EartHand Gleaners Society

art ~ ecology ~ people

  • 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

      • Wet Felting Basics with Amy Walker

        2 Wednesdays, October 23, 30 6.30- 9pm

        Maclean Park Fieldhouse 710 Keefer St

        $95 Register here

        Wet felting uses water and agitation to create fabric from animal hair/fibres (we’ll be using wool). This two-night class introduces wet-felting technique in the first session, with a follow-up night of experimentation and production! Participants will leave with at least two pieces of felt fabric made from merino wool and/or local, naturally dyed fleece. Felt fabric will be suitable for use in the vessel class as well as for mixing with salmon leather or other personal projects. All materials included.

        • Drop Spindle Introduction

          Monday October 28 6-9 pm

          Maclean Park Fieldhouse- 710 Keefer St

          $50 Register Here

          Are you clumsy with the drop spindle, or new to spinning and need some assistance and help getting going? If you find yourself too familiar with the ‘drop’ part of the spindle, this clinic will help get you spinning with confidence and more control over yarn production. Time will be spent learning proper carder use, understanding fibre staple lengths in relation to drafting process, and controlling the twist entering the fibre supply. Those with some basic familiarity with a drop spindle will get the most out of this clinic, but new spinners will learn much to help in understanding the process. Includes all materials and drop spindles for class use, personal spindles and carders welcome.

          Instructor: Sharon Kallis

          • Braids and Beyond

            Wednesday November 6 6.30-9pm

            Register Here$50

            Maclean Park Fieldhouse 710 Keefer St

            Instructor: Sharon Kallis

            Join Sharon for an evening of exploring different braid styles. General focus will be on learning  simple flat braids either 5, 7 or 9 strand, as well as a round 4ply braid. Using natural materials from our gardens as well as some of Sharon’s hand spun wool,  participants will leave with braid samples ready for use as hat bands, straps and more in other personal projects. Sharon has been very inspired in the last few months with the versatility of braids used in a variety of ways and is looking forward to a chance to geek out on these simple bias weave methods with others keen to learn. All materials provided

            Note: a pre-req for this class is  knowing the 3 strand braid.

            • Buttons: wood & antler

              October 3 6.30-9pm

              $32.00 Register here

              Maclean park Fieldhouse 710 Keefer St.

              Instructor: David Gowman

              What projects are your dreaming of for your  winter making nights?

              Spend an evening with David at the Fabulous Horn Shop cutting local hard woods and antlers from his saved stash for buttons and closures  that will come in handy for your knitting, weaving, felting and leather work projects.

              All materials for buttons included, students will hand saw, sand and drill their own buttons.

              • Walking with the Nettle

                Sunday October 6 1-4 pm

                Free, limited Space. tickets here Please show respect… if you take a ticket, show up!

                Stinging Nettle is a plant with many gifts to teach those willing to risk getting close. Urtica doica, the variety that grows both here and throughout the UK, has clothed our collective ancestors as have the other Urtica species that grow around the Northern hemisphere.  Join Sharon Kallis for a walking tour around the nettle patches in Trillium Park and learn the stories and knowledge Sharon has gained from both the plants and her many teachers over the last 15 years. Rain or shine, after a short walk, time will be spent under-cover processing harvested nettle stalks. Dress for the weather.

                Trillium North Park, corner of Malkin and Thornton Street.

                • Hand Care Salve with Cease Wyss

                  Maclean Park Fieldhouse, 710 Keefer St

                  $60.00 – postponed until Spring 2020

                  In this workshop participants will work with Cease, learning about the plants while making a salve that  heals hangnails and in general, cares for our hard-working hands that have done us so well through the garden season.

                   Cease will have started a batch earlier for maximum potency and each participant will leave with a jar from the evenings collective labour. We are thrilled to have Cease join us at Trillium to harvest from the healing  plants that are growing at MOP and Trillium. 

                  This is a wonderful opportunity to spend time in a small group with the Indigenous Plant Diva and share stories from the  garden.

                • #Treasuring Strathcona Leaf Rubbings @ MacLean Park Gallery

                  This whimsical project at MacLean Park before the Outdoor Movie Night on August 17 marked a turning point in EartHand’s AIC residency at Strathcona: Rebecca and Anna collaborating on a piece, the last one Rebecca will do for the residency before moving to a farm in the Fraser Valley.

                  Using graphite sticks and some of the homemade wax/tallow crayons Rebecca made for EartHand’s Soil to Sky project, Anna and Rebecca invited community members to stroll up and make rubbings of leaves and bits mostly collected from around MacLean Park (one very engaged person also went home and brought some things from their garden!). Most of the rubbings were done on a large sheet of cloth that will be transformed as it is included in more artwork to be done at events this fall. We also experimented with rubbings on silk organza and pieces of coarse linen — so beautiful, each with their own unique qualities.

                  When we were experimenting with different media for the rubbings in the weeks leading up to the event, Anna said this (and Rebecca thought it was brilliant):

                  “I like the graphite, it’s kind of ephemeral — like it could be there, and it could be gone — which is important when you’re talking about place and community.”

                  Oh, so true.

                • #Treasuring Strathcona: Goldenrod & Tansy Walk

                  The final Fibre & Dye walk in the series was held on the warm and sunny afternoon of July 20th. Our journey began at Strathcona Community Centre and continued through MacLean Park, Strathcona Park and the Cottonwood Community Garden. Cottonwood is a rambling garden, full of botanical surprises including established mulberry shrubs, shade tolerant figs, ripening plum trees and a recently, and rather violently, chopped down banana palm.

                  During the walk, we marvelled at how the parts of Strathcona we were travelling through rapidly moved between wild, cultivated, agricultural and industrial space—there is such a remarkable amount of diversity (plant, animal & cultural) held within a few city blocks. As we walked, we breathed in the pungent oils of aromatic plants, touched the roughness of comfrey and the stickiness of butternut leaves, and absorbed the visual abundance of blooming colour growing along the route. Observing and encountering plant life is not only about looking with our eyes, but also about touching, smelling and tasting—as through full sensory engagement we may more easily build and rebuild complex connections with botanical beings.

                  Back at Trillium Park we extracted goldenrod (Solidago canadensis) and revisited the dye-bearing potential of tansy (Tanacetum vulgare). Anna and Jennifer wished to re-examine tansy at the height of its blooming period and to compare its colour with goldenrod (our domestic “super dye” plant), which was just entering into flower. Tansy tends to hit warmer yellow notes, while goldenrod is known for bright and lightfast yellows. Neither plant disappointed our expectations!