Finished Lily's cloak

Three months work has finally seen the end of Lily's kakahu. I am pleased with it although the taaniko turned out a bit wider in the cotton I used than perhaps I would have liked. However it has all come together well. Here is a photo mid taaniko to show that the taaniko is really woven and not a tapestry.

 The finished cloak, of course,  does not lie flat as it has shaping in it. Now is just a matter of packing it up and sending it off. Not an easy task.

Now I have started a new cloak for an unveiling. It will only have a few rows of feathers so I have started on the taaniko already.  I'm almost up to the middle row. 

Saturday weaving Ocean View, Dunedin

This coming Saturday will be our first meeting for the year. Everyone welcome to come and see what we do,  to learn to weave, join in with your own korowai weaving projects or come for a cup of tea.
I will have Lily's kakahu there and our other weavers will be there with their projects.
The venue is the Coastal community church on the main road to Brighton at Ocean View. Time from 10 am to 4 pm but come whenever you like in those times.  Cost $5

Lily's kakahu 2nd week

This week has been a two steps forward one step back kind of week.  After a lot of undoing I'm back on track. I found a way of undoing quicker by doing three rows at once.

Now that I am 60 cm up from mid calf length I am starting a few rows of poka or shaping for the hips.

You can see where my first short row has started, where the feathers on the right start. That short row went along to the same distance from the end (80 whenu). Now I am starting a full length row which will follow the line up and over the short row.  Then the next short row (40 Whenu from the ends) and then back to long rows until I get closer to the top where I will do some more poka for the shoulders. I really like these poka for making the cloak sit well and feel 'right'.

Lily's kakahu week 1 weaving

Finally able to start weaving this week. But it's been a mixed up week with helping family shift house. Cleaning bathrooms with old toothbrushes,  chasing escaped sheep in the rain, and feeding troops of in-laws.

But I did manage to get some weaving done. In fact I got about 30 cm finished. At 60 cm I'll do a few rows of poka shaping for the hips. It helps having a story to listen to when working on my own because I want to hear what happens next. The rows fly by.

It took at least 3 weeks to get all the feathers done in December but I think I like having them all done and being able to concentrate on weaving alone.

I have had another enquiry about a commission so it's all go this year. I'll be a busy bee all year.

String

Trying to get the string the right colour for my next big project. The first lot turned out too pink for the yellow toned feathers so I am trying again.

While waiting for the string to dry, my fingers are itching to get started so I made this angel korowai yesterday afternoon.

The fluffy feathers are the under feathers from a peacock.  As they are very fluffy I tried cutting the fluff off both sides of the feather up as far as I wanted then used the bareish stalk of a single feather to stitch in to the row. The feathers were so fluffy I didn't need to bundle them at all. The top row are some feathers I had bundled years ago for another unfinished project. The taaniko pattern means a couple and child amongst the stars, to me.  It shows the love and heartbreak of a family when a tiny baby dies. At least that's what I was thinking about. 

Holiday

I have made myself have 7days off weaving. But I am having withdrawal symptoms. My sister in law gave me a needle felting kit for Christmas so I have been having fun with that instead. 

Feathers, feathers and more feathers

This month's task is to make all the feather bundles for a big kakahu. I have been busy every day for 5 or 6 hours to get them done. I'm dreaming feather bundles. I now see why I don't usually have them all done before I get started. To make the task less tedious I am listening to a series of stories read on YouTube. As the series is very long it is perfect for this job. I have already got through 4 books.  The story makes me want to get bundling so I can listen to it.

These feathers come in four sizes so there are sorted as I go. I am planning to start with the biggest ones at the bottom and work up through to the smaller sizes.  I might look at staggering the bundles too, as the feathers are quite thin. Any one know why they shouldn't be staggered? The only reason I can think of is that then you can't fold it in half neatly,  but then I don't think it should be folded anyway, preferring to roll my cloaks.   I'll go to the museum before I start on them, to examine some old kakahu. So much to learn from the old weavers. 

Kirsten's Arapaki

All finished.

I do hope kirsten likes it.

Today I go to te Kura Kaupapa o Otepoti to give them the kakahu and other special gift at the prize giving. It was an interesting process making this beside the class. They helped a bit but mostly it was a learning by osmosis type process. However it was their design and colours.

Now I've started making feather bundles for the next one. 

Kirsten's taaniko

Finally finished the feathers and now on to the taaniko. This design is one Kirsten's mother had done long ago. It seemed appropriate to have it on her Arapaki.

