Our latest newsletter and press articles

December 2018

Congratulations to our Raising the Baa 2018 winners

The Textile and Design Lab’s Raising the Baa competition in which students are invited to submit proposals for innovative uses for strong wool fibre has been won by Cody Berkhan and Luis Alonso Sandoval Gomez. Cody, a second year Product Design student, produced prototypes of a ‘throw away free-standing lamp’ made from a CNC cut plywood frame around which a tubular knitted wool sleeve was fitted to diffuse the light. His intention is to market the lamps to the lower-middle market sector where consumers have limited budgets for furnishing their homes. Alonso, a third year Creative Technologies student, created a strong wool synthesised bioplastic material that he foresees being used in a variety of industrial applications Both students received their $5,000 awards from Wool Research Organisation of new Zealand’s Research Manager, Ian Cuthbertson.

Only around 5% of New Zealand’s wool is fine enough to be converted into next to skin apparel, the remainder being medium to coarse micron fibre, which has traditionally been made into carpets and rugs, both locally and overseas. The Wool Research Organisation of New Zealand partnered with the lab again in 2018 by co-funding the Raising the Baa competition. This year, 10 projects from 6 students made the cut as finalists. The students presented their work to the judging panel in late November after which their assessments were collated to determine this year’s winners.

Cody Berkahn (left) and Luis Alonso Sandoval Gomez (right) receiving their awards from WRO Research Manager, Ian Cuthbertson

New courses and workshops for 2019

Dr Donna Cleveland and Professor Frances Joseph have been working on the redevelopment of the TDL’s e-textiles workshop programme, which will be introduced in 2019.  The revised programme will offer a modular series of introductory, intermediate and advanced workshop options to cater for both general and more specialised learning. The lab will also be introducing a new 2-day workshop entitled International Textile Development and Sourcing.  The workshop will cater for anyone in the business of importing textile and/or apparel goods by covering topics such as fabric development, fit for purpose, costings, sustainability and marketing.

Read more and register for our 2019 short courses and workshops starting in April.

PhD student shapes up for the future

Textile Design student, Jyoti Kalyanji, showcased her extensive range of seamlessly knitted 3-dimensional forms at her recent PhD examination exhibition. Her research investigates the latent 3-dimensional form building capability of digital seamless knit technology with the intention of demonstrating the potential of knitted fabric within a new design dimension that incorporates 3-dimensionality, volumetric forms and tactile surfaces. The practice was guided by architectural form building approaches in the systematic fabrication of 3-dimensional volumetric geometries; configurations commonly employed and referenced across domains such as architecture, industrial design and engineering. Documentation of Jyoti’s research will be included in her exegesis which she will complete early next year.

3-dimensional knitted forms were the focus of Jyoti’s research

TDL Director presents at textile conferences

TDL Director, Professor Frances Joseph, recently spoke at two European conferences. The first, a paper entitled ‘Addressing Place’ about the ‘Phenomenal Dress Project’ she is currently working on in collaboration with Dr Miranda Smitheram, was delivered at the Design Territories Conference, UBI, Covilhã in Portugal. Covilhã was the main centre for Portuguese woollen textile manufacturing up until the mid-twentieth century. The second presentation was made at the ArchInTex Symposium (Architecture, Interaction, Textiles), which was held at Nottingham Trent University. Entitled ‘Extending Antipodean Textility’ this paper discussed the development of the TDL’s new research strategy in relation to recent textile research produced at AUT and new institutional directions. The focus of the ArchInTex event was Architecture and Textiles, an area we are hoping to develop further within the TDL pending the launch of AUT’s new architecture degrees in 2019/20. Professor Joseph also visited the world leading Centre of Advanced Textiles at Nottingham Trent and met with Director, Professor Tilak Dias, as well as meeting with colleagues from the Swedish School of Textiles, Boräs and The Kolding School of Design, Denmark.

PhD graduation

Congratulations to our colleague and researcher, Donna Cleveland, who received her PhD at AUT’s recent graduation ceremony.

Graduates in industry

Bachelor of Design in Textile Design graduate, April Gourdie, is currently enjoying an extended internship in San Francisco working for New Zealand footwear brand, Allbirds. April, who graduated with her Bachelor of Design in Textile Design Degree in 2017, was offered a 3-month internship with the company earlier this year following previous opportunities with Auckland knitwear company, Private Collection and Fisher and Paykel Healthcare. During her studies, April spent much of her time at the Textile and Design Lab under the guidance of Senior Technician, Gordon Fraser, developing her knit programming and machine operating skills. April believes that the technical skills she learned have set her apart from other graduates and played a key part in her being offered what has now become an extended internship with Allbirds in the US. Read more.

April Gourdie is on an extended internship with Allbirds in San Francisco

Textile Design Degree opportunities for 2019

The Textile Design degree is a fusion of creation through the application of hand, analogue and advanced technological textile techniques. Students can access the Textile and Design Lab and utilise the advanced technical skills and technologies available as an integral part of our program. This degree programme could be of interest to students currently studying in the design, fine arts, textile technology, graphics, visual arts, digital design, photography or science areas who are interested in exploring new technologies to spearhead change across a range of industries. We are still accepting applications to study Textile Design in 2019. Read more.

Holiday closure dates

The Textile and Design Lab will close for business on Friday 21 December and re-open on Monday 14 January 2019.  We’d like to take this opportunity to thank all our industry and research partners, students and colleagues for their contribution to the successes that we have enjoyed this year.