Workshops
Please email Sandra Clarke for details of workshop availability. sandra@sandraclarke.ca
Visible Mending Workshop
Learn the art of visible mending in this interactive workshop.
Breathe new life in your clothes with repairs that strengthen and embellish your well-loved items using traditional stitching techniques.
This interactive workshop blends traditional mending techniques with some modern tricks to mend your jeans into wearable art.
Each participant will create their own stitched sampler to practice, and learn how to apply their new knowledge to mend a pair of jeans.
We used to mend and make clothing out of necessity due to lack of materials and funds.
Now we mend and make clothing out of necessity to slow the fast fashion industry.
Craftivism History + Workshop
Craft + Activism = Craftivism
Travel through time and discover Craftivists in the past who laid the foundation for contemporary craftivism projects. After the presentation participants will begin to build their own craftivism project by making a mind map of ideas, materials needed, and the message they want to convey to the world.
The History of Quilting and Activism
From the origins of European quilts to descendants of American slaves in Gee’s Bend to the Freedom Quilts of the 1960s and 1980s AIDS quilts participants will learn how quilts played an integral part of communication, civil rights, and protest movements. Arpilleras (brightly coloured fabric quilts) were made in Chile in the 1990s that told the story of missing and murdered people as a result of Chile’s the brutal dictatorship. Welsh women by the hundreds protested in Greenham Common against American nuclear presence in Wales. The rich history of quilting and activism has a contemporary life that will be discussed in this interactive presentation.
Natural Dyeing Fabric With Food
This hands-on workshop will demonstrate dyeing fabric with food items headed for the compost bin. Turn red cabbage into gorgeous blues, reds, and purples. Watch spinach reveal various hues of green and turmeric makes fabric vivid yellow. Rusted cookie sheets and kitchen tools revealed subtle shades of orange and brown. Create the rainbow on fabric for quilting, embroidery, and sewing projects.
Learn the art of visible mending in this interactive workshop.
Breathe new life in your clothes with repairs that strengthen and embellish your well-loved items using traditional stitching techniques.
This interactive workshop blends traditional mending techniques with some modern tricks to mend your jeans into wearable art.
Each participant will create their own stitched sampler to practice, and learn how to apply their new knowledge to mend a pair of jeans.
We used to mend and make clothing out of necessity due to lack of materials and funds.
Now we mend and make clothing out of necessity to slow the fast fashion industry.
Craftivism History + Workshop
Craft + Activism = Craftivism
Travel through time and discover Craftivists in the past who laid the foundation for contemporary craftivism projects. After the presentation participants will begin to build their own craftivism project by making a mind map of ideas, materials needed, and the message they want to convey to the world.
The History of Quilting and Activism
From the origins of European quilts to descendants of American slaves in Gee’s Bend to the Freedom Quilts of the 1960s and 1980s AIDS quilts participants will learn how quilts played an integral part of communication, civil rights, and protest movements. Arpilleras (brightly coloured fabric quilts) were made in Chile in the 1990s that told the story of missing and murdered people as a result of Chile’s the brutal dictatorship. Welsh women by the hundreds protested in Greenham Common against American nuclear presence in Wales. The rich history of quilting and activism has a contemporary life that will be discussed in this interactive presentation.
Natural Dyeing Fabric With Food
This hands-on workshop will demonstrate dyeing fabric with food items headed for the compost bin. Turn red cabbage into gorgeous blues, reds, and purples. Watch spinach reveal various hues of green and turmeric makes fabric vivid yellow. Rusted cookie sheets and kitchen tools revealed subtle shades of orange and brown. Create the rainbow on fabric for quilting, embroidery, and sewing projects.
Programs for • Historical Houses • Pioneer Villages • Heritage Museums
Email: Sandra@SandraClarke.ca
• From Sheep to Shawl • 3 three hour classes
Week 1. Prepare Ontario raw sheep fleece for spinning by washing, carding and combing the raw fleece. AND Make a drop spindle.
Week 2. Spin the prepared fleece on the drop spindle made in Week 1.
Week 3. Begin to knit a shawl using garter stitch.
DETAILS
Week 1. Prepare Ontario raw sheep fleece for spinning by washing, carding and combing the raw fleece. AND Make a drop spindle.
