To celebrate Matariki through the Karangahape Road kaupapa Whāia Te Waiora, RAU hosted two small-loom weaving sessions at Open Coffee. Guided by Dan Collings, guests were invited to sit together and connect, learning to weave through craft and conversation.
To support the Objectspace exhibition PUPURITIA (curated by Melanie Tangaere Baldwin), RAU researcher Arielle Walker led a hands-on workshop session, sharing the fundamentals of weaving on a mini loom. Inspired by the PUPURITIA themes, the workshop invited space for storytelling, shared making, and connection through textiles. Designed and crafted by RAU with the support of AUT's Digital Fabrication Lab, each mini loom is pocket-sized for making-in-place.
In their 2025 felting issue's Spotlight on Education, Surface Design Journal shared "Felting Futures," a paper by RAU researchers Jyoti Kalyanji, Dan Collings, and Finn Godbolt: “Against this backdrop, industrial design students at Auckland University of Technology in Aotearoa, New Zealand are introduced to digital felting as part of a suite of technologies in a textiles research facility. The felt loom is presented as an additive fabrication technology, and locally sourced wool fibre as a key ingredient. Responding to the need for increased consideration of the materials we choose to work with and the environmental and social impact of both their production and their life cycle of use, students are encouraged to engage with hands-on material explorations. ”
RAU researchers Dan Collings, Rachelle Moore, and Arielle Walker presented papers at the 2025 CTANZ Symposium: Fascination, in Ōtepoti this May.
Dan shared trompe-l’oeil techniques within digital knit textiles as a means of challenging Western gender associations. Rachelle discussed her grandmother Marj Moore’s private museum collection, and the narratives embedded within the garments and textiles held by the family since the early 1900s. Arielle shared insights into how her practice combines textile traditions from her Nana’s lace-making (and other textile samplers) with fibre techniques from throughout her ancestral lines.
The symposium was a fantastic opportunity to connect with a network of makers and researchers around all things textile, enjoying a depth of presentations that ranged from the historical to contemporary across theory and practice.
RAU researchers Finn Godbolt and Daniel Collings were in London to present papers at the recent IFFTI Conference, Forming Futures.
Finn shared his insights into ways that analysis of historical dress can expand opportunities for ornamentation in menswear through digital knitting practices. Dan discussed textile design approaches that challenge binary gender assumptions of contemporary Western fashion, supporting a truer spectrum of self-expression. The two also presented findings from a recent RAU research collaboration, exploring interdisciplinary approaches to improve the wearability of next-to-skin e-textile applications. This research was undertaken by Finn Godbolt, Daniel Collings, Andrew Lowry, Jyoti Kalyanji, Andrew Lowe.
The conference was a great chance to connect with the London College of Fashion, and with international researchers across a broad range of context and practice through the IFFTI network.
