We model how to “Be a Producer without first being a Consumer.”
To be outdoors working with others, hands in the soil; and being aware of, and depending on, interconnected relationships with the land, other people, and plants. By working with the plants around us using ancestral skills that link all cultures, we inspire participants to discover cultural connections, learn new skills, and see raw materials for creative practices in the world around them, including up-purposed seasonal greenwaste, invasive plants, and textile waste.
People get asked if I grew up around plants. Not really – I lived in a sparse suburb. EartHand has become my connection to the land that I otherwise never would have been able to build. I joined from a fiber perspective, and found a depth of connection to people and planet.
— Zane
Slowing down and learning hand skills is the ultimate antidote to our extractive, consumer-based model that dominates society. Who knew that “granny skills” would be subversive? I’m grateful to have stumbled upon Earthand and Sharon Kallis over a decade ago, as it has informed my entire trajectory as an artist.
— Christi York
In EartHand programs you are not given a shiny bundle of reed or cone of yarn to use. A spread of often wet plant matter (or dry plant matter that you then soak in water) is presented and the learning goes from there. This is the difference from other fibre-based programs. In EartHand programs you learn to responsibly harvest and process the natural materials and from there you are capable of doing everything yourself. What liberation from a craft economy that requires you to buy supplies! What joy! (Read more)
— Melissa Luk
Distro Disco is a mobile free store redistributing resources to anyone in need in so-called Vancouver’s East Side. In the fall of 2025 they established “Trillium Park” as the distribution location for the second Saturday of every month. Naturally, they noticed we are neighbours and reached out to…
I can still remember all the EartHand programs I missed: Fish Leather, Blue Nettle, Soil to Skin… some of them come and go, never to return. So when my schedule finally opened up this year I decided to take (almost) all the programs in one go. It would…
Sharon Kallis (she/they) With creative roots in the making of site-specific installations using park waste and invasive plants, since 2015 growing one’s own wardrobe- and being a doula for others aspiring to birth garments from the land- has been the focus. And always asking, In an urban contemporary life,…
Flax for linen was used by our paleolithic ancestors, possibly pre-dating the use of wool. It’s one of the oldest known agricultural crops, and varieties of it grow wild or cultivated in Europe, Asia and the Indian subcontinent and also North America, in climates ranging from the cool,…
