14 January 2011

New uses for bark cloth

It is time to make some more jewellery again. I felt tempted to use bark cloth. As part of the research for my studies, I had come across a German-Ugandan company that produces and sells bark cloth (http://www.barktex.com).

For a small cover charge I got interesting information about their bark harvesting and processing in Uganda. Remember that the Bible talks about Adam and Eve having to wear fig leaves to cover their nakedness when they were thrown out of paradise? Well, perhaps it wasn't the leaf, but processed bark instead...

The Ugandan Ficus is related to the Banyan that we use here on Atiu, but in Uganda the trees are farmed and carefully attended to. On Atiu, they mainly grow wild in our rain forest on the sharp fossilized coral rocks and are hard to access. That's probably one reason why our women do not make tapa anymore.


The late Mama Rangi Tutaka beating bark in 1988

Most importantly, of course, I received a large collection of beautiful samples of Barktex's different bark products. Since in the end I decided to use white Paper Mulberry bark cloth for my thesis exhibition, I never did anything with the beautiful samples. They are too tempting to just let them sit here and get eaten by silverfish.


The green bark sample was lovely and thick and gave me the idea to try a long necklace that winds around your neck like a creeper.


Of course it needed a pair of matching earrings to complement it.


I like wearing black, so I wanted a pair of  black earrings and played with the black tapa next.




Now I have a hard time to choose...

07 January 2011

The benefits of being flexible

Generally, my private workshops at the Atiu Fibre Arts Studio (http://www.atiu-fibrearts.com/workshops.php ) are booked well in advance. This is important, because I have a busy schedule and need to plan my time carefully. The beginning of the year is a hectic time for us filled with stocktaking and office work. It doesn’t hurt, though, to make exception and I’m glad I decided at a moment’s notice to slot in a two-day embroidery workshop with Di. The result were two days of fun with fabric and threads for student and teacher and a high-quality frame for the Studio’s new sign board. 

Di had requested to learn embroidery stitches. I suggested she prepare a sampler which she would then be able to use for future reference. That way she could make the most of this limited time.

I enjoyed her choice of happy colours and the ‘get up and go for it’ approach of cutting and arranging random shapes on her strip of background fabric. Her sampler reminded me of Matisse’s paper cuts. Matisse is one of my favourite artists. Di did not know his work.

Even though Di sews her own clothes, embroidery was a total novelty. The first day, I heard her start most sentences with “I don’t know”, expressing her insecurity in the new terrain. As her confidence grew, her expression of self-doubt changed to happy laughter and “who would have thought”.

The most used sentence in my previous workshop had been “I understand”. It made me reflect about the power of words and how recurring phrases can give clues about a person or a situation.
Chatting away while sewing, Di told the story of how she and her husband Peter had gotten lost when looking for the Studio. I can’t blame them: The signboards are weathered and old .

The one by the main road even points in the wrong direction after having been erected wrongly when the wind blew it down. I had had new sign boards made already. All I needed now was finding someone to build a proper frame for them to put them up.
“Peter can do that”, Di said.  Like my quick decision to accept Di’s request for a workshop I did not hesitate to accept this unique offer. Arrangements were made to borrow some wood-working equipment. Peter had a look at the signboards, told us what he needed and brought along a young German tourist to help him and our friend Nooroa.

For one busy morning the three worked well as a team to finish two fantastic frames. They will soon insure that the visitors do not get lost anymore when they want to visit my Studio.

We concluded the two busy days with an enjoyable time around a big pot of spaghetti. My wall hanging will remind Di and Peter of their visit to Atiu.  I will remember how good it can be to be flexible every time I pass the signboards once they’ve been erected – I will have to paint the frame first...

02 January 2011

A New Year

We’re at the start of another decade. I wish all of you that it will be a wonderful one, filled with good health, confidence, loyal friends, lots of creativity, success and prosperity. In short: May it be all you ever wanted! 



As we sometimes do, on New Year’s Eve I looked back on the year that was leaving us. 2010 began with my packing up the lace panels that I had been making for Third Space, my final MA exhibition at the Mission House on Rarotonga. As I was sewing them, I had hung each new element in the passage way across our house for a trial. Once they were taken down, the house had looked so empty. I had felt somewhat nostalgic. Sewing these long lace hangings had been a constant discovery for me over the preceding months. The emptiness added to the fear of the other empty space that I was soon going to have to fill.

Would I even have enough pieces to fill that space? Were the elements long enough? Would I be able to find the right balance to create a successful spatial composition? Would the lighting be adequate? How would the examiners receive the work? What would the visitors think? All these questions accompanied the beginning of a new year that would become the most amazing year of my life.


Now I live the beginning of another year. It amazes me that it starts again with packing up tapa and lace panels that I have been making for an installation. The same questions cross my mind. However this time I am more confident and even more excited. The Third Space has developed a life of its own. Third Space II at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney will be accompanied by sound. My Hawaiian friend Rudy who lives on Rarotonga has composed amazing tunes on my request. I am very excited about this prospect. Again, I have no idea what the finished installation will look like, whether I will be able to fill the allocated space. This time, I don’t even know what the room will look like. I have all these plans of what to do with these individual elements and can’t wait for the next 6 months to pass quickly. Only in early July can I travel to Sydney and start creating this space that at the moment only exists as a vague idea inside my head.


In a week’s time, the cardboard box with the rolled up panels will go on its journey. Australian Quarantine will have to find its contents suitable for entry into the country, the last hurdle yet to take. It amazes me that these few small rolls have been my focus for almost an entire year. 

And yet, I still have so many ideas for the future around this project that it only feels like another stage in the life of an unknown organism; an organism that I am exploring through the making of its elements; through its exposure in different environments, to different viewers; and through the people I meet and the knowledge I gather as a result. Let Stage II begin!