Sneha Girap (Editor)

Margery Blackman

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
Known for
  
Weaving

Spouse(s)
  
Gary Blackman


Name
  
Margery Blackman

Alma mater
  
University of Otago

Margery Blackman Margery Blackman talks about textile analysis YouTube

Full Name
  
Margery Isobel McCaskill

Born
  
25 March 1930 (
1930-03-25
)
Auckland, New Zealand

Awards
  
Queen's Service Medal (1995)

Books
  
Dorothy Theomin of Olveston: Mountaineer, Photographer, Traveller and Benefactor

Margery blackman talks about textile analysis


Margery Isobel Blackman (née McCaskill, born 25 March 1930) is a New Zealand weaver.

Contents

Margery blackman talks about researching the stockholm cloak


Early life and family

She was born in Dunedin in 1930, the daughter of naturalist Lance McCaskill, and graduated from the University of Otago with a Diploma of Home Science. She married pharmacologist, photographer and artist Gary Blackman.

Weaving career

In 1959 she moved to Edinburgh, where her husband had been awarded a research fellowship at Edinburgh University, and she began to learn weaving skills. She was influenced by Scandinavian handweaving and was largely interested in floor rugs.

In 1963 she returned to Dunedin and from 1967 she worked at the Otago Museum. In 1976 she went to Edinburgh to study weaving under Scottish tapestry weaver Anna King. In 1988 she was made honorary curator of ethnographic textiles and costume from other cultures and Māori material at Otago Museum.

Blackman has organised numerous textile exhibitions, largely at the Otago Museum, including 'Islamic Rugs' in 1975, 'Indonesian Weaving' in 1981, 'Treasures from Māori Women' in 1989, and 'From Emperor's Court to Village Festival', an exhibition of Chinese textiles.

In the 1995 New Year Honours, Blackman was awarded the Queen's Service Medal for public services.

In 2012, she appeared in a series of YouTube videos created by Te Papa talking about textile analysis and Māori weaving.

Her work is held in the Dunedin Public Art Gallery and Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.

References

Margery Blackman Wikipedia