Festival begins

Press, 13 May 1987, Page 3

Festival begins

One woman won two of five main awards presented at the opening ceremony of the National Woolcrafts Festival at Lincoln College last evening.

Mrs Ruth Lorentz’s suit or dress fabric entry called “Topaz” received both the Wool Board’s award for the best article in wool and the Bayer New Zealand Award for colour.

Mrs Lorentz, of Havelock North, will receive $5OO for each award. The national exhibitions convener at the festival, Mrs Heather Maulder, said the exhibits were judged on their over-all excellence, and whether they had a certain magic quality. The ceremony opened the four-day festival, which will include 75 exhibitions and seminars on subjects as varied as computer • 'assistance to weavers, to drawing a yarn from a fleece by hand. The convener of the festival, Mrs Julia Ander-

son, said this year’s festival had ’ required two years of planning and might draw up to, 2000 people a day. A special disaster area had even been set aside for repair of any articles that might come apart during the festival, said Mrs Anderson. The' aim of the festival was to educate, and inspire and to display woolf ts Several noted knitters and weavers will attend and there will be a retrospective 4 exhibition of works by Ida Lough, one of New Zealand’s bestknown weavers. A public fashion parade of some of the items at the festival will be held at the Christchurch Town Hall tonight, and garments worn will later be on display,. The co-convener of the festival, Mrs Fran MacFarlane, said New Zealand was tied with the United States in having the biggest group of spinners and weavers per head of population.