EartHand Gleaners Society uses a community-engaged model for creating environmental art projects with opportunities for research, skill development and skill sharing. Our projects foster multicultural, interdisciplinary collaboration among community members and professionals in the fields of education, sciences and the arts.
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.
We aim to strengthen intercultural connections and relationships to place, and find meaningful ways to acknowledge our Host Nations. Respectful collaboration is the core of our practice
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 be a season of skills.
It starts with flint knapping, something I did not even know existed (I am a city person!), but before I could blossom into a rock hound and travel south to the obsidian fields the Bark basket workshop began. This 2-day class set the tone for everything to follow.
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!
Back to the bark basket workshop. You learn to make cordage and you learn to twine. You get to try over a dozen different plants for weaving, many you didn’t know could even be used this way! You twine some more but it is the wrong way and the basket comes out crooked. There’s no time to sulk though, next weekend you are processing flax and processing wild fibres: nettle, milkweed, dogbane. The magic of processing plant stalk into pliable fibre is mind-blowing, dizzingly special. Highly recommended to all those who think there is no more magic to be experienced in this world.
Summer brings another 2-day workshop: willow market basket weaving. Using the actual willow shoots is so different from the bark and soft fibres of the other classes. I wasn’t sure if this was for me. But once the base is done you start to weave. It feels familiar. Hey this is like the twining in the bark basket class. Hey you twine and you are better at it now, the familiar motion. You twine and think about how all these skills are the same and you just build upon them. You think about how everything is connected and that this action of twining was done by humans thousands of years ago everywhere on Earth and how we are all connected by the action of creating and our relationship with and inter-dependence on our plant kin.
Another bonus of taking all the classes is watching the garden and our plant kin through the season. The ground goes from bumpy flat to plants that are taller than us. Fireweed blooms, blackberry tips trails, stinging nettle stings as you try to work around it… Is the woad setting seed already? Plants stunt in the drought and others decide to somehow thrive anyway. Seeing the plants we use through the seasons is such an essential part of learning these craft skills. The EartHand programs uniquely offer this through growing plant materials for classes and sharing with membership holders.
By this time you have developed your fibre eye and see usable material everywhere. You spend too much time collecting morning glory, blackberry, corn husks and other things available in abundance. When you take you say a prayer of thanks and leave any seeds and plant matter you will not use behind (or your own variation of this important ritual).
By fall you are too overwhelmed by the possibilities of our natural world and art-making and the meaning of it all that it is nice to sit back in dye class and watch the magic of dying occur through the application of heat and time. The botanical print class using fall leaves and flowers was an exciting reminder of how many of our everyday sights produce infinite combinations of prints and colour. Also highly recommended to all those who are feeling bored with life and think they’ve seen it all.
Fall rains arrive. Plants have been harvested and are drying to be used for next year’s programs. You organize your own fibre stash to use for this winter and beyond and marvel at your incredible luck to live in such a world. With a keen eye and tender heart you will do it all again next season.
Wintertime is Zoom-Crafting time for much of EartHand… a great time for our members who live beyond an easy travel distance to our learning gardens.
Membership is required to participate in these programs- either a 2025 membership, or get your 2026 membership here- sliding scale from free to $100.
Programs are listed by the day of the week to help you plan by your availability, and run from Sundays to Wednesdays. Scroll through to not miss programs happening soon! Often Zeffy will provide more information on the ticket so click on the link to zeffy for both more information and to register.
Programs are being offered for free, with donations made through program registration going primarily to our volunteer community hosts. Thank you for supporting our programs and being a part of the EartHand community!
Hosted by Sharon Kallis, open work time with a focus on hand stitching garments- from scratch or for repair and remaking.
This program is free for EartHand members, but donations are gratefully received with 90% going to the volunteering community host and 10% towards EartHand administrative costs.
As a reference, in our past online paid programs we have charged a sliding scale of $10-$25 per session to pay fair value to program facilitators.
Max 10
In Person Maker-Time & Conversation Circles
At the eco-pavilion in Strathcona community garden
A combination of both unstructured co-working time, and focused conversations about how we are shaping the EartHand community. Time to gather around a cozy woodstove fire, bring lunch and water.
December 7– Conversation Circle- reflections on membership. What’s next? What roles need defining? And general maker time in each others company.
