Flax weaving links

Flax weaving for sale online

The listings below link to a selection of the many flax weavers and retailers that offer flax weaving for sale online. Also a search for flax weaving on the TradeMe auction site results in a number of different flax items, including imported woven bags that are called 'flax' but are not made with NZ flax.

Woven flax bags / ketes for sale — handbags, shoulder bags, backpacks, purses and pouches:
1   2   3   4   5   6

Woven and netted flax flowers / puitputi for sale: 1   2  

Woven flax hats, garments and jewellery for sale: 1   2

Flax art for sale: 1   2   3   4   5  

Piupiu (flax capes or skirts) and poi for sale: 1  

Muka (prepared flax fibre)and netted flax for sale: 1   2   back to top

Flax weaving tutors and courses

Auckland: Unitec offers an elective of Toi Māori (Māori arts) which includes flax weaving.

Raglan: Marianne from woven.nz offers weaving workshops. Ph 027 2275291 to pick a day for a workshop with short notice.

Rotorua: Te Puia offers a three-year full time weaving course and part-time community-based courses.

Wellington: Wellington High offers one-day workshops.

Nelson/Tasman: I offer one-day flax weaving workshops.

Several universities offer papers in flax weaving as part of a Bachelor of Arts or as a major component of a Bachelor of Māori Traditional Arts or a Bachelor of Māori Visual Arts — Te Wānanga o Aotearoa, Eastern Institute of Technology, University of Waikato and Auckland University. back to top

Online instructions and courses

On the Instructions page on this website I have step-by-step illustrated instructions a number of projects.

YouTube videos:
Small items: How to weave a rose or puti puti, a simple fish or ika, a Christmas Star or whetu, a simple two-cornered purse or kete and a four-cornered container or kono.
More complex items: How to weave a patterned basket or kete whakairo, part one and part two, a backpack or pikau, a baby carrier or wahakura, part one and part two, and tips and tricks for weaving a wahakura, a hat or potae, the process for making a skirt or puipui and a traditional muka hanging.

Online weaving courses:
Hetet School of Maori Art offers an online weaving course through video lessons.
Flax Floristry School offers an online course in flax floristry. back to top

Museum collections of flax weaving

The Auckland Museum website hosts a collection of 211 beautifully woven ketes (baskets), illustrating the creativity and the great diversity of weaving materials and designs used in traditional Māori weaving. Click on the images to enlarge them, and click on them again to enlarge them still further. When the images have been fully enlarged, they are shown in sufficient detail for an experienced weaver to see how they have been constructed.

There are several museum websites that reference their collections of flax weaving online. A search for kete in the Te Papa website will bring up images of nearly 500 kete. Currently Okains' Bay Museum, and the British Museum display few or no images of ketes.

If you’re visiting Christchurch, do make the time to visit the Okains’ Bay Museum, on Banks Peninsula. It has an extensive collection of Māori artefacts including some greenstone pieces and many woven exhibits including cloaks and baskets. Of particular interest are the fishing implements, many of which are woven from flax. Large flax fishing nets hang from the ceiling and a canoe with a woven flax sail makes a striking feature in the middle of the museum. back to top

Listings and images on this page

Some of the images on this page have been taken from sites that are also linked to in the text, and have been included on this page as an indication of the content of these sites. The site’s owners are all happy for their images to be used here.

If you advertise workshops or a course in flax weaving online, and if I haven’t listed you on this page, do drop me an email if you’re happy to be included in the listings above.

I’d also welcome links to interesting flaxworks that I haven’t listed, though the listings in the for-sale section are not meant to be comprehensive. They’re just based on what I think will be of interest to readers and on my personal taste.

If you happen to notice any broken links on this page before I do, I’d appreciate it if you would let me know. back to top