Tuesday with the dedicated few

The first Tuesday of the month we meet at Ocean View for a morning for chat, morning tea and weaving. This is a time I get a chance to actually weave with the girls. My piece is coming on slowly. It takes an hour and a half to complete one row as it is so big. I am halfway there now.

Elaine is putting tags on her cloak

Glenda is nearly finished her pink and white baby memorial

Helen is finishing her Christmas decoration

And Judy is working on another pattern for her taaniko sampler. 

Tomorrow I am off to Alexandra to take a weekend school.  That will be fun. The classes seem to be gathering interest quickly.  

Saturday weaving at Ocean View

This Saturday we had the pleasure of the company of four ladies from Invercargill. Our own numbers were lower today so the extras were very welcome and now they are part of us. It is so good to get together to see what everyone is doing as it stimulates ideas and interest. 

Elaine, as usual was busy on a new cloak getting bigger all the time. 

Jacquie had finished her first and had started a jute string one with a very nicely done taaniko. She had a Pukeko pelt to start the feather rows. 

Sharne started an interesting piece for her son using harekeke rolls and bleached jute string.  She also is organising a Saturday workshop with me in Invercargill at the end of August.

Donna and Paula are on to their second using the feathers flicking up or 'floating'. They have really improved and are planning their next weaving adventures. 

Jasmine continued with her first piece, I made a 34 whenu small starter piece to show the people at Alexandra next weekend and Lyann finished a row on her big taaniko.

So, all in all a good days work. Well done everyone. I am looking forward to seeing what you have done next month. 

Te Aitarakihi Weaving wananga

What a great cultural centre and lovely people at Aitarakihi.  We had a very busy weekend doing a starter korowai. I think I tired everyone out but by the end most had completed their small piece and the rest only had a few rows to go.

Many thanks for your gifts towards my petrol, much appreciated. And many thanks to Jocelyn, Debs, and Vicky who helped teach and now they are set on their way to pass this skill on to others. Such patient and fun teachers. Go girls.

Big cloak 2nd week

I haven't seemed to have a lot of time to spend on this cloak this week but I am past the quarter mark. It seems to be going well and mistakes have been able to be incorporated into the pattern so they are no longer mistakes.

We had a good day at the Museum on Sunday with two new ladies who seemed to understand the technique quickly. I also had an email from a lady from Alexandra and we hope to hold a class there soon. 

So August dates are

Saturday 1st Ocean View 10am - 4 pm (I'll be there by 9:30)

Tuesday 4th Ocean View 9 - 12:30

Friday 7th to Sunday 9th Alexandra perhaps

Sunday 16th Otago Museum 2pm

Tuesday 18th ocean view 9 - 12:30

Saturday 22nd, Sunday 23 rd Timaru possibly

I see we have 5 weekends in August so if any other place in the south wants a weekend of weaving we could arrange it. Just email me robin.korowai@gmail.com soon. 

Big museum cloak

Last week I stated a new big cloak for a friend at the Museum.  It is huge. But I have been fooled other times by thinking something was big but it ended up smaller than I would have liked. However this time I think I have overdone it.   It is about 140 cm wide with about 800 thin whenu. I cast them on double but am working the taaniko in fine thread on single whenu. 800 makes a long row.  I think I'll do a mawhitiwhiti pattern up the side so if necessary I can fold it under so is not too wide.

It took 2 full days to draw up the taaniko pattern on the computer.  It is very deep and loosely inspired by one on display at the Museum.

The first row, as per normal, took a long time.  But now as the pattern is starting to emerge it is going a little quicker.  I find I can usually only manage a row at one sitting (or standing as I usually am) before I need to give my body a rest.

I hope to have the taaniko done in a month but already I have had a three day holiday and a off day today. But when I start the feathers I hope I will get along quicker.

July Saturday

We had a lovely day today for our usual 1 st Saturday of the month. About 8 people came including 3 from Invercargill and one new lady from Dunedin. Two ladies had finished their first pieces and they were well done.

So proud of them. Congratulations Paula and Donna.  They are very enthusiastic and are already on to their second and planning the next size up on their third.

And it was great to meet two new people just starting on the journey. 

This month there will be the usual Tuesdays at ocean view and the Sunday afternoon at the Museum,  then a beginner workshop at Aitarakihi marae in Timaru on the last weekend of the month.  If any other group wishes to organize a beginner workshop, the second weekend of the months (except July) seem to be free at the moment.

