2026 | Embroidery thread, yarn, felt, dried lisianthus flowers, PVA glue and organza on tulle.
Series: What We Cultivate
This series explores themes of gendered labour, botanical colonialism and material practice in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Kea was created for my Critical Studies project (2025-2026) for the Bachelor of Creative Media at UCOL and is part of the ongoing series What We Cultivate. I began by weaving with yarn and dried lisianthus flower stems over a layer of patterned tulle. The patterning of the kea’s flight feathers reminds me of stained glass, so I chose to emphasise this as I worked on the piece by creating stitched “leadlight” outlines before gradually filling them in with thread (this process can be seen in the final image). Continuing my experiments with weaving botanical matter into my textile work, I chose lisianthus stems I had bought from the Flower Collective Manawatū and dried earlier in the year. Lisianthus are native to North America and are a relatively recent introduction to NZ, with varieties having been developed for commercial growth overseas between the 1970s and 1990s. They are notoriously difficult, slow and expensive to grow, and they weren’t very easy to stitch around, either! The delicate flower heads suffered repeated breaks, and finally I had to carefully glue them back into place. The daisy-patterned tulle reminded me of our native mountain daisies (Celmisia alpina), which share an environment with the kea, the world’s only alpine parrot.