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!

***

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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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.