Accent on wool in N.Z. weaving

Press, 21 May 1982, Page 4

Accent on wool in N.Z. weaving

An English weaver, Miss Theo Moorman, believes that New Zealand spinners -and weavers continue to work with wool instead of finer cottons and linens because of the difficulty they have in importing these yarns. Miss Moorman, who is touring New Zealand with an exhibition of her works, said that while some weavers imported Swiss linen, the majority still used wool. It was this strong accent on wool and natural fleece colours that made New Zealand weaving so different from that of England, she said. Another big difference was the emphasis New Zealand weavers placed on the useable objects of clothing and furnishings. The English tended to accentuate the decorative field, she said.

Miss Moorman specialises in woven hangings with an “intimate quality” designed

for private homes. She described the exhibition pieces as colourful but not startling because the dyes were closely and carefully blended to get the colours desired. Miss Moorman is fromPainswick, in the Cotswolds, an area well-known for a wide variety of crafts. She has been weaving for a “long time” but said that her work had developed fully only since the end of the war. when she had taken up the craft again. All the exhibits were from the last three years, but their style had come from this long period of experimentation, she said. ’ The exhibition, which is sponsored by the New Zealand Woolcraft Society and the British Council, is on display at the Canterbury Society of Arts Gallery, Gloucester Street, until tomorrow.