Friday, March 21, 2014

20 March 2014

Annie Hackett has enjoyed helping with tapestry so much
she has come back again - this was her fourth time!
Awesome - love it!

Friday 14th March 2014

 Maui Wipe, from Whangarei, thought the community
tapestry was wonderful. It's always good to see men 
having a go at tapestry weaving as it's not just 
something for the women. Historically, it was the men 
who did the weaving, while the women spun the yarn
 (and probably and tale or two!)
 Danielle Fryer, Maui's partner worked on the letter E 
***

 Karel Novackova takes a photo
of his wife working on the tapestry.
Veronika and Karel are from Czech Republic. 
 In the background are other visitors come to look at the tapestry.
***

Also to have a go at tapestry weaving was Tania Langen.
Thank you too each one of you for being part of the 
Whangarei Community Tapestry Project!
***

Friday, March 14, 2014

Saturday 8th March 2014

The boat sheds are almost finished....
....and work has started on the girl!
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 Sisters, Freya and Maddie Doherty.
They live in Onerahi, Whangarei 
and were in town for the day. 
 Maddie (front) is 15 and Freya, 10 years old.
 Freya liked working on the tapestry.
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 Moana (left) is a local, her friend Helen (right) 
was up visiting from Auckland.
 Moana thought the tapestry was beautiful!
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 Naoko had a lovely display of the 
green wool for all to admire!
 The many different shades are all hand-dyed by Beverley Compter.
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 Joan Robertson (in red) listens as Naoko shows her how 
to weave while Hugh, her husband of 68 years watches.
 Joan is 93 years young and is sight-impaired.
Her husband, Hugh is 95. They live at Jane Mander 
Retirement Village and were out and about with
 their niece.  Thanks for taking part Joan!
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 Joanna Gilby has a go at tapestry weaving while her Mum
chats to Naoko about the Community Project.
 Joanne is 12 and lives in Tauranga though her 
Mum is originally from Whangarei. They were up 
visiting Joanne's Great-Grandma.
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 Zak Rogers (left) takes instruction from Naoko while his 
cousin Callum works at the other end of the tapestry.
 Callum (15) is a local and lives in Kamo
 His cousin Zak (14) lives in South Auckland
but up in Whangarei visiting for the weekend.
Thanks for your participation, guys!
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 Sae Morishima, from Japan weaves a few rows
while host-mum Nora Elson-White looks on.
 Sae is a Japanese Art Student at NorthTec.
Nora worked with Jackie and Jill at NorthTec in the 90's
It was Sae's last day in New Zealand 
and she liked working on the tapestry.
  Candy, from China is also an international
 student at NorthTec and staying with 
host-mum Nora Elson-White in Whangarei.
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Thursday 6 March 2014

 Sisters, Sarah Sutton (left) and Mandy Bax
 Sarah, in the blue shirt is a kiwi living abroad 
in Ithaca, New York. She saw a link about the 
tapestry project  on Facebook and put it on her 
"To Do" list when she next visited her sister, 
Mandy who lives here in Whangarei. 
They enjoyed working together on the tapestry
and will be back to check on the progress next
time Sarah is over visiting in New Zealand.
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 Joan, on left is one of our volunteer tapestry hostesses. 
On right, is Yvonne Sutton ex-UK but now living in Poroti.
Yvonne said she was meeting up with a relative from 
the UK whom she has never met before. As she 
was a little early arriving she was having a bit of a "look
around" and enjoyed taking part in the tapestry project.
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 Two visitors check out the tapestry painting by Jackie Addenbrook
while Julzs (seated on left) and Vicki (right) work on the tapestry.
Vicki Attwood (front) lives here in Whangarei 
(since 1982) and it was her second time weaving. 
She enjoyed working on the tapestry.  Julie (Julzs)
Support Worker for Recovery Solutions and
assisting Vicki would not have known about the
 tapestry project here at The Bach Gallery.
She really enjoyed working on the project too.
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Friday, March 7, 2014

Sunday 2nd March 2014

Helen Feaver is a budding artist and getting back into
 her creativity. Working on the Whangarei Community 
Tapestry Project got the "creative juices" flowing!
She is a local here from Whangarei...we hope to
 see you again soon, Helen.

Saturday 1st March 2014

 Cameron Fitzpatrick - 7 years has a go 
at weaving on the Children's Loom.

Kendall Wallace - aged 3, lives in Whangarei and 
was going to the Town Basin playground after her 
weaving on one of the "Give-it-a-Go" looms.

Elana Dickson is a textile design consultant 
visiting from London, U.K. She thought the 
tapestry was a great project to be a part of!

Ashleigh Davies, visiting from Auckland.
She is 11 years old and loves any sort of crafts.
It was her first time weaving and she liked it.

Sunday 23 February 2014

 Eric (front) from New Plymouth was up visiting his children 
Thelma and Pim who live with their mum here in Whangarei.
 All three were invited to work on the tapestry and enjoyed 
adding their contributing to the community project.
They intend to come back a few more times 
in the coming months to work on it together.

Saturday 22nd February 2014

Frank Davis and wife, Carlene from Alfriston, South Auckland
were celebrating their 11th wedding anniversary and checking out
 the shops here at the Town Basin when they came across the
Whangarei Community Tapestry Project at The Bach.

Franks has to have a go at anything that his wife
is interested in (which is great!) and hops on Carlene's
sewing machine every now and again, just for fun!

It's lovely to see couples and families
work on the tapestry together!

Pam Paterson, from Albany, Auckland thought the tapestry was lovely.
She was up in Whangarei visiting friends for the weekend 
and had a bit 
of spare time while waiting for them to arrive for coffee at Mokabas. 

Elise (seated) with her grandparents Patti and Harry Hatters.
Elise and her brother Troy (from Auckland) were photographed
working on the tapestry in early January. Her grandparents,
who live in the USA were happy to see their photos on the blog.
They have come to visit the family in Auckland and were very
 interested in seeing the tapestry on their day trip to the North.
How awesome is that?!

Periodically, the tapestry needs to be "wound on" as it gets
to high for the hosts and community to comfortably work on. 
In the past historically, men climbed ladders in order to reach 
the highest parts of the tapestry but as we have a loom with
rollers to support the work as we progress we need strong arms 
to move the cog wheel and we usually call on the Loom-maker,
Brian Ferguson to help. Russell, Naoko's husband (on left)
gives a hand to help roll down to tapestry. We have been known to
 ask (nicely) unsuspecting men (who are looking at the tapestry) to 
give us a hand and they are more than happy to flex those muscles!
Brian Ferguson, checks out the
 loom after "winding it on" 

The next cartoon has been hung behind the warps!
Those feet belong to Beverley Compter, by the way.

The letter E has been started..if you look closely you
can see the outline of the girl in the painting.

Another section of the tapestry with the new cartoon section .
These lines get transferred onto the warps with a black marker.