Hands on and fun! Participants will wash a small amount fleece in hot wash and mild soap. Since the fleece needs a day or two to dry, participants will then use fleece washed and dried for the next part of the class -- carding and combing. Using vintage and new carding and combing tools, participants will prepare the washed and dried fleece. When carded and combed, participants will have fluffy, clean fleece to spin. We will end the class with participants making their own drop spindle. Everything sourced locally.
Week 2. Spin the prepared fleece on the drop spindle made in Week 1.
In week two, participants will learn how to spin fleece on their drop spindle, wash the yarn to set the twist -- preparing the yarn for knitting a shawl.
Week 3. Begin to knit (or crochet) a shawl using garter stitch.
Some knitting experience preferred but not required. I will teach the garter stitch. Experienced knitters can create the shawl as they wish or follow a simple pattern that I made. It's likely that participants won't have enough self-made yarn from the classes, so I will have (wool) yarn that compliments the yarn made in class -- enough to complete a shawl.
I will bring spinning wheels to the last class for participants to try.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
One Day Felting Workshops
• Felting Christmas Garland
• Felting Valentines Hearts
• Felting Easter Eggs
• Felting Animal Forms
All felting workshops employ the use of a felting needle and colourful fleece (sheep wool, silk, alpaca fleece). Felting workshops are 2 hours and can be combined with a tea or lunch.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Knitting History (potential continuous monthly event)
Stories of the history of knitting, and knitting in the framework of Ontario's history. This 2 hour workshop for knitters and crocheters to knit (or crochet) together in the beautiful surroundings of historical heritage houses and museums. Participants bring their own knitting or crocheting. New techniques will be presented during the workshop. This can be combined with a tea as well.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Weaving Quilts
Using micro looms, participants weave small squares that can be sewn together to make a quilt.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Tools and Equipment available for custom workshops and classes
• spinning wheels
• drop spindles
• weaving looms
• yarn swifts
• carding and combing wool
• felting needles
• raw sheep fleece
• roving and batts
• beans and jewelry making
• knitting
• crochet
• embroidery
• macrame
• cross stitch
Week 1. Prepare Ontario raw sheep fleece for spinning by washing, carding and combing the raw fleece. AND Make a drop spindle.
Week 2. Spin the prepared fleece on the drop spindle made in Week 1.
Week 3. Begin to knit a shawl using garter stitch.
DETAILS
Week 1. Prepare Ontario raw sheep fleece for spinning by washing, carding and combing the raw fleece. AND Make a drop spindle.
Hands on and fun! Participants will wash a small amount fleece in hot wash and mild soap. Since the fleece needs a day or two to dry, participants will then use fleece washed and dried for the next part of the class -- carding and combing. Using vintage and new carding and combing tools, participants will prepare the washed and dried fleece. When carded and combed, participants will have fluffy, clean fleece to spin. We will end the class with participants making their own drop spindle. Everything sourced locally.
Week 2. Spin the prepared fleece on the drop spindle made in Week 1.
In week two, participants will learn how to spin fleece on their drop spindle, wash the yarn to set the twist -- preparing the yarn for knitting a shawl.
Week 3. Begin to knit (or crochet) a shawl using garter stitch.
Some knitting experience preferred but not required. I will teach the garter stitch. Experienced knitters can create the shawl as they wish or follow a simple pattern that I made. It's likely that participants won't have enough self-made yarn from the classes, so I will have (wool) yarn that compliments the yarn made in class -- enough to complete a shawl.
I will bring spinning wheels to the last class for participants to try.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
One Day Felting Workshops
• Felting Christmas Garland
• Felting Valentines Hearts
• Felting Easter Eggs
• Felting Animal Forms
All felting workshops employ the use of a felting needle and colourful fleece (sheep wool, silk, alpaca fleece). Felting workshops are 2 hours and can be combined with a tea or lunch.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Knitting History (potential continuous monthly event)
Stories of the history of knitting, and knitting in the framework of Ontario's history. This 2 hour workshop for knitters and crocheters to knit (or crochet) together in the beautiful surroundings of historical heritage houses and museums. Participants bring their own knitting or crocheting. New techniques will be presented during the workshop. This can be combined with a tea as well.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Weaving Quilts
Using micro looms, participants weave small squares that can be sewn together to make a quilt.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Tools and Equipment available for custom workshops and classes
• spinning wheels
• drop spindles
• weaving looms
• yarn swifts
• carding and combing wool
• felting needles
• raw sheep fleece
• roving and batts
• beans and jewelry making
• knitting
• crochet
• embroidery
• macrame
• cross stitch