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Inexplicable public sculptures: Auckland Style

I was up in Auckland last week, for almost the first-time ever. I’ve been in NZ for over a decade, but other than my first three days in NZ and one business trip, I’ve never spent any time in Auckland.

So it was wonderful to spend a little time, explore the city, and get shown around the museums by someone who really knows the art scene (Oh, and we went to a Bruce Springsteen concert, which was amazing, and means I can cross that off my ‘if I ever remotely get the chance to do X’ list).

In addition to the biggies, like the Auckland War Memorial Museum, and the Auckland Art Gallery, I spend a lovely hour just exploring Albert Park, which the AAG is set in. In doing so, I came across this statue:

OK, late Victorian, early Edwarian in style, little girl on a pedestal, what’s it for?

Hmmm…a memorial to G.M Reed, BA – a journalist. OK.

Let’s take a closer look at the statue:

OK, so we’ve got a little girl in a funny hat clutching…a bundle of cobwebs and a fish?

Yes, definitely a fish, so the cobwebs must be a net or seaweed?

And what the heck is she wearing?

It’s like a little ribbed knit onsie, or a bathing costume, with ruffles on round the hem and little bows fastening the side.

Plus, is she wearing a tam-o-shanter?

Let’s have a look around the back:

Well. Ummm…well.

She’s technically not naked, but that’s not actually making it any better at all.

So what the heck is this statue about? Is there some reference here that I’m missing? Some story about a little girl who frolicked on beaches in her knickers and tam-o-shanter, clutching fish to her bosom and holding a net to hide her tum (seriously, scroll back up three pictures and check out that stomach – fabulous Victorian figure going on there!). What does it mean!

George M Reed was apparently part owner of the Auckland Star prior to the late 1870s, and then part owner of the Otago Times. He was once sued for the cost of a belltopper hat, burnt in a effigy burning demonstration (which is quite beside the point, but interesting nonetheless). For a journalist, he makes surprisingly few appearances in New Zealand newspapers. As a newspaper owner, having a statue is a bit impressive, but not too unusual.

But this statue. Well. It’s a bit unusual!

And as a bonus, here is a 1920s view of the park with the statue.

Art Deco Weekend 2014

Published by The Dreamstress

Gosh, it’s been three weekends since Napier’s Art Deco Weekend 2014 and my life has been so hectic that I haven’t managed to post about it!

Despite the weekend falling in the middle of The Project, I managed to take a few days off to enjoy the vintage life, and to try to recuperate.

As usual, we drove up Thursday, so that we could get up nice and early on Friday for op-shop-a-thon, and a quick stop at the park to join in the wildest crowds of the weekend:

Duck, duck, goose, pukeko!

After thoroughly tiring ourselves out carrying bags of fabric and books and other vintage goodies around town, it was time to retire for a nap and a rest, before heading out for dancing at the SoundShell:

My companion for the weekend was the gorgeous Elizabeth de la Ray of Ills Winter & Porcelaintoy, who you may recognise as the wearer of the Madge Bellamy White Zombie dress and the star of the Monsters music video.

I got to dress her up again all weekend (such fun to dress someone of a totally different size and with a totally different figure, and see them look amazing in things that would be quite disappointing on me!). For Friday evening she put on an fabulous sequined top that I was lucky enough to get at a clothing swap:

I wore a cheater 1930s outfit: my Capelet of Yay (proper repro 1930s) and a bias cut silk crepe dress by Quicksilver(of all people!)

(clearly something exciting was going on in my upper left all evening 😉 )

Saturday it was up bright and early for walks on the beach and strolls in the gardens and vintage mini-golf and other shenanigans. I started out the day in my Sherbet Seersucker frock. Here I am watching the world’s cutest dog practically wriggle its skin off with the delight of having a ball to chase:

After enjoying the outdoors I stopped by the Criterion Hotel to watch Rose of Decadia do vintage hair and makeup:

And then popped outside to photograph the end result agains the backdrop of the Criterion:

By this time the day was getting uncomfortably warm (it got to 32 Celsius, and I’m not on speaking terms with anything above 27), so I popped home to apply cold compresses to my head and fan myself and change into something that would at least be cooler for the 5 minutes before my body temperature warmed it up again.

When that wasn’t enough there was nothing to do but climb in the fountain: the only place cool enough to have a dance that day!

Once my Bunnies frock was thoroughly soaked at the hem I had to head home to change again, this time into my Spotty Nautical frock and my new cream sometime-mid-century-does-1930s hat, which turned out to be the ideal outfit for the annual Full Swing group photo. Blue and white spots are wonderfully photogenic (and stand out nicely in a crowded group photo), and it’s almost like the group picked a red, white & blue theme!

After the photo we declared ourselves too hot to eat (but had dinner anyway) and then had another mini nap, before dancing in the streets in my Hula Goddess frock:

Only, since it was 27 degrees at 9 at night, I had one dance, declared the weather unfit for public consumption, and went home and read a book! (but it was a period book, so at least I was still keeping on-theme!)

