang on it. The lanterns have pictures of the God Ebisu, my friend says Ebisu, God of Commerce (only in Osaka :-) has poor hearing so you have to shout hard to get his attention.

So many people! About the population of New Zealand goes through this temple during the 3 days of the festival

New Year in Tokyo

2011-01-06T05:16:00.000-08:00

New Year in Tokyo is about going to the shrine on New Year's day and about shopping. Today was bedlam as the shops opened after a day off yesterday. There were people queuing at the door for the shops to open and for the Fukubukuro or 'lucky bags'. I bought one which had clothing adding up to about 5 X the price of the bag. Only one item didn't fit. I was careful to choose a shop which had clothes 'free size' i.e big. Only one item was too small and one was far too big but the other three items are really nice.

This kitten which is trying to climb out of the cage via a very small hole, costs about NZ$2000. The price is reduced for New Year sales.

Snow Monkeys

2011-01-06T03:51:00.000-08:00

We woke up this morning and looked out of our hotel window and the world had turned white. It doesn't really snow in Wellington, New Zealand (well it does occasionally but doesn't stay on the ground long), so this is very exciting although, at the end of the day it was getting a bit cold and some of the novelty had worn off.

Photo by Chris

We went up to see the snow monkeys at Yudanaka Monkey park. It was pretty cold and there were a lot more monkeys in the onsen (hot pool) than there were in October when I was here.

The monkeys carry on their daily activities such as grooming in the hot pool. When they get too hot they loll on the sides of the pool with their arms out of the water just like people in the Rotorua hot pools in NZ.

Altogether it was a pretty amazing day. The monkeys were in fine form with little ones chasing each other in the snow and the adults all sitting in the hot pools. Tomorrow we are off to Kyoto for 6 days.

Tokyo continued...

2011-01-04T03:44:00.000-08:00

Today was our last day in Tokyo and we all went in different directions. My older son and I started off at the National Gallery of Modern art and saw a great exhibition of dolls, then we went to the Mori Art Museum and saw weird skeleton-like sculptures by Odani Motohiko.

Then Chris went off to find Jazz cafes in Shinjuku. My younger son dissapeared in the Ginza Sony display room and my husband is somewhere up in the hills - he got tired of Tokyo crowds.

Above is a photo taken in Shibuya, showing the crowds as wel as a large poster for the band 'Bump of Chicken'. I must find out what sort of music they play sometime.

Tokyo is still New Year sales mode. Lots of shops have Lucky Bags or 'Fukobukuro'. As you have no idea what is in the bags, it is best to find a shop which has mostly things you want, like socks!
Here is a Fukobukuro (I hope that is spelt right) from a kimono shop. There are two bags - 5000 yen and 10000 yen ($75 or $150). I'd love to know what is inside.

We saw Mt Fuji from the roof of our hotel today. It is amazing how clear the sky is in Tokyo in winter.

Yesterday we went up to Matsushima on the train. It is about 3 hours North of Tokyo by shinkansen and local train. Long train journeys are great for giving our feet a rest from walking.
I love seeing the trees with strings to stop the snow breaking the branches. Below is a picture of some handmade snowboots.

The photo above is of octopus flavoured icecream at icecream-town in Namja land, Ikebukuro. This is in the local big shopping area to where we are staying.

I hope to be able to add more info and photos when I am able to find a more comfortable position to use the internet. It is hard typing when sitting on a high chair with the computer on a coffee table. More later!

Some strange things in Tokyo

2011-01-02T03:42:00.000-08:00

Hello Kitty madness at Venus Fort in Kawaii Land (cute land). You can have your photo taken int a totally pink land full of Kittys.

Then you can buy clothes for your dog

Or a pushchair for your dog

Christmas decorations in Venus Fort. The ceiling changes from daytime to night time over about half and hour.

Tokyo New Year

2011-01-02T03:31:00.000-08:00

For New Year's night , my son James and I went to Zojoji Temple to see in the new year. 3000 balloons were released at midnight. They looked like soap bubbles. Then people started queuing to go into the shrine for the first time for the New Year.

Tokyo in winter

2010-12-30T16:38:00.000-08:00

30th December 2010
We spent the day in Ikebukuro, and Akihabara looking at the shops, the crowds and the computer and Cosplay crowds. Each doorway has a rice stalk decoration for New Year. Here are some examples

Here are some of the dolls dressed as characters in Japanese comics or Manga.

If you want to get a new hairstyle for your doll.

Here I am outside the Gundam Cafe in Akihabara

Getting ready to count down the New Year in Ginza with a giant sparkly clock.

Tokyo

2010-12-29T15:47:00.000-08:00

Here we are in Tokyo, It is pretty cold and very quiet. The airport wasn:t buzzing with tourists like it usually is and the locals are getting ready for New Year so are getting ready to go home to spend time with their families. We came straight to our guesthouse from the airport so havent been anywhere much yet but it is great to be back in japan. This time I have brought my laptop so can load photos onto the blog as we travel around instead of doing it retrospectively when I get home. Our Guesthouse is a little gem. It is called Family Inn Saiko and the owners invited all the guests to eat a meal with them last night which was fantastic as we had just arrived after a 10 hour flight and didnt want to go looking for food at the convenience store.
We stayed there 8 days altogether and thoroughly recommend the place. Although it is a little far from the station, it is wonderful to stay in such a friendly place and nice to be there over New Year.

Books, kids, Symposium, exhibitions

2010-12-18T14:31:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone
If you are in New Zealand don't forget to enter your quilt for the Quilt Symposium exhibitions. I had completely forgotten about them till someone mentioned that the deadline for entries is 14th of January. This is right in the middle of the New Zealand Christmas break so it is easy to miss.

Minerva Gallery still has the Cash and Carry exhibition 'Something Special' on till Christmas Eve.

This year's participating artists include Ruth Meier, Melissa Anderson, Jill Maas, Helen Back, Sue Tyler, Lesley Rawlings, Anne Buckell, Michelle Irving, Lou Nicholl, Rosemary McLeod, Angie Cairncross, Chloe Keylock, Maureen van Dam, Anneke Cottle, Clare Smith, Bridget Sanders, Janet Ryan, Rosie White, Nancy Millichamp, Anne Scott, Eloise Evans, Elizabeth King, Anne Weinbrenner, Marie Walters, Marge Hurst and Barbara Hercus.

I've been finishing off quilts to try and see if I have anything suitable for the Symposium exhibition but got distracted by this book:
A Glimpse of Eternal Snows by Jane Wilson-Howarth.

