Tutors

Angela Brown

Angela Brown has been doing handcrafts for many years, initially following patterns and now making up her own. Angela’s life has always had some yarn work on the go, and her family has enjoyed the outcome of this. She has been knitting, crocheting and spinning since she was a child as in her household, you were meant to be doing something with your hands while watching TV. She still has the teapot cover she made in the 70s! Knitting and dyeing her own hand spun wool has provided another dimension in fun. She has been teaching and sharing her craft knowledge with many people over the years, and it still delights her to see another person feel so proud when they finish their first item.

Stella Carruthers

Stella Carruthers is a mixed media and textile artist passionately interested in sustainable living and green values. Areas of particular focus for her include food politics, re-working second-hand textiles and low-waste-life-styling. She has been practicing embroidery since her late teens and was inspired by a lifelong passion for all things thread, fibre and fabric.

Stella has been cleaning without chemicals for the last several years, trialing different recipes and applications to find what works best for her lifestyle. She teaches knitting and eco life-styling at Wellington High School Community Education Centre and is soon to start teaching textiles at Inverlochy Art School.

A portfolio career setup means Stella has built a life based on sustainable living values. Living in this manner means she has the time and mental space for the DIY domestic actions that help reduce her impact on the planet.

Stella calls herself a radical homemaker where domestic tasks are carried out to affect wider societal change. Her artwork reflects this lifestyle choice where she is interested in exploring domestic stories. Stella believes small changes at a personal level can make a big difference on the global issues of our time.

Maryanne Cathro

Maryanne owns Made Marion Craft along with husband David. Being a big fan of all things shiny, she got interested in metal leafing about eight years back and has been practising the Midas touch ever since. It is one of many crafts that she practises and one of the easier ones to pick up and get amazing results with quite quickly! You can find more about Made Marion at www.mademarioncraft.co.nz.

David Cathro

David owns Made Marion Craft with wife Maryanne. A continuous customer demand for lampshade rings led to learning how to make drum shades themselves, and then teaching the skills to others. In the last eight years, he reckons he has taught over 1000 people how to make a professional-looking drum lampshade. You can find more about Made Marion at www.mademarioncraft.co.nz.

Katy Cottrell

Graphic designer, artist, teacher and university teaching fellow, craftsperson and woodworker, Katy can apply herself to almost anything.

A conscientious New Zealander, Katy established Economate, a waste diversion enterprise that diverts pre-consumer construction waste from landfill to schools and community groups. Katy incorporates the ethos of Economate through the use of reclaimed materials in her work.

When she’s not trying to reduce landfill she is presenting at conferences or learning new design or 3D rendering software, or teaching, or quilting, sewing or drawing, or taking care of her menagerie of animals with a good local brew.

Nick Cottrell

Nick Cottrell hails from the UK where he worked as a graphic designer. He has over 20 years of experience in graphic design and art covering digital and print design, film, photography, editorial and illustration. He resides in Wellington with his wife Katy, who also happens to be a HandMade tutor and artist!

Beccy Davis

Beccy has used natural skincare products for many years. Five years ago, she was inspired to start making them herself when she couldn’t find natural, pretty, kid-friendly lip balms for her daughter. From that small start, she’s developed a range of botanical-based skincare products, with an aim to use as many locally sourced ingredients as possible. She loves to share the products she’s developed for herself and her family with others through her brand NatureFix NZ Skincare. One of the most popular are her lip balms and make your own lip balm kits. She’s excited for the first time to share her tips and tricks with HandMade attendees.

You can find Beccy at www.facebook.com/NatureFixNZ.

Kirstee Griffiths

Kirstee has been handcrafting furniture, gifts and homewares since she opened Hibiscus Home in 2011. She’s had ten years of journeying through an evolving wonderland of many different craft classes, product ranges, and local co-operative design store collaborations.

Kirstee is a self-confessed creative by nature and has based Hibiscus largely on sustainability. She now stocks over ten fabulous gift shops nationwide. Find more about Hibiscus Home and current craft classes at – www.Facebook.com/HibiscusNZ or www.instagram.com/hibiscusreloved.

Cherie Gurney

If it involves fabric and thread in a modern and contemporary way, then Cherie’s in. She began stitching in primary school and used to make Strawberry Shortcake dolls clothes to sell to her friends. Forty years on, she is still passionate about fabric and thread and currently runs a business in Longarm quilting called Cherie’s Quilt Studio. She has gained numerous qualifications over the years including Fashion Design in Wellington, Advanced Patternmaking at AUT, Design and Hand Embroidery through City & Guilds, and working and teaching in fabric shops (most recently Nancy’s). Cherie derives much pleasure from being creative. That’s why she now enjoys teaching–so she can show people how easy and satisfying it is to create! Find her on Facebook @cheriesquiltstudio.

