Hamilton artists collaborate online to market craft

For Hamilton artists, Kobi Brinkman, 67, Jack Parle, 81, and Heather Adlam, 76, anything beyond their craft is “going through the motions”.

The chance for creativity has captured 75 combined years from the three members of Hamilton collaborative Weave. Pot. Paint.

For the past 30 – 45 years the trio have been turning out piece after piece, entering the odd exhibition, selling some of their wares through the Waikato Museum’s Artspost.

Now, the retired trio have turned to the Internet to market their traditional crafts.

The idea came to Kobi one day who immediately asked Heather and Jack to collaborate.

“It is not a business as such, more a collaboration of our works,” says Kobi, who has moved between Australia and New Zealand many a time after leaving the Netherlands with her husband and two children 20 years ago.

Kobi Brinkman- Drawer Painter and Weaver

Small frame loom weaving was as far as her expertise went prior to immigrating, but all that changed upon discovering the floor loom and a correspondence course on woven tapestry at the South West Institute (Warrnambool, Victoria).

Kobi Brinkman demonstrates the begining of weaving at her loom. Photo - Libby Kissick.

“I moved here, moved there [Australia, other parts of NZ] – continuously doing my correspondence,” says the former member of the Hawera and Taranaki creative fibre guilds.

She loved that course and laughs at the thought she used to get by growing potatoes on the side.

The process of her drawing, painting, and weaving is more like a design for the tapestry result.

As she draws she thinks of the shapes a garden flower she has sketched will offer a loom weave, what colours will work best…

“I either weave, paint or draw…a friend in Hawera had a loom and it was too big for her room. I bought it from her and it has moved with me every time. My husband had to take it apart each time and we extended the ceiling in this house so that it would fit,” she smiles as she points to the high ceiling then looks at her statuesque loom.

Heather Adlam – Loom and Tapestry Weaver

Heather, former Manawatu Guild member, started weaving in 1969 after an occupational therapist taught her.

Many related courses were taken and the subject of tapestry weaving was embraced after a friend’s
recommendation – the same course Kobi took, cementing their long friendship.

Heather Adlam holds a threaded shuttle used to quicken the weave process. Photo - Isla Trapski.

“I found it very stimulating as I hadn’t used my brain since high school,” Heather jokes before talking of a Palmerston North shop where, for about seven years, she would alternate shifts with other artists and sell her scarves.

Since her loom and tapestry taster Heather has woven many a yard of fabric, curtains, table mats and runners, cushions, bags and floor rugs.

She has won awards at national exhibitions and fashion parades of the NZ Creative Fibre Society, as well as working on the Centennial Tapestry in Christchurch.

For now she is sitting out of the fashion parades, concentrating more on making tea towels.

The loom-crafted cloths are part of a friendship course she signed up for and involves leaving the towels as gifts in homes she stays in during her travels.

A new technique called “woven Shibori” is one of her current projects.

The scarves are dyed to produce interesting one-off pieces with linen, silk, and alpaca.

Jack Parle – Wool Spinner, Weaver and Potter

Heather’s husband Jack was aware of the weaving world but did not take up the challenge until a neighbour asked him to look after a lamb and failed to collect it.

Jack Parle with the wares of his 'hobby'. Photo - Isla Trapski.

“The lamb grew into a sheep, so I shore it. Got a spinning wheel…I had all this damn wool so I thought I better learn how to spin.”

He joined the Palmerston North and Wellington guilds, became a member of the exclusive Port Nicholson Hand Weavers (Wellington) and even featured in an exhibition at Turnball house.

As for his potting, his son started potting at night school and once he was through left all his pottery tools for his dad to inherit.

More a hobby than a livelihood, the skill was picked up and run with for 15 years.

He plays with fire

The chemistry experimentation involved with glazing turned pieces of stoneware is what fascinates Jack and can keep him busy for hours.

“My favourite glaze to work with is the wood ash,” he smiles as he picks up a deep and tan hued bowel with a greyish-brown taint up its sides.

Jack says once glaze is heated past 700 degrees Fahrenheit it is fixed and cannot be altered, which is part of the fun as each outcome is different.

The edges of vases are coarse, some bowls have a rough rim, all of which adds to the allure of Jack’s domestic stoneware collection.

Three large garden pots stand at the foot of his groaning shelves of fired goods; the detailing that covers the clay created by no special potting tool but Jack’s thumb.

The pots are for the upcoming National Agricultural Fieldays where Jack has served as committee member (chaperoning prime ministers and the like around the exhibits).

He too has sold his creations through Artspost and recently sold a $500 floor weave.

He admits he feels that if he can sell his mats for such a price they should not really throw them on the floor.

“I get pleasure from the feel of the garment. That is what I am interested in,” he explains as he hands a definitely coarse scarf over for judgement.

Future Projects

The group of friends and artists are preparing for the Spring theme of their “dedicated and serious” weaving group Loom in Us and Heather will be displaying her art at the National Wool Festival to be held at the Claudelands Event Centre in September this year.

A gallery of the trio’s work can be viewed at their website www.weavepotpaint.co.nz