Whales and textiles

One of the surprising finds was the Whaling Museum in Maui. Nestled  amongst the high-rise resorts was this excellent Museum. Small but jam-packed with information and artifacts including the wonderful display of needlework implements.

 I love the needlework  box, but the knitting needles, tatting shuttles, pincushions and more are just beautiful.

Made of baleen, which is capable  of being bent and made up corsets and such it’s a sad indication of how important the whaling trade was in many facets of society and industry. It’s such a optimistic view of humanity that we have turned around, acknowledged the past and made positive steps forward, as whale numbers increase and there are wonderful sanctuaries for these big creatures.

Quilting in Hawaii

 
Quilting has developed in Hawaii in a way that is particularly Hawaiian. Introduced in the 1820’s by missionaries, the women adapted this new craft to reflect the symbols of their past. I saw the relationship of the designs with those that were tattooed on many people in Hawaii, but they apparently hark back to tapa cloth, and the quilts use only a couple of colours and it is the motifs that form the impact.

I managed to pick up a book, ‘The Hawaiian Quilt: the Tradition Continues’ in Hanapepe, a lovely town on the island of Kauai in ‘ Talk Story’ the ‘western-most bookstore in  the United States’.www.talkstorybookstore.com Who could argue with that! Imagine reading in Hawaii, sheer luxury! Lazy days, warm weather, long sunny days, too hot to do anything else.

Of course I couldn’t pick up a quilt, like quilts all over the world, they’re made for love not money!

Amongst the treasures I picked up in Hawaii, is a little book on basketweaving. I didn’t find much evidence of traditional work, there must have been some. However, our friends from the US introduced us to the most amazing Hawaiian basket weaver, Mika McCann. She is of renown and we were lucky enough to meet her at the market under the Banyan tree in Lahaina. She’s self taught and creative and quirky and I should have bought one of her baskets.

A few regrets at the end of the trip. Not buying a Mika McCann basket, snorkelling at Mohaina reef and doing a proper canyon walk in Waimea canyon, and, should have had our own snorkelling gear, which would have taken care of a few other moments missed!

Textiles in Hawaii

Hawaii is fascinating as culturally it perches somewhere between Hawaiian/Polynesian culture and the United States of America. There are, of course, all sorts of influences, from the British to the Japanese with South America and the various Polynesian cultures, including, Tahitian, Samoan and New Zealand Maori, also playing a part. Part of my interest in Hawaii was to search out the original Hawaiian culture that preceded Captain Cook landing in 1778, not that long after landing in Australia.

I was also interested as I have been reading that intrepid adventurer, Isabella L. Bird, who travelled for six months in 1875. Her book ‘The Hawaiian Archipelago’ (available online from the Gutenberg Project),is an account of ‘Six months among the Palm Groves, coral reefs, and the volcanoes of the Sandwich Islands’ and describes her time in a series of letters home to her sister in England. They are evocative and descriptive of the land, its people and while firmly grounded in the late 1870’s intrigued me.

On the whole Hawaii is pretty much a state of the USA, however, as we ventured to Hilo on the big island and to island of Kauai, you could get a sense of that older culture. There is a revival in pride of that heritage, and you could hear Hawaiian spoken, and a more in-depth interest in those crafts that are particularly Hawaiian, such as the making of leis, wood carving and tattooing.

Of course, my particular interest was in the textiles of Hawaii and I knew that it would be difficult to find.

Can I say, there’s not a lot of textiles of Hawaiian origin to be found. Even modern clothing is, at best, made in the US and lots is made is asia and south America. There is some and I managed to find a store that had Hawaiian made traditional dresses. Quilting plays a part and Hawaii has its own particular style.

I also managed to find some hand-dyed yarn by Hanalei Strings, again in Kauai, in the lovely town of Hanalei and included some buttons made of seeds. This, hopefully, will be transformed into a pair of mittens in a new design that might eventually be intended for TSB textile.

Holiday inspiration

We were priviliged to encounter some amazing wildlife in Hawaii, the most amazing, green turtles, blue nose and spinner dolphins, all sorts of coral reef fish, have to reside in our memories alone, no photos were taken. There were, however, these wonderful cardinals, gorgeous and cheeky birds that were everywhere we went.

I discovered these were the northern cardinal and the other, equally cheeky birds we saw were Brazilian cardinals. Both are introduced to Hawaii, but they brightened up our days. I managed to find a couple of pictures of both birds on the net.

As nests are still a source of inspiration, I went looking for these birds nests and found reasonably traditiional looking nests. Full of all sorts of chunky materials and beautiful blue eggs.

 I've been trying to figure out another wall hanging and have wanted to use this yarn that I picked up a little while ago at the Handweavers and Spinners Guild textile bazaar. The red is amazing and now I have something red to work from. I think this is going to be suitable to weave in as short lengths with fuzzy ends.

I've done a bit of a yarn wrap to try and get an idea for the warp, and, I think this is just about right. Random warping with one side with a bit more red than the other with a strong bit of black.

These are the other colours I've used.

Tomorrow, I'll make a short 2m warp and do some sampling.