January 4 – Get in the spirit of the approaching St Distaff day. Let’s gather to spin and cordage make. Bring your own materials and tools.
January 18- A general maker time for conversations about 2026 in person programs.
February 1 – A continuation of conversations about 2026 in person programs and other ideas that have come up during general maker time.
Join Zane Markley Mondays for mending time and conversation. A great chance to keep that mending pile from getting overwhelming, and get inspiration and ideas for those mends that keep your gear in rotation.
This program is free for EartHand members, but donations are gratefully received with 90% going to the volunteering community host and 10% towards EartHand administrative costs.
As a reference, in our past online paid programs we have charged a sliding scale of $10-$25 per session to pay fair value to program facilitators.
Cozy up with fibres for prepping or your spindles and wheels, and lets deep dive into past copies of the Spin Off magazine that are accessible digitally though the Vancouver Public Library. By screensharing articles of interest, we can delve deep into the physics of twist, ply and other interesting tidbits we find. co-led by Zane Markley and Sharon Kallis
This program is free for EartHand members, but donations are gratefully received with 90% going to the volunteering community host and 10% towards EartHand administrative costs.
As a reference, in our past online paid programs we have charged a sliding scale of $10-$25 per session to pay fair value to program facilitators.
Let’s collectively unpick the historic threads that make up the tapestry of industrialization, colonization, and the race to undervalued textiles. note- Individual tickets are for all 4 nights.
We start by setting our intentions of how we show up for each other within the circle.
Then readings from Walter Rodney’s How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, and Empire of Cotton – A Global History by Sven Beckets, launch us into conversations towards unknitting these twisted threads.
Like a visual graph for knitting fairisle- what pattern might emerge in ‘looking big-picture’ at the long, repetitive nature of dates and intersectional happenings related to land grabs, disruptive technologies and forced migrations to cities and different lands?
Following excitement from the summer braiding sessions, Carla Frenkel investigates a book on Straw Plaiting, each session looking to decode steps to different braids in the book- think of this as
a maker-focused book/technique club on zoom.
This program is free for EartHand members, but donations are gratefully received with 90% going to the volunteering community host and 10% towards EartHand administrative costs.
As a reference, in our past online paid programs we have charged a sliding scale of $10-$25 per session to pay fair value to program facilitators.
Join Sandra Vander Schaaf for handwork time while listening to podcasts featuring Indigenous voices and perspectives. A short conversation after allows reflecting on the podcast.
This program is free for EartHand members, but donations are gratefully received with 90% going to the volunteering community host and 10% towards EartHand administrative costs.
As a reference, in our past online paid programs we have charged a sliding scale of $10-$25 per session to pay fair value to program facilitators.. Max 10
Daytime weekly co-working sessions to start the new year. Time for setting intentions, project planning, finishing those UFO’s… and garden dreams! Led by Carla Frenkel
This program is free for EartHand members, but donations are gratefully received with 90% going to the volunteering community host and 10% towards EartHand administrative costs.
As a reference, in our past online paid programs we have charged a sliding scale of $10-$25 per session to pay fair value to program facilitators.
Join us in the gardens to help with the end of the growing season tasks. Working alongside the amazing EartHand stewardship crew in the autumn is a great time to familiarize yourself with the gardens, help with harvesting plants grown for fibre like nettles and milkweed, transplanting dogbane, planting red osier dogwood stakes and more. Hot tea and hearty snacks will be served!
Happening at Trillium Park /Skwachàys, corner of Malkin and Thornton Street
Join EartHand members in celebrating both the wild and domesticated fibres found around us this season – with maybe a few surprise domesticated fibre guests!
Spinners and non-spinners alike are welcome to come down and participate.
An opportunity to handle wool from Barnston island dyed with local plants, seed fluff, fireweed, nettles and more.
This is an outdoor event, under cover as required- please dress for the weather,
bring a tea cup, spinners bring your wheels, drop spindles and carders.
Non spinners, bring your hands ready for a tactile experience of fibre processing!
A free event, please get a ticket to help us plan and get in touch with any last minute event information.
Join us for a gentle celebration of all things fireweed!
We will once again gather to honour the many gifts fireweed has to offer.
Please register here, Your free ticket helps us out to know how much fireweed tea to brew, as well as allowing us to reach out and share more information about the event ahead of time.