Pheasant and Jute

Finished the jute Arapaki this week, and devised a new top finish which I quite like.  I was trying to work out how the old cloaks I have seen were finished. I'm not sure if I have discovered exactly what they did but I quite like this anyway.
So this is made of jute, with pheasant feathers. It has poka (shaping) and a plaited top edge with a fringe. There are black and red rope highlights.  

Jute project 2

A few more days, a few more rows.  I have completed the shaping and hopefully the pattern is still going to work out.

In another row or two I will start the final full feather row and the do the top plait. It will be interesting to see what difference the shaping makes.

Jute project

I am still going with my weaving of the jute project. I have two sets in of a possible four. I think I will start some shaping soon as that is what this project is designed to learn.

However this next picture will show you why is taking so long. I have been busy for two of my granddaughters. 

Coeliac Disease

Unfortunately I have coeliac disease which means I have to have a strictly gluten free diet for life. This means nothing made with wheat, oats, rye or barley. It is surprising what innocent things contain these things, things you would never expect like salad dressings and soy sauce.  As I am very sensitive I have to be extremely careful or I can very quickly have a really bad bout of vomiting and extreme weakness.
 I bring this up in this blog because I have just had another episode brought on by a salad I was told was gluten free,  by people who should know, which unfortunately wasn't.  It was just as well I got home within two hours of eating it as I was very sick soon afterwards.
So for those of you who don't know about coeliac disease or those who think it is just a fad and not to worry, it is definitely something to be aware of. For some people out there it may just be a fad diet but for coeliacs it is a question of life or suffering.
So if I come to your area to teach weaving please do not be offended if I say I can't eat the food you have lovingly prepared. I am quite happy eating what I have brought and others eating your wonderful food.  I love the smells of good food even if I can't always eat it.

New project

My next project is an Arapaki inspired by an old cloak seen in the Masterton museum.

The original

My effort.  I started this last week and have got on quite well despite having to unpull a bit. The twisted wool bit is interesting especially as it is an old idea.  I have seen it on very old cloaks,  however it has been revived.   I still haven't quite got the finishing of a small bit of this twisting satisfactory yet though. 

Dolls

Elaine, one of our Ocean View Weavers,  makes lovely outfits for dolls.  They are mostly for her family although she has sold a few.  She even goes to great trouble shaping the wee dress.

Well done Elaine

Finished school cloak

I have finished the flicking feather korowai.  This korowai was done to learn different things.


1. Using the new thick icb string. I have found this string nice to work with however I tended to do slightly wider rows which meant I had to do a feather row every row because of the curly nature of the feathers. Whether this means extra work I haven't quite worked out. The feathers were mostly ok separated by three plain whenu although sometimes I used only two between. I think it will be good for a quick cloak.

2. Using the plain chicken string feathers and using them flicked up. This worked surprisingly well. The feather bundles need to be made well but look quite nice altogether.

3. Using a brown cord twining down for an edging.  I have often seen this on old korowai but not really done it before. Worked well.

4. Doing the poka (shaping). I have never quite got the hang of why the shaping is done where it is but had another go on this cloak.  Being thicker string and wider rows I couldn't follow Diggeress' s instructions in her book 'Weaving a kakahu' to the letter but hope I have it OK. What surprised me seeing a lot of old (and new) cloaks was that the shaping was very subtle and didn't really seem to stand out much.  However I think this feels better to wear than a straight one so will do this in future.  I think a bit more study on this would help though.

5. Using a plait finish with a close cropped whenu ending. I am not so happy with this. I think I need to look into this type of top more. It may work better with finer string.

Chicken feather strings

Seeing as I am making this chicken feather cloak I thought I would see how far a string of feathers goes.  Here is the string as I receive it.

It's pretty gross and unusable.  But I wash them in some gentle soap until the water is clear and hang them out to drip.  When no more water is dropping off and before they are dry I blow dry them bit by bit until all the feathers are fluffy and dry. This can take 20mins or so. A long and slow process but at least they don't get all tangled up like if you put them in the dryer. They finish up like this.

Now for the bundling. Some of the feathers are really thin, some are beautiful and thick, some are fluffy, some are skinny. I put them together sometimes in bundles of three or sometimes 4 or 5 depending on their thickness and that of their stalks. I am trying for lush bundles with thin stalks. This I usually can achieve by pulling off the fluff on one side of the feathers. There is waste of course,  in this case an ice cream tub full of broken feathers, too skinny feathers, just unusable feathers and fluff from the sides. 

