Wharehapuku Gallery

Hi all, our very skilled Barb Gaeth has created a 2024 calendar featuring her photography of Birdlings Flat.

They are $20 each and stand up on their own, making them a beautiful and practical addition to your home or work for next year. There’s a limited amount available so get in quick!

Send me a message here or come by the gallery to claim yours - payment can be made in cash or bank transfer.

The gallery will be open next Weds 20th - Sat 23rd 10am - 4pm. However, I won’t be open this weekend, so if you’d like one then please reach out and I can arrange to drop it off to you. I am open today (Weds) and tomorrow (Thursday).

We've decided to close for the Winter, but keep an eye out for our sign as we may open on occasion!~

The cold is kicking in so we're moving to Winter hours.

We will no longer be open during weekdays (Wednesday - Friday), but will still be open during our normal hours (10am - 4pm) on Saturdays and Sundays, although this is subject to whether we have the time as we're both in the process of getting jobs.

Thank you SO MUCH to all the locals, tourists, friends, and family who have supported this unforgettable journey. We look forward to resuming our normal hours when the warmth comes back, and watch this space as we will be organizing events over the Winter months.

Ka kite āno!

Heads up!

Wharehapuku will be closing early this Saturday at 2pm.

If you're wondering where I source wood for most of my carvings, look no further than Musgroves!

They have a great range of native timber including Rimu, Kauri, Maatai, Kahikatea, and Totara!

Buying recycled can give that wood another life, and it's always helpful to have properly dried and cut wood to work with for carving.

Check us out in their Hall of Fame!

Carved Wooden Spoons - Musgroves in Christchurch Wharehapuku is a craft gallery and studio at Poranui Beach in Te Mata Hapuku (Birdling’s Flat). They have found our timber stocks to be a useful source of wood that is well-suited to carving. Wharehapuku also runs a whittling workshop where you can create your own beautiful kitchen utensil using ....

We’re closed tomorrow and back open on Thursday 10am

Our regular hours are Weds-Sun 10am to 4pm ♥️

Thanks for your support, everyone!
Ngā mihi

Yayoi Kusama continues to inspire the world with her surreal minimalist art, we're lucky to have a few of her books and various replications of her art in the gallery so if you're interested make sure to pop in sometimes!

Five Artworks by Yayoi Kusama Sell at Sotheby's Auction for Nearly $23 Million Yayoi Kusama is the world's most successful living artist and she continues to succeed at 94 years old!

Ever wanted to try carving bone?

John 'The Bone Dude' can help you achieve that dream and you'll leave his workshop with a beautiful bone pendant that YOU made!

Whether you want to make a meaningful gift for a loved one or yourself, I highly recommend giving it a go.

Bone carving ANTNZ

A great opportunity to spend time with a lovely lady learning how to draw some of our magnificent manu!

Check out The Drawing Room's page for details!

If you're looking for a fun and relaxed way to find your "happy", why not join this lovely lady- local artist, Tricia Hewlett, for her drawing classes on the 15th and 16th of April?

Learn how to Draw a Tomtit- from scratch! Beginners welcome and encouraged.
Or on Sunday, you can book onto Tricia's class to Learn how to Draw a Silvereye.

These step by step classes are a great way to try your hand at drawing and you'll feel pleased with yourself with what you achieve and take home to share with family and friends!

https://www.thedrawingroom.co.nz/c/workshops

The Make-Your-Own-Notebook workshop was a great success, and we all had a lovely time learning something completely new.

Check out this Art Book that one of the attendees made! With a variety of colourful pages, and even some handmade pages with flowers in them, this book is sure to be a beautiful reminder of a day well spent learning a new skill.

There are plenty more photos and videos to come, and we will be running this workshop again in the future with some refinements - so stay posted!

Thanks to everyone who came down to show their support at the Little River Farmers Market on Sunday, it was great meeting some more of this lovely community and talking to people about the workshops.

I'm planning on doing one more this season, which will likely end up being the last one around Anzac Day.

As for the coming weeks, I'm planning a trip up to Tāmaki Makaurau after Easter so sadly I'll be away for most of these school holidays, although I will be around for the following lot so busy parents of school kids will get the chance! As you may have seen in the post yesterday, I've also opened up Saturday and Sunday afternoons for bookings.