The fireweed plant offers us so many gifts from tea to natural dye, strong and useful fibre and even a lovely soft workable fluff if we get the timing just right.
This Sunday afternoon is a chance to drink some fireweed tea, meet others amongst the fireweed patch and spend some time with busy hands learning from this plant that has so much to share!
“Like threads spun from nettle or fireweed, our lives interlace with moments of stillness and creativity. Amidst the flames of chaos in our current climate and political upheaval, these fibres become more than material—they are metaphors for resilience, weaving together skills, stories, and silent conversations with the land.
As an American living in Canada, witnessing the world swirl in ever‑deepening uncertainty, I’ve found solace and belonging in the EartHand Gleaners Society—a collective grounded in the rhythms of the Earth, the hands‑on magic of fibre, and the warmth of communal fireside-like gatherings. In this shared labour we find what truly matters: presence, purpose, and the profound gift of belonging”. Lex Battle (Board of Director since 2023)
Upcoming programs are a part of our workshops for EartHand members. Membership is free for Indigenous community members and otherwise starts at just $15 for the year and includes all kinds of other maker opportunities. Find out more and get your membership here.
Summer Yellows Wool Dye Session
Sunday July 27 11am to 4 pm
Instructor: Carla Frenkel
Sliding scale of $160, $135, $110 includes all materials
Exploring the seasonal bounty in the gardens mid-summer including weld, goldenrod, mahonia bark and other plants/funghi in season offering a multitude of yellow dyes on a white and grey fleece.
Washing and mordanting fleeces and some harvesting for the dye session will be attended to during Friday night member socials leaving the studio day for focusing on the plant processing, dye pots and post-dye modifications.
Two Barnston Island fleeces that are a gotland/romneyX or gotland/BFL X that will blend together well in a finished project will be split between the three single dye sessions we are offering. Based on raw wool weight, we anticipate approximately 100 gms of dyed wool going home each day with each participant.
Participants are strongly encouraged to attend either stewardship sessions or the Friday socials in the few weeks leading up to the studio day.
Want to Register? As soon as you register to be a member you will be emailed a google form to put your name on the classes you wish to take. Register to be a member here.
Grass, Barks and Braids Exploration
Thursday August 21 5.30-8.30pm
Intructors: Carla Frenkel and Sharon Kallis
Sliding scale: $100, $75, $50
Join Sharon and Carla for an informal play night with the local grasses and expanding our capacity of braids. Let’s talk about all things bias- the benefit and utility of braids is in the flexibility! We will explore some core skills and make some samples that could lead to future ambitious cohorts such as braided hats, bags and more. Fibres we will have available to
explore include the abundant grasses at Trillium, as well as barks, fireweed, blackberry and sedges.
Members in the Wild Fibres for Textile and Basketry program will find this a helpful chance to explore techniques they can use with their own fibre stash, but all members are welcome.
Want to Register? As soon as you register to be a member you will be emailed a google form to put your name on the classes you wish to take. Register to be a member here.
Autumn Botanical Prints
Sunday September 21 11-4pm
Intructor: CZarina Lobo
Sliding scale of $150, $125, $100
This autumn dye session will focus on printing on post consumer linen using tannin and alum as a mordant for bright and bold colours and prints that celebrate autumnal abundance such as coreopsis, marigolds, fallen leaves and other seasonal offerings.
Linen square swatches suitable for quilting, small textile projects and patching will be provided and participants are invited to bring one small cellulose fibre garment –clean and scoured, tank tops, t-shirts or light weight linen shirts ready for a quick iron mordant before bundling.
Expect strong black/dark tone botanical image transfers and generally muted prints.
Participants are encouraged to attend stewardship sessions and the Friday socials leading up to the program to help in the gathering and preparation for the session.
Want to Register? As soon as you register to be a member you will be emailed a google form to put your name on the classes you wish to take. Register to be a member here.
Mushroom Introduction and Appreciation weekend!
October 18th – meet at Trillium and carpool or at Strathcona Community garden
October 19th – at Trillium
Sliding scale $ 280, $250, $220
A local foray into looking for mushrooms in the Strathcona area, discussion around identification, ecosystems and reciprocity,
Instructors: Carla Frenkel and TBC, more information on this program to follow!
