Craft at the Museum

After the revamp of the Auckland Museum's image with late nights and live music comes their latest programme, a weekly session showcasing crafts with flowers, stitching, papercraft, baking and gifts lead by an expert giving instruction in their chosen field.

The contemporary crafting world has strong appeal, with New Zealand events such as Craftbomb, Craftwerk, Craft 2.0, and international websites such as Etsy bringing the previous "Nana Arts" into the limelight with hip young things.

Auckland Museum is bringing this programme of crafts each Friday from 21 August for the rest of 2009 entitled Fabulous Fridays and offering visitors the chance to spend the morning developing craft talents.

Using the museum’s two-part exhibition Wonderland: The Mystery of the Orchid and The Magic of the Rose as a platform, experts and artisans will give a series of presentations on craft skills, including flower arranging, personalising paper, cake decorating, gift wrapping, creating fragrances and more.

The Fabulous Fridays programme has been developed by the museum in partnership with Michal McKay, former editor of NZ House & Garden. “I’m delighted to be working with the museum on this programme, especially in these troubling times when escapism is an elusive ambition for most of us. Our goal is to give people the chance to discover hidden talents, and hopefully add some enchantment to their world,” says McKay.

Tickets to each session ($12 or $10 members) covers entry to the Wonderland exhibition. On now in the Special Exhibitions Hall, Wonderland: The Mystery of the Orchid embraces cutting-edge technology to bring stories of the orchid to life in vivid detail. Innovations include the latest in multi-touch panels, as well as scent stations and soundscape posts. These innovations are fused with the artistic vision of leading exhibition designer Marion Lyonnais, who created the popular Secrets Revealed.

Here are the dates for Fabulous Fridays at Auckland Museum...

21 August 11am: The New Zealand Garden
A panel discussion moderated by Maggie Barry, featuring some of the country’s best known gardening experts, including Jack Hobbs, Xanthe White and renowned orchid expert Alf Days

28 August & 4, 11, 18 September. 11am: Flower Arranging
Discover flower arranging with well known Auckland floral decorator Fionna Hill.

25 September. 11am: Personalising Paper
Learn tips for personalising paper with a presenter, to be advised.

2 October. 11am: Stitching
Louise Hatchard, author of the popular craft blog Prairie Mouse, demonstrates the art of stitching.

9 October. 11am: Decoupage
Lorraine Meisner, who owns the company Creative Stuff, illustrates how to perfect the art of decoupage, utilising coloured paper cutouts to create new designs.

16 October. 11am: Cake Decorating
Jenny Nicholls’ fascination with cake decorating led her to embrace it full time through her company For Heaven’s Cake. Jenny will demonstrate how simple, innovative ideas for cake decorating.

23, 30 October. 11am: Creating your own Fragrance
A Jo Malone stylist will demonstrate how to create your own signature scent.

6 November. 11am: Gift Wrapping
As Christmas approached discover creative ideas for gift wrapping with stylist Claudia Kozub.

13 November. 11am: Gift Wrapping
Fionna Hill returns, this time bringing her unique flair to a session on gift wrapping.

4 December. 11am: Table Setting
Explore imaginative approaches to setting the scene this Christmas with Claudia Kozub.

11, 18 December. 11am: Room Scenting
A Jo Malone stylist will reveal how to spice up your Christmas gathering by using a menu of scents to bring the setting to life.

Before and after each Friday demonstration, a special area in Auckland Museum’s Atrium will be set aside to enjoy specially brewed deluxe Devonshire Tea. For more information and to book visit www.aucklandmuseum or phone 09 306 7048.