At last I have finished the korowai for South School Papakura.  It has Kereru feathers at the top before the Taniko.  I do like the pattern with feathers and mawhitiwhiti.  Now this will be at our exhibition in Dunedin in September then I will get it to Papakura sometime next term.

 And I have finished this pheasant shoulder korowai

 And this small cloak with a black doll to display it on.  It feels good finishing things.  This cloak represents the sea.  The feathers are blues and greens with white 'breakers' and paua shell at the top.  The feathers are in a wavy pattern with mawhitiwhiti in between the feathers.

But I have started another wall hanging using black back gull feathers.  So far I have started the tail bit.

And a small thing to go in a photo frame.  The feathers are the small ones from a pheasant neck.

Lots of work done and lots to do.

After having family here for two weeks and doing no work I am back busy again.  We are hoping to have an exhibition in Koru Gallery, Dunedin in September so I need to get real busy.  The Kereru have arrived from DoC and I have sort of pelted them.  When I had pelted the carcases, mutilating them a bit as the skin is quite delicate, I sewed them on to hoops of No 8 wire to keep them flat.  This made keeping the baking soda on them easy, drying them out well.  Now to use the feathers.

But just before I do that I am finishing an arapaki made from pheasant feathers.  I had seen one done with the spikey brown feathers before and was impressed so I used the ones I had to make a smaller one.  The large one I saw must have used a heap of pheasants.  This one I thought would be good for a graduation so I have done the poutama pattern for the taniko.

I had a dream last night that I was in a cruise liner and met some of my friends from Papakura there weaving.  One had a short arapaki worn under one arm and over a shoulder like men do.  Now that was a good idea.  I had always imagined women wearing these short cloaks like a shoulder cape but they would look good on a man worn like a cartridge belt.  There was also a hat band.  So two more thoughts to work on.  Don't know about the cruise liner though.

I have also nearly finished another small doll cloak from pukeko, duck and pheasant feathers supposed to represent the sea and it's colours and am working on a big one also a seascape.  When I have a moment I want to get on to making some dolls for displaying the small cloaks and some tiny cloaks in frames.  I hope these will sell well at our exhibition.

Went for a walk on the beach and came home with a black backed gull pelt that we did there and then when we discovered a freshly dead bird on the sand.  What fun.  I have been meeting with two other weavers here in Taieri Mouth and would like to meet with other weavers from Dunedin so am keen to hear from anyone around here.