Rodney and Mojo the sheep stole the show again at the third annual FibreShed Day at the yurts in Madeira Park on April 8. While sheep shearer Johanna Walker wrestled Mojo to the ground, a crowd of natural fibre fans gathered to watch the two male sheep (technically called wethers) be shorn of their abundant lanolin-rich wool.
“Good boy,” Walker murmured into Mojo’s fluffy ear.
Other fibre artists on site at FibreWorks Gallery and Studio showed how the smoky gray material could be cleaned, carded, spun and knitted into sweaters. The woolly duo’s owner, Wendy Gilbertson, had already begun knitting a Denali pullover in some of Rodney’s finest fibre.
Although the sheep shearing was a highlight of the day, the animals had some stiff competition for interest from the public when dyers, spinners, weavers and knitters donned their homemade outfits, all made from natural fibres, and strolled about the yurts.
Merrily Cordsen, FibreShed Day organizer, demonstrated how a person could make a full wardrobe from local fibre by wearing her outfit of knitted cap, shrug around her shoulders and blanket wrapped around her hips. Doreen MacLauchlan demonstrated weaving on a loom using warm earth tones in her yarn.
Japanese indigo is a plant that grows easily in the Sunshine Coast climate. When the leaves are bruised they give off a rich blue dye that showed its vibrant hue in one artist’s knitted headband. One woman wore a colourful shrug of alpaca wool while another sported a caramel collar made from her dog’s hair.
Ann Harmer became so enamoured of dyeing using mushrooms she finds locally that she wrote a book on the subject, published last year. You can find her book, Magic in the Dyepot, at shroomworks.com. For more about grown or harvested fibre see: www.sunshinecoastfibreshed.ca
Following the retirement of FibreWorks owner Yvonne Stowell (she is still creating at Mark of the Hand Studio), the studio and gallery is now in the capable hands of Alexis Bach and has opened for the season with a show called A Fine Line, Fibre Art Voices, that runs until May 13. Workshops take place many weekends: Gel Printing and Collage this April 14 and 15 with Jennifer Love; and Painting with Wool on April 21 with Donna Goulette. Wednesdays is Weavers’ Circle with Mary Bentley from 9:30 a.m. on (drop-in fee of $10) and Slow Sundays is a time to gather in a relaxed space with your current handwork project to share ideas and make progress. FibreWorks is at 12887 Sunshine Coast Hwy. See www.fibreworksgallery.com
