2026 | Embroidery thread, yarn, cotton, stock flower seed pods and organza on tulle.
Series: What We Cultivate
This series explores themes of gendered labour, botanical colonialism and material practice in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Tūī 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, dried stock flower seed pods from my garden and thread scraps on a base of iridescent organza, then hand-embroidered the tuī. In this piece, I wanted to capture the iridescence of our famous songbird and push the boundaries of what I could weave with. As I stitched into the layer of shimmery organza, the fabric frayed and was pulled through to the surface to mix with the embroidery threads, a happy accident I enjoyed and became more intentional about. Stitching around and into the seed pods was more of a challenge, but I was pleasantly surprised at how resilient they generally were. Stock flowers, or Matthiola, originate from Europe and Arabia and were introduced to Aotearoa by settlers during the first waves of emigration.