Panel No.2 - Colonial Settlement

The second tapestry of our TOWN BASIN – our history series reflects the early times based on history research and documented by Whangarei District Council, Mim Ringer (local Historian) Northland Regional Council, Te Papa Wellington, Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand, Tamoko Studio and Maori arts, New Zealand.

The artwork reflects the Colonial settlement of the 1880’s and incorporates a blending of the two cultures, Maori and European based on the images and history gathered by Project Manager, Julia and as with the Pre-European panel fellow member/artist of The Bach, Heather Carthew created the visual concept for the weavers to follow.

 The painting encapsulates symbolic aspects of both cultures and embraces the central panel - a visual impression of colonization at the Town Basin in the late 1800's.

We are working the next panel on the same set of warps as the first one and commenced weaving the hem in July.

 Marking the Kaokao pattern in preparation of starting the boarder.

We also have a new community project idea!  Our complimentary panels on either side of the central panel, called Harmony Tapestries have been set up to encourage novices who would like to try weaving but do not feel confident working on our Town Basin series. 

 If you live in Whangarei or you are visiting call in to The Bach Artisan's Gallery and have a go at weaving!

The new tapestry projects have revived interest in weaving.

Arohuni Harris from the mid-north enjoyed participating in some weaving.

AUGUST 2019 

Joanna Sanderson from Silverdale, Auckland enjoyed learning to weave.

 She thought the weaving was a great community project. 

Lena Nicholas (13) from Worthing, England said weaving was really fun and she very much enjoyed it. 

Lena was excited to be able to learn a new skill

Little hands working on the children's looms.

Naoko our chief weaver was on hand to help when needed.

SEPTEMBER 2019

 Carla Millard from Kumeu, Auckland said it was good to see the tapestry weaving is continuing. She contributed to the Whangarei - Love it here tapestry while it was being woven.

As a tapestry weaver herself she thought it was "wonderful to have this community project for everyone to see and participate in!"

OCTOBER 2019

Bella Tissink (12),from Whangarei had fun doing weaving.

Bella's brother Xander (9) was content to just watch.

Tara and her daughter Abbey from Palmerston North were both keen to try weaving.

 Abbey and her sister, Emily are both home-schooled.

 Showing Emily how to make weft hills.

 Weft hills are a loose woven row that you pack down one part at a time, forming hills that get smaller and smaller until all the weft is pushed down against the previous row. This allows you to keep a good tension that doesn’t pull on the end warp threads.

More to follow....

...and it is FINISHED!

The last stitched was completed on Good Friday, 19th April 2019.

An extraordinary piece of work!

 Watch this space for panel number two...

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!