More Echo

Had an enjoyable evening at the Low Tide exhibition opening on Saturday, 3 - 5 pm.  After the speeches that is.  Not my favourite activity and especially when dosed up on antibiotics for infected sinuses.  (That's right, no winter virus but pesky sinuses.)   Got to talk to lots of people and catch up with a few friends, then went into Hamilton and had tea with my daughter at a Greek restaurant.

These are a couple of the extra scarves which are in the gallery now.  I can't figure how to put captions on the photos but the one on the left is lava with a black alpaca/silk 64/2 weft and hand dyed merino warp.  The echo shows quite nicely there, more so than the scarf on the right, Fire, with same warp but deep red, almost burgundy merino weft.  What you don't get in the wool echo weave is the iridescence a reflective yarn such as silk gives.

Another version, rippling water with one warp chain painted and the second plain navy.  I have now changed the dobby chain and there is another take from both these warps.  What I did was leave enough red warp for another scarf, tie the blue warp on and pull through reed and heddles to back beam,  weave the above blue scarf, repeg dobby chain, weave another blue scarf, wind the knots forward through the reed and heddles and weave another red scarf.  Is that all too much for sensitive ears.  I do this sort of thing all the time and don't have any problems so long as the knots are all even.  Pictures later.

I've been working on some samples for the next range of blankets and until I get the go ahead for them I think I'll blob out with spinning wheel and a movie.

Low Tide Exhibition at Inspirit Gallery

You wouldn't believe it but the busiest week of my year, the week I've been working towards for soooo long and I've got a winter virus, eyes, nose, throat, the works.

Yesterday was "hanging" day at Inspirit so I drove the 1 1/2 hours to Hamilton with car loaded with goodies.  After the arrival of Colleen and Dave and coffee and scones we got going.  I think I'll let the pictures, which were taken before everything was finally settled, do the talking.

The fabric for the Theo Moorman work is courtesy of Pauanesia in Auckland.  Once it came off the loom it was machine embroidered to enhance the image.  I'm not too keen on the height of the two pieces in the middle of the top picture but the hooks were already in the wall!  The monofilament and shell pieces are what inspired the title of the show.  I love walking the beach at low tide and some days if there is the right amount of cloud and the sun in the right position it feels like walking on clouds and on a rare occasion if everything is perfect its magic, like walking in space.  I really like the way Colleen Dewhurst's paintings and my work complement each other.  A proud moment for me.

There is a lot more to see as Jenny also wanted a selection of my scarves and blankets in the gallery (but not the exhibition) as well.  Some are on 'necks' on the empty plinths you can see.