Want to Register? As soon as you register to be a member you will be emailed a google form to put your name on the classes you wish to take. Register to be a member here.
EartHand is so very excited to help the Russells, our favourite Fibre Farmers get fleece into the hands of urban crafters this year!
Join us
Sunday May 25th
12noon to 4pm
at Trillium Park
corner of Malkin and Thornton Streets.
(Cash only) sales of fleece and a fleece auction with a full afternoon of demonstrations.
We hope this is a great way for our car-free friends in the city to have access to both raw and clean fleece in various amounts – without having to head out to the larger fleece auctions outside the city.
April is the month to jump in to either garden for an orientation session to find out about what is growing in the gardens, help with seasonal tasks- including the ever popular fence weaving- and join our weekly stewardship teams that keep the gardens in good nick, while assisting to harvest the plants used in EartHand programs. After an orientation in either garden, individuals are welcome to join our Slack channel where ongoing updates and garden conversations take place.
Bring your own gloves, water bottle, cup for tea and wear closed toe shoes with a good tread, and dress for the weather- sun hats or rain hats as required! Please pre-register to assist us in planning for breaktime snacks and tea.
Any of these sessions are a perfect time to familiarize yourself with the Trillium gardens as plants are just beginning to grow. Expect a short tour of the garden areas and time to assist with seasonal tasks, including bark stripping for upcoming programs .
Starting April 23 our regular stewardship times are Tuesday nights at Trillium gardens and Wednesday nights at MOP through the growing season.
This feature program runs outside of our membership series of Patchwork Programming, and is an excellent starter commitment for folx interested in joining in to learn new skills, meet many of the artists that work with EartHand as well as some of our favourite plants that grow in the learning gardens. Week one (with CZarina) will be the building of a hoop-style willow basket frame and each monthly session is a chance to focus on a different plant coming into season in the gardens for weaving in the form. Plants to be used over the season include willow, english ivy, willow bark, blackberry and daylily and more. Techniques include forming willow hoops, Ojo de Dios bracing, twining, short rows, braiding 2 ply cordage, vine and branch splitting. Note, we have a special day planned for apple gleaning at MOP Sept 27 with our baskets, so add that date to your calendar!
Flax to Linen 2025 Grow Along starts on April 6th
6 Sundays, 11am-3pm: April 6, May 11, June 8, Jul 6, Aug 17, Sept 28
Led by Sharon Kallis, Sliding scale: $545, $ 515, $480
Includes all supplies except seeds for any personal planting.
6 Monthly sessions take the group through sowing, weeding, harvesting, retting and all the steps leading to spun linen. Participants will leave with a full understanding of the complete process from seed to spun line ready for weaving, processed and spun seed variety samples and some stricks for continued personal spinning. Using heirloom variety flax straw grown at Kwantlen University in 2023 as “learning flax” participants have the opportunity to practice breaking straw, hackling, and spinning stricks to linen thread. A small demonstration plot at Trillium gardens will also be grown, tended, harvested and retted by the flax cohort so all the steps from seed to thread are experienced. Register or read more at the full description here.
And, four exciting programs for members in April. Annual memberships start at $15, and come with lots of community perks! Get your membership here, and an invitation to register for the programs below will be sent to you right away.
Curious to know more about membership perks? More info here!
Introduction to Flint Knapping
Sunday April 12 1-4pm
Sliding Scale $125, $100 and $75 includes materials
Instructor: Harley Slade
Ground yourself in the local history of materials and methods of this and other regions.
Learn to strike flakes from a rock! Learn to pressure flake.
Local master knapper, Harley Slade guides a workshop introducing students to the various skills required to shape suitable rocks such as obsidian, chert, glass and ceramic into useful cutting tools, arrowheads, knives, spear points and chisels.
This celebratory day of printing on linens will focus on highlighting the high-tannin leaves of spring and offers a chance to explore the chemical and colour results from the exciting relationship between tannin and iron.
Linen square swatches suitable for quilting, small textile projects and patching will be provided and participants are invited to bring one small cellulose fibre garment –clean and scoured, tank tops, t-shirts or light weight linen shirts ready for a quick iron mordant before bundling.
Expect strong black/dark tone botanical image transfers and generally muted prints.
Participants are encouraged to attend stewardship sessions and the Friday socials leading up to the program to help in the gathering and preparation for the session.
