Just before leaving for the Professional Weavers Network seminar last weekend I received the 12 kilos of 8 ply yarn I had ordered back in December. Frustrating but there we are, it had to wait till I got home and was sorted.
The girls in Wellington area organised a wonderful weekend. Anyone who flew down was met at the airport and driven to Silverstream Retreat Centre in time for lunch. After we were settled in our rooms we had a talk from Kerstin Lucas about Nano Gold. Kerstin has done a three year research study on attaching tiny nano particles of gold to wool and silk and a couple of our members are involved in spinning, weaving and knitting it. Different depths of shade are obtained by the size of the particles and different colour by the shape of the particles. Its also being trialled in carpet. Its definitely aimed at the high market, the only drawback being that you'd have to be told you were walking on gold. Someone else has taken on the nano study and Kerstin is now researching a way to stop wool yellowing.
The rest of Friday and Saturday morning were taken up with show and tell and discussions about the exhibition the group is about to hang. Saturday afternoon was time to visit various galleries in the area (there just happened to be a weather bomb hitting the country at this time). My group headed to Expressions Gallery in Upper Hutt to see an exhibition called "Common Thread" which featured the work of twelve women who work with wool blankets. From there we went to ..
the Holland Road Yarn Company. Tasha has a wonderful selection of yarns she has dyed herself and a lot of unusual imported ones as well as all the books or tools a knitter would need. Take a closeup look at that bike to give you a mood of the shop.
Back to battling the elements for our final stop - the Dowse Art Museum which was featuring opulent costumes from various ballets by New Zealand designer Kristian Fredrikson. That was interesting but I was really smitten by an exhibition of Lillian Hetet's weavings including flax and paua, all in triangular shapes.
Saturday evening we enjoyed an enthusiastic talk, slide show and display from Bob Maysmor of Pataka Gallery of his fibre adventures while travelling. It was very inspiring and interesting but, to my shame, I couldn't stay awake - oh, age is catching up with me!
All day Sunday and Monday morning were spent with Maryann Stamford from Maleny, Queensland, Australia with first a lecture and then an interactive workshop. A very inspiring time and can't wait to put into practise some of the things we learned.
I've caught up with most of the paperwork I had to do, have wound and dyed a warp and when thats dry will be tying it on for another series of blankets.
The girls in Wellington area organised a wonderful weekend. Anyone who flew down was met at the airport and driven to Silverstream Retreat Centre in time for lunch. After we were settled in our rooms we had a talk from Kerstin Lucas about Nano Gold. Kerstin has done a three year research study on attaching tiny nano particles of gold to wool and silk and a couple of our members are involved in spinning, weaving and knitting it. Different depths of shade are obtained by the size of the particles and different colour by the shape of the particles. Its also being trialled in carpet. Its definitely aimed at the high market, the only drawback being that you'd have to be told you were walking on gold. Someone else has taken on the nano study and Kerstin is now researching a way to stop wool yellowing.
The rest of Friday and Saturday morning were taken up with show and tell and discussions about the exhibition the group is about to hang. Saturday afternoon was time to visit various galleries in the area (there just happened to be a weather bomb hitting the country at this time). My group headed to Expressions Gallery in Upper Hutt to see an exhibition called "Common Thread" which featured the work of twelve women who work with wool blankets. From there we went to ..
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| Entrance to Dowse |
Saturday evening we enjoyed an enthusiastic talk, slide show and display from Bob Maysmor of Pataka Gallery of his fibre adventures while travelling. It was very inspiring and interesting but, to my shame, I couldn't stay awake - oh, age is catching up with me!
All day Sunday and Monday morning were spent with Maryann Stamford from Maleny, Queensland, Australia with first a lecture and then an interactive workshop. A very inspiring time and can't wait to put into practise some of the things we learned.
I've caught up with most of the paperwork I had to do, have wound and dyed a warp and when thats dry will be tying it on for another series of blankets.
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