Review Yvonne Rust: Maverick Spirit by Shari Pickering

Yvonne Rust: Maverick Spirit by Theresa Sjoquist reviewed by Shari Pickering, Life Coach and Co-Owner of On the Edge Gallery in Whangarei, NZ – published in May-June News of On the Edge Gallery & Design. At the beginning I thought I was reading a book about Yvonne Rust.  By the end I knew I had read […]

Writing to Describe

Tane Mahuta, Waipoua Forest, New Zealand

The art of writing description can be a very delicate thing.  Sometimes it’s what you don’t say that carries your description perfectly – for instance, if you were describing a major auto accident, the occupant of the car might see, apparently out of context, a tuft of sheep’s wool caught on a barbed wire fence […]

The Learning Editor

Example lighter boating column for Whangarei Leader

When I arrived in Whangarei in August 1992 on a dismasted yacht, I decided that having suffered many mishaps on the boat, each one more severe than the last, that after a dismasting the next event would likely not be survivable, and I left the boat. I took a job near the Town Basin in […]

Valuable Toastmaster Skills

Theresa Sjoquist in full flight early in her Toastmaster's experience

A few years ago, I realised that the biography I had written about Yvonne Rust, QSM (Yvonne Rust: Maverick Spirit – David Ling, 2011) would eventually be published, and that, logically, it would be launched and I would be required to speak at that launch. I was  concerned about the prospect of having to speak one day […]

Michael Ayling – Contemporary New Zealand Jeweller

God Mask 1 by Michael Ayling - Photo Theresa Sjoquist

Michael Ayling is a contemporary jeweller based in Whangarei, New Zealand. His designs challenge some people but his workmanship is exquisite. Michael Ayling is a contemporary jeweller who sees himself as an artist-craftsman in that he handmakes his own designs. A perfectionist by nature, his workmanship is both precise and fastidious and he isn’t satisfied […]