Napier II: Yarn old and new

Napier's MTG (or Museum, Theatre, Gallery) was a big highlight of our trip, especially an amazing ceramic sculpture exhibition called Mudlark, full of curious animal and part-human figures. And as a pleasant surprise,  there was Bach music floating through the building, played by locals on the grand piano upstairs.

We found something really cool in the museum collection too - a display of old plant-dyed wool samples, each carefully labelled with the plant and mordant used. It's really worth a visit, if you're interested in natural dyeing or the history of fibre-crafts. I immediately started plotting a lichen-dyeing experiment...

I want to find a copy of this!

A small part of the 'Home Dyes from NZ Plants' display

Our last stop in Napier before heading home was the Skeinz yarn shop!
Mum and I zoomed around comparing colours and textures, and checking our shopping lists. Meanwhile, Dad took a few photos...

One of the neat things about the shop is the window through to the mill next door, where they spin the yarn:

I bought a big skein of organic merino yarn to dye with lichen, and a few more balls of this and that which I plan to use for new designs. :)

Local art

My new neighbourhood in Brunswick has a ton of neat street art, some of it witty, some just cool. All the photos below were taken on my block, on the way home from the Sydney Rd shops.

(click to enlarge)

Outside a gallery

Tucked in a corner

The heart is made of sequins, which flutter in the breeze :)

No street is complete without a giant robot!

White night, bright lights

A couple of weekends ago, the Melbourne CBD was taken over by an arts and music festival called White Night. Many of the city's landmark buildings were lit up, and there were concerts, exhibitions, art installations, and general madness all night long.

I'm not a fan of big crowds and loud music, so I stayed home with some wine, books, and knitting. But Willie went out and enjoyed the spectacle, and took lots of amazing photos...

Flinders St Station (click to enlarge photos)

 

I think this one's my favourite.

These last three are all of the same building, as its light-show changed!

Framed!

One of the lovely things about living in a city with great galleries and museums is that you can return to the free exhibits a few times, and really see all there is to be seen.

A few days ago I made my second visit to the National Gallery of Victoria's 'European Painting 17th-18th C' collection. It's an enjoyably overwhelming experience, being dwarfed by the giant paintings on their vast walls. Last time, I had focused on the paintings themselves (and as a music history nerd, enjoyed seeing the portraits of Farinelli and Boccherini).

This time, I was fascinated by the paintings' frames! My parents run a picture-framing shop, so this is a bit of a theme for us when we visit galleries - we've been known to spend more time discussing the frames than the art inside.

I took photos of some of the fabulous Baroque and Rococo frames in this collection (I was allowed as long as I didn't use flash). It was difficult, but I managed to cull them down to a mere thirteen to share...

(click photos to enlarge)