While the rest of the Sunshine Coast was weighed down by a heavy blanket of clammy fog this past Saturday morning, seven intrepid Fibreshed members were basking in unseasonably balmy sunshine high up in the old- and second-growth forest of Big Tree Recreation Site. Their mission? To suss out the kind of local magical mushrooms […]
Read MoreAuthor: Sunshine Coast Fibreshed
LearnAlong—Dyeing with Lobster Mushrooms
A lazy late summer morning outside the Sechelt Arts Council. Tables, chairs, a stack of colourful books with Magic in the Dyepot emblazoned on the covers, brown paper shopping bags filled with fibre. Busy Fibreshed members (keeping a COVID-safe social distance, of course). A friendly dog adding to the atmosphere. A vat of deeply-stained liquid […]
Read MoreFarm Market Day
Fibreshed members hosted a day featuring fibre produced here on the Coast, at Fibreworks Gallery in Madeira Park. The clear, sunny day required that we provide shade for everyone, and we followed social-distancing protocol throughout. Members of the public enjoyed seeing the processes of taking wool from the raw fleece all the way to a […]
Read MoreLearning about picking and carding
This LearnAlong, held outdoors at the Sunshine Coast Arts Centre, was all about picking and carding. Eight Fibreshed members gathered on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, keeping a safe physical distance and using wipes and hand sanitizer as per Covid-19 protocol. Wendy used the Patrick Green picker to open up the washed local Suffolk sheep fleece. […]
Read MoreWool Day at the Yurts
Our Fibreshed was the grateful recipient of many pounds of raw Suffolk fleece donated by the good people at Mason Bluff Farm in Sechelt (and by ten happy sheep who were glad to be shorn of their winter coats). The wool needed to be sorted and washed before it was usable, though, so several Fibreshed […]
Read MoreFibreshed at the Yurts
Fibreshed has set up a display table at Fibreworks Studio and Gallery in Madeira Park, BC. The natural colours from the 2019 Fibreshed dye garden are featured, along with colours from local lichens and mushrooms. On the shelves are items for sale, including batts, skeins, shawls, hats, buttons, ants . . . […]
Read MoreJanuary Mending Bar
The Sunshine Coast Fibreshed is now collaborating with the Gibsons Repair Café; we will be joining them on the last Saturday of every month at the Gibsons Public Library. Ann Harmer came with a basket full of socks that needed darning. Here you see her with the repair fellows in the background—they were kept busy […]
Read MoreLearnAlong—Mending Bar
Mending is often a task that gets put aside, with the risk that the mending basket can overflow to the point of being overwhelming. What better way to tackle this than to set aside a few hours when people can get together and turn the mending into a social occasion? We did just that for […]
Read MoreArt Crawl Weekend
Thanks all for a FAB Art Crawl weekend! The Sunshine Coast Fibreshed displayed the brilliant colours from local plants, roots, and mushrooms. And displayed techniques to create yarn from fleece . . . spinning. Jeannie and Deanna are making yarn using her treadle wheel while Doreen is spinning on her electric wheel. They will have […]
Read MoreLearnAlong—All about Alpacas
The fourteenth Fibreshed learn-a-long took place at Lorelee farm on July 27. Wendy Holtz, who has a herd of alpacas on Thormanby Island, was there to tell us about her experiences with herd behaviour and much more. We learned that alpacas can sometimes be expensive; female animals can cost up to $10,000 dollars. They like […]
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