Art Stitching in Paradise

InFijian culture you always wait to be invited into a village and then you are considered part of the family.
Here is the youngest member of our Daku family, he very much enjoyed joining in with the fun when invited into to see what we were up to.

Our lovely group and some visitors, our small exhibition was really satisfying to see on the wall- it makes a big difference to you thiinking about your work when you see it up.
we all realised what a productive week we had had and how amazing the human imagination is. everyone had the same materials and starting point yet the end results were so diverse...and pleasing.
We started with showing the ladies- this was women's work after all so we were lucky enough to be able to share with the ladies of our family, people staying at the resort, ladies from the village Women's Co-operative [what a great chance to share ideas!] and finally all the men of our Daku fimily.

some flowers we produced- the natural abundance of flowers in our grdens you can't help but be inspired[note one was picked from the garden!]

Our starting point was stitch, what a mark of thread can do on a surface, how the quality of that mark- thin or thick thread, bigger or smaller stitch...can effect the out come

For a Farewell dinner a LUVO was cooked- this is a traditional way of cooking where a pit is dug in the ground, hot coals laid in and then the food placed over it to cook.

OOOHHH if only we had smell-orama, as they lifted the leaves the aroma was sensational!

and the dinner was so tender...fish, chicken, a green leaf vegetable wrapped around fresh coconut[heavenly] and taro root.

ssssoooooo delicious!


Our masi[or tapa] pieces

. The printed masi was used as a frame for a variety of works- I do look forward to stitching into the masi itself, it has such a wonderful texture.

I do have a little stash to work on when I get time!

it truely is sad to leave our Daku family and I do look forward to my next visit with them.