Paetuia Studio · Whanganui
Costume, craft, and workshops from the workroom of Lee Williams.
Lee Erihāpeti Williams is a costume maker, craft tutor, and artist-teacher working upstairs on Victoria Avenue. The room is open for practical workshops, small-group teaching, costume enquiries, and careful making.
01Workshops & classes
Learn the craft properly, in a small group.
01
Small groups
A handful of people at a time, so there is room to ask questions and be shown things properly.
02
Hands on the fabric
Proper time with the work — drafting, cutting, machining, finishing. Learning by making, not watching.
03
Held by experience
Sessions led by someone who has spent a lifetime across film, theatre, opera, and the teaching room.
Workshop dates and class lists are still being set — sewing, pattern drafting, garment construction, and how to keep a machine running well. Put your name down and Lee will be in touch as classes open.
Sewing machine basics and care
Pattern drafting foundations
Garment construction and finishing
Textile craft and handwork sessions
02Practice & craft
Lee Erihāpeti Williams · Costume maker · Craft tutor · Kaihoahoa Kākahu
A maker, teacher, and artist with the door open.
Lee has spent more than thirty years in costume, garment, and textile work across film, theatre, and opera — including costume and props making with Wētā Workshop on major screen productions, wardrobe for the stage, and ongoing work with the New Zealand Opera School. More recently she has been teaching fashion and costume, sharing the craft with the next set of makers.
Paetuia sits upstairs at 180 Victoria Avenue — a room that has held generations of seamstresses and makers, including Lee's own mother. She works there now alongside her daughter and mokopuna, and artist Amanda Searle. For a long time she has been behind other people's productions. Paetuia is where she stands in front of the work.
A note: named credits and titles are being confirmed before this page goes public.
03Workroom evidence
The work moves between costume, cloth, teaching, and hand skills.
This section should work before the final photo set arrives. It names what the room actually does, without pretending there is a finished portfolio archive.
01
Costume and production
Costume, props, wardrobe, garment construction, production support, and mentoring for screen, stage, opera, and local projects.
02
Workshop teaching
Small practical sessions in sewing, machine care, pattern drafting, fitting, finishing, textile craft, and confidence with tools.
03
Textile and handwork
Tātaki zome, embroidery, cloth-led storytelling, local flora and fauna, and slow hand processes that sit alongside the teaching.
04
A working room
An upstairs Whanganui workroom with tables, machines, tools, quiet concentration, and space for people to learn properly.
Photography notes: Lee in the room, hands working, tools on the table, people learning, and finished pieces can be added here later as a small edit, not a full gallery.
04Teaching & community
Useful learning, held in a working room.
Paetuia teaches the whole craft: assembling a proper toolkit, looking after the machines, drafting, cutting, fitting, finishing, and understanding why each step matters. People learn by doing, with enough room to ask questions.
Workshops can suit beginners, returning makers, community groups, or people already working in the field who want steadier foundations. The public offer will stay clear as dates and class shapes are confirmed.
05Kaupapa thread
Tō Kaupapa, Tāku Mahi, Tā Tātou Pūrākau.
Te ao Māori runs through the work as whakapapa, responsibility, material memory, and the stories carried by cloth. It is present without needing to become a pattern pasted over the page.
Lee and Amanda Searle also make textile pieces drawn from local flora, fauna, identity, and belonging, including tātaki zome — fresh flowers and flora pounded into calico and worked over with hand embroidery.
06For organisers & funders
Credible, practical, and easy to talk through.
A grounded workshop offer with clear community value.
Experienced delivery
Lee brings more than thirty years of costume, garment, textile, and teaching work into the room.
Clear workshop shape
Small groups, practical outcomes, plain requirements, and enough time for people to be shown properly.
Useful for funders
The work can be framed around learning, confidence, intergenerational craft, and community access without turning the public page into an application.
Confirmed credits, workshop dates, and public funding details can be added once Lee has signed them off.
Get in touch
Book a workshop, or email the studio.
Workshops are the clearest place to start. For classes, costume, mentoring, or a funded community session, send a plain note and Lee will reply from Whanganui.
Studio
Upstairs, Level 1, 180 Victoria Avenue
Whanganui 4500, Aotearoa New Zealand
Tues – Sat · by appointment