This is the last post about our exhibition. Showing general photos of the exhibition.
Another very talented member of our COOTS group is Amanda Hasselman. Amanda’s background started with various handcrafts and specifically wool felting, she has now moved to fabric and thread as a means to ‘paint’.
At the time leading up to our exhibition there was fierce debate going on regarding a proposed tunnel to be constructed between Glenorchy (where Amanda lives) and Milford. These three pieces were in response to that. Here is her blurb from the catalogue:
Our iconic World Heritage status at the Head of the Lake is being challenged by a proposal to construct a tunnel between the Routeburn and the Hollyford valleys. Our National Parks are too precious to vandalise; these works are inspired by early tourism posters, which promote a slower pace of travel, with time to smell the beech trees. Recycled blankets have been appliquéd with hand dyed silk and silk velvet and densely stitched.
The following photographs are of the exhibition pieces of another COOTS member, Jenny Tayler, as you can see Jenny loves colour and is not afraid to use it. Jenny’s fibre background is in quilting, although she is a great embroiderer, baker, farmer etc.
I’m sorry about the lighting in the photographs, the gallery lighting does not make it conducive to taking great photos
This “UPSTREAM OF THE HERD” exhibition showcases how each of the members has developed their chosen media by producing this outstanding exhibition of fibre related art.
As mentioned above, we have a challenge for each exhibition and this one was called Woodpile. One member gave everyone a photograph and we were to interpret it in our own way.
This was the photograph, and here is the blurb in the catalogue about this challenge.
The challenge was to use the photograph as a starting point and create a work of art that interpreted the woodpile as we each saw fit with no limits on colour, shape, size or kind of material that could be included.
Here are some of the pieces members created to answer the challenge.
Here is a link to COOTS member Angela Meecham’s blog regarding our opening and more photos.
I may have mentioned previously that I am a member of a group called COOTS (Central Otago Outside The Square), not old coots as my children have called it!! We have 12 members from around the Central Otago district and we get together 4-5 times a year. We have two 3-4 day retreats one in May and one in Sept/Oct each year, the other times we get together are at Christmas and then in February and sometimes during August. One of our retreats is to work on our own projects and one is to have a tutor and educate ourselves further. We have an exhibition every two years around March. The following few posts will be of our last Exhibition in March 2013.
These four pieces are part of a series of mine called ‘I am from…’ based on a poem of the same name written about where I grew up and incorporates family traits, sayings and traditions.
I am from … II
I am from … III
I am from …. IV
to post more on my blog. I cannot believe its been 18 months since I last posted. I’ll do a few textile related posts over the next few days to bring it up to speed.
This is Lake Manapouri on an early morning in March
We have had two lovely relaxing days in the Mazagan Beach Resort, on Tuesday we decided to get the courtesy coach to the nearby city of El Jadida – hmm that was an education, the courtesy coach dropped us outside the old Portugese city so we had a look around there it was very old, and marked as a world heritage site, but sadly it did not appear that there was any restoration work happening, there were people living all through it and they have no concept of putting rubbish in bins (in fact the whole El Jadida city, that we saw, was like this).
We then spent the next half an hour or so looking for a toilet – the lack of public toilets in both Spain and Morocco is pitiful, but (in spite of the fact I don’t agree with having Macdonalds, KFC, Starbucks in these places, they are great for toilets :D), but none of these chains have made it to El Jadida, yet.
The smell of this city is dreadful, it is a fishing port so think hot, smelly, rotting fish, fruit, etc. We had four hours to kill before the shuttle came back to get us, we wandered around, and found a cafe selling fresh fruit juice, so decided to sit for a while, we ordered orange juice. Whilst we were sitting there with our juice, I watched them make another juice for someone else – the poured a big glass of tap water in with the juice!!! OMG I had already had a couple of mouthfuls of mine, thinking that their oranges didn’t taste as good as the southern hemisphere ones, so I didn’t have anymore. Thankfully the shuttle was on time and we headed back to the resort and laxed on the beach and by the pool 🙂
Hmmmm don’t think their water is too good, I haven’t ventured too far in the last 24 hours but feeling a bit better today. Just about to head to the airport in Casablanca and start the long haul home.
The trip has been fabulous, we have learnt a lot and have thoroughly enjoyed the contrast between the two countries.
cya at home x
Yesterday we spent the morning at the Riad’s pool and garden – a courtesy coach takes you to their garden and large pool 15 mins away from the Riad itself, weird, but really nice, you can spend the whole day there, they serve you drinks and lunch. But we headed back because I had booked to take a cooking class, they have a cooking school at the Riad, it was really good and we had Morrocan Salad and chicken Tagine that I had prepared for dinner that night.
Today it was time to say good-bye to Marrakech the people were lovely, very talented, most of the ones we came across could speak at least three languages: Arabic, French and English. The photo above is of the square next to the Souk where they have buskers and food stalls every night and a million people. We never felt unsafe, they don’t drink alcohol so there were no drunk people around, just happy sociable crowds. Below is our lovely Riad, it was exceptional both in style and the staff were absolutely superb, we couldn’t have asked for better.
The drive to El Jadida (near Casablanca) was interesting, to say the least, our driver (after stopping to get money from his boss for fuel, stopping to get fuel, stopping at some hick town to get coffee) took the back roads we are sure, they were really narrow and it was nerve wracking at times, but he seemed a nice chap and pointed out interesting things along the way. We had to make a pit stop and he tried to stop at a nice toilet (ummmm er, it was ok) Luckily we weren’t travelling this way 🙂
The temperature here is a lot cooler around 27 degrees so we spent the afternoon on the lovely beach and worked on our tans 🙂 before adjourning to the pool for cocktails before dinner, lol. (the pool is really warm, like a bath)
Today, we went for a trip to the Atlas Mountains and amongst the Berber tribes (the people that make carpets). There are four different varieties of Berber, according to where they live.
We then headed up the mountains and visited an Argan Oil co-operative, this is a government initiative and it employs Berber women who are divorced and have no other form of income. This was in a ski town here are pics of the resort and its café’s!!!
Because it was Saturday here, the children finish school at 12 noon and when they see a tourist vehicle (we were in a Toyota landcruiser) they come running for lollies. We were told this the day before so we were prepared. We also brought along pens, crayons, paper etc to give to the schools, but we got to the village school too late today so our guide will give it to them on the next trip.
It was forecast to be 41 degrees in Marrakech today, so a good day to head to the Mountains where it was cooler and a nice 28-32 degrees.