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.