It is the story of an English family and how they brought their children up in Nepal. One of the children had severe medical problems and I found it fascinating to see that this seemed less of a problem in Nepal where people accept that not everything can be cured, than it had in the UK where doctors were constantly trying to test for various 'syndromes'.

Music and Bike rides
It is school holidays here till the end of January. Number one son is into free jazz, Japanese Noise music and is currently experimenting with trying to wire up a bell to make nasty twangy noises which he can record. I just hope he is using batteries and not mains power. Then I have to transport his whole drum kit into Wellington for a 'gig'.
Number two son is preparing for a major bike ride for the Duke of Edinburgh award, and I get to be 'shadow party' so for three days I have to follow them around the Wairarapa in the car. Hope it stops raining soon.

Due to my employment as a taxi driver, very little is actually being made...

Todays best blog find

2010-12-09T19:18:00.000-08:00

Today's favourite blog is Needleprint which is a blog about needlepoint samplers. I really covet the perpetual diary but am trying to limit the number of credit card purchases after we went over our credit card limit yesterday - eek!

Today I have two teenagers in the lounge playing StarWars on the Playstation. One in the kitchen getting a cooking lesson as part of his Queen's Scout Award and another playing drums in the bedroom. They aren't all mine however.

Whats on this weekend?
Craft 2.0 at the Dowse gallery

Frank Kitts park markets 10-4pm - lots of stuff for xmas

Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader
Lots of very nice costumes in beautiful fabrics.

Enriching Fashion: An Eye For Detail

Come and take a closer look at some of the distinctive, exquisite details in fashion with Enriching Fashion: An Eye For Detail, on at the Eyelights Gallery in Te Papa from 17 September 2010 - 26 August 2011.

Todays best blog find

2010-12-07T19:04:00.000-08:00

The Textile Blog is a great place to find out all sorts of textile information. I was looking for lace when I stumbled upon it. I'm currently looking at Reticella lace and a modern version - Guipure. The Reticella lace is what Elizabethan ruffs were decorated with.

Craft 2.0 . Craft Fair

2010-12-07T01:00:00.000-08:00

The Dowse Art Museum
45 Laings Rd, Lower Hutt.
18/12/10
10-3pm
Craft 2.0 is a modern day craft fair.
www.wotzon.com/eventlisting.html?event_id=5015019

Costume Construction Course

2010-12-07T00:57:00.000-08:00

Not sure if anyone reads this blog. I am not the best at updating it.
I have been accepted for a one year course in Costume Construction next year at the drama school here in Wellington. I am really looking forward to it. In the meantime I am getting another chance to go to japan, this time from December 29th to late January. Carefully timed to take in the Tokyo Quilt Show. There is a small group of people from Wellington going over for the quilt show and I will catch up with them in Tokyo after staying in Tokyo, Kyoto and Okinawa with the family.
In case anyone else wants to go , you don't have to stay at the Tokyo Dome hotel, there are other cheaper hotels in the area.

Finding Textiles in Tokyo

2010-11-19T21:37:00.001-08:00

Here are some of the places I found in Japan as well as links to other people's blogs, websites and information. Please feel free to let me know of other places to find fabric or craft materials in Tokyo.

Amuse Gallery
Closed Mondays
2-34-3 Asakusa, Taito Ku, Tokyo, Japan 111-0032
- East side of the Sensoji Temple compound,
adjacent to the national important cultural property "Nitenmon Gate"

The gallery has a permanent exhibition of Boro.
Special exhibition on working women's clothes till April 2011.
Amuse Gallery is very close to Sensoji temple in Asakusa. Go right down the shopping street, Nakamise Dori then at the main shrine turn right into a side road. Amuse Gallery is on your left opposite a Duty free camera shop.

Blue and White Shop.
Azabu Juban.

Bunka Womens University Textile Museum
Closed Sundays and public holidays
Instructions and map on the website.
Shinjuku Station South Exit. Turn right, walk about 5 minutes, museum is on the other side of the road.

Bunka Fashion School
Click for info.

Nuno Corporation

Nippori Textile Town
A road of textile shops.
Check out Floating World blog for instructions on how to get there.

Yuzawaya
This is a craft/hobby/textile shop.
Shops in Kamata, Kichijoji, Yokohama and more, click on link to see a list.

Kichijoji store
Go to Kichijoji Station, exit via Park Exit, walk out the station exit and straight ahead. Yuzawaya is on the 7th and 8th floor of Marui Kichijoji store (head for the store with the big OIOI on it). It is no longer in the station building (which I found out by wandering around for ages). Click on this link to see a picture of the logo.

Tokyu Hands
Mega DIY/craft shop with shops in Shinjuku, Shibuya, Ikebukuro etc. Branches in cities across Japan.

Kinokuniya Bookstore
Has a good range of English books, craft books in Japanese and English as well as calenders and magazines. The best one I found was in Shinjuku but there are other stores in cities across Japan.

Coast to Coast Open Day 21st Nov

2010-11-18T20:02:00.000-08:00

Head to COAST TO COAST - the Quilters Day Out at Lower Hutt Horticultural Hall, Saturday from 10-4.

Tickets at the door, $10 entry includes morning/afternoon tea.

Lunch packs available for purchase (and there's a number of munchie places within a short walk).

Guest speaker: Robyn Burgess of Patchwork Passion, Onehunga. Specialist in Japanese fabrics and stitchery.

Merchants Mall + Scissor sharpener (remember to nametag your scissors!)

There is a change of speaker, see the blog listed below for details
www.c2cwgn2010.blogspot.com

Last Chance to See
ART/TEXT/ILE
This is an exhibition of textile work at Mahara Gallery on till Sunday 21st November. There are some lovely quilts/cloaks by Katherine Morrison. She has them displayed hanging as if they were cloaks around people and inside there are baby clothes, as if the adult cloak is keeping the baby safe. The cloaks are beautifully stitched and the lining/backing of one of them shows the black stitches as if they are pen drawings.

Expressions Gallery in Upper Hutt
Till Sunday 21st November
Mark Lander's paper exhibition. He has the huge sheets of paper hanging in the gallery and you walk through it as if it was a stage set. I did a workshop with Mark years ago and we made huge sheets of paper which we used to make costumes and print on.

DRIVEN: Whitireia Polytech student show till 9th January 2011.
Pataka Community Gallery. Wide range of mediums including textiles.

