Camp Sunrise at Lang-dale was brimming with unusual scents and sounds last Saturday (Sept. 13).
About 50 people, many local and some from Washington or Powell River, gathered for Fibre Camp, an initiative of the Sunshine Coast Spinners and Weavers Guild. The earthy tang of vinegar and iron solution wafted from simmering pots during Caitlin Ffrench’s natural sources eco-dyeing class. Participants could hear the slap slap of material being massaged at Ursula Bentz’s nuno felting class, a process that produces a gossamer-light mating of felt and chiffon.
In one of the larger halls, Barby Paulus led her class as they chose from a colour palette then painted silk cords to form a scarf. At another venue Doreen MacLauchlan led a magic ball knitting class to use up leftovers creatively.
“We miss the Fibre Arts Festival,” MacLauchlan said, referring to the popular annual Gibsons festival that wound up a few years ago. But she added that this newly-formed fibre camp was not intended to replace the festival.
“This is on a smaller scale, more intimate and low budget,” she said.
A committee of five who organized the camp wanted to focus on the Guild activities that they were most interested in: knitting, dyeing, felting and silk painting plus a spinning session and social gathering for fun. There was much sharing going on, over lunch and at the merchants’ displays where a knitter could get a deal on hand-dyed yarn from the Guild’s Fibreshed, chat with camp committee member Kim Fenton from Unwind Knit and Fibre lounge or admire the handmade and functional jewelry of Kristan MacIntyre.
Three of the instructors were local artisans and the invited guest, Ffrench, came from Vancouver to share her creative journey.
In an evening lecture, she also gave an account of her recent trip to the land of wool, Iceland. She brimmed with natural dye knowledge about the plants and mushrooms that can be found on the land around us through wild foraging, and she showed how participants could set the dye in their fabric by bundling it and steaming it in a solution for three or four hours.
The title of Ffrench’s website (www.wewilltell
youallofoursecrets.com) sums up her experience.
“I spent too much money on my education not to share it,” she laughed.
The Guild also runs an informative website at www.scswg.org that describes the local fibre art activity here on the Coast.
