About Just a Simple Kete
Kia ora, my name’s Sue and I live on the Kapiti Coast with my husband, our lazy cat and the native birds who hang out in our slightly wild gardens amidst the native trees.
I have been weaving off and on for the last 15 years while working fulltime and being a fulltime Grandma. I was originally tutored by three fabulous local master weavers at Te Rau o Te Rangi weaving collective in Paekakariki. These wonderful women not only taught me to weave, but to understand and value harakeke as a taonga, not just as a beautiful garden plant.
I left work recently so I could focus on my weaving, my gardening and my mokopuna. I weave and sell from home.
My work is all about creating practical, environmentally sustainable, items of beauty.
As someone who has a strong connection with the earth, and as an avid gardener, I not only love the creative weaving process but also the connection with the harakeke itself as a taonga.
While weaving is a labour intensive process, it’s a labour of love.
Before I begin weaving I harvest, split the rau, hapene the whenu, boil the bundles of whenu, and hang them to dry. This enables me to store the harakeke until the weaving process begins.
As a creative process, a kete can take days or weeks to reach completion. No two kete are the same. They take on a life of their own and I just have to go with them.
