Meet the Maker

Willow, rattan, and sharp secateurs: Tamar Guse and her beautiful baskets

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North Canterbury basket weaver and sculptor Tamar Guse has explored various art forms over the years, but found her passion in fibre art – specifically basket weaving, which she loves for its endless possibilities of form and texture. As well as hand-dying rattan to achieve the distinctive depth and variety of colour in her work, Tamar incorporates other natural elements into many of her pieces, including driftwood and antlers.

Pearls are always appropriate: a creative gem in the heart of Ōtautahi

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Trained at AUT as a fashion designer, Lisa Yuyi has an eye for aesthetics and a keen sense of style. Her Crown-inspired deep dive into pearls planted the grain of an idea which she has developed into a growing business creating classically beautiful pearl jewellery from cultured baroque and keshi pearls. Lisa’s Felt shop, Mermade Pearl Studio, features a treasure trove of handcrafted strands, made in the heart of Ōtautahi.

A kōwhai Christmas

This year’s Felt Christmas Gift Guide has caught everyone’s eye with its beautiful kōwhai and vibrant colours, and we have Whanganui-based artist and graphic designer Helene Hall to thank for it. The native foliage and New Zealand butterflies adorning the Gift Guide are Helene’s stunning handpainted illustrations, artfully arranged to complement the fabulous array of beautiful products by Kiwi makers that features in the collections.

“My joy is something I created for myself.” Sabrina Ayling’s happy summer Christmas vibes

For ceramic artist Sabrina Ayling, Christmas in summer is a source of festive inspiration from which she draws bright colours, playful patterns, and profound joy. Emerging from the sleep deprived throes of early motherhood, Sabrina found in pottery a restorative creative journey that she has built into a thriving career learning, making, teaching, and immersed in the world of ceramics

“I gave it a go and they were rapt.” One maker’s move from building houses to handcrafting furniture

Given the opportunity to craft bespoke furniture for a client during a villa restoration, builder Adam Ward found a new vocation, shifting from building and renovating houses to designing and handcrafting his own range of wooden furniture and homewares. The result was Eastwood Design, now established with a purpose-built workshop in Northland.

Mahi toi: the West Coast carver connecting through craft with Te Ao Māori

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“Kia ora, ko Haylie toku ingoa.” Haylie Fry of A Slice of Poutini is a self-taught carver living in Te Tai Poutini, the West Coast. In Māori tradition, you should not carve or buy a pounamu item for yourself – it should be gifted, in the same way the stone has been gifted to us from the land. Haylie sees her creative journey as one of both receiving and giving, connecting with Te Ao Māori through mahi toi, her craft, giving back to her community, and supporting her tamariki, who whakapapa to Ngāi Tahu.

Making a perfect impression: the patience and persistence of printmaking

Winner of the 2023 Margaret Mahy Illustration Prize, Auckland illustrator and printmaker Alba Gil Celdran favours Japanese tools, techniques, and materials to create her prints. She carves her original designs on a linoleum plate and makes impressions on Awagami washi paper using a baren rather than a press. The highly skillful process takes patience and persistence to master, and results in limited edition series of each design.

Method, magic, and merino: the elegant textiles of PK Maracin

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In her Central Otago workshop, recipient of Creative Fibre NZ’s 2024 New Weaver award PK Maracin produces beautiful, one of a kind shawls, wraps, and capes, using only natural fibres. PK hand dyes fibres to make the precise shades she needs to create her unique garments. She has been working with textiles for more than 50 years, and weaves every day, sharing her love of the art at local markets as well as in her Felt shop, PK Sews & Weaves.