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.