Vicky Ha

Vicky has been making dumplings since she was a kid. She cooked alongside her mum in a small Hong Kong apartment. Twelve years ago, she made some of her mum’s dumplings for her chef mates for dinner. They absolutely loved them and convinced her to make some commercially.

She then spent 17 hours making dumplings for her first market stand at City Market in Wellington. She sold out within three hours. The rest is history! House of Dumplings have been producing dumplings for kiwis since 2012.

Fun fact: Vicky worked as a cook on a banana prawn trawler in OZ for a season to save up some money to open House of Dumplings! Visit www.houseofdumplings.co.nz to learn more about her delicious creations.

Sue Hanaway

Sue has worked as a secondary school Textiles teacher since moving to New Zealand in 1994. She currently teaches at Onslow College in Wellington where she enjoys passing the craft on to her students. Outside of the classroom, Sue has taught both student and teacher-focused workshops and is looking forward to her first involvement with HandMade.

In her downtime, Sue’s passion is anything fabric with a strong hint of sustainability mixed in. She often calls herself a budding quilter, but she has been quilting in her spare time for many years and loves the challenge of new techniques and the mix of colours and patterns. There is definitely something satisfying about cutting up fabric and sewing the pieces back together!
With diminishing shelf space, Sue’s goal is to work through her stash. Freezer paper piecing is a great way to use those scraps! She is inspired by the colourful fabrics and quilt designs of Kaffe Fassett and is in awe of some of the amazing New Zealand quilters who exhibit there works of art across the country.

Margaret Jackson

Coming soon

Yinghua Jiang

Yinghua has been bookbinding for 20 years. She made her first book in 2000 and opened her own bookbinding studio in 2004. She wondered why she hadn’t hear about this craft when she was in China—the birthplace of paper and printing technology. Yinghua fell in love with the bookbinding process, and her fine art and graphic design skills make her work quite unique.

Currently, Yinghua works from her home-based bookbinding studio where she loves to teach others her craft. She also travels overseas to attend master workshops, always looking for new ways to improve her own skills. You can find more about Yinghua and her work at wyrcanbookbinding.nz

Kim Lawrence

Kim caught the crafting bug when she was 9 and hasn’t looked back! After many years in creative fields such as floristry, bridal accessory and invitation design she now works full time as a craft artist. Kim creates one of a kind yarn art pieces as well as designing craft patterns, kits and hosting workshops. She just loves to inspire others to get crafting. Her punch needle and faux taxidermy designs have been featured in the popular UK craft magazine Molly Makes several times. When she is not crafting (which is rare), Kim can be found drinking all the coffee, walking and renovating her pink Art Deco house in sunny Motueka.  Learn more at www.cupcakecutiecraft.com.

Amy Macaskill (Ngāi Tahu)

Amy  is a graduate of the Wanganui School of Design (Bachelor of Fashion) and Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School (Diploma in Costume Construction). She is a High School teacher and  has taught Textiles and Fashion in Aotearoa, London and the USA. In her ‘Spare Time’ she designs and makes costumes for Film and Theatre. She has been practicing her craft for 30 years and teaching for 15.

Amy has been making jewelry for many years and has recently co founded earring company Taonga Puāwai. She has been making her recycled feather earrings for kapa haka groups, friends and family. You can find Amy on Facebook @amyelizabethmacaskill or taonga_puawai on Instagram.

Joyce  Tam

Joyce has been sewing for over 55 years, developing a love of sewing when she began making her own clothes. She went on to study fashion at Wellington Polytechnic and has vast sewing industry experience ranging from working at Rembrandt Suits, co-owning her own business, making costumes and teaching 23 years at a tertiary fashion school. Currently, she teaches sewing at night schools and also provides mending and alteration services, private sewing consultations, and teaches refugees and migrants sewing skills. She has also taught sewing workshops at previous HandMade Festivals. She looks forward to seeing you in a sewing workshop soon!