If you have any questions or queries feel free to message us on here, or through our website at www.wharehapuku.com/contact

Curious about our workshops but not sure when they are?

Wondering whether booking in advance is necessary?

Look no further than our latest blog post for all the details!

Find it on our website or click the link below:

https://www.wharehapuku.com/blog/to-book-or-not-to-book

Hey art lovers! Just a heads up, I won't be at the gallery/studio this Sunday for workshops, but fear not! I'll be at the local market showcasing our workshops to the homeschooling community.

Come check us out and see what we have to offer! Our workshops are fun, educational, and cater to all skill levels.

Can't make it to the market? Visit our website (www.wharehapuku.com) or social media pages for updates on upcoming events. Thanks for understanding the importance of promoting our services and sharing your creativity with us! - Taylor

Taylor will be up at the Little River Farmers Market again this Sunday, promoting the different workshops which can now be booked through the website.

If you know any homeschooling families send them down to have a look at the different workshops we offer: stone wrapping, whittling, and the Build With Me kids toys.

There's also tasty food, fresh produce, Māori art, gorgeous gems, curated clothes, wholefoods, handmade soaps, and local wines! So come on down

www.wharehapuku.com !!!

Tried to have a restful day yesterday but I couldn't help but work on the website so if you haven't already give it a look, and if you've already been on why not have another look to see one of the 5 new pages I've just added.

Thanks as always for your support.

I've made huge leaps in developing the wand-making workshop, and have found salt dough works well as it allows for lots of sculpting as well as taking detail well.

It bakes into a durable yet completely biodegradable playdough alternative, which also hardens impressively.

For inlays I have some stones and shells but I encourage you to take your little ones to the beach first to find some small bits they can use to enhance their wand.

Keep your eyes peeled for the workshop on our website in the coming week, there will also be bookings available on Wed/Thurs and walk-ins welcome anytime we're open.

Wharehapuku now has a Tea Corner for piping hot cups of coffee, tea, and hot chokky.

Come for a sit down after your beach walk, bring your kids in to learn origami while you catch up on the latest Stones Talk, or have a cuppa while whittling up a spoon or trying one of our other workshops.

We also have several beautiful books regarding our respective crafts.

https://wharehapuku.com/

That's right! Not only do we now have a website, but we're ready to start taking books for Wednesday and Thursday afternoons!

I look forward to sharing these crafts with you all and learning alongside you - Taylor

The whittling workshop has seen come upgrades recently, with Kahikatea taking the place of Cedar as a beginner's wood for spoon whittling ~ check out that grain!

I've also recently made some Bodger's Bibs which are great for safely carving the long handles of the spatulas, as well as instruction manuals for both workshops to allow people to buy the blanks and whittle from afar.

I'm in the process of setting up booking times on Wednesdays and Thursdays, which can accommodate homeschoolers as well as those individuals who want some more hands-on assistance with their whittling workshop.

Keep your eyes peeled for our website launch this week 👀

A reflective preview of the first rearrangement of the gallery, this space will be shifting and reshaping over time so be sure to come again~

Also a look at the koha table, with some locally sourced driftwood spoons, beach stone pendants, Marigolds, and a few highly recommended books; great for last minute gifts or even just to treat yourself 💚

Great market yesterday* and we still have a veritable cornucopia of Big Mouths!

From left to right:

Black Walnut, Oak, Tawhai Raunui, Mātai, Kauri, Totara, Kahikatea, Aromatic Cedar, Filipino pallet wood (possibly Teak)

Which is your favourite?

Reflecting on a great week here at Wharehapuku Gallery..

The weekdays were busy in the studio with the Roy family learning stone wrapping, whittling, and wand-making all with great success!

We also had another camper come down and whittle a lovely spoon, and we worked together to make a whittle-able pendant blank replicating a long-lost treasure of theirs.

Then today Taylor took the gallery up the road to the Little River Market and had a charming day hanging out with the other vendors.

Grateful to be on this journey amongst two awesome communities that radiate creativity!

The rumours are true! Taylor will be at the Little River Market on Sunday with some fresh carvings and a bunch of beautiful creations from the gallery!

This does mean that workshops won't be available at the gallery this Sunday, sorry for any inconvenience!