Aotearoa Feltsisters 'Earthwaulks'
13 January - 30 January 2011
The Aotearoa Felters or Feltsisters hail from the islands of Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand

For more info on Aotearoa Feltsisters go to
www.window-on-white.blogspot.com

__._,_.___

Textile Events for Wellington

2010-11-11T15:46:00.000-08:00

Coast to Coast Open Day - 20th November

Quilts from around the Wellington Quilt groups. Show and tell etc.
Horticultural Hall, Lower Hutt,

Back from japan

2010-11-11T15:43:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone
I am back from Japan and planning to go again in January, this time to Okinawa. I have even timed it this time so I can go to the Tokyo Quilt Show. Although currently I haven't actually got a plane ticket back as all the 'airmiles seats' are full at the moment. I have managed to book to get the whole family home to NZ except myself.

The latest trip included Kyushu Island including Kurume (splash dyed ikat fabrics), Kanazawa (fancy stencilled kimono) and Bunka Womens University textile museum in Tokyo.

The next post wil have the textile related events for Wellington.
Clare

kansai airport

2010-10-09T18:04:00.000-07:00

Im on the move again and cant easily update the whats on pages. Nor can I find the key which does apostophes. The one I found gave me a smileｙ。
Will do my best to add info as I am travelling first one week in Busan in Korea then Kyushu Island, Japan and then HOnshu. clare

Fabricabrac

2010-10-02T13:53:00.000-07:00

Fabric-a-brac is happening in Wellington on 13 November.
Sat 13 Nov, 9am-1pm
St Anne's Hall, end of Emmett St, Newtown, Wellington

Details on www.fabricabrac.co.nz. Thought you might be interested as there's lots of great fabric for sale. There's still tables available for those who want to sell too!(actually I have that in the side column too, maybe not visible enough)

Bookmaking exhibition
Toi Poneke (Wellington Arts centre, Abel Smith St)
1-24 October
9-7.30 weekdays, 10-4 weekends

Meissen Kimono Exhibition
Expressions Gallery
Upper Hutt

Pinestream Quilters Show
Expressions Gallery
Upper Hutt

Wellington Quilters exhibition

2010-09-28T02:29:00.000-07:00

Wellington Quilters exhibition

Fri 1 to Sun 10 Oct 2010

10am - 4pm daily 10am - 8pm Thursday 7th October

St Patricks College , Kilbirnie $5

Yoshiko Wada class

2010-09-27T00:54:00.000-07:00

Yoshiko Wada recently taught a class on Boro and indigo dyeing in Nelson and is currently teaching a class in Porirua. Today she showed a method of removing the sericin from silk and then dyeing it. The dye takes in the areas that are degummed in a different way to the gummed areas. Tomorrow she will be talking about shibori on wool and 'fulling'.

Changes to my blog

2010-09-25T19:56:00.000-07:00

I have not been a good blogger so have decided to change the theme of my blog to more of a 'Whats On' in New Zealand. Please bear with me if you are reading this while I rearrange the format and get the 'What's On' section up to date. I also hope to add to the permanent 'Things to See and places to go' section bit by bit.

Currently in Wellington - WOW show. The Wearable Art Awards.
I missed the date to buy tickets and found they were all sold out. However, I found there are still a few tickets if you go up to the counter at the TSB Arena in Wellington and ask if there are any tickets available. I got a seat for the awards night and was so close to the stage I could almost touch the garments. Pretty good for such short notice.

Teaching In Whakatane

2010-08-15T21:50:00.000-07:00

I went to Whakatane to teach for the weekend . I left Wellington at about 7.30pm on one of those flying pencil cases. Then the pilot said that the de-icers had broken down on the propeller and the crashing sounds on the side of the plane were bits of ice falling off the prop and hitting the plane as they flicked off. They landed us in Palmerston North and couldn't fix it so stuck us on a bus to Whakatane. It took them ages to find a driver who hadn't gone to the pub so we finally got to Whakatane at 4.30am. I am not sure that the person who billeted me was expecting to have to get up in the middle of the night to let me in (I did tell her just to leave the door unlocked and a note on the bedroom door).

I really enjoy teaching and it was a great class, I really enjoyed it. It was a terrible weekend for weather though. They had 300mms of rain over the weekend and parts of the town were flooded and some of the people in the class had to leave early because the town went on 'code white' (whatever that means) and they were told to go home to Ohope and Opotiki now or be stuck in Whakatane overnight

All the quilts made in this class - called 'The Next Step' are different. This is one of the quilts made in the class, thanks to Pauline for letting me put it on my blog. She has called it 'Living Outside the Square' and she has quilted and bound it since the class finished on sunday - that is less than 2 days ago! Well done Pauline.

Now back in Wellington and we are gearing up for the workshops with Yoshiko Wada, the author of the book 'Shibori: the art of shaped resist'. She is doing 3 public lectures in New Zealand.

Public Lecture - Yoshiko Wada
2pm on 23rd September, nelson School of Music, $20 per ticket.

Floortalk with Yoshiko Wada
30th September
Meissen Kimono 11 am Expressions Gallery Upper Hutt

New Texture, new material, New Thinking
Yoshiko Wada
24th September Friday 5pm, Massey University, Buckle st, 10A02

Possum Merino felt

2010-08-02T21:51:00.000-07:00

The textile students are working on a commission to test possum/merino wool. At the moment they are trying to felt it and then will dye it in natural dyes and acid dyes. At the moment the sliver (carded wool) is palest beige but I hope to be able to change some of that tomorrow!

The Australian Brushtail possum was introduced to NZ in the 19th century and they have been chomping on our forests ever since. To get rid of these pests they are shot, trapped, deliberately run over or poisoned. Woolyarns factory devised a way of mixing possum fur (which is a hollow fibre) and merino wool to make the most beautiful knitting wool. It is incredibly warm and soft.

If anyone has anything possum related for the students please get in touch. This could be possum skin offcuts, scientific papers, anecdotes about possums or names of people they could interview.

Photos of possum felt samples tomorrow

C

Quilt Symposium , Queenstown 2011

2010-08-01T20:09:00.000-07:00

I haven't made a quilt all year. I probably need to start thinking about quilts for the New Zealand Quilt Symposium exhibitions next year.

I am really looking forward to the Symposium in Queenstown . The last Queenstown Symposium was probably my favourite ever Symposium. It is such a beautiful spot. Dijanne Cevaal and I got very brave and flew down to Milford Sound on a light plane. VERY SCARY but amazing.

The committee have asked me to teach a fabric printing and painting class, a sashiko class, a design class and a class using recycled materials. I don't want to spoil the fun for everyone of seeing the registration book which should be due out fairly soon.

On sunday I helped Sue Wademan pack up her exhibition wall at the New Zealand Art show (used to be the Affordable art show) in Wellington. She reminded me about exhibition opportunities such as the Silk Road Exhibition in Queenstown and the symposium exhibitions.

