PlantCraft

Community and connection with plants through art, craft, food and medicine.

PlantCraft is a 6-month, arts-based immersion into the world of plants where we learn by making and doing. We’ll explore local plant ecology through an arts-based lens, weaving baskets, carving with local wood, crafting herbal remedies, harvesting plant fibers and much more. Each month, you’ll be introduced to local species of plants and trees and their use in a variety of projects. 

Using plants for food, medicine, utility and adornment are practices both ancient and timeless. In this program, you’ll be invited to reconnect with skills that have been woven into our cultures, histories, and bodies for generations. Whether you’re an experienced artist or curious crafter, PlantCraft is designed to help you carve out time each month to nurture your creativity, on the land, in good company.

This program is for those who want to

• Deepen relationship with the plant world through embodied skills

• Cultivate hands-on skills and practices to share with your community

• Gain direct knowledge of key species that make up our local ecosystem

• Learn in a community setting with like-minded folks

PlantCraft is guided by an ethic of care for the land. We’ll be working with plants for their beauty and utility, as well as investigating their role in the landscape. Along the way, we’ll learn responsible harvesting guidelines and practices for stewarding wild plant communities. 

Session Dates and Information

PlantCraft consists of 6 sessions from June - October, always from 9 AM to 2 PM at GOS’ Stone Road site.

Sunday, June 1st Weaving Miki and Jen introduce you to ethical harvesting, ecology and weaving techniques with local plants.

Sunday, June 22nd: Wild Foods Cailey and Annie take you on an edible tour of field and forests surrounding GOS, foraging and preparing delicious local ingredients.

Sunday, July 13th: Carving Annie and Jen guide you through identifying, harvesting and techniques for working with local woods to create utilitarian and artisan carved items.

Sunday, August 10th: Medicine Making Dani and Annie share the medicinal properties of abundant plants in our backyard, and how to prepare them into tinctures, salves, and more.

Sunday, September 14th Natural Dyes and Ecoprinting Dani and Jen introduce the art and science of extracting colour from local plants, including vat dyeing, bundle dyeing, making inks and pigments, and eco-printing with plants and minerals.

Sunday, October 13th: Plant Fibers and Cordage Jen and Dani demonstrate how to prepare and process plants for their fibres, and transform them into rope and thread for various projects.

Meet your instructors

PlantCraft is co-created by Annie Sanassian, Jen Britton, Miki Tamblyn and Dani Hagel, four artists and educators who believe in craft as gestures of care for ourselves, each other and the lands that sustain us. We can’t wait to introduce you to some of the plants and skills that inspire us.

Annie Sanassian has fond memories as a kid discovering camel bones in the desert whilst exploring with her family. The bones were gifted to an artist friend and in reciprocity they were gifted back in art form. This process was awe inspiring and since, as an educator, spoon carver, mushroom farmer and owner of Full Moon Farm and Apothecary, Annie aims to integrate meaningful and creative relationships with nature and people. You might find her weaving branches, peeling bark, plucking leaves, chipping wood and experimenting with clay. She specifically loves carving playful and eccentric wooden spoons.

Dani Hagel is a herbalist, naturalist and artist whose work weaves together the art and science of plant medicine, naturalist knowledge, and the traditional folkways of her Black Sea German and Slavic ancestry. Inspired by the everyday magic of botanical colour, interspecies collaborations and wild plant stewardship, Dani believes land-based practices can help us guide us into right relationship with each other and the more-than-human world. She cultivates a diverse landscape of medicinal, edible and dye plants on her permaculture-inspired farm, Eramosa Herbals.

Miki Tamblyn is a mixed-media visual artist, wildlife biologist and student of the more-than-human world. They love to work with their hands to experiment, play, and create in collaboration with the other artists of our ecosystem, especially the plants. For Miki, crafting is a way to calm the minds and connect with life through our animal bodies. They are especially into weaving baskets, playing with natural dyes, and drawing the world around them. Miki believes that the embodied learning that comes through weaving, drawing, carving, touching, holding and feeling the earth can bring us deeper into loving relationship with our planet (Yay!)

Jen Britton’s relationship with plants began as a wee free girl of the 80's, romping through forests and watching her Oma garden. Plant crafting has provided her an opportunity to explore reciprocity, connect with community and deepen her relationship with the land. She is ever so grateful for the mothers and women in her life who gardened, preserved food, shared their knowledge of plant remedies and medicines and for her father’s love/respect of the natural world and all its beings.

Cailey Campbell is a mama, seedkeeper, culinary artist, and food grower. She has found solace and joy being by water for as long as she can remember and believes that the land and water are one of life's most precious teachers for cultivating our inner worlds.
Through her various roles at Skaronhyase'ko:wa (The Everlasting Tree School) in Six Nations, Cailey has had the honour of experiencing the multitudes of benefits to children in an earth-based education that is culturally-rooted. These experiences continue to inspire her and deepen her commitment to cultivating equitable and liberated relationships with the earth and each other.