The power of choice July 16, 2015 09:54

Good morning.  I have just watched this amazing Ted Talk ... by journalist Noy Thrupkaew

Behind the everyday bargains we all love — the $10 manicure, the unlimited shrimp buffet — is a hidden world of forced labor to keep those prices at rock bottom. Noy Thrupkaew investigates human trafficking – which flourishes in the US and Europe, as well as developing countries – and shows us the human faces behind the exploited labor that feeds global consumers.

"...our lives are inextricably woven together, and we have the power to have a different choice..."

http://www.ted.com/talks/noy_thrupkaew_human_trafficking_is_all_around_you_this_is_how_it_works?utm_source=newsletter_daily&utm_campaign=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_content=button__2015-07-13

The McLean & Co Story... July 6, 2015 14:20

The McLean & Co. story started in 1988 in the small Southland town of Tuatapere, when an Arterial Venus Malformation caused a potentially fatal haemorrhage in Rod McLean’s brain. He was a 31 year old self-employed plumber, and his wife Sue was pregnant with their third son. Rod survived, though he required extensive medical, physical and social rehabilitation. Three years later, just as some sense of normality was returning to their lives and Sue was pregnant with their daughter,   Rod contracted Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME), a disease which, when teamed with the after effects of his brain haemorrhage, still  affects his life today.

Having relocated to Oamaru in 1993, and working around the constraints of his illness Rod cared for the children after school and gradually renovated their family home while Sue took on the role of income provider, teaching part-time while the children were young, and later full time. Her respite from the associated stresses of being sole provider came creatively, particularly through her love of vintage textiles.  After exhibiting some of her stitched artworks in 2001,  Sue went on to complete her City and Guilds Certificate in Design and Stitched Textiles. The resulting exhibition ‘Exemplar’ also contained work created in response to her 2006 journey with breast cancer.

Meanwhile, during 2005, the McLean’s heard of a set of Hattersley looms for sale in Lawrence. They purchased and transported them to the Historic Precinct in Oamaru where Rod gradually restored the looms while learning to weave with help from the looms previous owner, a variety of books and much trial and error.

Amid great plans McLean & Co. was formed.

But tragedy struck in August 2007 with the accidental death of their 18 year old son. Rod’s therapy was to build a shed behind the family home to house the looms, and then to weave. Sue’s was to stitch her way through the grieving process, eventually resulting in the exhibition ‘Echoes’, shown first in Oamaru in 2011. She then went on to complete her Post Graduate Diploma in Visual Art at the Dunedin School of Art in 2013, after gaining a TeachNZ study award. Her graduation exhibition ‘Parallel Threads’, in which she collaborated with Rod, investigates the legacy of loss and combines her love of woven and stitched textiles and her belief in the healing powers of faith and creativity.

Today the ‘great plans’ for McLean & Co. have been revisited and revised. Rod and Sue McLean are McLean & Co. – Weave and Stitch, and are proud to offer a range of limited edition textile pieces, for you to purchase and cherish.

Latitude Magazine Article July 6, 2015 14:01

An article about us and our creative endeavours was featured in Latitude Magazine issue 35, June/July 2014. The article introduced our story and the story of the looms as we began this adventure of McLean & Co - Weave and Stitch.  The story is still pretty much the same, we just know more than we did back then!!! Thanks to Sarah Rowland for the article and great pictures and Latitude Magazine for publishing us.

Our Hattersley Domestic Weaving System July 6, 2015 13:54

As far as is known, these looms form part of the only Hattersley Domestic Weaving System in New Zealand, making the McLean & Co. looms and textiles unique in this part of the world.

In 1918 George Hattersley and Sons, responding to a need for a compact treadle operated loom, designed and produced the Hattersley Domestic Weaving System. Although these innovative looms were originally designed for the Balkans, they ended up in the Scottish Isles, particularly Lewis and Harris where they became the mainstay of the Harris Tweed industry. The first thirty looms arrived in the Outer Hebrides in 1919, providing disabled WW1 soldiers with rehabilitation and a means of earning a living.

The history of the McLean & Co. looms is hazy prior to 1946, when they arrived at the Riccarton Rehabilitation League workshops in Christchurch, to provide rehabilitation and employment for disabled NZ servicemen returning from WW2.

They remained there until 1970 when they were purchased by the Wellington Weaving Company and relocated to Palmerston North. In 1985 they were bought by Westland Tweed Ltd in Hokitika and in 1995 they moved to Te Anau and then Lawrence before arriving in Oamaru in 2006 in a state of disrepair.

The McLean & Co. looms, having been used in the rehabilitation of disabled soldiers, have now become the centre of Roderick McLean’s rehabilitation from the effects of his AVM and ME.

Rod has since brought the McLean & Co. Hattersley Weaving System, which includes three looms, a bobbin and pirn winder and warping mill back into production, teaching himself to care this unique and very special textile manufacturing system, and weave fine woollen and alpaca textiles.

Our first proper blog!!! June 25, 2015 12:33

Oh my gosh, what an endeavour to create an on-line shop when you are not very tech savvy .... BUT I have done it!!!!!

This is Rod and I looking pretty pleased with ourselves - we thought we were on our way a year ago when Sarah Rowland took this gorgeous photo ... BUT.... good things take time!!  Since this photo was taken I have resigned from my lovely job teaching Art Technology at Oamaru Intermediate School, and completed my NZ Certificate in Small Business Management ...  so now, it really is all go.  Thank you to everyone who has, and still continues to support us with love and encouragement on this adventure.  We look forward to sharing our journey, our trials and tribulations and our joyful accomplishments with you through this on-line medium called  'BLOGGING' - who would have thought????