Upcoming Event

Learn to Tuft | Stacking Memory / PŌKĀKĀ

Next on:

Hātarei 20 Tīhema

Saturday 20 December

2025

11:30 AM

Blue Oyster, 16 Dowling Street, Ōtepoti Dunedinter

Hands touching tufted rugs made by Jessica Covell

Jessica Covell, Stacking Memory / PŌKĀKĀ (process image), 2025.

Saturday 20 December, 2025
11:30am-2:30pm (6x 25 minute sessions)
Bookings are required

Book in for a session with exhibiting artist Jessica Covell and learn how to tuft! Participants will learn how to safely operate a tufting gun, and contribute to a collaborative tufted rug under Jessica’s expert guidance.

Please note:

Each session is 25 minutes long. The session will begin with a safety briefing and an introduction to the craft, followed by guided hands-on time.

Tufting guns are light machinery and operating them is a physical task! For this reason, active participants must be 12 years or older. Kids must be accompanied by an adult.

We suggest 2-3 active participants per session, so each person has time to play. Additional people (and guardians) are welcome to listen and observe as the sessions take place.

This is a free event.

Bookings are required. Email admin@blueoyster.org.nz to book. Please include names, ages, and a contact phone number in your booking email.

Event accessibility information

Access to the gallery is via a slope and three steps.
A wheelchair ramp is available!
Refreshments are provided at all events.
Seating is available.
There is a toilet on-site (not wheelchair accessible).

Do contact admin@blueoyster.org.nz with any access questions or requirements, we’d love to have you with us.

Jessica Covell

Jessica Covell is an Ōtepoti Dunedin-based installation artist, curator, and project director exploring the intersections of art, community, and play. Through a series of Spectacle and solo projects, Covell has created collaborative experiences that celebrate accessibility and connection.

Covell’s playful, immersive works invite interactivity. Her fibre-based tufted installations explore colour, texture, and pattern and often double as social experiments.

Recent site-specific works focus on the connections between plants, people, and place. Covell’s practice is continually shaped by memories of nature.