Saturday February 3, 2024 Spiralling Round: Hand Coiled Baskets, St Marys, ON

1PM- 3:00PM

Facilitator: Ev Ward

Zenfire Pottery, 114 Queen St E, St Marys, Ontario

$50+HST preregistration only Angela 519-615-6347 or Angela@ZenfirePottery.ca 

You will learn how to hand coil a fibre basket: how to start, shape and finish a basic small basket, how to use a variety of materials and what can be used for the core. Once learned this simple coiling technique will lead to marvellous weaving opportunities.

It’s been around for millennia, the basket. The spiral is integral to the coiled basket. Cultural anthropologist Angeles Arrien in her book about the five universal shapes says, “The spiral symbolizes the process of growth and evolution. It is a process of coming to the same point again and again, but as a different level, so that everything is seen in a new light.”

Studies have explored the relationship between creativity and well-being: the benefits of the mesmeric immersion in crafts creating states of contentment and focus. Come and experience this form of meditation with your hands and heart.

$50 +HST Preregistration at Zenfire.

Ev is a multidisciplinary artist working with textiles, thread, fibre, natural objects, and with sound as a contemplative musician. She likes to hold space for deep connections with others, the sacred, the self, and the earth, through music and art. Music has always touched the very core of her being. Singing has been her connection to Divine Presence throughout her life, a way of joining matter and spirit. She is passionate about empowerment via vocal exploration, music and sound vibration. When people hear her sing they tell her that they feel connected to their inner healer and feel nurtured and empowered. Because she is passionate about gathering, reclaiming and resurrecting, her art is a vibrational mix of natural and recycled fibre. She’s particularly drawn to creating vessels, ephemeral art and hand stitching. For years she studied with the Canadian Embroiderers Guild advancing her techniques in stitchery, basketry, art dolls, surface design, papermaking and handmade books. In the winter she lives in Stratford, ON and strolls the shores of Lake Winnipeg in Gimli each summer.