Soaps, salves and paper-making plus Markets, stalls and exhibitions

Harvesting/Processing Plant Materials for soap

 I forgot I had a box of home-grown harvested bay leaves drying in the boot of my car.

I put half them through the processor (the rest I'll keep whole)

I completed filled an ice cream container so that'll make up many batches of Gardner's Soap - Bay and (ground) Pumice. I've still got a boxful of manuka trimming to process but it's needs more drying to easily remove from the branches.

Paper-making

The beginning of June heralded in some beautiful fine weather - to good to be indoors!

The banana palms had grown like Topsy again so I cut them all back in preparation for a big "cook up" - I chopped up enough to fill my two stock pots and added the partially cooked pohutukawa leaves as well.

 

My new-to-me BBQ! I scored it for $15 from the SPCA Secondhand Store when I recently dropped off some unwanted items.

  It's bigger than my other two old BBQ's and comfortably allows both stock pots at the same time. 

When time permits I'll rinse the fibres out in the outdoor bath seen in the top photo.

 While the abaca and pohutukawa leaves where cooking I processed a preserving pan of precooked and rinsed harakeke fibres with my insinkerator.

I got real excited to see a kingfisher, was able to quickly retrieve my camera and just managed to take this photo before it flew away! 

The following day after pressing between two pieces of wood I hung them on the washing line in the sun to dry.

Then to finish them off so I could label more soap I found an ingenious way of completing the drying process...

 

...they fit perfectly between the fins of my oil heater!

 To flatten the batches of dried paper for I usually place them between the two pieces of wood again, weighting them with a concrete brick.Not very high tech but I'm learning to be resourceful and use what I've got. I've now got a really good stack of handmade paper again and was able to label soaps for The Bach, Putiputi Ra and for the upcoming TLC end-of-term Pop-Up shop and Exhibition. I'm also really interested in making book - so watch this space!

Balms (Salves)
So, I've been thinking about how I good divide up the kilo block of wax and it suddenly came to me to use a silicone cupcake mold that I'd picked up cheap.

If I remember correctly each block 

weighs approximately 50 grams. 

With some of my salves sold out and requests for 

more I spent a couple an afternoon making more.

I designed and printed the labels for the balms and used my xyron adhesive tool I bought second hand off trade Me for the labels These are destined for the "Matariki Market" and the TLC pop up shop.

Markets/Stalls

Labelling, pricing and packaging my soaps always takes way longer than I thought it would. I designed and printed out some information pamphlets for people who wanted to know a bit about my soap. I also designed a business card template to print out on my handmade paper. I found this much quicker to do with all I learned making info pamphlets so that was good!

The Matariki Whanau Market started at 10 am on Saturday
 17th June but stall holders were asked to be set up by 9 am.

These photos were taken before it started to get REALLY busy!
So busy I was almost having a panic attack - I've never seen
SO MANY people on the bridge at once!

It was a beautiful mild sunny winter's day
and this was my view from my stall.

I found the reflections in the water calming -
a tiny therapeutic window amidst the busy-ness!

Silly me didn't take a photo of my stall though.

Exhibitions

Periodically I learn of an exhibition on at the Geoff Wilson Gallery at NorthTec that interests me.  Abstraction - Latitude by Longitude caught my eye as it was an artist that used tapa cloth as a support for paint. This is how Filani Macassey's work is described...

"A specific connection with land is the theme of an exhibition of new work by Northland artist Filani Filina Macassey."

Filani has used materials sourced from the earth – paper mulberry fibre from Fiji, natural mud pigments from Northland and Fiji, charcoal, traditional dye and printing inks. The natural elements are sourced from regions with which she feels a connection to.

Fijian-born Filani is a graduate of Elam School of Fine Arts in Auckland, she has been involved in many community art initiatives and has exhibited in New Zealand, Fiji and Europe. Her work is inspired by the duality of having been born in Fiji and living most of her life from the age of six and a half in New Zealand. “I suppose it is a way of creating an individualistic identity” she says. Filani recently completed an internship at the Geoff Wilson Gallery, North Tec, and is the Coordinator of the newly opened OWL Community Hub in Wellsford. After having travelled to South America and Cuba, Filani moved to Kaiwaka during October 2015 and is currently setting up an artist studio.

[Source: http://www.northtec.ac.nz/events/2017/abstraction-latitude-by-longitude]        (Photos are mine)

I had the opportunity to speak with Filani and it was really good to hear about her creative journey. She briefly shared a little about her colouring processes on tapa cloth which was what inspired me to attend the opening of her exhibition. I would like to experiment more with painting/printing and dyeing on my handmade paper. Something else to work towards.

Creative Time with Ricky

My time with Ricky is always a challenge but a privilege. As Ricky has Asperger's he will often talk about certain things over and over so getting him to concentrate and focus is sometimes challenging. We have fun though and that's what is important!