Helena Tobin

Helena is a self-taught local Wellington artist working mainly with watercolour, gouache and ink. She remembers blundering her way through so many paintings as a beginner and is now excited to share her tips and tricks with you to help you avoid the same mishaps. She adores the luminous colours and organic flow of watercolor painting and how meditative and calming it is. She is a bit obsessed with floral and/or botanical designs and likes to create repeat patterns (ie for wallpaper or textiles) from her paintings. She loves sharing her knowledge with others and can’t wait to meet you! You can find Helena on Instagram or on Facebook

Ruth Walden

As a child of the 60s, all things handmade were both ubiquitous and honoured. If you can think of a craft from the 60s and 70s, from tie dyeing to bakery making, macrame to leatherwork, and sewing to fibre arts, its likely Ruth has done it!
With a mum who knitted and sewed, both to clothe her family and also to make some money, neighbours who shared their Burda books, and friends who had McCalls books, it is no surprise that Ruth eventually followed in her mum’s footsteps. She recalls as a 9-year-old watching her mum teaching herself to crochet a raffia handbag. As she watched, she realised it just made sense so she sat down to teach herself to crochet. And she hasn’t looked back since!

Joy Wintour

Joy has been crafting since she was a child. As a descendant of a mother and grandmother who crafted professionally for Sirdar in the 70s, she grew up surrounded by making. Sewing was her primary craft for decades. She’d always resisted knitting, despite her mother’s suggestions. She finally caved around 9 years ago when she decided she really wanted something portable. Knitting and Joy just clicked with each other, like a great first date, and within 6 months she was a better knitter than she was a sewist after over 20 years of sewing! It was only a few years after that that Joy’s mother and fellow HandMade tutor, Ruth Walden, and her got to indulge a decades-long dream of supplying craft supplies to other makers when they bought The Yarn Queen, and they have been immersed in knitting, crochet and other fibre arts supplies since.

Sarah Wirth

Coming soon

Jane Wrigglesworth

Jane is a writer, editor and grower of cut flowers who keeps herself pretty busy. She writes for the fabulous NZ Gardener and NZ House & Garden magazines as well as having a weekly column in Your Weekend (the weekend magazine for the Dominion Post, The Press and Waikato Times). She has also had a weekly column in the Otago and Southland community papers and a fortnightly column in The Southland Times and Manawatu Standard.

She previously edited Weekend Gardener magazine and was Associate Editor of NZ Gardener. She was also editor of TVNZ’s Home and Garden web pages.
On top of that, she runs her own media business, Plain Jane Media, where she writes, edits, sub-edits and proofs all manner of things.

She is also founder and editor of Sweet Living magazine, a free online lifestyle magazine which features crafts, food and backyard sustainability. As well, she edits HerbNews, the quarterly journal for the Herb Federation of New Zealand.

Karla Marie

Karla Marie is a potter, ceramic artist, student and teacher in Wellington. Her first intro to pottery was in high school attending courses with her Oma on the Kapiti Coast. She’s been doing pottery full time for 3.5 years and is certified to teach the core fundamentals of pottery, which she finds to be a rewarding and invigorating experience. She loves the therapeutic process of getting her hands into a lump of earth and creating something beautiful from it. Karla Marie is passionate about ceramics and pottery as a mental health aid and enjoys sharing her knowledge with others. Check Karla Marie’s social media pages @karlamarie_ceramics to see some of her mini tutorials!

Weta Workshop

Weta Workshop is an award-winning concept design and manufacturing facility founded by Richard Taylor and Tania Rodger.

For over 30 years, we have applied our innovation and artistry to the world’s creative industries. We take on exciting projects of any size, scope, or scale, from the earliest stages of creative development through to manufacture and delivery almost anywhere in the world. We love working collaboratively with clients to bring their ideas to life.

From humble beginnings in the back room of their Wellington flat, Richard and Tania have built Weta Workshop into what it is today. Our 58,000 square foot facility is home to a tight-knit creative crew and houses a comprehensive range of design and manufacture departments across multiple disciplines.

Carello Del Gelato

New Zealanders love gelato and Nathan Meyer is one person we can thank for that. A 2003 trip to Italy, the birthplace of his great great-grandfather, gave Nathan a passion he had to share.
Back home, he built a ‘carrello’ or cart to sell gelato on the streets of Wellington. Then he gathered the best local and Italian ingredients for churning the handmade batches that are the mark of a premium gelato. Carrello del Gelato was born.

Nathan’s vision: To create the freshest most authentic gelato.

Fast forward to now, Carrello del Gelato has won a host of awards and is available throughout New Zealand.

Mandi Lynn

coming soon….

Southward Gin

At Southward, we’ve always thought the best stories are made – and shared – over a great drink. Our story began in a rugged seaside town, where the idea of Southward first came to be. It’s a story of moody skies, air heavy with rain, and coming home to the coast after a long day on the water. The Southward Ho didn’t just give us our name. It also gave us our restless spirit, our passion for telling stories, and our irrepressible wild side. From the seaside spot where the Southward dream began, to the coastal city where it became a reality, the sea, land and coast are infused in every spirit we make. So that they each tell their own story, and help you write yours.