For details of the Silk Road Exhibition in April 2011, please email Sue Wademan wademan@xtra.co.nz

Clare

Screenprinting

2010-08-01T19:59:00.000-07:00

I am not very good at this blogging, I forget to update it for weeks at a time.

Over the last few weeks I have taught 2 screenprinting classes. One was for the public and one for digital design students who had the designs all ready to go and just needed to get them onto a t-shirt. One was very low-tech, the kind of process I use at home where I don't have access to all the fancy equipment. One was high-tech in that we used the vacuum table and special exposure unit.
Both classes were great fun but I was shattered at the end! I didn't even take any photos.
Over the 8 days I managed to coat about 20 screens with the photo emulsion and help students coat about 20 more, and help about 15 students with their designs which required at least 3 colours per print. Pretty full on.

I have also been making scarves for a shibori exhibition at Barometer Gallery ,13 Gurner St., Paddington, NSW. The exhibition will be opened by Yoshiko Wada who wrote the bible for shibori artists 'Shibori: The art of Shaped resist"

SCARF
- contemporary shaped resist dyed scarves/shawls

Barometer Gallery will open on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday each week from the 8th September to the 3rd October, 10am to 6pm.

Here is a detail of one of my scarves that will be on the sale table. We each have one major piece and up to 5 for sale. This is the first time I have entered a shibori exhibition. It feels funny not entering a quilt which needs a hanging sleeve etc. I don't even know how they display them.

This scarf is made of 100% merino wool jersey and has been clamped and bound and dyed about 6 times in acid dyes. Dyeing wool is also something new for me and I have been experimenting with both acid and fibreactive wool dyes. They react differently to Procion dyes on cotton and I am just learning how they work.

Wool, wool and more wool

2010-06-25T22:28:00.000-07:00

I have been dyeing fine merino wool and have been making tubular scarves and shibori dyed shawls and wraps. I am just discovering what the wool dyes can do. If I heat the pot too fast, the dye takes very quickly and unevenly. I really like the effects but some people might see this as a negative and call it 'tie dye' rather than 'shibori'. The wool retains a bit of shape from the resist method (shibori is 3D, rather than flat). I'm also trying to work out a good way to finish the edges of the shawls.
So far I have tried using the overlocker, attaching a binding as for quilting, adding an edging of organza and just leaving the edges to curl. I actually prefer the naturally curled edges but am worried that some potential buyers might think they aren't finished.

I have never really dyed wool before. I have played around with dyeing skeins of my own handspun wool when I lived in Australia but haven't used Acid dyes up to now, but they are terribly easy to use and only need household vinegar as an additive so are a bit safer than cotton dyes which use soda ash. They also 'exhaust' so washing at the end is easier as you don't have to rinse and rinse and rinse as for Fibre reactive dyes on cotton (Procion).

I will put some photos of the finished scarves on here when I find my camera.

Screenprinting class

2010-06-12T00:46:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone
I am teaching a screenprinting (photographic and paper stencils) and dyeing class at Whitireia Polytechnic's Lindale Campus from 19th-23rd of July. It costs $180 per person. For further information please contact Deb Donnelly
Deb.Donnelly@whitireia.ac.nz. Or phone 04 237 3103 ext 3828.

This weekend I am 'timekeeper' at The Costume and Textile Symposium in Lower Hutt. I get to ding the bell to remind people about keeping to their 30mins. So far there have been some interesting talks. One on early explorer clothing in Antarctica was very interesting and another on how families managed in wartime Germany when fabric was in short supply. I also enjoyed Rosemary McLeod's talk about the contents of a leather hassock (we know that kind of footstool as a 'pouffe') which may have been brought back from the middle east flat by a soldier and was filled in New Zealand with the contents of someone's ragbag including old undies, mended socks, ancient stockings and worn out nighties complete with shoe polish stains where they had been used as shoe polishers.

I have been experimenting at Whitireia with trying to make wool fabric shrink. This has not been terribly successful with merino. Ideally I want a wool fabric which shrinks by about 50% (even 30% would do) but most fabric these days is shrink proofed, which is a shame for my purposes. I want to shrink it in some areas but not others using shibori techniques but am having to change my plans. This was for an exhibition of scarves in Sydney in september.

SCARF
- contemporary shaped resist dyed scarves
at
Barometer Gallery
13 Gurner St., Paddington, NSW

from September 8th to October 3rd, 2010
Opened by Yoshiko I. Wada

Sunday 12th September at 4pm

The slow blogger

2010-06-07T02:19:00.000-07:00

I am writing my websearch article for New Zealand Quilter and saw someone else call themselves the slow blogger. It applies to me too. I forgot I had a blog.

Since I last posted I have learned a really cool skill. The whole textile class at Whitireia learned how to make a toile to fit their own body using a method outlined in the book 'The Medieval Tailors Assistant'.

Each person took 2 pieces of calico and then someone else pinned them into it, over the shoulders and along the sides.

Then the excess fabric was cut off and further pinning was done.

Yes they are two different people!
After it was as close fitting as possible, it was cut down the dotted line in the middle and made into a pattern. A toile was made from the pattern which was adjusted again, then clothes can be cut using that as the basic pattern.

I made a tunic which fit perfectly (except for the armholes which are a bit tight and which I need to adjust again). I have discovered I have very sloping shoulders. I can also see why commercial patterns don't work for me - darts end up in the wrong place, shoulders too wide etc.

It was good fun and a great 'team building' exercise. Now to make some clothes that fit!

Whilst I am procrastinating about completing the Websearch article, I am going to mention a website I found while looking for wool quilts. Rebekah Farr lives in Carterton. She has made 4 wool quilts which is how the search found her site but she is an animator and painter. Her 4 minute animated movie is called Real World and her paintings are lovely too.

Recycling recycled quilts

2010-05-11T22:54:00.000-07:00

In 2000 I made a whole series of quilts using recycled clothing. I liked them and galleries liked them but nothing really translated into sales so now 10 years later my airing cupboard is overflowing and when I was asked to take part in an 'Eco fashion' show as a graduate of Whitireia Polytech, I decided to use one of the quilts to make a coat. I hadn't quite worked out exactly how much fabric I would need. I ended up using 3 quilts but I am pleased with the results.

It is amazing how good it looks on the size 12 model who wore it for the photos, it makes me look like a mushroom. It weighs a few kilos though.

