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Travels in Taranaki

As a tourist and then a resident, I’ve spent a lot of time travelling around New Zealand, exploring the country.  There are still a few places that I’ve never been though, and lots that I’ve only been to once.

Like Taranaki. (that’s the bit in green)

Taranaki, New Zealand

Taranaki’s city, New Plymouth, is only 5 hours away from Wellington (the little curvy-in-pointy-bit  at the bottom of the North Island), but I’ve only been once, for a work trip (not that that was too bad – we got to go to Hurworth Cottage) .

So when my friend Rachel (who makes a number of appearances looking utterly adorable in my Art Deco weekend posts from this year) invited me to come up and visit her family farm (oooh!) and to meet with a family friend with lots of old stuff (OOOOOH!) I jumped at the chance.

I am a sucker for farms and old stuff, and Rachel is just a pretty darn awesome person to spend time with, so obviously, I was keen!

We drove up on Friday afternoon, arriving at the farm after dark, and waking up the next morning to a sparkling blue Taranaki day.

If you’re in Taranaki, it’s easy to tell.  There is a mountain:

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It’s called Taranaki.

Or Mt Egmont, if you are a bit old-fashioned and colonial.  But Taranaki means ‘shining mountain’ and Egmont was  just some fancy English guy who gave Captain Cook some money, so obviously Taranaki is a better name.

We were staying on Rachel’s family farm, and not only is it a farm (oooh!), it’s a deer farm (OOOOOH!).  Deer > Cows or sheep.  Obviously.

So Saturday morning I got to hang out with the deer.  The stags had just finished their roar season, so it was safe to be in the pen with them, as long as you were a bit alert.

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Sadly we couldn’t be in the pen with their pet deer, Lucky, because Lucky loves humans SO much that she gets a bit excited when they show up, and she weighs twice as much as we do and has some wicked hooves on her, so we had to snuggle through the wires.

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She was basically like a deer Felicity.  She gets the same expression of utter delight and contentment when you give her chin scratchies.

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She was particularly interested in my wonderful ’70s does ’30s tweed jacket (by Hornes, London ‘by appointment to H.M. Queen Elizabeth II, Livery Tailors, natch) which she kept trying to eat.  Good taste that deer! 😉

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(small moment to appreciate the fact that I am wearing tweed and gumboots, like some Country Life fashion plate!)

The weekend wasn’t all country living though.  It turns out we’d come out on the perfect day: after literally decades of planning and arguing the Len Lye Centre had just opened in New Plymouth, and we headed in to join the festivities.

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The centre is…shiny.

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Like, really, really, REALLY shiny!

Light up the whole street, reflect everything going by, warm you up on a cold winter day, make it impossible to tell where the building starts and the street ends shiny.

And FABULOUS.  Way more amazing than it looks in pictures.

Inside it’s all wavy and smooth marble floors that are slanted just enough that you desperately want to get a piece of cardboard and a little bit of vegetable oil and go for a slide.

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It’s got cool lighting:

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And, of course, Len Lye artworks, which are fascinating.  They move and shimmer and make noise.

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And go quite well with the Steampunkers who had showed up for the celebrations.

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Len Lye, btw, was a groundbreaking film and kinetic sculpture artist.  His Water Whirler is a beloved icon of the Wellington waterfront, his Wind Wand has been (mostly lovingly) parodied across the ‘Naki, and his works are held in major museums around the world.  Despite being an American citizen for most of his life, he left his collection to New Zealand when he died.

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I can’t promise his artworks  will come with hovering attendants to wipe away any fingerprints the instant they happen on a daily basis.

After the Centre, we made a quick trip to see another new and exciting New Plymouth landmark:

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Te Rewa Rewa bridge is a cycle and pedestrian bridge that evokes a wave, or the skeleton of a whale.  From the far side, it frames the mountain  perfectly:

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Or, you know, me being silly!

I’ll be telling you more about the Old Stuff  in more blog posts, because it’s very exciting….

Rate the Dress: Velvet poppies for a bright young ’20s thing

Last week I showed you a fascinating (even if you didn’t like it you have to admit it was fascinating) 1890s gown (probably a tea gown) with tucked shaping and floral appliques.  The dress received a lot of criticism for the heavy lace (too coarse and gut-like (lace styles are  clearly one of those things that goes in and out of favour)) and placement of the applique (too literal), but an equal amount of praise for the amazing shaping work with the tucks.  So, for masterful sewing, but slightly less masterful visual design, the dress came in at 7.2  out of 10.

This week’s frock features more floral applique, in the form of velvet poppies dancing along  the silk charmeuse skirt  of this aqua and metal gold lace frock.

The cerise pink and sunset  orange hues of the velvet poppies are an unusual choice to pair with the aqua of the lace and silk charmeuse, but are a classic example of the ’20s fondness for saturated hues and deco pastels, with a nod back to wild pairing of ‘exotic’ colours made popular by the Ballet Russes and designers like Poiret in the ‘teens.

Evening dress of metal and cloth lace with silk charmeuse and appliqued silk velvet poppies, 1920s, sold by Whitaker Auctions

Evening dress of metal and cloth lace with silk charmeuse and appliqued silk velvet poppies, 1920s, sold by Whitaker Auctions

The velvet applique are a good example of the ’20s fondness for three dimensional design elaborations.  Along with velvet flowers frocks and accessories often featured flowers of elaborately folded ribbons, or bits of silk fabric.

What do you think of the frock, with its unexpected colour pairings, and juxtapositions of the heavy velvet flowers with the delicate silk of the dress and light openness of the lace?

Rate the Dress on a Scale of 1 to 10

The Marmotte Masquerade Stays – Finished!*

I didn’t think I would get the Marmotte Masquerade Stays done for the Bastille Day Ball, because they won’t ever fit me properly as anything but undergarments.

In fact, I wasn’t sure if I could even make myself finish the stays at all…

But then the Sewphist asked if I had anything she could wear to the ball.

When she came over the Wednesday before the dance to try things on, all of my frocks were too long in the bodice for her, and I had a brainstorm. The stays are too short in the bodice for me, so perhaps they would fit her?

And they fit her so perfectly, and looked so fabulous on her, that she agreed to finish the binding so that she could wear them  (and if you have ever bound stays, you know what a major undertaking that is!).

So I showed her how to do the binding around the bottom tabs, and sent her away with bias binding (perfect historical accuracy was clearly not the object with these!) and thread.

And she managed to get them finish in time, and they looked amazing!

Photographic proof:

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We paired the stays with a couple of petticoats that I use with various 18thc outfits, and my 1870s Nana chemise (the ribbons match perfectly, even if the periods don’t 😉 )

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Her stays were a great success, but the real hit was her hair.

I built it up over a rat, and added a few extensions (as a costumer I am thrilled with the fad for extensions that has made them so easy to get!), and then trimmed it with some feathers and the ever-popular birds nest.

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That birds nest was the best $2 I ever spent!  It’s been used so many times, and never fails to delight the people who notice it.

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The Sewphist was delighted with her hair.  It stayed all night, and nothing ever stays in her hair. And the extensions had curls, and she never has curls!

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A rousing success all ’round!

There are a few tiny things I need to fix – the front bones are a bit too soft, so the front wrinkles.  I’ll add a bit more to reinforce it.

Overall, I’m tickled pink it’s done, and she did SUCH a good job finishing it!

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