It feels so good to gather in person again!
We have some outdoor open studio sessions planned, as well as community events that you will find us at over the summer months, as we share skills and methods for processing both nettle, flax for linen and wool fleece for spun lines that will be dyed and woven as a part of our artists in residence 2022 projects.
Sundays July 3 and 17th 12-4pm Free, drop in, bring your own projects or help us with ours!
Friday July 17 6-9pm- Fibre Social Night! Free, registration appreciated for those that will assist our fibre processing.
Bring your own picnic and projects, meet other fibre enthusiasts and enjoy an evening in the park surrounded by wools, linens and dye plants in progress to becoming cloth.
Spinners’ Walks: Join us for a morning walk in the gardens for spinning, ropemaking, and observations as we slow down while we move amongst the plants, seeds, birds, bees and insects. August 14 at Means of Production and August 21st at Trillium park.
This year we are busy trying to keep up on the fast growing plants in both our gardens, and finding times to meet in person- often in our smaller research groups that have come together for our Braiding Threads research project. As well, our artists in residence Anna and Meagan are meeting up with Sharon in the gardens or at our outdoor studio at Trillium Park now with regularity and exciting projects are afoot.
A part of our busy-ness behind the scenes involves David Gowman making two looms for outdoor community spaces! As a part of Meagan’s residency time, she has aided us to site a Salish style loom in the lupin and nettle garden. The top beam is from a cottonwood tree that had volunteered on site and that needed to be removed- we are happy to put this offering of wood to use back in the garden, and dye pots will be be created throughout the summer from the results of seasonal garden stewardship.
The loom will be installed in such a way as to allow the weaving and horizontal bars it is stretched on to come off and go in storage between weaving session, and sometimes be warped up in such a way to encourage community passers by to add along.
The second loom is now situated in the Hastings Folk Garden on East Hastings Street, and artist and community weaver Cait Hurley of Gentle Geographies, alongside Daniela Guerrero-Rodriguez and Hives for Humanity will be connecting with us to activate that loom. The threads that Cait and Daniela are weaving in this community are a part of the larger Braiding Threads research project investigating growing governance and community care with cloth/clothing as the medium for opening up new connections and conversations.
The loom was warped for the first time by Jen Hiebert and Sharon Kallis as a part of the National Indigenous Peoples Day Celebrations in the Hastings Folk garden on summer solstice. Cait, and community members from Hives for Humanity hosted a beautiful event for the first community weaving. If you wish to visit this loom, the garden is located at 117 East Hastings and is open to the public on Wednesdays from 1 to 3 pm.
And, garden work continues! If you wish to join us in the gardens, we meet regularly at Means of Production on Wed evenings and on Tuesday evenings you will find us at work at Trillium park. Reach out at earthandgleaners(at)gmail.com if you would like to get involved and join us.
