Flying Feathers

On my trip to Napier I set about making a small korowai for the hospital. So I took some string, cotton and feather bundles ready to go. I started at the Dunedin airport. Continued on the plane, at Wellington and on the flight to Napier. By that time I had got up to the taaniko. I couldn't cut the cotton as I wasn't allowed scissors but tidied it up later. It became a teaching tool during the weekend.
Then on the flight home I did the taaniko, the turning and mawhitiwhiti on the back, poke through most of the whenu for a fringe and still had an hour to do games before landing at Dunedin. Again I had to tidy it up later but that only took a half hour.

Easter weekend wananga

I have had an absolutely fantastic time with the wonderful folk in Napier.  Such a great venue - Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Te Ara Hou.  Such a great feel and buzz. Ladies weaving raranga,  harekeke all over the place, beautiful kete. And that was just the background.
I managed twenty learners, and they were all so enthusiastic.  Mind you they already had a lot of skills just not korowai weaving ones. I was so impressed and glad to be spreading the skills to these wonderful people.  We covered so much beyond the normal with some ladies and I know they will pass this knowledge to the others as they met together each month.  I have never known such endurance either. I know you some of them had been up late and they worked hard all day and I know they didn't stop when I left.

Thank you to Diana,  Fiona and all the others who organised,  raised funds, cooked and made it such a successful weekend.

Jute arapaki 2

After much umming and aahing I have finally decided on these few rows at least. I have a whole bag of these barred feathers but unfortunately most of them are long skinny ones and so I am trying to decide what to do next. As usual I don't have enough of any one thing to keep going. I never seem to be able to get throughly organised before I start. Anyway so far so good. Next week I'll have to decide the next step. I have a few black bundles and a good few white and heaps of skinny barred ones. Any ideas?

Jute arapaki

I have started another bleached jute Arapaki. Yesterday I finally finished the taaniko on the bottom. I used the ordinary knitting and crochet cotton I usually use for the aho and it worked well for the taaniko as long as I tried hard to keep the two strings flat. There are a couple of mistakes I need to fix but generally I'm pleased with it.
Now comes the bit I thought I had sorted out. The 'black and white' feathers I was going to use turned out to be more brown and grey which now I come to think of it is probably normal for natural black and white feathers. So now I need to think again. I hope to do this one completely feathered. Time to rummage in my feather stash.

March Saturday at Ocean View

Just a small group meet this Saturday but we had managed some interesting work. We had one new lady start which was great and she is flying ahead with her first piece.

Then everyone had different things they were working on.

Helen's interesting piece with a long taaniko project. 

Judy working on a twisted rope between mawhitiwhiti patterns. 

Elaine pretty rope effect in taniko on a lovely duck piece

And Lyann deciding what to do next after her marathon taaniko so effective in hand dyed, home spun wool on home spin alpaca whenu. The interesting thing is that we couldn't decide whether to make the taaniko at the top or bottom. Either option would work well. 

And I am finishing my big jute korowai. 

All done. It drapes well because of the shaping. Now to find someone who wants to buy it.

Vicky's masterpiece

What a wonderful surprise this week when one of my Temuka ladies showed me the second piece she has ever made. Her first was learning to weave with me and this is her second.

It is absolutely fabulous. She had made it with the thin Browns Brushware string and used it singly. Something I have never done. So much patience. 560 whenu. What a lot of work. Her rows are lovely and even and the taaniko was wonderful.

Such fine work and so neatly done.  It was very light and hung and moved well.

Interestingly she has used single feathers in the kaupapa or body of the piece.  This helps because I think three feather bundles might have been inclined to poke through. As it is, only small fluffy feathers that can be seen on the back. The feathers are pheasant.
Vicky used a very fine crochet cotton for the aho or weft and for the taaniko she used some silky thread  called Threadline Products knitting silk,  4 ply taaniko weaving thread 110 metre hanks which cost about $16. I must see where we can get that.

I am so proud of her efforts. The pupil has outstripped the master. Well done Vicky. I look forward to seeing your next project.