His Mum asked me if I would help him sew a waistcoat after attending a wedding when she had hired one for him to wear. I've never made a waist coat before but trusting that I'll be able to assist Ricky to make one he will feel good about wearing. So far, the only clothing item we have made is pj pants.

I got him tracing the pattern in the size that would fit him.

Pinning and cutting - Autistic kids usually have sensory issues so skills like pinning and cutting help to develop co-ordination and dexterity.

Happy to have cut out the first piece of the pattern.

We often have a second project on-the-go. Ricky's Mum asked us to construct a wood-box for storing firewood. To make it as economically (and as resourcefully as possible) we are up-cycling a couple of wooden pellets. Deconstructing them was a mammoth task in itself! It took a lot of heave-ho to carefully unnail the planks so we could reuse them. Plus we ended up reusing the four-by-two's for the corner posts. My 18 year old son ended up sending us off inside to "have  refreshments" and finished the job off in no time flat.

Ricky measured and cut each plank to a 1 metre length. 

We discussed the importance of wearing protective gear when using power tools and over the coming weeks I noted an increase of confidence using them. We  used chairs as saw horses and the ground as our support. Maybe, I'll suggest we make saw horses next!

After making and drilling the holes I had Ricky hand screw in the screws. Again, to develop dexterity and build a bit of muscle.

Ta-da! First side done and dusted. Our wood-box is going to be very "rustic" and I'm not constructing it to a specific plan - more just following my creative heart and hoping it'll turn out ok!

The following Wednesday (14/06) we got the second side done.

 Working on the sides (Ricky's not actually drilling only pretending for the photo)

 Cam, my son snapped this photo of us which is really nice to have.

..and onto the last side, except we ran out of screws.

Note my ingenious method of propping up the crate! The one thing I've learned about myself is I am adaptable in my limitations and find ways to do things when the challenge arises.

Time teaching: 12 hours

Diploma (Honours) - Part-time Year 2

~Started Monday 29th May 2017~

TAPESTRY/WEAVING 

The Bach Community Project

With some of the changes at work (Briar not returning to work her pre-maternity leave hours) and office work being delegated to others I have been able to concentrate on the tapestry project for The Bach. Initially, I struggled emotionally with the change (believed I wasn't "good enough"/wanted for the "job" etc) but then I realised that focusing on being creative is what I actually want to do. I just have big tendencies to people-please (I probably still am) and want to do what makes others appreciate me (or hope they appreciate!) Anyway, that being said and done - I am concentrating on the tapestry project now and that is a challenge unto itself as I am feeling overwhelmed by what is being required of me.

I ordered the warping cotton through Glenora in Australia. It's Swedish cotton and supposed to be the strongest, imported by Glenora for weavers in the South Pacific. It was the only place I could find the cotton we needed for the tapestry with the warp set of 12/18 seine twine. Naoko and I calculated we would need 13 cones for the four tapestry panels each 2 metres wide and 90 cm high. This includes hems and the extra for winding the wraps onto the loom beams. As we will being weaving two panels consecutively I ordered 7 cones to ensure we had sufficient warping materials.

Above: Naoko's calculations (she had a very-Japanese way of doing maths that completely lost me!)

 Karen Taylor (above) is a Creative Fibre member and experienced weaver. We asked her to help us dress the loom. She obliged us by coming in with her warping mill and giving us both a free lesson on warp winding.

Naoko holding the cone of cotton so it unwound with ease.

We eventually found an easier way to wind on the warps using two chair to support the cone. Naoko and I took turns warp winding as we needed 642 lengths of cotton 5.5 metres in length grouped in lots of 8 (8 Epi). Each cone yielded between 11 and 13 setts of 8.

The warp chains reading for dressing.

I had envisaged doing all the warping and loom dressing myself but very grateful to have Karen do it and explain what she was doing.

The lease sticks are slipped through the warp legs either side of the cross. This is assist with warp
calculations and measuring.

Ties are used at 1 inch bouts (8 Epi)

One of our Bach Co-operative members and Creative Fibre member donated a cone of carpet wool for the hem.Thanks Laurel!

The warps were wound onto the beam, each rotation separated with a length of cardboard

 

Warps are then tied in their groups of 8 to the lower lease stick. 

Almost ready for weaving!

 I've also been working on planning the story board along and sorting out where is the best place to purchase the weft wool. 

It's proving to be a bit of a challenge.

The artist's impression uses brighter colours than the heritage range I had envisaged.

The resene colour chart and wool samples I'd ordered

 Glenda and I both agreed the Tekapo range was more suitable but then she had concerns about the
amount we'd have to order in each colour we'd need. She thinks it would be more economical to buy
in the Sullivan range which come in small 8 metre skeins but a greater range of colours.

I've also been working on the cartoon
 while its been quiet at work.

Time: Warp-winding 3 hours
Dressing the loom 6 hours
Selection wool for weaving/obtaining quotes and samples 3 hours
Drawing the cartoon 4 hours
Planning/designing/typing info- Storyboard 8 hours