Sunday was blessedly cool compared to Saturday. I like 26 degrees! We’re good friends!

Still, it was nice to have a rather chilled day to start with, hanging out at the WholeFoods Kitchen, which is where we ate almost every meal of Art Deco Weekend, because it is that good (and I usually hate restaurants where half the menu is vegan and gluten free).

From the cafe we sauntered to the Gatsby Picnic (oh Napier Deco Trust, with all the interesting things that happened in the 1920s and 30s in NZ, do you really have to borrow your Art Deco ideas from been-done-a-million-times overseas sources?) to loll around in the Glory Days Magazine’s ‘Opium Den’ in my beach pyjamas.

Then I popped home for a play with the vintage wireless and to put on ‘real’ clothes: my Bambi dress

All prettied up, we had one last stroll around the waterfront amongst the picnic settings, where we stumbled across a gorilla hunt.

Now where is that gorilla?

Once the beast was safely captured it was time to head back to Wellington for another year.

Goodbye Napier!

Mariana Victoria: Dyeing to show you

Published by The Dreamstress

One of my big projects this year will be a 1720s robe de cour for Demode’s 18th century Court Gowns project based on Alexis Simon Belle’s portrait-within-a-portrait of Mariana Victoria of Spain (and of course the various bits of it will also qualify for Historical Sew Fortnightly challenges).

Alexis Simon Belle (1674—1734) , Portrait of Louis XV as a child pointing to a portrait of his fiancee the Infanta Mariana Victoria of Spain, circa 1723

The first thing to do was to dye my fabric.

When I signed up for the project the deal I made with myself was that I could only do it if I could do it from my stash. Because of this, I’m going to have to compromise a tiny bit on historical accuracy. For my fabric I’m using two 2.7m lengths of vintage mercerised cotton damask curtains (yes, I really am trying to do a court dress out of 5.4m of fabric!) in dull beige-gold, and one smaller scrap:

Sadly, not silk, but the pattern isn’t too bad of a match for what you can see of MV’s dress, and the colour can be improved on.

So, to dye the curtains. First I washed them thoroughly, to get rid of any soiling or accretions that may have accumulated over time and which would keep my fabric from dyeing a nice even colour. Once it was clean I got the fabric soaking wet:

I prefer stovetop dyeing, because, while it is more work than dyeing in the washing machine, you have more control over what colour you achieve on the stovetop. Washing machine dyeing also works if you don’t have room in your kitchen, or don’t have a dedicated dye-pot.

To dye on the stove I got my pot filled with water, brought the water to a boil, and added salt to help the colour affix to the cotton (following the instruction on the packet for water/salt to fabric ratio). Then I got out my selection of yellow dyes (bless Made on Marion for carrying such an extensive range of dyes!). I prefer iDye for dyeing, but there are other brands that also work beautifully.

I trialled a mix of Bright Yellow (bottom) and Aztec Gold (middle) on a teeny scrap of fabric, dipping it in the dye and then drying it to see what it would really look like, but the result was too pumpkin-orange:

So I went for unadulterated Golden Ochre, which had the right mix of deep golden yellow to match MV’s dress.

iDye comes in little dissolvable packets: you just tip the entire packet into your dye pot, and don’t have to handle any messy dye powder. Here you can see my little packet dissolving amidst the steam:

Once my packet had dissolved I stirred my pot like mad to make sure that the dye was evenly dispersed in the water.

Then I added my soaking wet fabric, and stirred even more vigorously.

It’s very important at this point that I agitate the fabric thoroughly, so that every bit of it gets evenly exposed to the dye: otherwise my fabric will come out blotchy and uneven.

So I stirred like mad, while timing the dye job to be sure to get the right depth of colour. Too short, and the colour would be too weak and pale. Too long, and the colour will be too dark and orange-y.

When I’d reached the right time I dumped the fabric (but not the dye) out into the sink, and rinsed it with cold water until the water running out from it ran clear, and there was no residual dye.

Then I hung it out on the line to dry, and dyed my other 2.7m length and the smaller scrap in the same way.

And here is what it came out as:

The fabric nearer Felicity is perfect, but the other length is a bit too pale. Not a problem though: I could re-dye it. So I re-heated my leftover dye, got the second length of fabric soaking wet again, popped it in the dye pot for a wee bit longer, stirred like mad, and dried it again.

Ooooh…glorious!

In the sunshine it looks much brighter than Mariana Victoria’s dress, but in a candlelit room it would be perfect (and, of course, Belle’s painting has probably darkened with time).

So now that I’ve got my fabric right, it’s time to cut out the skirt petticoat and the bodice, and to sew up the bodice for the HSF Bodice Challenge, which is due in oh, 9 days…

And I’m still working on The Project, thought the biggest part of it is over!