The fashion show is on the 22nd of May at Pataka Museum/ art gallery in Porirua. Tickets are $75 and profits go to Child Cancer Foundation

Sakai and Osaka, our last night

2010-05-11T03:17:00.000-07:00

We spent our last day in Sakai and Osaka with friends. Sakai is Wellington's sister city and my son James and I went there last year as part of a sister City official visit with the Wellington - Sakai friendship group. We stayed with a host family last year and stayed our last night on this trip with them again. My mother will stay with them for a week as well, she is currently in japan with the wellington Potter's Association.

This is not a painting, it is a photo I took in the Sakai gardens.

It was getting close to Children's day (Boys day) and there were lots of carp kites flying.

In the evening we went to Osaka's Dotonburi area which is real sensory overload. There are lights flashing and pachinko chinking and recorded voices telling you stuff. Chris found it exciting and I find it a bit overwhelming.

We also managed to arrange to meet James there with the host family he had been staying with all week while attending Hannan High School in Osaka. James is easy to see in a crowd. It was a also a chance for our friends to catch up with James before we all flew back to NZ the next day.

If you get a chance to go to Japan, make sure you go for at least 3 weeks. Last year I went for 2 weeks and it just wasn't long enough. I felt like I had unfinished business there. A couple of unexpected commissions for quilts meant that I had enough money to go back this time which was only 6 months later, and I feel a bit better now. I still want to go back but it doesn't feel as urgent :-)

James was also in Japan at the same time with his High School Japanese class. Chris, and I travelled to and from Japan with the school group then we went off on our own and me them at the end of the trip.

I hope I haven't bored everyone too much. Now back to normal life
Clare

Kyoto

2010-05-11T02:46:00.000-07:00

On one of the days in Kyoto I managed to visit the Shibori Museum. The Nishijin Weaving Centre and Aizenkobo Indigo Workshop. I also managed to get to the Nishiki food market (in a street which runs parallel to the main shopping street).

On my wanderings I found a Jazz Cafe and Chris and I went there. From there he found out about a jam session being held at a jazz bar and disappeared off for the evening leaving me to go on the walking tour of the Gion area where we learned about Geiko and Maiko (called Geisha in Tokyo). It was a really nice little tour, not expensive and you don't have to book , you just turn up.

On another day in Kyoto we had arranged a free guide through the Kyoto free Guide service. It needs to be booked in advance, the guide is free but you pay for their lunch and travel expenses. We also paid for our guide to come with us to see the Cherry Dance by the Maiko (Geiko in training) which only happens in April. After the show we staked out the back of the theatre like paparazzi to try and take photos of the Maiko leaving the theatre. It felt a bit mean so we didn't stay long. The above photo is of a Maiko leaving the theatre after the show (she is moving FAST)

These are school girls dressed up as Maiko and visiting Kiyomizu temple where they are admitted for free because they are in Kimono. Something fun to do with your friends on a Saturday.

Icecream flavours near Kiyomizu. Chris had sesame, honey and green tea and I had cherry blossom and green tea.

Maneki Neko (lucky cats) near Kiyomizu. I wish I had bought the middle one but that would have been $90.

Chris and I at the bamboo forest in Arashiama, Kyoto.

This guy above is Daruma, a Zen priest. He is always shown with big eyes because he wasn't from Japan and he always has a beard.Some of the pictures and sculptures of Daruma look a bit like David (my husband)

Its always good to look at the plastic food in the windows of restaurants.

Nara

2010-05-11T02:12:00.000-07:00

We did a side trip to Nara from Kyoto but it was a miserable day. My son James went there the next day with his school group and the weather was fine and they also got to see the Crown Prince.

These deer can be a menace

Kyoto 20th April - 25th April

2010-05-11T01:49:00.000-07:00

We went from to Kyoto via Himeji where it rained all day.

Himeji castle is the cutest little castle but it has incredibly steep stairs inside. Probably this kept invaders from getting to the top floors but it is pretty hard to climb up while carrying handbag, raincoat, umbrella and shoes (inside a plastic bag) whilst trying to hold onto the handrail because it is so steep.

Kinkakuji.

Zen temple.

The end of the cherry blossom season in Kyoto.

Well just about the end, we still saw some different varieties which blossomed later. I claim this shot above.

Even samurai go to MCDonalds.

I planned the trip to Kyoto to coincide with both the big flea markets but in the end I went to both but didn't buy anything at either of them as the prices were much higher than I had expected. I found a jacket I liked which was marked at 28,000 yen (NZ$437) and decided just to take photos rather than bother to shop. There were lots and lots of second hand kimono at around NZ$10-$15 if anyone is looking, in fact the markets were flooded with kimono.

J'Hoppers hostel in Kyoto is handy for the Toji temple flea market on the 21st of each month as it is about 15 minutes walk from the hostel.

Shirakawa-Go and Hida Furukawa

2010-05-11T01:24:00.000-07:00

In the morning we went to Shirakawa Go to see the Gassho Zukuri Houses. It was about an hour by car from Takayama and hard to get to by public transport so we took a tour run by the hostel. The houses are all hand lashed with no nails. They need to be re-thatched every 30 years or so. The biggest fear up there is fire so each year they have a fire drill and test the fire hoses.

Top photos are the Gassho Zukuri houses. In the middle - A digger kept nice and cosy with it's own patchwork quilt.
The bottom photo is silk worm cocoons up on the top floor of the Gassho houses. Silkworms provided an income when the weather was bad outside. It is also hard to grow crops in that area with a short summer and poor stony soil. It was obvious that the lifestyle must have been pretty dire up there in winter. Deep snow outside and hard to keep the giant houses warm.

In the evening we went to Hida Furukawa which is close to Takayama, to see the festival.

Tall festival floats are towed around the old streets of the town.

Above - My son Chris who took many of the photos and now it is hard to work out who is winning the cherry blossom classic photo competition because we can't member who took what, as we were both fighting over the big digital camera.

Everyone from the town seemed to be involved somehow with this parade.

Including the teenagers and older guys who look like they have seen it all before.

Towards the evening, groups of young men started gathering, dressed in these white outfits. They started imbibing rather a lot of sake.

Which led to acrobatic feats at the end of what looked like a large cotton bud.

Takayama

2010-05-10T21:58:00.000-07:00

Takayama is inland and up in the mountains, north of Nagoya so we had a very long journey to get there from Naoshima Island.
We stayed at J'Hoppers hostel and really recommend it. Very friendly staff and bigger rooms than most places. Plus it is very centrally placed in the town.
Takayama is cooler so was right at the start of the cherry blossom season.. The weather was great but freezing cold.

Cherry blossom (sakura) and sakura family crest on the door of a shrine in Takayama.

One of the streets in the old town area of takayama.

