Tasmanian Textiles and Wool
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I’ve just returned from a trip to Tasmania. So although my blogging has been a bit slow on the outside, it’s still happening on my side with lots of ideas for textiles and the web. Tasmania is a little isle full of great things. This time we toured the east coast starting with Wine Glass Bay at Freycinet National Park. This area is so pristine and beautiful although I also found Bruny Island, south of Hobart, just as inspiring.
No trip to Hobart is complete, food wise, without a visit to the Jackson and McRoss Bakery for something extra yummy to eat – they even have chocolate croissants and the most mouth watering menus I’ve come across. Most of my photos covered my search for patterns in nature. At the Bay of Fires I encountered the most unusual clusters of tiny black shelled creatures gathering in lovely curvy patterns on the rocks.I wonder which creature organised the pattern! As I was travelling around I was the usual desperate for seeing textiles and fibres and I hoped to see more than I did. I was very interested in the fine Tasmanian wool and the Tasmanian Wool Centre at Ross had good samples of the raw product but I was disappointed with the attention to detail for the display. I’m sure this isn’t the fault of anyone but I would think that such a wool region would know about how wool is processed by hand. I’ve photographed a display with a spindle (modern) and the fleece wrapped around the whorl. It would have been nice to see some spindle spun woollen yarn around it. Additionally the spinning wheel (an Ashford) was giving the impression of a time gone by and broken down – infering an ancient, now disused practice perhaps! I’m so glad we have the internet to share textiles and information otherwise I might have a very different dreary idea about the potential of the superb wool produced in Tasmaina. Handspinning in all its forms is alive and well all over Australia
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The HandMark Gallery in Salamanca Place, Hobart housed the weavers I encountered in Tasmania. Jeannine Binoth also had some very nice textiles at the Tasmanian Wool Centre in Ross. |
My son’s girlfriend is a marine biologist; shall enquire on your behalf about the ‘tiny black shelled creatures’. Is it possible they are ‘periwinkles’?
I have tried to find out what the shell creatures are but probably haven’t used the correct keywords in my search. It would be good to find out more about them as I’ve never seen them anywhere else on Australian coastlines.
Ooooh! Nice glimpse. Can’t wait to see it all for myself, and thanks for the bakery tip, travelers love their food
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Oh I sooo want to visit Australia and New Zealand one day. Have met a few Aussies while I was growing up in Wyoming, USA (the outback of America) and they would remark on how like parts of Australia, Wyoming is.
So nice of you to share a glimpse of Tazmania with this armchair traveler.
I, too, was surprised that in wool country that there would not have been better displays.
Weave on!
Jane
I saw exactly the same patterns of creatures on rocks on an island off the east coast of the US last summer. They were tiny mussels. I thought they clustered in the crevices of the rocks because that’s where they could get a secure toehold against the crashing waves, when they were very young.
dear curiousweaver, i just got your webaddress from a friend and was thrilled to read your comment about my weaving at end of ross wool centre description. i live in tasmania and love it. if there is any thing “tasmanian” i can help you with please let me know. roberts (agriculture department) is trying to get some fine merino yarns (sourced from tasmania, spun in japan) available for weavers at a later date. cheers.
I was saddened to read your comments about the lack of spinning knowledge. I am a spindler by choice, although I do have 2 wheels as well, and I’m considered rather a curiosity at my local spinning group, many of whom have memories of the awfully heavy clunkers that were almost compulsory during the 80s.
Modern spindles are lovely to look at and most are a joy to handle! I do spin in public, much to people’s amusement and astonishment, but I suspect it is the spinning wheel that people find the anachronism – after all most of us have seen pictures of the giant manufacturing spinners found in the factories and mills in the 19th century, and its very difficult to reconcile that with the pretty wooden wheels that most modern spinners have.
Yes, there is a revival in spindle spinning here in Australia, coming in on the back of the knitting with designer yarns craze, but how many spindlers go on to master and use a wheel remains to be seen. If eBay is any indicator, the craft on the mainland is growing faster than anyone could have imagined!