Paddling our way into the “Deeply Felt” birthing pool
Sitting here, collapsed in an exhausted heap in front of my computer I find myself wondering if organising a group exhibition is a bit like giving birth? All the weeks of late nights, stress and anxiety are quickly forgotten the day the exhibition opens and 6 months later you’re thinking… “Shall we have another one?”
The Auckland Felters 2026 exhibition is now in the final stages of labour, and this time we have a midwife (curator) helping us with the delivery. Working with a curator (Matthew) and his installation team has been a new experience for me. In some ways it’s a relief, not worrying about which pieces look good together or figuring out how to hang some of the less conventional creations but the flip side is that we have little control over which pieces get selected and how they are presented. For a control freak, this is very unnerving! 🙂
A new piece for the exhibition
I have been working on a new piece for the exhibition and inviting the readers of my monthly emails to guess what it might be. There were some interesting responses but none were correct. Can you do any better? This is the first image I shared:
Thank you so much for all the poppies!
We have been blown away by the wonderful response to our call for help with making felted poppies. Clare Hocking had the wonderful idea of creating an ANZAC day commemorative installation to fundraise for the Returned Soldiers Association in New Zealand. We all thought her idea was especially touching given that our exhibition open day will be on 25th April (ANZAC Day). The response from felt-makers all around the world and the lovely stories and letters that accompanied many of the poppies has been heart-warming. Sarah and Clare have been hard at work, assembling the 285 poppies into an installation with some felted “barbed wire” made by Jaq Spirrett.
What did you guess my exhibition piece might be?
This is the second photo from my newsletters, it’s not too late to change your guess… 😉
Unexpected Benefits from the Poppy Appeal
One of the groups who sent a batch of poppies was Les Hookeuses du Bor’de’lo, from Canada and one of their members, Janice Goguen, reached out to say she was planning to visit Auckland and could we recommend any fibre-related events / activities?
She was in luck (and as it turned out so were we 🙂 )! Auckland Fun Felters were meeting the weekend she would be visiting our fair city and she was warmly welcomed to spend the day with us. We had a wonderful time hosting Janice and she very generously shared her knowledge of Canadian rug hooking. A few of us are already germinating ideas of how to combine rug-hooking with felting… 🙂
The Big Reveal
I confess this piece still isn’t quite finished and I need to get a move on because we start hanging the exhibition a week on Tuesday but this is the last photo in the series….
I hope you can tell what it is now? 🙂 Were your earlier guesses correct?
This piece was made from LOTS of felt ropes and strips of commercial felt that I dyed in several batches because they wouldn’t all fit in my 30L tea urn. This was my first attempt to work in this way and I really was making it up as I went along, trying to create the form of the fish over the more structured woven background. This is definitely one of those pieces that I am enjoying more now that it is finished! 🙂
My next post will be about the exhibition and contain more information about the “In Remembrance” installation, stay tuned!
10 thoughts on “Paddling our way into the “Deeply Felt” birthing pool”
Mr Fish is gorgeous – very clever design and execution!
The felted barbed wire is so realistic – and will look great with those lovely poppies.
Lucky Janice to have been able to join you all in a ‘making’. We smiled at ‘A few of us are already germinating ideas of how to combine rug-hooking with felting…’ because we’re always thinking same when we see other fibre making crafts 🙂
Yes, it’s a lot of work indeed and we hope we can see some photos of the exhibition ‘post partum’ in your next post.
Shhhh.. All these flattering comments are going to Mr Fish’s head, if it gets any bigger we won’t be able to get him through the door! 🙂
Jaq is the creative brain behind the barbed wire and one of the magpies germinating new idea from an ecclectic array of crafts and materials…. I’m as interested to see what she produces as where rug hooking might take my practice.
“post partum” I think you have just found the title of my next post! 🙂
All the poppies are lovely and the displaying of them seems a daunting task… and the barbed wire, YIKES! I can’t wait to see the exhibit in your next post!
I love your very colorful, creative fish.
Thank you Donna, I think we are all feeling the weight of responsibility with the poppy installation, not just a responsibility for the many, many hours everyone has put into creating them but also the gravitas of what they symbolise and the poignant stories that accompanies so many of the parcels.
Love your fish! The ribbon tail is so creative. I am sure the exhibit will be a smashing success. And the poppy display will be a terrific addition. Well done!
Thank you, if the photos I’ve received of the other exhibits are anything to go buy, this is going to be a stonking exhibition, I can’t wait to see it hung.
It’s funny you mention the tail, looking at the photo in the blog post I’m thinking a few of the ribbons need trimming. It’s funny how sometimes we need the distance of looking at a photo to see the problem areas 🙂
Love the fish Teri, although I can’t say that I guessed what it was from the beginnings. What did you use as the base? It looks like some kind of metal grid. The gallery where I show my work in Missoula is having an exhibition called “Wild, Woven and Felted” and your piece would fit right in. I might steal your idea for a woven piece if I have time.
I’m glad that you got loads of poppies and the felt barb wire is so realistic. I look forward to hearing more about it in your next post.
We worked with a “curator” for our final class exhibition and it is definitely a different experience than hanging the exhibition yourself. So I understand the feeling of “loss of control”. But the exhibition turned out great. I will post about it soon.
Thanks Ruth, Mr Fish was woven through a metal frame I found in the gardening section of my local hardware store. I suspect it is meant to be used as a trellis or screen.
I’d love to see where you will take the “random weaving” technique, I naively thought it would be a very quick and easy technique – Mr Fish took about 8 weeks to make! It starts off quite quickly but as the holes in the grid fill with fibre, it gets more and more difficult to push the ropes through the small gaps.
Wild, Woven and Felted sounds awesome, are you allowed to share some photos?
Colourful Mr Fish looks like he is weighing things up. I certainly didn’t guess a fish although I got the head right. I thought the first picture was a head, human, and the triangle represented moving forward/forward thinking 🤪 A fish was a total surprise!
Well done to your team for all their efforts re the ANZAC day display, I’m sure they feel the weight of responsibility.
I look forward to seeing photos of your exhibition in due course when you will have totally forgotten the pain and be delighting in the birth and all the adulation that that brings….and well deserved too.
Ok, we got it SOOOOO wrong. Although Teri I will admit that my youngest, Cian was onto something when he rotated the first photo and could see jagged mountain ranges with a hint off a green valley. Who says art is not in the eye of the beholder! Love the fish! What an interesting new direction, the result is magnificent.
Lest we forget, those beautiful poppies, each done with love and remembrance of someone dear to them – a very beautiful tribute to commemorate such an important day. World leaders please take note!
Looking forward to your exhibition photos – the hard work is done, let us take time to salute Matthew, it can’t be easy and possibly requires special (interpersonal) skills to maintain a certain degree of happiness among all the exhibitors. Enjoy the exhibition!
Helene x