Abstract Signs

27/10/2026

I'm so lucky that Ross organized me buying a forklift a few moons ago, as other then being handy to unload our sign boards, steel sheets & cool machinery off the trucks it was super handy to check how Mary Poppins hung and moved in the wind. Come check her & all our other cool stuff out. Open all 10 days of the Taranaki Fringe Garden Festival then back to normal hours.

25/10/2026

Labour weekend for me means I don't have many sleeps until my Garden Art Gallery is in the Taranaki Fringe Garden Festival. So it's all work happening here, putting finishing touches to my display setups to (well obviously) display the Art Work in. Can't wait for you to come see all my quirky setups. Open the whole 10 days Friday 30 Oct to Sunday 8 Nov, then back to normal hours.

04/09/2026

Sometimes, for no other reason then " because we can" we make something to display in our own Garden Art Gallery, not just to WOW our visitors but for our own pleasure too. Today I got my sister Debbie down to cut the ribbon & unveil with me Abstract Signs latest project. Our Dad who past away 2 years ago was an Engine Driver with NZ Railways, so what better way to keep him in our hearts & make us smile every time we are in my Garden Art Gallery. And Ross is mostly in 1 piece after fracturing a finger while trying to move it without me...men!

17/08/2026

What am I up to in my backyard now!!!
Ever wondered what I do on my Mondays that I'm closed? Do you think I sit down, my feet up with a hot chocolate & biscuits 😋 I wish. The project I was working on today put up a bit of a fight, but I won in the end. If you want to see why I needed my scaffolding up you'll have to vist my Garden Art Gallery. Open 9am to 5pm Tuesday to Friday.

09/07/2026

I had fun making my display for the Stratford Business Association Matariki Window Display competition. I used chalk pens to draw my mountain, aura of lights, moon with stars & star trails on the window. I used a small xmas tree for the bush at the base of the mountain. Star tinsel around my image & blue tinsel for the evening skyline. Stars with silver tinsel tied to them to flap in the wind hung from the rafters. Tiny lanterns & blue star curtain lights glowed from behind my signwritten Matariki Let your light shine stickers. I sat my big shooting star cut out on the decking as this wind made it a bit dangerous for my customers if I hung it off the rafters. Hope you enjoy my display photos

29/06/2026

I'm really starting to think that maybe my kind of gardening is not normal gardening!!! When I have to keep up sizing the tools I use & need protection gear to use some of them, it does make me wonder 🤔 am I normal 🙃🤣🤣🤣 or maybe I'm just wonderfully creatively werid.
But I'm making some quirky display areas for our Corten Steel Art & Photo Art which is permanently on display & will be new for the Taranaki Fringe Garden Festival visitors later this year.

25/06/2026

Abstract Signs is a finalists for "Best Presented Business Retail" for the Stratford Business Association 2026 Romeo Awards. We are definitely the most quirky and different 🤪

[Best Presented Business - Retail]

We had over 500 nominations for the Romeo Awards this year.
Congratulations to our finalists!

Lets celebrate our local businesses and people at the Romeo Awards Evening on Saturday 8th August. Tables are selling out fast,
More information and book a table on our website here https://stratfordbusinessassociation.co.nz/romeo-awards-saturday-8th-august-2026/

18/06/2026

Had 20 visitors arrive in 2 mini vans from Tainui Village New Plymouth today, they were booked in for a Garden Art Gallery & workshop tour. Lucky the sun was out on this winter day. They were amazed at the variety of creative work here for sale.

02/06/2026

Bit windy on Sunday, luckily a couple of extra little feet arrived to vist so I made then carry the polythene & stand on each corner to hold it down while I started my next Garden Art Gallery display setup. Also got the pegs made to hold my other display in place & the rain can't stop Carter & I, so I held the umbrella while Carter banged the pegs into the ground.

30/05/2026

Today my Grandson Carter helped me make a new paddock for some of my corten steel animals. Now I just need to cut out a corten steel gate to stop the animals escaping. We reused old fence battens from a friends farm, mini posts for rolling pallets onto building sites & thin steel strip offcuts from us cutting garden edge boarders. All theses things would have otherwise ended up in landfill but are now a quirky display in my Garden Art Gallery.