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For all those in Christchurch, the place to be tomorrow night is Our City O-Tautahi for The Night Market! Organised by Board of Design’s very own Lucy, and featuring wares by talented local crafters, including Black Swan Designs (which is Mel’s double life), this will be an excellent opportunity to buy handmade for Christmas and support local artisans. We hope to see you there!
Well, what a marvellous time we had at the Oamaru Victorian Fete on the weekend! Lucy and myself adorned suitable attire and joined in the frivolities! Some highlights included the Oamaru Intergalactic Ukulele Orchestra performance (patronised by the Queen, as seen in the photo below), penny farthing stunts (or ordinary bicycles as they call them), gurning competitions (which is essentially pulling silly faces), the best moustache and pipe smoking competitions, and of course just getting to stroll about all day in our outfits! Delightful!
Board of Design is off to the Victorian Fete this weekend in Oamaru, under the guise of Felt and Black Swan Designs. The Fete is the grand finale of Oamaru’s 2009 Victorian Heritage Celebrations and runs from 10am till 4pm on Sunday 22 November. We had a lovely time picking out our dresses at Court Theatre Costume Hire, and can hardly wait to adorn them on Sunday and swan about the old historic district like proper ladies!
Lucy and I are looking forward to putting on our best frocks tomorrow and heading along to Frocks On Bikes in Victoria Square. Who said that biking was only for those clad in lycra and fluoro yellow? It’ll be a refreshing change to see a gathering of stylish commuter cyclists, very much in line with those found prevalently in European cities, and I dare say that the Board of Design company vehicles (as pictured below) will definitely look the part!
A small team of dedicated people, unafraid of the brisk conditions, turned up on Saturday night in Cathedral Square to install a light up version of the Slip crochet flowers for the Arts Festival Winter Garden. They were an instant hit with the festival artists and audience members, and by the sounds of it not many lasted through to the following morning! This wee gem of an idea was thanks to Bridget, and partner Julian (pictured looking particularly dapper in his evening attire below).
We’ve recently been involved in the Christchurch Arts Festival, co-ordinating Slip, a collaborative knit and crochet project sponsored by Felt for the Winter Garden in Cathedral Square. Over 50 crafty volunteers have been working together for weeks to produce hundreds of little crocheted flowers, leaves and french-knitted vines to adorn lamp posts around the Square, and provide a little injection of colour and life into the otherwise bleak winter cityscape.
The flowers are not only adorning the Square either – they’re attached to the vines with pins so that passersby can pick them to adorn themselves. Look out for crocheted flowers on coats, scarves and hats all over town!
The Arts Festival this year also features the addition of a giant snow dome ice skating rink, complete with a scrumptious She Chocolat hot chocolate stall (mmmm, chilli hot chocolate), and heaps of class acts lined up on the programme for the Telstra Clear Club.
Slip is growing in a Square near you (provided you live in Christchurch) until August 9th – head along and check it out!
A lovely time was had by all at the Ellerslie Flower Show Garden Party, schmoozing with the who’s who of Christchurch. With our four complimentary tickets it seemed only fair to take along Paul and Delia Arnold from the Antique Print Gallery, seeing as how it was their shop window that featured our display. Despite not having a particularly green thumb it was a delight to see all the gorgeous displays, and a treat to see the show before the general public. We’re looking forward to entering the competition again next year now, and have already started scheming together a few ideas…
Incidentally, this last shot of me bears a startling resemblance to the postcards Singapore Airlines used to give out on long haul flights of elegant smiling air hostesses posing in lovely tropical garden settings. Perhaps we should have taken a shot of me in the pod, pointing out the emergency exits?
I spent this past weekend in Hawke’s Bay attending the Volume Contemporary Craft/Object Symposium in Napier. Hosted by Hawke’s Bay Museum & Art Gallery, this was an exploration into the state of contemporary craft and the function, position and future of the crafted object in New Zealand.
The key note speaker was Justin Patton, director of Christchurch Art Gallery. In discussing his thoughts on the place of craft and its function, he made a key point which I felt was beautifully simple: that objects speak – to us, for us or about us. Instead of focussing on the obvious connection between maker and object, he spoke about the connection between object and the person experiencing it.
Quickfire presentations by Genevieve Packer, Anna Marie White, Renee Bevan, Paul Rayner, Esther Lamb, Caroline Billing, Matt Blomely and Karl Chitham yielded a wide variety of work by new and established New Zealand craft artists, among them Tim Main, who has a sculpture exhibition opening at Milford Galleries Auckland in November, and Karen Denis, whose vandalised vintage under the pseudonym Trixie Delicious is frequently featured in home magazines worldwide.
Tim Main, Rangiora II (2007) DETAIL
Trixie Delicious, Vandalised Vintage
I was also engaged by Douglas Lloyd Jenkins’ talk and the ensuing discussion on the declining quality of craft and design education. Essential skills and knowledge in these areas are falling victim to “credentialing” culture, as Polytechnics shift their focus away from practical training and toward providing qualifications. There was speculation on how early craft skills should be introduced into the curriculum and how we instill value for these skills in future generations.
All in all it was a stimulating conference and a welcome reminder of the passion that drives artists, designers and craftspeople to create.
