For the summer of 2013 Sharon Kallis and Caitlin ffrench in partnership with Vancouver Park Board and the West Point Grey Community hope to animate the old tennis courts behind Aberthau House by turning them into garden beds with a textile plant focus. We are specifically keen to plant flax for linen production, as well as natural dye plants. We will also be developing a plant rotation plan for future years of flax and dye plants and herb edibles.
This is but the beginning for a larger Urban Cloth Project that will hopefully unfold throughout 2014 with communities around Vancouver BC. For our 2013 research we are working with the MOP garden annual residency bed planting flax as well as a newly dug up part of sod from Park Board land outside the UrbanWeavers Studio who we are working with in Maclean Park. This project begins with local flax production for linen, and will expand from there. There are many local artists, weavers and friends in the community who are joining in to make this possible.