Table centerpieces woo farming nation
Taranaki is the envy of the country again, but this time for something different - table centrepieces.
The region’s Dairy Industry Awards featured table centrepieces of great intricacy, thanks to a farmer who loves a challenge.
Hawera’s Judy Brown designed the sought-after pieces after considerable thought.
‘‘This year was the 40th anniversary of the awards and the organising committee wanted something ‘vintage’,’’ she said.
Brown said there was pressure to reach an exceptionally high standard due to previous pieces made by the talented Bryce Savage.
‘‘In the past, we’ve had miniature milk vats, palm kernel trailers and even rotary cowsheds,’’ she said.
Committee member Michelle Taylor suggested a Taranaki gate, which is made from wire and battens. Brown thought this was a brilliant idea because ‘‘there’s nothing more Taranaki than a Taranaki gate’’.
She got to work developing a prototype, which involved raiding her craft supplies. ’’I found some miniature tinsel. It made perfect barbed wire, but I needed enough to make 40 gates and I couldn’t remember where I bought it,’’ she said.
After trawling through shops across Taranaki, Brown eventually settled on a spool of cord she found at The Warehouse.
‘‘I tied knots loosely along it,
‘‘There's nothing more Taranaki than a Taranaki gate.’’
Judy Brown
cutting a couple of threads to create the look of barbed wire, which was quite painstaking,’’ she said.
‘‘I made 160 strands of ‘wire’ and they all had to be coated with metallic spray.’’
The miniature gates are held up by posts made from dowling and mounted on recycled timber planks.
‘‘They’re all technically correct. They’re fixed on to one post and can be opened from the other end,’’ Brown said.
‘‘I think every farmer’s wife curses the Taranaki gate because they’re notoriously difficult to close.’’
Brown ended up making 40 gates, with each one taking an hour to construct.
They were topped off with a miniature dairy cow and a card, which named a previous winner and explained the origins of the Taranaki gate.
Brown and her husband Murray were the 1981 Taranaki Sharemilker of the Year winners.