From one string 120cm long I managed 280 bundles. Now I am averaging 55 bundles per feather row on my cloak (which in this case is every row) which means I should get 5 rows from one string of feathers. Mostly the feather and stalk are followed by two whenu instead of three, as is usual, but the thickness of the string requires it.  My cloak has 230 whenu from the new thick string from ICB and is 95 cm wide. The new string is nice to work with and the work is going quite quickly. It is slowed down by the working of every row feathers, and their bundling takes time but I am happy I will have something to show Saturday week when we have our next all day weaving group.  

Elaine's finished korowai

It was great catching up with all the tuesday group last week and seeing the impressive korowai that Elaine has made for her daughter and a framed piece to sell at a pink ribbon day auction. She had been busy while I have been away.

We had a morning of catching up with some of the things I had learnt on my trip and general catchup.   I cut the thick new string from ICB for a school cloak. I have 130 whenu plus two for edging and it is nearly 1 Metre wide.  Now I have been working away steadily bundling the cheap brown hen feathers and weaving them in.  I have found that sometimes I am only having two whenu between feathers and sometimes three. Having decided to put them in flicking upwards I found I had to do a feather row every row which means a lot more work but should result in a lovely thick cloak.  I haven't done this for a long time but it was lovely to see one done like this while away and I wanted to try it again. I have also done the multidirectional taaniko which taught me a bit about design and what was not a good idea.  I am using some techniques from Diggeress' s book 'Weaving a kakahu' like her lengthening of aho threads should they be too short.

Angel Korowai

On the Tuesday before I left on my trip the Ocean View Weaving ladies took our wee angel korowai to the Queen Mary Hospital along with another lady whose group make lovely cocoons to receive the wee babes that pass away. We were surprised and delighted that there were quite a number of people there to witness the handing over and blessing of the gifts. It was a simple ceremony but we felt it a real privilege that we were thanked in this manner.

I also made two korowai to be used with the wahakura where live babies can be photographed. 

A very special morning. 

 

Home at last

After another successful weekend wananga at Temuka, where another seven ladies were introduced to weaving korowai, I have got home at last.  It's been a very interesting time away, learning lots more about cloaks old and new and meeting with friends and family and spending time with my mum.

The school at Arowhenua let us use their library for our weekend course. The ladies worked hard but the last afternoon was almost too much so we didn't finish quite but all the skills required were learnt. I think I will have to cut down the number of whenu to 34 and the feather rows to three. I'll give that a go next time. We had another look at a very old cloak which had inspired me to make a bag.

I had made a cloak for the school and handed it over to some of the ladies to pass on this week. I hope they liked it. 

Old cloaks

Today I was able to see the collection of old korowai in  Aratoi the Masterton art gallery and museum.  It was wonderful to closely examine the sides,  the row endings,  the tags and feathers, the taaniko, the shaping etc. The fineness of the whenu and closely woven rows always amaze me.  There was a wide range of designs.

If you have the opportunity to go through a museums collection think about what you want to see in particular. I was concentrating on sides and shaping and can't wait to get home to try it all out.  The tags were interesting too, now that I have got the hang of the proper way of putting them in.  In fact I might go out right now and use some of the string I have cut and get on to it. 

learning new things

I am on a road trip around the country visiting friends and family and very excited about the new things I am learning.  Last week we talked to a very good weaver in Te Awamutu who showed me a wonderful old ending to aho rows, new ways of dealing with jute string to make beautiful whenu and some beautiful korowai to make me eager to get home and get to work.

Last weekend I was in Napier taking a group of about 10 for a techniques day. We covered options for casting on,  sides, row endings including the new one I learnt that week, and we worked out the old way of putting in tags.  I showed them how to make bags and everyone went home happy.  I was also shown a gadget to do the cut on a harekeke and a piece of greenstone to get out the muka.  Chris made me one on the spot. What a lovely man. He also gave me some more of his muka made by a machine.  I can't wait to get home and work with it. 

On Tuesday I will be able to examine some old cloaks in a museum in Masterton, which I am very much looking forward to.  I have a better idea of what to look for now, than ever before. 

On Wednesday we cross back to the South Island and the next day arrive back in Timaru to take a beginner class in Temuka. Then at last I will be able to go back home and try to work out something to make to try out the new things I have learnt.