Community Weaving Project: A Refuge in the Garden

Instructor: Susan Raber Bray
Schedule:  
Saturday & Sunday, February 5 - 6 from 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM (Intro presentation / Structure / Prepping the loom and collecting materials)
Saturday, February 19 from 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Saturday, March 5 from 10:00 AM - 1:30 PM - Final ceremony

# of Sessions: 4
Location: TBD
Level/Prerequisite: All Levels
Tuition/Admission: $0
Supply Fee: Suggested Donation of $10 - $35 per person (covers material preparation)

Class Description: 
In this workshop, participants will learn to weave together materials from nature and our stories from the past and present to connect with our environment. The structure will be about 8 - 10 ft in height and will be designed by the participants using a hexagon or octagon shaped structure made out of local bamboo. The walls will be covered by screens made using a Japanese stone weaving technique.  The flooring and roofing will also be woven using basket weaving techniques. This workshop will be perfect for nature lovers, gardeners, educators and artists. Simple techniques learned in this workshop can be easily applied in your home garden to create an intimate place for family and friends to gather.

This experience that weaves ideas and people has been funded by the Biennium Grant.

Instructor bio:
Susan Raber Bray, born in New York and living in Vermont since the early 70’s, works in several media, including clay, oils, pastels and natural found materials. Her work is shown both nationally and internationally. In recent years Susan has held clay workshops in France, England, and Italy. As a visiting artist sponsored by the Vermont Council On The Arts (since 1989) she has taught in numerous Vermont public schools. Over the past 40 years she has taught at many Vermont colleges; The University of Vermont in the Art department and the Environment Program, The Community College of Vermont, St Michael’s College, Champlain College, Rhode Island School of Design and her own studio school, Springhousearts in Charlotte.

Supply fee includes:
Some pre harvested materials and looms

Students should bring:
Palm fronds
Stems of large flowers
Tree and shrub prunings
Tea leaves
Any materials you can find in your garden and land around your house!

Syllabus:
Day 1: Into to workshop
Presentation of a structure I made using natural materials.
Hands on discussion of the various materials we will be using. How to gather and prepare materials. I will have examples of the materials, explaining  how different materials will be used for different parts of the structure. We will also talk about gathering stones for weaving the next day.
Building the frame of the structure with Bamboo.

Day 2: Intro to Japanese Stone Weaving
Review / Organize Materials
Intro to Japanese stone weaving. These weaving will be the walls of the structure.
Set up the looms and learn how to wrap stones.
Demo of how to weave  on the looms and demo on how to do the  twinning technique  on the bottom of the structure and potentially on parts of the roof.
Afternoon discussion on what type of roof they would like to make as we continue to weave.

Day 3: Continuation of weaving the walls.
Start to make the roof. Everyone will have the opportunity to work on all the different parts of the structure!

Day 4: Final Ceromony
Attaching the walls to the structure.
Attaching the roof to the structure.
Potluck Party!

Minimum Enrollment: 8
Maximum Enrollment: 12