Our latest newsletter and press articles

November 2019

Farewell to Lab’s Technician

Our long serving Senior Technician, Gordon Fraser, has taken up an offer to return to the commercial knitwear sector after 12 years at AUT. Gordon joined the lab in early 2003 having worked in the local industry as well as in his native Scotland. During his time at AUT, Gordon was instrumental in helping numerous Textile Design graduates to secure their dream jobs through the technical and programming skills that he taught them. Gordon also helped the lab to develop industry partnerships across New Zealand and, along with Shima Seiki’s NZ agency, Ramsay McDonald, was jointly responsible for helping local knitwear brands to better understand the benefits to be gained from seamless knitting technology through extensive development work.

Former AUT student, Jyoti Kalyanji, who has recently completed her PhD, has joined the lab on a short term contract to take responsibility for knit related R+D work, student support and commercial activities. Jyoti has worked extensively with the lab during the course of her studies in which she explored the use of seamless knit technology to create innovative 3D shapes. Welcome back to the fold Jyoti!

AD19 student exhibition

Congratualtions to our final year students who put on another amazing display of work at the recent Art and Design Festival As in previous years, the lab was pleased to have played a part in bringing many of our students’ ideas to fruition through the use of its knitting, digital printing and felting technologies, and technical know-how. The recipients of the Textile and Design Lab awards were Emma Long and Kate Whittaker who have just completed their Bachelor of Design degrees in Textile Design.

^{Bags created with felted wool and printed silk by Blinda Huang – B Des (Textile Design) Photography by Stefan Marks}

^{Photographic jacquard knitted artwork by Bethan Hunter - B Visual Arts Photography by Stefan Marks}

^{Knitted linen bags by Kimberley Alexander-Maaka - M Design Photography by Stefan Marks}

First year Creative Technologies students take TDL award

Congratulations to Roxy Allnut, Hannah Ruthven, Shel Hall, Ella O’Connell-Biddecombe and Nathaniel Peacock our first year bachelor of Creative Technologies students who won this year’s Textile and Design Lab award for their ‘Retale’ project in which they shared quirky stories about clothes through the application of NFC (near field communication) tags.

^{Bachelor of Creative Technologies students receiving their award from TDL Director, Professor Frances Joseph (far right)}

Dunedin exhibition for NZ artist

New Zealand’s representative at the 2021 Venice Biennale and TDL partner, Yuki Kihara, will be exhibiting her latest work, ‘A Song about Samoa’, at the Milford Galleries in Dunedin from 30 November to 21 January 2020. Yuki’s work comprises of five lavishly decorated and visually striking kimono that are the first installation of a five-year project presented by the Samoan-Japanese artist. Beyond the initial impact of the rich colours, the finely stitched beadwork and the illustrative cues, Kihara’s conceptual framework is built from her exploration of trans-Pacific social connections, histories, and identity.

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^{Yuki’s latest work features 5 lavishly decorated kimono – Image courtesy of Milford Galleries, Dunedin}

2020 short courses and workshops

The dates for our 2020 short course and workshop programme will be announced in December. To be kept informed about the 2020 programme, please subscribe to our mailing list.

Holiday closure dates

The lab will close for the Christmas and New Year holidays on Friday 20 December and reopen on Tuesday 7 January 2020.