Oamaru Patterns

Oamaru is such a beautiful and interesting town with its Whitestone buildings, arts and crafts, nice cafes, steam punk, colours and patterns. Its a great place to just “be”, to wander around and relax, take in the beauty and enjoy the lovely light (Oamaru always seems to be blessed with a special quality of light!)

Oamaru, East Otago, New Zealand. Photos taken 21 Jan 2019

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Bank of New South Wales (1884) now the Forrester Gallery.

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The following two photos were taken in the artisan gallery named  Crafted  in the Victorian Precinct…

Stunning wallpaper design. (We’ll re-visit this further down the post).

Gorgeous trugs made by local traditional wood craftsman Bill Blair who works out of the Red Sheds (old Harbour Board worksheds) where blue penguins nest in dark corners or under the floor boards, mentioned at his  Coppice Crafts  website!

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Art deco details from outside of the town centre, I took this when we walked down a street that led to the old railway station.

This next view shows more of the same building

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I had some time to myself and it was too early to check-in to our hotel so I wandered into the local library where I introduced myself to Fanua who was working there. Fanua loves colour and I was fascinated with the colours and patterns of her clothing which complemented the purple colour in her hair. She assured me that she always wears bright colours and has loved colour since childhood; Fanua kindly allowed me to photograph her and gave permission for me to share the photo on my blog. She is a tall lady, Fanua told me that she is 6’1″. The library itself is a bright and colourful environment, very cheerful!

Fanua was born to a Samoan-German father and European mother and to my surprise she was born in Milton (South Otago, between Dunedin and Balclutha).

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Back to Crafted gallery and the wallpaper already shown. This photo shows the whole display.

And here is information about the artist, Maisie Robinson

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Shop display of wallpapers taken at  Design Federation Interiors  – I’ve shared a horizontal photo of the same wallpapers before but still had this vertical.

Here’s the Design Federation interiors shop – they’re in the ground-level space. The closed door on the left leads to a residential apartment upstairs (the friendly occupant noticed our interest in the building and stopped to have a chat). Both photos taken by Nigel

keywords: whitestone, oamaru stone, victorian precinct

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Text by Liz, photos by Liz and Nigel; Exploring Colour (2019)