Meet the visiting tutors
Fareham Creative Spaces welcomes visiting artists, who provide tuition in a range of artforms. Meet some of the tutors.
Helen Wedd, jewellery
I’m Heather Wedd from Heather’s Glass Creations. I live in Otane, a little place in Central Hawke’s Bay, where I create my unique glass pieces. On the hunt for a new hobby I could do from home while continuing to be a caregiver, I learned I could work with glass using the kitchen microwave. That was it. I was hooked from day one.
After a lot of research, I became the proud owner of my first microwave kiln. I discovered I enjoyed hunting out recycled glass to create jewellery and, by a happy mistake, garden art – or, as I prefer to call it, “garden jewellery”.
Who would believe how therapeutic and how much fun I’ve had cutting and melting glass in the microwave. By adding jewellery findings and wire, or in the case of the garden jewellery, an old bottle and some beads, the ideas were soon flourishing.
Five years have passed and the opportunity to turn my hobby into a business has begun. Weekend workshops and markets soon took off. I’ve found great pleasure in creating not only my unique, one-off pieces of jewellery but also sharing the knowledge I’ve gained through my creative journey.
Edith Rolls, harakeke
Masterton artist Edith Rolls runs harakeke workshops at Fareham Creative Space during the school holidays. Learn the tikanga and how to harvest plants and herbs to make your own muscle soaks, panipani and wairākau for anxiety and to help sleep. In her workshop Rongoā Māori/Māori medicine workshop, Edith harvests the plants and herbs from the grounds of Fareham House.
Sara Hirsch, writer and poet
Award-winning Slam poet Sara Hirsch (they/she) is a London-grown poet, director and educator now based in Aotearoa New Zealand. Sara has performed and taught poetry around the world. Their debut poetry collection "Still Falling" was published in 2016 and they have since released a second collection, "Louder Than Words". Check out their Ted Talk, "Louder Than Words: A Poet’s Pedagogy".
Slam poetry combines the elements of performance, writing, competition and audience participation. Sara’s workshop will inspire you to embrace the writer within and free your thoughts on to paper. Where to from here? Well, Fareham Creative Space is, after all, in New Zealand’s only Booktown. So watch this space. We would love to hear from you about the workshops you would like to attend. How about, for instance, a once-a-month writers group? This could be at a time when writers can come together, sample each other’s work and offer encouragement and critique. Or perhaps a small memoir workshop, to help you launch off into your dreams of leaving a legacy of history for your descendants? Or is the short story your cup of tea?
We look forward to hearing from you. Email: justinetutor@farehamcreativespace.nz