Should finish this week. We have two more weaving days at Ocean view for the year, Tuesday morning and Saturday. 

Kirsten's kakahu

Mum and I had a wonderful holiday catching up with some of the family in Australia. But now is back to work and all the fun of creating.  I am finding more people are commissioning me to make their family cloaks or special occasion korowai for institutions. This is exciting but I'm finding I now have to make time slots (by three month periods) or I would overwhelm myself. This happened this year with Kirsten's cloak. I have come back to it now and am going to be able to finish it in the next week or two.
Unfortunately the camera on my tablet has gone all fuzzy so the photos are not good.
So here I have continued on from where I left off a few months ago.

I was puzzling how to do the poka shaping while keeping the pattern.  At first I tried hiding it under dark finishing Feathers. 

However I thought that looked too heavy on the short cape so I undid it and tried just keeping the potama pattern but doing the short rows of the shaping anyway. Then finished with one row of dark feathers. I think it's worked well and am happy with it. 

Next step is Kirsten's taaniko which is based on one her mother did. It is patterned out and all ready to go as soon as I've completed the finishing rows on the feathers. 

But today I'll have to clean feathers and make soap etc for some starter kits ready for Christmas orders. We find people are getting these sent as gifts to other family members. 

 Maybe I'll get them done quickly and get on with the taaniko. 

Finished at last

I have finally finished both school cloaks. So pleased that they have all gone well. The shaping (poka) certainly can be felt and makes them fitting so much better. I hope the school will be happy with them.  The principal's one looks nice too but shhh is a surprise. Glad that's over now on to the next.  But first I'll take my 89 year old mother on a trip to Australia to catch up with her family.

Classes are all over for the year but more are planned for next year. Let me know if you would like one in your area.

What a mistaka to makea

Sometimes we make mistakes.

But that is just an opportunity to try methods of fixing them. This week I realized my jute cloak was going to be too small. This was really due to the mawhitiwhiti drawing the cloak in more than I anticipated.

I made the decision to put more strings on the end, redo the end of the taaniko on the bottom/top and lengthen all the taaniko threads and aho cottons. Meanwhile I didn't have any of that batch of bleached jute left over so would have to bleach some more till I got a similar colour. Easier said than done.

Of course I couldn't wait till I actually had the right colour jute but immediately set about undoing and redoing while the jute bleached. Four or five bundles later I think I've got a similar colour. It would be easier if it was covered in feathers but this has only tags and mawhitiwhiti. I'll see tomorrow if I need to keep trying.  

Anyway I continued down the cloak going 3/4 of the way across the rows. Hopefully it will be OK. I should of waited but. ....

Some people will never learn!  In this photo all the tags are drooping the wrong way as it is hanging bottom up. 

But it does show some lessons I need to take to heart. 

1. Measure, make allowances for mawhitiwhiti width-ways as well as length-ways

2. Make sure you have enough materials should something go wrong. 

3. Keep a record of the things made,  so they can be referred to later if using the same materials. 

4. Wait till you can do things in the right order instead of jumping in. 

Oh dear, never mind. Next time I'll do better. 

Rotorua

We have been away for a couple of weeks seeing family in Tauranga. Unfortunately I came down with a bad cold that really set me back with lack of energy and coughing. However the show must go on and six days later I took a beginner group for korowai weaving at the Tangatarua marae at the Rotorua Polytechnic campus. A big thank you to all the ladies for helping me cope and being such great learners. Thank you to Tangiwai Doctor for organising the weekend so well.  I was so impressed by the carving in the wharenui. It felt like we were sleeping in the forest, but with a warm floor. A great weekend.
On the way back through Wellington we stopped at the Dowse gallery to see the exhibition of Erenora Hetet's korowai and other creations. What an inspiration. Such fine, fine work. Made me want to have a try at fine weaving again instead of working with double threads. And her work in wire and paua was so interesting and freeing.
Now we are home again and back into the work I need to get done before we go away again. Next weekend I'll be at Gore for another beginner weekend before family arrive from Australia for my mother-in-laws 90th birthday.

Busy times

Busy times

Well its been a busy year and my head is spinning with all the things to be done this second half. I've got three projects on the go and enjoying each one.
Firstly the school korowai is coming along nicely. But it's at that middle stage where it seems so slow and the rows drag. This is where I have to dig in to my reserves of perseverance and patience.

Next is a commission which I am excited about, but then I've only just started the feather rows. At least this one has a pattern in the feathers and isn't so big. I am enjoying working with the pheasant feathers again. They are so beautiful and sit nicely.