Takayama was the only place where we found soy bean flavoured Kit Kats . Other areas sold green tea kitkats (which are green) and apple flavoured kitkats. There were also these Winnie the Pooh T-shirts. Chris and I were looking for very strange 'Jinglish' t-shirts at the time.

At Hida Folk Village we were able to see how the old farm houses were constructed. They are all lashed together using no nails. Bet our scouts couldn't do that!

Parking space is at a premium...

Naoshima Island

2010-05-09T23:37:00.000-07:00

Naoshima Island is an 'art island' There are two big museums/galleries full of very expensive art and several arthouses where installations are permanently set up. We couldn't take photos inside the art houses or museums but there are also some sculptures outside. Probably the best known are the Yayoi Kusama pumpkins.

Naoshima Island arthouse. The house appears to be made of recycled materials so it is a surprise to go inside and find a 2 storey high statue of the Statue of Liberty.

This picture of two boats doesn't look like much but inside the Bennese House art gallery there is a picture of a black boat and a yellow dingy. Underneath the picture is a real black boat and a yellow dingy and if you look out of the window you can see in the distance in a little bay, a black boat and a yellow dingy.

There isn't much low priced/hostel accomodation on the island. We stayed in a yurt near the yellow Yayoi Kusama pumpkin. Most of the other yurts were empty so although we had pre-booked (booked by a Japanese friend for us) we could have just made a booking through the tourist information office at Uno station.
The weather on the day we arrived there was very wet and it was hard to remove shoes outside the door of the yurt (which has no porch) whilst juggling bags and an umbrella. Then we had to take the shoes inside the yurt to stop the 'racoon dogs' eating them or stealing them.

Yurt inside and outside. They are surprisingly comfortable inside with a great heater.

Kurashiki, Okayama

2010-05-09T23:24:00.000-07:00

Junk shop in Kurashiki. One dog in front and about a 100 on the roof which we didn't notice until it was too dark to take a photo.

The trees are very well looked after in Kurashiki. This one is bandaged from top to bottom.

Chris had a chocolate crepe. The we read the sign 'Collagen crepe'. Not sure if the crepes really are made of collagen???

Okayama Castle by night.

Miyajima, Iwakuni

2010-05-04T15:06:00.000-07:00

We spent a morning on Miyajima Island.It was high tide when we got there and low tide when we left.

Classic shot of cherry blossom by Clare, but not a winning effort really. We started to get a bit more picky about cherry blossom shots after a week, as quite a lot of the blossom was past it's best.

A sign on the walkway to the gondolas/ropeway.

After Miyajima, Chris headed off to Hiroshima to look around the Peace Museum. I went there last year so I headed off to Iwakuni. Iwakuni is lovely and well worth a visit but I really recommend that you take a local train so you end up at the right station. Shin-Iwakuni station is miles away from anywhere and there weren't any coin lockers available that would take my bag so I had to get it all the way over to the local station in order to leave it while I went to the famous bridge.

The bridge is amazing. Samurai were allowed to walk over it, commoners had to take the ferry. When you cross the bridge there are some lovely samurai houses and compounds to look at, a mini castle and albino snakes. It is all very tasteful and beautiful but there are the usual souvenir shops with Hello Kitty overload and the odd concrete dog or two.

Chris and I met up again on the train and spent the night in Kurashiki. If anyone is going to stay in Kurashiki YHA, Do follow the instructions listed on the website from the Kurashiki Station. Don't try it from Shin-Kurashiki Station. That makes the suggested taxi cost rather more than the suggested 800 yen which it would have cost from Kurashiki station. Once again, I was caught by the fact that the Shinkansen station and local station are completely different sides of the city. Kurashiki YHA is also up a very big hill which goes through a cemetery and is dark at night. It isn't the most convenient hostel but the full Japanese breakfast was wonderful.

Train trip

2010-05-03T23:39:00.000-07:00

From Yokohama we went straight down to Miyajima. It took nearly all day to get there. We decided to treat ourselves to Ekiben (station lunches) to eat on the train. Here is mine. It was bought in Yokohama and the wrapping has a copy of a Yokohama woodblock print on the wrapping paper.

Inside are all sorts of goodies. Chris is vegetarian and his was boring in comparison.

Kamakura

2010-05-03T22:19:00.000-07:00

It was raining heavily today but it was our only chance to go to Kamakura which is one of the former capital cities of Japan. Chris particularly wanted to go there as 'The big Buddha' there is one of the treasures collected on 'Age if Empires' computer game.

It was probably the coldest most miserable day we could have chosen to go there. I had to buy gloves from the 100 yen shop and we spent some time in a pancake parlour with hot chocolate and extreme pancakes (so much cream you feel quite queasy afterwards, I recommend choosing the custard filling instead). Above photo is the Jizo statues at Hasadera Temple, Kamakura.

The big Buddha is so huge you can actually go inside the statue itself. It has been put together in bits and you can see the joins from inside. It is amazing technology considering it was built in 1252. Originally it was built inside a temple but the buildings were burned down and not rebuilt so now it is outside.

About the 11th of April _ Japan

2010-05-03T22:10:00.000-07:00

I arranged to meet Haruko Watanabe from Gallery Tsumugi today. A few months ago I ordered a catalogue for the Boro exhibition at the Amuse Gallery in Tokyo, from Haruko. When I ordered the book she said, "if you are in Tokyo, come and see my shop/gallery', I don't suppose many people actually do visit! We had a happy afternoon looking at all the Boro items and fabrics. Haruko had been to an auction the day before so had some lovely hemp pieces, I love the stiffness of the hemp fabric and she also had a samurai outfit in brown, similar to this...

A bit impractical for fighting in though

, ceremonial only! I bought some small pieces of fabric from Haruko, mostly just examples of different types of Shibori and some pieces of paste resist fabric just to have for samples to show students. Photo to follow.

The same day, my son and I saw the start of a Cosplay convention. Bus loads of teenage girls were turning up in downtown Yokohama with Wheelie suitcases, dissapearing into a building and coming out dressed up in Cosplay outfits. Most were busy taking photos of their friends in the gardens.

day 5 Yokohama and Boro textiles

2010-05-03T21:48:00.000-07:00

Chris and I decided to try and find some of the woodblock prints at the art gallery with no luck, but we saw a giant cigarrette (we think it was advertising a quit programme but without being able to read Kanji, it could just as easily have been advertising smoking, as we couldn't tell).

The big ciggie, the view from the top of the Yokohama ferris wheel, and the view from the top of the Landmark Tower in Yokohama.

