A gallery of the beautiful evening of walking, talking and dyeing with blackberry on May 10. Participants met out front of Strathcona Community Centre (601 Keefer St Vancouver); we talked about the land as it was before 1850 and shared what we knew of the plants, animals, and xwmkwy”m (Musqueam), Skwxw7mesh (Squamish) and sl”lwta”/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) people who shared it. Then we strolled the streets and alleys, identifying plants in various stages of life, and sharing what we knew of the gifts they give us: colours, fibre, strong vines or rods for baskets and structures. We saw two different kinds of introduced blackberry, and took cuttings from a large bank of himalayan blackberry to draw and add to the dyepot.

Jen made beautiful notebooks for each participant. The fibre samples mordanted with alum didn’t work as expected — there seemed to be a problem with the quality of the alum — frustrating to Anna and Jen but not a worry for most of the participants.

Next walk will be June 22 — event is free but please register — find the link to register on the #TreasuringStrathcona Fibre & Dye page when live