Now that we’re all house bound, I can’t think of a better time to do some armchair traveling, so follow along with me over the next couple months while I share weekly posts on each location I visited on my trip to New Zealand.
I left Sacramento on January 27th, after 2 years of planning for the teaching trip of a life time. I had workshops bookings in 8 locations over a 5 week period. One stop on the south island and the rest on the north island.
It was a massive ordeal to organize, with multiple spreadsheets, maps and calendars to plot out the itinerary and keep track of contacts, flights, busses, addresses of workshop locations and accommodations.
I couldn’t have managed it all without the generous assistance of Kerry Glen of Tulis Textiles, who put out a call of interest to the quilt and textile groups around the country, helped plot out a route, and also lent me and Phil a car to drive on the north island in order to save some money on transportation expenses for the groups.
I limited my workshops to 3 choices to cut down on the amount of supplies I would need to bring and ship, and had to coordinate a schedule that could accommodate the groups that needed weekend dates around the ones that could do weekday workshops. Then we had to figure out modes of transportation between each location and estimate costs to be divided 8 ways.
The week before I left, I routinely had mini panic attacks, because I was afraid that I may have forgotten to pack, ship or plan something.
Finally, I left winter in Northern California and after close to 24 hours of airport time and 3 flights I made it to Christchurch, New Zealand in late summer with only a 3 hour time difference to my body, but a 21 hour time difference by the calendar.
Two and a half years ago, when I was in Christchurch for symposium, I never had time to make it to the beach to see what it was like. Having lived near the ocean during my childhood in New England, and as a teenager in Northern California, I am always fascinated by the variations in landscape, and sea life of every beach I go to.
When I went with Andrea McClare, it was a cool (maybe 65°F), overcast, and windy day. The surf was pretty strong and washed quite a few little blue bottle jellyfish up on the beach. This of course thrilled me to no end, I love seeing what lives on the beach.
They were about 2″ across, and could be easily missed if you weren’t watching where you walked. I don’t think this is a regular occurrence, they also wash up on beaches in Northern California on occasion, it just depends on the ocean currents and tides.
I also found a small chiton clinging to the rocks and some lovely clam shells on the beach.
One noticeable thing about New Zealand is the weather changes constantly. Christchurch always had some wind blowing, and had bigger daily temperature fluctuations than most of the places I went on the north island.
My first workshop for the Christchurch Quilters was a 2 day Paint and Printapalooza workshop with 12 people, which is a fantastic size class to work with for this one. I’ve done it with 25 students a few times, but it gets a little crazy when it’s that big a group.
One of the reasons I love teaching this class so much, is because it shows people how easy it is to create colorful hand-printed fabrics without using toxic, chemical dyes and wasting precious water that’s necessary for rinsing spent dye out of fabric. Acrylic inks are so much more environmentally friendly, with loads of instant gratification.
On the first day we concentrate on adding color to the fabric in a variety of ways using acrylic inks that are permanent when dry.
On the second day we add pattern with stamps, and then thermofax screen printing.
The second workshop I taught in Christchurch was Tea & Ephemera, an intro to mixed-media techniques on fabric, with an emphasis on drawing and painting tea bags and collaging paper media on fabric.
I had a fantastic time in Christchurch, it was so wonderful to be back in New Zealand again. I want to give special thanks to Catherine McDonald and her husband Brad for hosting me for 6 awesome days. I look forward to visiting again one day when Phil and I can do an in depth exploration of the south island.
In my next post I fly north to the art deco city of Napier.
Keep creating,
Judy
I’d love to spark your creativity at one of these upcoming events:
I’m not sure how many of these events will now take place, but I’ll post cancellations and updates as they occur.
2020
May 27-31 Woodland Ridge Retreat, Menomonie, WI
Tea & Ephemera and Painting Imagery with Textile Paints
Australia!!! Cancelled
Berry, AU- June 27, 28 Berry Quilting Retreat 2 day Tea & Ephemera
Adelaide, AU- July 2, South Australia Quilters Guild Lecture
July 3, 4 Exhibition with the South Australia Quilters
July 10-16 Quilt Encounter 3-day Paint & Printapalooza, 2 day Tea & Ephemera
Brisbane, AU- July 18, 19 Queensland Quilters 2 day Tea & Ephemera
August 11-13 Calico Cutters, West Chester, PA
Tsukineko Inks and Tea & Ephemera
August 31 Color Theory lecture Pioneer Quilters Guild, Loomis, CA
September 26 River City Quilt and Fiber Art Festival, Sacramento, CA Tea & Ephemera
October 18-24 Hudson Valley Quilt Retreat, Greenville, NY
Paint and Printapalooza
ABOUT JUDY
Judy is an artist, explorer, image wrangler, knowledge seeker, instructor, speaker, creative alchemist, and purveyor of inspiration, helping others channel creativity on a daily basis.
6 responses to “Come along on a virtual tour of New Zealand with me”
Thank you! A great read for a rainy cold day in usually sunny South Carolina. And learned something – using alcohol inks on fabric!
Hi Linda, your welcome, but I want to point out that we used acrylic inks, not alcohol inks. 🙂
Thank you for sharing your wonderful trip.
Perfect for dreaming during the time I am in exile. Sorry that your plans had to change. I will look forward to additional installments. Stay well.
your welcome Judy, and thanks for the book purchase too! 😁
Thank you for your virtual travelogue. Thoroughly enjoyed. I will watch for the next installment.
Hi.. This is so awesome to see.. I hope that you are going to start virtual lessons now that we can pay and follow in this unsure times..
Cant wait
Elize
South Africa