This weekend program is a wonderful opportunity to spend time working with the beautiful willow bark coming from the urban learning gardens under EartHand’s care. Hosted during the spring bark harvesting window, participants will be able to strip some bark from our local willow, and explore techniques from plain weaving, twining and more with simple finishing edges. Expect other locally bountiful plant fibres to make some guest appearances too! Participants can expect to leave with a small completed basket (or two)
Please note this workshop is outdoors and undercover as required. Please be prepared to dress warmly for the weather, bring a cup for tea and your personal lunch and snacks.
Members are encouraged to attend the Friday night socials in the weeks leading up to the workshop for assisting in bark stripping, and the stewardship nights for branch harvesting.
Material gathering and processing dates: Tuesday April 15, 22
Membership is a direct way of showing your support and intention to participate in making our community a bright-spot of hope and generosity for sharing and learning together.
Annual membership cost is a sliding scale of $100, $50 or $15 and free for Indigenous community members. These fees help cover our annual expenses such as bookkeeping software, insurance, and costs connected to being a registered non-profit .
An annual membership purchase in EartHand gives the member the ability to register for our sliding-scale programs- get your membership early and participate in the vote for what programs we create.
Membership dues are not required to participate in the garden stewardship sessions. A limited number of both free and paid workshops are offered outside of the membership program.
Membership includes:
Inclusion in the EartHand Membership Slack Channel to connect with other members,
Access to the members list to help you find other makers curious to learn along-side or willing to share techniques.
An open invitation to Members’ Socials hosted 3-7pm most Fridays at Trillium Park through the growing season ( May to October).
Access to the Members’ Event calendar and booking system for registration in sliding scale paid programs.
A vote at the 26 AGM (to be held in Feb ’27)
An invitation to step into community! Bring your skills, curiosity, and generosity and participate in building and maintaining both our community governance and gardens.
Please select which sliding scale option for membership you are able to afford. (This has no bearing on which of the future sliding scale options you choose for workshops).
We are making this up as we go along, building up EartHand into an Urban Skillshed/Fibreshed Village-like community.
We each decide how we can show up, what we can bring, and know that each one of us is enough as we are and do the best that we can.
In the near future we look forward to working with our membership to further develop our conflict resolution process and other community-based structures that keep us collectively strong, accountable and resilient.
Purchase your 2026 membership through zeffy – link just above.
Note, Zeffy is our free, Canadian ticket provider – you can change the amount of tip you wish to leave zeffy to 0%, or choose a set $ amount instead of the preset 15%. Zeffy offers non-profits like EartHand Gleaners a no-fees ticketing service so 100% of your membership payment comes to us. Any tip you wish to leave zeffy is your choice.
After completing your membership purchase you will receive a confirmation email with links to support next steps in participating in EartHand’s programming for 2025, including:
A Member Profile form. This might take 2-10 minutes to complete, depending on how much you wish to say! This form is shared with other members as a way of finding our like-minded folx in the community.
An invite to join the EartHand Community Slack channel. New to Slack? – follow these instructions to download app and get started.
Watch your inbox for special membership emails with invitations to help shape the direction of programs as well as to attend member events.
Background:
Since its founding in 2013, beyond a volunteer board of directors that supported the volunteer work of the executive director /artistic director, EartHand has had stewardship at the centre of most community volunteering opportunities.
In 2025, we are cracking that open and finding new ways of creating spaces for meaningful participation. We are working to flatten our decision making process and ‘putting on hold’ the role of the Executive Director, while opening up what our Board of Directors can look like within the constitutional limits of our Non-Profit.
In thinking about programs, community activation and individual participation and self-defined roles:
What if we collectively agree just about anything could be a “pilot program”?
What can we learn from trying new models of gathering?
Let’s work our way into new networks that build up our social governance for collective learning and mutual support!
As the ecosystem for non profit operation funding gets more precarious and less sustainable, our primarily volunteer-based model for ‘getting things done’ makes even more sense.
Having more of us identify what our strengths and abilities are that we can bring to the organization, and collectively, slowly, sorting out our communication and operational systems of holding us all together in this shared network feels exciting, challenging- and perhaps most importantly in these times- hopeful work we can lean into together.
Thank you for being a part of the EartHand community!
EartHand Gleaners Society 