Gemma Stratton

Based in Mohua Golden Bay, Gemma works predominantly as a brush maker. She majored in sculpture at the University of Canterbury’s School of Fine Arts where her practice focused on making tools and devices to assist her colleagues with their work. She weaves her long-held dedication to resourcefulness into everything she does. Gemma is teaching hand brush, pencil brush, whisk brush, and wreath-making.

@g.m.stratton

Image above by Justyn Denney.

Tī Kōuka Brushes, Autumn/Winter 2020

Tī Kōuka Lampshades, Autumn/Winter 2020

Tī Kōuka Brushes, Spring/Summer 2019

Gemma has spent months developing ways to make useful functional brushes from exposed tī kōuka fibre and local hazel for handles. She is now sharing these skills in our workshop programme.

Image 1 & 4 by Alex Yerks

Tī Kōuka Pendants, Winter/Spring 2019

Two large scale light pendants commissioned to hang at the Riverside Market in Christchurch. Made using local hazel poles as the frame, woven with harakeke as the warp and tī kōuka as the weft using the pairing technique we teach.

Gemma & her husband Ruben Hamblett engineered the extraordinary internal structure for these large hanging forms so that the use of anything other than local materials was minimised.