March/April 2019

Wow, not much left to do!

 Thanks Naoko for all your hard work!

January/February 2019 update

January has come and gone in the blink of an eye! We had a lovely family visit The Bach on the 4th February. Bernedette Lim and Brian Gwyn have been living in Whangarei for the past 30 years. She had her daughter, sister and niece come visit her from Malaysia and was showing them around the city when they came upon our tapestry project. They were invited to try some weaving and positively responsed with "yes, please - we'd love to!"

 

 Audrey Siraya from Malacca, Malaysia had a lot of fun weaving and was very happy to have seen our tapestry with her family.

 Her daughter, Ashreina (18 years old) loved her new experience of weaving.

 Sister Mariana from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia thought the tapestry was very beautiful. Bernedette and Brian said it a very nice, an excellent project!

Here are a couple of close-up photos of where we are at.

Above: Naoko working on the tapestry.

The sun and clouds have been woven and we are almost at the top of the sky. 

The whetu or carved face has been completed and there is now only a small amount of the tukutuku (kaokao) panel to weave above it.

Thanks for stopping by to check on The Bach Tapestry project. Watch this "space" for what is coming next!

Happy New Year!

With the busyness of the festive season, 2018 drawing to a close and a New Year upon us I thought it was time to update our tapestry project blog with some photos.

As you can see, we are "up in the clouds" now - not much to go!

Here is a closer look...

Remember, if you are in the Whangarei area visiting or you live here - you are very welcome to come and do some weaving too. You will find the tapestry at The Bach Gallery at the Town Basin, Dent Street, Whangarei. Naoko or myself (Julia) are very happy to assist! 

Aug/Sept/Oct 2018

The Bach tapestry project slowly grew over the winter months and I thought I would share some detailed photos of the weaving for a change. 

Master Weaver, Naoko decided to use the "pick and pick" technique for the pa fences. 

 With Pick and Pick you weave one weft in one direction in one color and then another weft in that same direction in another color to make a line instead of weaving in one direction and then back in the other direction. After weaving the first two wefts from left to right, weave two more from right to left (first black and then beige). Then weave two more (again, black and then beige) back from left to right. You can see that when I do that you start to see clearly the results of Pick and Pick. Half the warp threads are covered in black and half are covered in beige.When you first start out weaving these rows, they don’t look like much, but as you keep going you can see that the vertical strips start to become apparent.

Should you be a newbie or budding weaver and interested in knowing how to do this technique these websites HERE and HERE explain it really well.

Textural weaving techniques create a "3D aspect" and thus, an added interest to a tapestry. 

We have achieved this by weaving with more than a single yarn and weaving the thicker weft over several warps instead.  

The centre of the manaia has been woven using a number of different coloured wools with the addition of silver thread to imitate the shine a paua shell has. The outer ring of the "shell" was made by wrapping yarn around a piece of thick rope and passing the wound wool through the warps to secure it.

The Whetu is woven in the same way as the manaia using several strands of different coloured wool over 2-3 warps threads. 

The tongue has been woven by passing two threads over 3 warps giving a much thicker texture.

Margaret Strong, current President of Northland Creative Fibre enjoyed doing some weaving on the tukutuku panel in mid-September.

 Marion Maplesden from Whangarei found weaving very absorbing.

  She is looking forward to coming back when she has time.

Aronanui Harris, from Hokianga/Kaikohe really enjoyed doing some weaving as well.

Aronanui has just completed her Visual Arts Degree at TWOA  (Te Wānanga o Aotearoa) in Kaikohe. She said Fibre Arts were her inspiration.

 The pa is finished...

 ..and we have completed Mt. Parihaka, too!

Thanks for stopping by to check on our tapestry progress!

June/July 2018 update

It has been a while since the last update and I am sure you are all interested to know how our tapestry is going. It is winter time here in New Zealand and trade has been quiet in The Bach gallery. We are still receiving lots of positive feedback from people who stop by to watch the weaving in progress.

 Over the month of June, the maori pa site known as Parihaka continued to take shape. Here is a little bit of history about Parihaka...

Parihaka was sculpted by early Maori inhabitants into a pa, or great fortress, and was reputedly the largest in all New Zealand. More than 100 household terraces and 322 storage pits have been recorded. Battles were fought at Parihaka and after the people of the pa were overwhelmed by attacking forces in the battle of Oparakau in 1827, a large section of the mountain was declared tapu (sacred). Parihaka takes its name from the haka, or war dance, of defiance performed from the steep slopes and cliffs, or pari, of the pa. 

The Hokianga and Dobbie Tracks have extensive remnants of Maori settlement extending along 3km of ridge and including three heavily defended pa sites. The summit is home to the World War II War Memorial to those New Zealand men and women who died in World War II. The obelisk, unveiled in 1957, that glows red in the night sky is a local landmark. A special carved kohatu (rock) at the lookout summit represents the mauri (life essence) of the mountain, inspiring a sense of gravity and significance to the lookout. Source: http://whangareinz.com

Lovely Lily, from Ruatangata Whangarei (11 years old) loved her weaving experience. 

Lily said she enjoys doing crafts at school and at home and hopes to be able to come back often to work on the tapestry.

Here is a quick over-view of where we are at: The tapestry has been hand-wound down so only the area being worked on is visible. 

Thank you for stopping by and checking our progress on The Bach tapestry!

April/May 2018 update

This is where we were at in March...

We still have visitors from near and far and a few that are brave enough to try a little weaving.

Robyn Wallace, a local from Whangarei stopped in to do some weaving.

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Christina Goss, from Sydney NSW Australia enjoyed doing a few rows with Naoko.

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 Sarah Ganzer from Germany enjoyed having a go at weaving.
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 Susan Bacehus from Manchester, England was really grateful to have the opportunity to work on the tapestry and said it was a great community project.
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So we are now over a third of the way done.

Thanks for stopping by and checking in our progress!