Any successful project has that one person that hides in the background, doing most of the hard work that goes un-noticed, but makes everyone else and the project look even better than it is! Velvet the Travelling Tuna Tapestry has a few of these, but none more critical than Ruth Bucknell who sewed all the Wairarapa “Eye-of-the-Fish” Head Pieces together. Check this 24 meters of luscious eely beauty out:
And, that’s only the front half of Ruth’s work, here’s the rest:
Holding up Velvet and all the watery biodiversity around her are the Room 10 folks at Lakeview School in Masterton. Wow. They snapped the photos and then mailed Velvet up to Ruth to meet the tail half, and all around the country (especially around Gisbourne) more sections of body are being created to add in the middle!
Back to Ruth: She is a super busy and dedicated teacher at WaiCol in Masterton and a full-time mom. Anyone could have taken a day with a sewing machine and stitched these pieces together in any old way, but not Ruth. She took many days and not only selected which panels should be in what location, so as to be most appealing to the eye, but she also adjusted and finished the edges of each one so that they would all fit together perfectly…… even though they all came in a bit differently sized. (Sorry, Ruth!) Yes….. she is making us all look so GOOD!
And, that’s not all. Ruth also figured out that the best way to transport Velvet was to sew her up into manageable sections and then roll each section onto a carpet tube. Ok you get the idea: Ruth Bucknell is amazing. The mauri of the wai must flow within her, as she gave so much care and soul to this project. Thank you Ruth!
After these photos, they