A team effort

As soon as the plans had been made for the Ballarat residency projects, Zakir began darning the many small holes in the Trades Hall Eureka flag, whilst we tried to source matching fabric to replace the badly shredded areas. This proved to be quite a chase, and a great team effort. Through the Trades Hall we discovered the name of the manufacturer, who kindly donated some fabric. This turned out to be a different blue to our flag, and because the fabric is synthetic is was not possible for the rafoogars to dye it.

Searching the local fabric shops, I found several variations of cloth of the right colour but wrong fabric content. By day four, it seemed that the blue cotton homespun would be the closest match. Then Dulcie Corbett, who has taken me into her home for the duration of the residency, put her local knowledge and her detective skills to the test. She took a small sample of the flag, and the new blue fabric sent by the flag manufacturer, and returned triumphantly three days later with the new fabric dyed to match the flag, having tracked down a commercial dyer who kindly offered his services at no charge.

There was much excitement when Dulcie arrived at the gallery with the newly dyed fabric, now a perfect match for the damaged flag. Zakir and Intekhab immediately put their heads together, consulting on the technical details of how to proceed with the repair. It was eventually decided to make a clean join right across the flag, entirely removing the shredded section. Only two hours later, the new section had been neatly darned to the old. Next came the task of adding the cross bar and star to both front and back of the flag.