Day 4 japan trip, Nikko and Tokyo

2010-05-03T21:41:00.000-07:00

We had a half day in Nikko and managed to see a few more temples then on the way back to the station we came across an antique/junk shop which sold sewing boxes, needles, old Kokeshi dolls (a bit heavy to carry) and some wonderful woodblock prints (Ukiyo-e). I really would have liked to have bought this print which shows the railway in Yokohama (possibly the opening of the line) and Japanese men wearing western clothing. I'm not sure if these woodcuts show rich people or royalty. I tried to find more of the woodcuts in the museums and galleries in Yokohama but I only found a few and although there used to be a print museum, according to Tourist Information office, it is now closed. There is more information on the railway in Japan at this website, Yokohama station was opened in 1872. The prints I found in Yokohama were by Hiroshige II, a pupil of Hiroshige.

Also that day I managed to get to Roppongi Hills in Tokyo but wandered around in circles not quite realising that the shopping centre was inside the building I had walked around. I was trying to find a particlular shop without having the address or any sort of instructions about how to get there. I won't do that again. I did see some interesting architecture. This is a TV station building.

day 3 Japan - Nikko

2010-04-29T23:09:00.000-07:00

On day 3 we headed for Nikko. The cherry blossom 'front' had only just started in Nikko as it is colder up there so there were a lot less trees covered in blossom. The photos are from around Toshugu Shrine. On the left are a newly married couple in wedding clothes.

The papers tied to the wires are fortunes. If they are good fortunes you keep them but if they are bad you tie them to the fence wires instead of taking them home. My fortune was good so I kept it.

There was snow on the mountains and still some piles of snow on the ground around the temples.

These flags were flying in advance for boys day (5th May) when people celebrate manly endeavours and small boys get given carp flags to fly. Often called 'Children's Day' these days I'm told.

Day 2 Tokyo, 8th April.

2010-04-29T22:42:00.000-07:00

We spent the morning in Yanaka cemetary taking photos of the cherry blossom and exploring the Yanaka shopping area which is a lovely place to visit.
Instructions
Catch the train to Nippori. From the station it depends which exit of the station you go out of. The cemetary is on one side, walk through it to head towards the old style shopping area. The 'Textile Town' is the other side.

I think most of these photos are mine. I win the cherry blossom photo comp today.

This is the window of a paper shop in Yanaka. The cats are all paper mache and they are sitting on sheets of hand printed paper.

Chris then headed off to have a look at the castle and I spent a few hours in Nippori Textile Town. I used information from a blog called 'Floating World Views' which has information on the best shops and a copy of the map. It was very useful. I didn't buy much till I found a shop selling second hand kimono and some old pieces of fabric.

Chris and I met up again in Shinjuku where we went up to the top floor of the Shinjuku City hall tower (free). I like the building on the right, the patterning may have been inspired by sashiko stitching?

Chris had arranged to go on a Jazz tour with Mr OKJazz (aka James). James runs tours on Thursdays to some hidden Jazz clubs, bars and coffee shops. He was incredibly helpful and gave Chris a lot of ideas for Jazz related places to visit around Japan. Chris didn't have the camera but says they went to a Jazz bar which had thousands of Maneki Neko so inspired by that we have started our own collection. The music scene is pretty big in Japan. We went to one area where we couldn't believe the number of guitar shops in the same street.

There is lots of interesting architecture in Shinjuku including this building which has tiles on the side which look like a jigsaw puzzle.

Japan trip 2010 - day 1 Tokyo

2010-04-29T15:17:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone
We are back from Japan but I am going to write up the journey now , day by day. I wasn't able to load photos while I was away so this seems the best way to do it.

6th April we flew to Tokyo after a really early flight from Wellington. We had to be at the airport at 5.15am. Above is a picture of ice that formed on the window, looked like a bullet hole! This trip t Japan, I travelled with my 17 year old son.

7th April we spent in Tokyo. In the morning we went to Asakusa Senso-ji temple. Chris and I were in competition to see who could get the most classic shot of cherry blossom. Chris won this round!

Above are some photos from the Amuse Gallery in Asakusa. I went there last year but was only allowed to see a small section of the museum because it is closed on a Monday. This time I was able to see the whole museum which included a collection of Boro clothing, Kogin clothing (sashiko stitched) a temporary exhibition of wool embroidered aprons and these amazing salmon skin boots (see above). There was also a young girl demonstrating 'sakiori' weaving which is done by ripping up old clothing and using the strips to weave new cloth.

The museum also has a collection of sashiko embroidered clothing. It has a really nice shop and a few publications available for sale. It is worth a visit and easy to find.

Instructions
From Asakusa Senso-ji temple. Face the front of the main building of the temple. Turn right (East) and go to the side street. On one side is a duty free shop and on the other is Amuse Gallery.

Drum Museum
My son plays the drums and the Drum museum is also in the Asakusa area. He was able to try out the steel drums, Japanese Taiko drums and all sorts of percussion instruments from around the world. The curators close themselves into their office and just let visitors 'go for it' on different drums.
Instructions
Face the main gate of Asakusa Senso-ji temple. The gate is called Kaminarimon. Ahead of you is Nakamise Dori, a long shopping street filled with tourist souvenirs and strange food items. To get to the Drum museum turn left and walk till you get to the next really major street. The Drum Museum is straight across the road in front of you.

In the afternoon we went to Studio Ghibli Museum. I went there last year but wanted to take my son there as he and I really like the Ghibli Movies, such as 'My Neighbour Totoro', 'Nausicaa', 'Spirited Away'.
Instructions
You need to book this via the internet before you get to Tokyo. I booked my tickets through JTB in Auckland when I bought our JR Rail passes.

Here is a picture of a single room at Hotel New Koyo in Tokyo. Minami Senju area (up near Asakusa, Yanaka area.) This is a 2 mat room. I could lie across it and it was exactly my length so 1.6metres wide. My son had to lie across the room diagonally or sleep with his feet either out the door or in the microwave. His room was the gold painted 'Samurai room' with swords decorating the walls. Mine was a much more boring colour! It was nice to have a single room rather than sharing with 7 other backpackers :-)

Takayama

2010-04-17T05:57:00.000-07:00

We just arrived in Takayama which is in the North. Yesterday we went to Naoshima Island in the rain. Although it was horrible weahter we managed to juggle cameras and umbrellas to take photos of the Yayoi Kusama pumpkins on the beach and to have a look at all the arthouses and one of the art galleries. All wonderful modern stuff - great.

