EartHand Gleaners Society

art ~ ecology ~ people

  • #Treasuring Strathcona: Sewing Circle (1)

    Last Tuesday we held our first sewing circle at the Community Centre. It was a cozy and fun evening as we stitched together the first layers of the Treasuring Strathcona legacy art piece with new and old friends.

    The foundation of the piece draws inspiration from Janey and Jay’s “in the long ago…” project that was made in collaboration with youth from the Strathcona Childcare Centre earlier this year (read more about the project here: https://earthanddotcom.wordpress.com/2019/04/30/treasuring-strathcona-garden-trails/ ).

    Janey, Jay and the kids wanted to imagine how the space of this neighbourhood might have looked and felt before European contact and what plant, bird, fish and animal life might have lived alongside the Indigenous peoples of this land.

    They used images of footprints to incorporate the idea of mapping place and being on the land. This is something we wanted to carry into the legacy art piece, a mingling of ancient and recent histories and depictions of plant and animal presence alongside human life.

    Treasuring Strathcona from its inception has been focused on the idea of mapping the neighbourhood and exploring how cartographies might be reconsidered, animized and decolonized. The final piece in this project will live at the Community Centre and our intention is for the work to map the many histories that are held in this vibrant place.

    Our next Sewing Circle is November 21st (7-9pm) and will be held in the Multipurpose Room on the 2nd floor of the Strathcona Community Centre. Come join us and add your mark to this collaborative neighbourhood art work.

  • #Treasuring Strathcona: World Food Day

    On World Food Day, Alex Ramirez hosted a stitching event at the Strathcona Community Centre. He was joined by stitchers of all ages and they worked on cloth that was collaboratively dyed & printed with food and medicinal plants harvested from the Strathcona Community Garden in September.

    Treasuring Strathcona will be holding a series of stitching circles in the coming months, leading towards the collective creation of a final art work which will live at the community centre. The dates for these circles are as follows: Tue. Oct 29 (7-9pm) – Activity Room (main floor), Thu. Nov 21 (7-9pm)  – Multipurpose Room (2nd floor), Thu. Nov 28 (7-9pm) – Activity Room (main floor). Come join us!           

  • #TreasuringStrathcona: World Food Day

    On World Food Day, Alex Ramirez hosted a stitching event at the Strathcona Community Centre. He was joined by stitchers of all ages and they worked on cloth that was collaboratively dyed & printed with food and medicinal plants harvested from the Strathcona Community Garden in September.

    Treasuring Strathcona will be holding a series of stitching circles in the coming months, leading towards the collective creation of a final art work which will live at the community centre. The dates for these circles are as follows: Tue. Oct 29 (7-9pm) – Activity Room (main floor), Thu. Nov 21 (7-9pm)  – Multipurpose Room (2nd floor), Thu. Nov 28 (7-9pm) – Activity Room (main floor). Come join us!           

  • #Treasuring Strathcona: Artists’ Share

    • Amy trying her hand at making a leaf rubbing.
    • Plants harvested from Cottonwood Community Garden were added to the piece.
    • Beautiful leaf!
    • Lots of young hands came and stitched with us!

    Last week Treasuring Strathcona had the pleasure of joining Amy Walker for Artists’ Share at the Community Centre. We spent a joyful afternoon stitching on cloth that was collaboratively dyed & printed with plants harvested from the Strathcona Community Garden.

    Passersby also added to an ongoing leaf rubbing project that holds botanical impressions from plants growing in the Strathcona and Cottonwood Community Gardens as well as MacLean Park and the eastern part of the neighbourhood. Plants tell us so much about the place we live in, they speak to the cultural and ecological complexity of this neighbourhood, from cedar, to tansy, to bamboo.

  • #Treasuring Strathcona: Fall Harvest Festival

    On September 21st the Strathcona Community Garden held their annual Fall Harvest Festival. It was such a lovely afternoon spent in a beautiful community space with live music, bread fresh from the cob oven, and remarkable knowledge holders found throughout the garden. We hosted an activity table where we explored natural dyeing, eco-bundling and plant rubbings.

    Alex and Anna wanted to work with food and medicinal plants growing in the garden space, so they harvested leaves and dug through the compost heap to find source plants. These included: sunflower, goldenrod, rosemary, butternut, apple, paw paw, persimmon, plum and many other plants and trees.

    #Treasuring Strathcona will be a part of Strathcona Community Centre’s Artist Share series this Thursday (October 3) @ 3 – 6 pm. Come join us and help stitch together some of this remarkable place-making cloth.

    Check out the gallery of images to see pictures of the cloth we collectively dyed and printed!

  • Youth4Nature

    Ongoing work with Stanley Park Ecology Society over the last year will culminate in a final installation session October 5th 1-4pm. Geared to youth from 13- 3o, can you join us?

    Register here

    We will be digging, planting, weaving and more to complete this site rehabilitation, dress for the weather- rain or shine!

  • Fish Leather Sewn Pouches with Janey Chang

    2 Thursdays, November 7 and 14 6-9 pm

    Maclean Park Fieldhouse 710 Keefer St
    Register here $65 – materials extra as stated below

    Janey will lead participants through the creation of their own unique projects, providing templates and patterns for a few simple projects, or, bring a clear idea of your own design.

    These two sessions are a chance to work on your stitching; understanding simple methods of folding and piecing together small  pieces. 

    This class does not include materials: finished salmon leather skins will be available for pre-purchase from Janey up to 10 days before class at $22 per skin, max 5 per student. An email with a paypal link for  leather purchase will be sent out to registered participants on October 17. Those who purchase skins will receive them the first class. Participants are encouraged to take the leather making class and bring their own skins!


    • Seamless and Stitched Felt Vessels with Amy Walker

        2 Wednesdays, November 13, 20 6.30-9 pm

        Maclean Park Fieldhouse, 710 Keefer St.

        Register here $85– materials extra

        Hats or Bags? Make a vessel for your head, or for other useful things!

        These two nights introduce basic seamless wet-felted construction using resists as well as stitching methods for joining and decorating with felt.  Personal flare encouraged! Depending on the scope of project undertaken, participants can expect to work independently between sessions to complete the project and to choose a project within their time and skill capacity. This class does not include materials, for those not taking the wet felting class, felt will be available for sale by weight during class, expect $15-35 in cost. Please bring cash for the instructor.

      • Stitched Felt Vessels with Amy Walker

          2 Wednesdays, November 13, 20 6.30-9 pm

          Maclean Park Fieldhouse, 710 Keefer St.

          Register here $85– materials extra

          Hats or Bags? Make a vessel for your head, or for other useful things!

          These two nights introduce basic stitching construction with felt, managing edges and pattern basics. Personal flare encouraged! Depending on the scope of project undertaken, participants can expect to work independently between sessions to complete the project and to choose a project within their time and skill capacity. This class does not include materials, for those not taking the wet felting class, felt will be available for sale by weight during class, expect $15-35 in cost.

        • Salmon Leather Tanning with Janey Chang

          new dates_ 2 Thursdays, October 17 and 24 6-9 pm

          710 Keefer St.- Maclean Park Fieldhouse

          $125 register here

          Fish skin leather is an ancient skill that was once common among ocean and freshwater  communities in the Northern Hemisphere. It is a beautiful textile that can be tanned in different ways to create a strong leather for clothing, pouches, wallets, footwear and art. In this class we will use the bark tanning method resulting in soft, burgundy-toned skins. You will have an opportunity to prepare between 1-5 or more fish skins into leather depending on the speed you work.

          Registration fee: $125 includes all materials