Back to Working on the Project - the Maori Calender

I am continuing in a woven theme using foraged botanicals for my work. The project is to parallel Celtic and Maori cultures and one of the pairs of panels focuses on parts of the year that have importance - like the winter solstice (Matariki/Yule. I have already partially completed the Celtic calendar wheel and after I started this weaving I thought it might be a bit different to utilise this for the Maori on.

At the moment it looks a bit like and American Indian emblem but by the time I get it partitioned in to the parts of the year with a Maori symbol in the centre and documentation around the outside I am sure it will come together. I will use pseudo leather to section the parts of the year and am still contemplating on the emblem for the centre.

The weaving has been done with a mixture of raffia, convolvulus roots and convolvulus stalks and white cotton. The feathers I have added around the outside are the same feathers I have used to make th emini korowai for the weaving panel.

I continue to be immersed in the process of replicating what it must have been like for foregoing artists/weavers, experimenting and learning to utilise the materials at hand to create mainly utilitarian pieces where I have the luxury of taking these more into the artistic realm.

Submission for Online Exhibition

This week I have been busy trying to work out how to best display my work for the online exhibition. I think I am fairly happy with this display

The back left piece is made from pine needles, the back right from rushes and the one in the from from convolvulus stems. They are all quite different to work work but it has been such and interesting and exhilarating experience creating with these simple botanical materials. I feel a certain connection both to the natural world and to the women artists who came before creating utility items and learning about the materials they had to hand and then progressing from simple shapes to works of art.

For some time now I have been wanting to move into three dimensional work so this has been a good taste of that. Fibre Arts Take Two programme with Harriet Goodall was the basis for creating these vessels. I have really enjoyed the challenge of the course and the aha moment that simple materials can be utilised in the creation of these woven specimens.