Today we managed to see the final museum/gallery and get to Takayama on three trains. Its a very long way but seems closer because the Shinkansen are so fast. Photos to follow in a week or so.
See you
Clare

Miyajima

2010-04-13T06:03:00.000-07:00

We are staying the night at a hostel on the mainland near Miyajima Island. I stayed there last year and they remembered me and I am also staying in the same bed!
I have a small collection of dyed and printed fabrics now but have courired them off to a friend as it was getting heavy to carry with all the postcards and books I have acumulated. My son has also managed to collect a whole load of second hand Jazz CDs. Apparently Japan is the world centre of Jazz.

Yokohama

2010-04-11T06:55:00.000-07:00

Quick post, I am in Yokohama. Went to visit a lady called Haruko today at Gallery Tsumugi. She is an antique fabric collector/dealer. Bought some nice paste resist and shibori pieces. Photos later. Check out her website by googling Gallery Tsumugi.

Off to japan

2010-04-05T04:19:00.000-07:00

Hi anyone?
I am off to Japan in the morning. One of those nasty flights which make you get to the airport at 5.15am. I'm not sure whether I will get a chance to write anything and it is pretty hard to upload photos when you are emailing from an Ipod touch :-)

Will catch up when I get back,
Bye
Clare

Advertisment commission continued

2010-03-30T00:33:00.000-07:00

I have the quilt I made for the cinema advert (the previous 2 were for TV and internet) back home to put a binding on it and to fill in the hole that was cut in it for filming purposes. Here is a photo of the hole!
I made the background quilt in a real hurry and it was sent away with no binding. I just didn't have time to get that done. While it was away it had all sorts of extra bits sewn onto it. I have seen the advert and it is great but was only finished at midnight last night so isn't launched yet. Its been a bit of an adventure making these quilts for adverts but although I am used to working very fast, this was a real stretch for me. 4 days from concept to finished object. Whew!

Day 22 - Indigo continued

2010-03-30T00:14:00.000-07:00

On Friday last week I tried a different type of Indigo. It is pre-reduced and comes as part of kit put out by Jacquard. Today I resurrected the indigo vat which has been slowly getting smellier over the last 3 days. I am really pleased with the results. It is much stronger than the recipe I tried earlier and it is easier to mix up and leaves fewer indigo grains on the fabric. It is also mixed into warm water and doesn't need to be kept hot. It takes about 30 minutes for the chemicals to start their magic. The fabric comes out of the vat , yellow, which is bizarre.

The piece of fabric at the top is wool which has been laid out on the grass for 20 minutes or so. The bottom piece is cotton which has been out of the pot for about 5 minutes and has started to turn from yellow to green to blue.

Indigo on wool

Indigo on cotton

Indigo on silk.

The piece I like the most is silk velvet (on the right above and below) I can't help stroking it. I think it is a flashback to when my Grandma used to give me fluffy bits of rabbit skin to play with when she worked at a fluffy slipper manufacturer!

Thursday 25th - Day 19 - Field trip wellington

2010-03-26T01:59:00.000-07:00

If you aren't a local then here are a few textile related places to visit in Wellington.

On Thursday 26th March, I went around a few local galleries and shops with some of the Whitireia students. We went to Weta Cave which has opened in Wellington to show some of the props, books and costumes from the movies made at Weta Studios. 3 bus-loads of tourists arrived in the short time we were there so it is very popular and hopefully will be extended in the future to show more items.

Then we went to Asia Gallery in Kilbirnie to check out the fabrics, stencils and kimono. Paul, the owner kindly drew me a map of where the fabric stalls are at the two big flea markets in Kyoto on the 21st and 25th of each month. I have arranged my next trip to Kyoto to coincide with both this time. We leave on the 6th of April so not long to wait now.

Then we went to Minerva Gallery in Cuba St which is the headquarters of New Zealand Quilter magazine and has the best range of textile books in New Zealand. I managed to get out without buying anything more than one Fiberarts magazine which has a great article about the quilts of Diane Savona. Diane emailed me a few weeks ago to say she liked my 'Layers of Lives' quilts. I looked at her website and saw that she and I have been on the same path, using layers of clothes but Diane has carried this way further than I have even considered. She calls her quilts 'Closet Archaeology'. I think they are wonderful and wish I had thought of using solid items under the fabric. Fantastic.

Day 20 experiments

2010-03-26T01:26:00.000-07:00

Today I continued using indigo. This time I used an Indigo kit from Jacquard. It uses pre-reduced indigo so is easier to use than the stuff I used last week (color run remover and washing soda). The colour produced was much darker and was the colour I wanted. The whole process ended up messier though. Each piece of fabric needs to be laid out flat or hung up to allow the colour to develop. I highly recommend the kit but also suggest that Indigo dyeing would be better to done outside on the grass. Unfortunately, by the time I decided this, I had already dyed quite a lot of the surfaces blue and spent some time scrubbing them down at the end of the day.

I have a lot of fabric to wash out and get dry. At the moment it is all in a bucket.

The kit was easy to use, is available in New Zealand and the results are very good. There is still enough indigo left in the vat for me to continue next week (I hope). The disadvantage with this system is that it only uses warm water so you get less 'crinkle' in silk. The previous method I used, used very warm water so the silk pieces are left with 3D shapes from the ties. See photo above, these are pieces from the hot water method we used last week.

Here are some of the much darker pieces from today's session with the Jacquard kit. I will post more tomorrow when I have rinsed all the pieces out.

Itajime Papers

Here are some photos of the papers I dyed on Wednesday (day 18), which are currently strung around the room at Whitireia. They are taking a long time to dry and are very fragile at the moment. The paper is Chinese calligraphy paper. It absorbs the dye very well and is strong when it is dry.

distractions and research + Day 19

2010-03-23T22:26:00.000-07:00

I've been researching pleats and folds as part of looking for information on shibori. I am also thinking of buying a smocking pleater to use for pleating fabric before dyeing it. I'm just looking around for one I can afford, preferably with instructions on how to use it.

In the meantime I found some fascinating stuff on Youtube about origami and a wonderful pleated dress made by Jolis Paons out of telephone books. Click on the word 'telephone books' to go to Jolis' Flickr site. I think it is one of the most amazing pieces of Wearable art I have seen.

I also found a website which showed pleated architecture

and pleated origami bowls and structures by Paul Jackson.

Sri threads have some really lovely antique shibori fabrics on their blog at the moment. I went to Arimatsu Shibori Museum last year and took this photo because I couldn't afford to buy any of the fabric so had to make do with a photo. I think I prefer the stuff on the Sri threads blog to the more complicated patterns on the pieces below (from the shop at Arimatsu Shibori Museum, near Nagoya).