DESIGN 212: Local Making 2025
A 12 week course in the design program at Waipapa Taumata Rau, The University of Auckland.
The project challenged students to explore the creative potential of locally grown fibres and waste textiles. Students began by researching local makers and traditions, including the Auckland Handweavers & Spinners Guild, sustainable fashion designers, and their own cultural or family heritage. This research was followed by broad material experimentation, culminating in the creation of a final work that drew on their initial investigations.
Throughout the programme, guest practitioners delivered hands-on workshops covering a range of techniques, including raw wool processing, spinning, felt-making, and the creation of biomaterials from recycled textiles. At the conclusion of the course, four students were selected by judges Hannah-Lee Jade, Chris Berthelsen and Angus Donald Campbell to become Local Making Creative Fellows, enabling them to further develop their creative research. Their projects are available to view here.
(Cover image is from ☆Wool Witch Hat Collection☆ by Tansy Liang)
Creative Fellows:
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Catching the Wind: Jute & Bamboo
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(This video shows the key making process of my work — extracting jute fibers, twisting ropes, crocheting the net, and trimming bamboo branches.) Synopsis This project, “Catching the Wind,” is…
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Rewoven Traces — Handmade Paper Book from Auckland Fibres
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1.Project Overview Right Book is a small hand-made artist book that came out of my experiments with papermaking. I wanted to mix what I know from traditional Chinese paper craft with…
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Talking threads
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Project Description Talking threads is a Kantha quilt, where the stitches tell stories. The quilt involves pieces of kurtas and a saree stitched together using colourful threads to depict a…
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☆Wool Witch Hat Collection☆
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✦A collection of wet-felted witch hats made with New Zealand local wool that combining fantasy, sustainability, and local making.✦ ✦Brief description of the project This project is a collection of…
All Student work:
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A Local Making Journey Through Plush Toy Art
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212 assignment 3b by Anna Cao Personal Story: Roots and Growth My ideas come from deeper personal experiences that have shaped who I am as a person. I grew up…
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Beaded Embroidery Pouch: An Exploration of Fashion, Sustainability, and Craft
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By Ella Lin Beaded Embroidery Pouch: An Exploration of Fashion, Sustainability, and Craft Introduction My Beaded Embroidery Pouch is a project that combines my love for fashion, textile craft, and…
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Bridged Coaster
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Project Summary This project explores how everyday waste can be reimagined through craft. I created a wooden coaster inspired by the form and structure of wooden bridges. Using found wooden…
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Bridging the Breeze – Bamboo & Wool
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Synopsis The concept of Bridging the Breeze is inspired by my childhood memories of summer days at my grandmother’s house. I was particularly influenced by the handcrafted fans I saw…
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BUSINESS IN THE GARDEN
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DESIGN 212: Local Making Design by: Lana Victoria Elegarle Model: Zlata DenisenkoPhotographic Assistance: Emilie Czarny SYPNOSIS For my Individual Making Project in Design 212: Local Making, I repurposed old clothes…
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Carrying The Past
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This project will be about a baby carrier used by my great grandmother during her time in China in the midst of war. I was inspired by my Chinese culture…
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Crochet Tube Top
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My design draws the inspiration of the progression of my culture and identity/race within South Africa. Diolies are found in many south african homes that were symbolised to connect with…
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Crocheted Hanfu:
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“A Love Letter to Warmth, Heritage, and Second-Hand Yarn” About Hanfu Traditional Hanfu for men usually consist of cross collar worn over a inner garment with wide baggy pants, whereas…
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Exploring the combination of everyday technologies with fabric.
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Quick overview Plastics can be found in everyday tech and products. In this project, I look into redesigning how we can produce things, replacing plastics with fabric. I came across…
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Fabric Vinyl Sleeve – An Exploration of Music, Identity, and Sustainability
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Abstract Fabric Vinyl Sleeves is a project that combines my love of music, vinyl collecting, and sustainability with textile craft. I began by experimenting with different recycled materials, before pivoting…
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fiber-woven “map of myself”
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By Zixi Zhou The Product For this final project, I continued my exploration of local fibers and craftsmanship from the previous two assignments, attempting to tell my own personal story…
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Flower Bouquet Crochet Blanket
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Introduction For this project, I created a flower bouquet crochet blanket, a piece that connects my personal memories with cultural traditions of home-making and care. The work builds upon my…
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Fox needle felting
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Why made a fox? The reason for choosing the fox is because the fox is closely related to my name. In Chinese, Fox is called H ú l í, which…
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From Against to Harmony
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Roots of my journey: Within New Zealand, one of our leading industries lies within the agriculture and farming sector. This extensive industry is responsible for one of the country’s largest…
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Hand in Hand
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Hand in Hand uncovers a part of my childhood that had been forgotten for some time now. My aunt. Its been a while since she moved back to China, and…
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Handbag
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Some symbols for myself that would like to includes in this assignment: To add myself to this project, I start to think about what connection I could have with this…
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Hanging Lantern
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The Hook & The Product This project explores how handmade materials can reshape the emotional experience of design in a world dominated by mass-produced, synthetic objects. Inspired by the cultural…
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Held By A Thread: and the stories between each strand
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DES 212 Local Making | Assignment 3B This project began with a simple question…what holds me together? Over this semester, weaving became more than a process of making; it became…
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Holding the Ocean, Shaping Connection
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by Qiuhui Li Why the Ocean? All of my work for this project is centered around one theme: the ocean. Even though I didn’t grow up by the sea, I’ve…
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Internal Map: A Hand-Tufted Exploration of The Self
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by Luca Lin Abstract Internal Map is a hand-tufted project designed to be a reminder of my own as well as existentialism as a whole drawing upon themes of existentialist…
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Intertwined In Memory
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Intertwined In Memory explores local making through the repurposing of old fabric items that carry personal and familial memories. Through crocheting these items together into singular works, I created a…
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Knitted bag
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Made Outcome – Knitting BagMy knitted bag is all about connection to my family, to my environment, and to the act of slowing down. I couldn’t choose the colour of…
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Link Knot
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Overview This is a hand-woven bag I created using a hybrid of Macramé and Chinese knot techniques. It’s both a practical, everyday item and a cross-cultural experiment in craftsmanship. The…
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Lotus Rebirth
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by Jiaying Yu Needle Felting Wool Work Name of work: Lotus Rebirth Design Brief Inspired by the Chinese mythological character Nezha, this work uses New Zealand wool and needle felting…
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Mt Taranaki Tufting Material, Place, and Identity through Local Wool
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by[simon wang] Project Mt Taranaki Tufting Material, Place, and Identity through Local Wool Abstract Mt Taranaki Tufting combines a material led approach with place-based storytelling to reframe strong New Zealand…
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Nahl
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(Screenshot from Quran by Quran.com) STARTINGTo begin the local making process, I had explored different types of hand crafting with a couple of materials and processes. Before I explored components…
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Papier-mâché Lampshade
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01- Intro This assignment revolves around using locally sourced fibres or those intercepted from a waste stream to develop and create a physical product. From the start I considered my…
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Pegloom Weaving – An exploration of cultural craft and Chinese aesthetics.
