Name: Coiled Harakeke Basketry
Start: 2026-06-06T04:00:00+12:00
End: 2026-06-06T07:00:00+12:00
Location: NMIT

Led by Emily Osbourne .
Learn how to harvest, care and prepare harakeke to be used as the main material for our baskets. Then you will be guided through the process of making a small (but useful!) basket from the initial starting knot to finishing the top line. The techniques used are beginner friendly and the goal is to enjoy yourself, finish what you started and understand the process so you can make more!
There will be natural as well as dyed harakeke provided for use. Once you've learned this technique you can easily use different materials or upscale from this project in the future. We will also talk about the cross-cultural history and uses of coiled basketry.
Emily Osbourne is a gumboot-wearing bicycle-riding mother who loves harakeke. Emily has been weaving and sharing skills with others for over 20 years. She loves the smell of harakeke, the feel of it and the way it connects us with the earth, our hands, each other and ourselves.
“I am at my happiest when I am making something” says Emily who likes to weave harakeke using techniques that are traditional in Aotearoa and in other areas of the world. Emily also enjoys doing a random range of art from finger-painting to tapestry but weaving is the discipline that she has embraced most, possibly because she loves to make ‘useful things’ with techniques that our ancestors have been using for thousands of years.