Soon after the Art n Tartan Wearable Arts was over we received notification by email of an upcoming static exhibition to be held in November. This will provide opportunity for the public to see our gowns up close and to ask questions etc about how we made them. We were also asked where possible to provide our own mannequins.
So, I jumped on Trade Me to see if I could buy one (and also discovered how costly they are!) A few days later I had another look and low and behold, someone up north was selling one for $1. One person had already bidded on it so I put a bid in for $1.50 and went off to work not thinking I'd be successful. I was nicely surprised to learn upon my return home that I'd won the bidding!
Meet "Doris" ..prior to belonging to a seamstress/
embroiderer Doris had a career in the fashion
industry modeling pre-loved clothing
She's been through some trauma in her working
life, losing her hands in the process
and one of her legs spins around
but I can live with that for $1.50!
So my friend and I headed off on a road trip to go pick up "Doris" with the intentions of stopping in at the Hundertwasser toilets in Kawakawa along the way - make it a crafty days outing.
We found a park right across the road from the toilets
and was greeted by this sculpture. How awesome is this!
The "The Grass Hut" Gift Shop had prints of his paintings
among other items. I asked if I could take a few photos but
was told, no though I see they're on their website anyway
"Singing Bird On A Tree In The City"
is one of my favourites of Hundertwasser.
the World-Famous Hundertwasser Toilets!
I fell in love walking inside!! I love the curved floor
edges, the tiling and bottle-feature wall!
.and LOOK, there's "my koru!"
(upside-down)
I'm so keen to replicate this
as a ceramic piece *swoon*
Be still my beating heart...
My friend, Robyn was in awe too!
I love his bottle-wall feature and would love to
have a go at doing something like that as well.
Not that I drink..so would have to source
the bottles from elsewhere
A new feature - called Amaze Space.
It's still under construction but you could see this area so far.
A very cool park bench!
I love the detail and more and more enthusiastic
about mosaic work. I do have the nippers but
would like to try making ceramic pieces
(a bit like a puzzle I guess)and set them
in concrete as a large tile
Walking back to the car...There's an amazing mural
on the side of The Grass Hut wall. It was a project
completed by the pupils of Karetu School in 2011.
I was fascinated by the "eyes"
Some time ago I worked on a collage piece using my
cat's eye as part of the collage (will go find the link)
This has inspired me to make a ceramic piece based on my
cat's eye - I found this interesting article about eye colour
and what the scientists have learned about it.
...and finally, we were just leaving and I spotted this
in the window.What a fun way of making
letters/words - something I started at pottery.
One of the textured numbers I made which was recently fired.
We continued on driving up to Kaeo to collect the mannequin and then on to Manganui for a late lunch and to check out the art/craft scene. We had lunch at a quaint little cafe called "Little Kitchen" and checked out the Art Gallery housed in the old Courthouse.
It's run a bit like The Bach Art Gallery in that it's run
by the artists on a voluntary roster basis.
The "Little Kitchen" used to be the old Post Office.
Coming here to Manganui brought back childhood memories
for me. We used to travel up from Wellington by car in the
Christmas School Holidays to camp at Coopers Beach.
I remember on one occasion coming here to do fishing off
the wharf. I was probably about 7 or 8 at the time.
I've always love the long-limbed pohutukawa
trees as a result of those family excursions.
Experiences are not just what happen to us,
they are the raw material we use in shaping
our identity, our self
[source: https://www.psychologytoday.com]
Time: 7 hours
