Gemma Stratton
Gemma makes brushes and weaves willow. She studied sculpture at the University of Canterbury's School of Fine Arts, where her practice focused on making tools and devices to support her colleagues in their work. Gemma weaves her long-held dedication to resourcefulness into everything she does. In 2026, she will be teaching brush making and wreath making, bringing attention and care into the everyday.
Images by Kai Jonathan Lee.
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. 
Ōtautahi Chair, 2018-2019
An Orkney-style chair made by our Rekindle collective, with tī kōuka or cabbage tree leaf back woven by Gemma.
Images by Justyn Denney.
Little Tī Kōuka Folk, 2018
A workshop Gemma developed for younger children to be able to play and create with the tī kōuka leaves. 
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