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By Wen Tan Pegloom Weaving – An exploration of cultural craft and Chinese aesthetics. Context During one of the workshop sessions, I found myself drawn to the making process of…
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Rows of Home: A Handwoven Coastal Scene
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1. Overview Rows of Home is a handwoven piece depicting a coastal scene, a sunset beach lined with vibrant houses along the sea. It was inspired by my mum’s hometown…
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Seats of Sound: Reweaving Ghungroo with Local Wool
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References Archana Arts. (2024, March 21). How To Weave A Ghungroo | Archana Arts. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fodj6rVlJ24 DIY Lark’s Head Knot Bracelet | Make Bracelets with Macrame Thread #shorts. (n.d.). Www.youtube.com.…
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Tactile Impressions: Three-Dimensional Wool Felt Painting
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Introduction“Tactile Impressions” is a series of three-dimensional textile artworks that transform wool and waste materials into visually appealing and commemorative works of art. The project uses locally sourced colored wool…
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Textiles: A Second Chance
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By Ratashya Eliasson Surrounded by a household where fabrics were constantly waiting to be repurposed, I found inspiration in transforming forgotten textiles into something new. This project transforms discarded clothes…
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The Asian Satellite
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Yunan Tan About ME My family is like any other southern Cantonese-style family out there, constantly revolving around familial duty and responsibilities as an adult and giving back to the…
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The Highland-Weave
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The Highland weave joins together two very important parts of my positionality, namely the two countries from which my parents hail. Those two countries are Scotland and New Zealand. I…
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The Prepared Hand: A Functionalist’s Journey in Crochet
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“The Prepared Hand” is a functional, cross-body bag that embodies my need for hands-free mobility and preparedness. It results from a user-centred design process, translating a deep self-analysis into a…
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The scroll
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This is about the source of inspiration. My first work was actually a scarf, but since the raw material was purchased online and not from the local area, there was…
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Three-dimensional paintings made from old clothes and wool
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INTRODUCTION: This is a three-dimensional painting. It is mainly made of old clothes and wool. It is a three-dimensional painting that combines different techniques and craftsmanship. This is an attempt…
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Traces in the Snow — A Scarf Inspired by a Cat’s Footprints
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Introduction My final work is a scarf made by hand-knitting with local New Zealand wool. The material of the scarf comes from the community knitting activity I participated in on…
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Vaaya: Threads of Tradition
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Vaaya: Threads of Tradition represents a journey of reclaiming form and meaning. It frames my corset not as a Western silhouette, but as a wearable archive that is an tactile…
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Valenki – Traditional Slavic Wet felted boots
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For this project, I wanted to create something that deeply connects both to my own cultural background and to the local materials and making traditions of Aotearoa New Zealand. My…
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Weaving and fabric collage — By using waste materials to show Chinese cultural connotation.
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By April Yang Context After learning about this final assignment, I immediately chose to use waste fabric as the material for my final work because I believed it would be…
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Woven Aotearoa
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Synopsis:A handwoven flax textile reflecting New Zealand’s connection to nature, craft, and sustainable design. Developed through material experimentation, natural dyeing, and manual weaving, the project bridges traditional fibre work with…
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Woven Whispers: A Tapestry of Story
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Overview The projectWoven Whispers is an exploration of weaving, tension, and storytelling through a handwoven tapestry from reused and locally sourced fibres like jute, wool, cotton, silk fabric strips, flax,…
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Yorkshire Patchwork Piecing
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For the last design experiment, I brought together everything I had learnt throughout this course. This meant combining my understanding of patchwork patterns from creating the visual swatch sample with…
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福 Bliss Symbol
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Hi my name is Nicholas. I wanted to do an outcome that is related to my community. I am Chinese and in China, people put bliss symbol on their door…
Tag Cloud:
Crochet DES212 2025 Fashion Waste ghungroo Localmaking McFarlanTartan Needle felting rwhy664 Sustainability Tartan Weaving whakapapa wool yarn