Thirdly I'm doing a secret extra for the school principal. I'm off on a road trip which includes a teaching weekend in Rotorua so I will take it with me and hope to get something done on it in the evenings.  I know, I know,  fat chance but it can serve as an example while I'm there anyway. 

Then, of course, there is the preparation of all those starter kits etc that I make up for all you lovely new weavers to buy. It has been a very busy year for these as well as teaching weekends. I've just had a Tips and Techniques class at Winton this weekend. It was a lovely day but very busy and concentrated. I seem to be away almost every other weekend. So glad my family copes so well without me.

Elaine's new doll

Elaine has been busy dressing a lovely new doll. She is 57cm tall and looking very pretty. Elaine has made a dress to go under her lovely korowai. The dress has an unusual embellishment  on the top. This technique had been seen on some old korowai but isn't done much anymore as it is quite fiddly. Elaine has found a way of doing it after the weaving to make it easier.

Well done Elaine. Looking forward to your next project.

Ribbons

Had a great weekend up at Porirua teaching a group of enthusiastic women, staying on Horouta Marae.  Wove to all hours, laughed and slept together. Thank you Horouta for having me.
A few weeks ago I was shown a small piece a lady from central Otago had made using ribbon for tags. I thought this was worth a go so got some thin ribbon while in Porirua.  In a bin I spyed these little red rosebuds so combined them for a wee  Angel korowai.

 I had a few bits of whenu in my bag so started a wall hanging for Balclutha. I was thinking of trying the ribbon again for water but couldn't find what I had done with it so used some blue cotton instead.  It's amazing what you can get through when waiting for planes if you have something in your bag. 

July Bags

Well this bag is nearly finished, just handles, lining and fixing up to do.

I am pleased with the top. Surprised myself. 

But while I was working on this I also made a small jute flat bag with left over string. It fits my  Samsung tablet

And the school taaniko is coming on nicely.  Two of the girls,  Georgia  and Nevada have been helping me do the taaniko. We have worked out a system where two of us work together on the stitch. Not very conventional but the girls will be able to say "I did some of that taaniko". So impressed with them. Another afternoon today should almost finish it. Then it's on to the mawhitiwhiti design with tassels which the children designed for their korowai. 

There have also been two REAP Weaving schools since I last wrote.  The last was in Te Anau, with a great group of people.  I enjoyed the trip away taking my mother to see my cousin's son there.  However this weekend I'm flying up to Wellington to take a class at the Porirua Marae.  It has been so busy lately but lots of fun. 

On our Saturday weaving day at Ocean View last week Elaine showed us the wee dress she is making for a doll with a fancy stitch we saw in a book on old cloaks. Very cute. 

Bag

I've started on a bag for a display in Balclutha next month. I'm using the finest string working out double (string from Browns Brushware). First I cut 150 strings about 100 cm long and 24 strings 140cm. Then cast on the 150 in pairs in the middle, just one after the other so there are strings on both sides of the cast on row.  Next I worked with 6 longer strings laying them alongside the cast on row and weaving the cast on whenu three pairs of whenu at a time while flipping the long strings over and under the whenu groups of three. Then I did another row like that on the other side of the cast on row. These two rows were repeated. I hope the photos will show what I mean.

You can see the base shaping up.   You could continue using a box like this to work on if you like. The next step will be a turning row all the way round so that a nice edge is made for the base.  I'm considering adding in colored threads on the turning row so that I can do a mesh design for the bag.   Hmm must go get some black cotton to do that this morning at our weaving group at Ocean View. Adding these strings in will help the bag to stay square, I hope,  strange as it sounds. 

Should end up with a mesh patten kind of like this.

Taaniko designing

Just doing a spot of taaniko design for the kura kaupapa korowai. I just use a spreadsheet where I can adjust the sizes of the rows and columns to reflect my tension.

It takes ages and there isn't a quick way of changing colours. But at least it's adjustable and not just squares like graph paper. There's got to be a better programme. Does anyone know of one? It needs to have adjustable rows and columns sizes,  easy fill colouring, and preferably some way of changing the colors with the press of one or two buttons. I would also like to be able to mirror and flip groups of colored 'squares'. I do hope someone out there has a solution. 

Peacock Arapaki

Nearly finished, just a few more rows on the back. I have used the threadline silky taaniko thread for the tassels and unraveled them after I had stitched then on.   These made nice wriggly tassels.