The plant friends growing at the front of the fieldhouse were getting rather thick and overgrown, so I gave them a pruning, discovering that one, the Pacific Ninebark, has handsome limbs that suggest a piece of furniture to me. So I've saved them to skin off the light crackly bark and play with the shapes at a future date. Front of house is looking a lot better now, and less attractive to late night poopers.

In other news, playing around with these stamps free from nephew Desmond's strongstart.

 After five sessions of patterning, cutting, serging and sewing, Laura van der Linde completed her Fab-O fishy coveralls - and wore them out to the Artisan Yard Sale in July. This was a great experience as I wanted to help someone through the process of making coveralls and it gave me a chance to do it. I'm looking forward to making more coveralls with more folks - so hit me up if you're interested!

We kicked off May with an afternoon visit from Dawn and Nicky. I had been working on some felt inspired by all the daisies blooming on the grass in the park. Really enjoyable hearing about Dawn's recent travels in Uzbekistan and Turkey and hearing about Nicky's work as an English professor at SFU and her weaving and costuming projects.  

Daisy-inspired wool felt. I used pre-felts (incompletely felted wool fabric) to form the daisies.

May the Fourth be With You! Although I failed miserably to photograph our experience (other than these two quick shots just before our destination), I did manage to lead a ride from the AP Fieldhouse to Deer Lake Park for the Burnaby Blooms Festival. It was a small, skilled group of riders, but I pre-rode the route and made a map just in case. We started off with coffee and scones and enjoyed ride on mostly separated bike routes. Yaaay Burnaby!! 

We finished up the sewing on Graham's sailboat cushions May 9 and he brought everything home to be installed.

Laura, an accomplished clay artist, who I ran into at Burnaby Blooms, was interested in making a pair of coveralls. She diligently visited over the course of the month to adapt my pattern, cut out her chosen fabric and serge & sew the pieces together.

Wednesday Friendsday crew celebrated Nicole completing her classes and gaining Wednesday night freedom with a potluck, glitter tattoos from the thrift store and a better than usual jam. Download the file below to hear a sample.

Oh my! Souper Sunday on May 18th was spectacular! We met local family Krysta, Krystal and their two kids, Ellen, Patrick and their four kids who came all the way from Oakridge, as well as Jessica, Ian and Jason who were all mending. I made a vegetarian lentil soup with all of the above ingredients and it was a pretty sweet time all around. Since I have a lot more Makemobile bookings on Sundays in the Summer, I will probably not be able to host any more Souper Sundays until the Autumn.

Wet felting Wednesday afternoon May 28 was the hottest day of the year so far and pretty quiet. A nice day to wet felt under a tree in the park. I met a few neighbours and park users, one being George, who rides his bike all the way from UBC several times a week and another was local singer/songwriter Susie Ungerleider!

These photos are from several Wet Felting Wednesdays in April - April 9, 16, 23.. I take my felting supplies outside and felt in the park and talk to neighbours. There's an RSVP form if you want to attend an upcoming Wet Felting Wednesday - or contact me if you want to do wet felting on a different day.

Nicole and José of The Magic Triangle came to visit April 12. We made some tiny paintings on the "Swirl Art Junior" from the thrift store. They play shows often! Go see them and buy their music. 

Souper Sunday April 13. Graced with the presence of Random Old Lady aka Barb Shaw and Jason Harder aka The Cycle Driven Gardener. It seems like all my friends are super heroes.... Good times - they both played songs! I made Potato Leek soup.

Sharon Kallis from EartHand Gleaners came to visit April 14th. She showed me her new obsession: Card Weaving - and we did what friends do: I helped pin the back of the neckline for her to alter her gloriously striped hand-grown, hand-dyed, hand-spun, hand-woven, hand-sewn vest!! 

A few metres away from the Fieldhouse grows the Community Garden - complete with espaliered apple trees and happy bees. Mmmm April had such bee-youtiful blossoms! 

I met some of the Community Gardeners and we agreed to co-host a Free Market in the park. So I drew some birbs and made a poster. The crow is based on a photo of local celebrity corvid, Canuck the Crow. RIP.

Heather and I at the first "Souper Sunday" on March 30th. 
"Latergrams" are what my friend Sharon calls the posts you don't post right away. You find the photos in your phone and get them up when you can, while living your life, not devoting every moment to digital documentation. In a year it won't make a bit of difference that 7 weeks has passed. 
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Repotting plants, sewing aprons and making cards also all from late March.

Here's the poster that I made for the Fieldhouse in April.  At first i made a grey, boring poster and realized that it wasn't great. So i tried again to make a colourful, hand-drawn poster, illustrating things we do at the Fieldhouse & hoping this would call out to the colourful, creative part of people. I hung them around the neighbourhoo.d and neighbours have gotten in touch. We've shared bike rides and crafting jams since then. I'm happy to report that Posters Work!

Pop up books and cards are delightful! In this workshop Tom shared the story of his own pop-up art inspirations and led participants through primary techniques for creating their own pop-up art.
Tom Walker's pop-up books use the element of surprise to address serious topics. For him, the simple, moving forms support a philosophical inquiry into the relationship between work, leisure and time. Tom's work is inspired by Walter Benjamin, Karl Marx's Grundrisse, and the 1821 pamphlet The Source and Remedy of the National Difficulties by Charles Wentworth Dilke.
Tom Walker's website: https://timeworkweb.com/popups.htm

Here are some links related to discussion that came up during the workshop:

Exhibit Catalogs
Once Upon a Pop-Up: UBC, 2018
The Immersive Movable Object: University of Toronto, 2024

Youtube Channels
The Pop-Up Channel: Duncan Birmingham, 96 videos 
Pop-Up Master Class: Matthew Reinhardt, 112 videos 

We'll host another pop-up making workshop Saturday, April 19, 2024.

It feels like the Winter season of introductory open-format housewarmings has come to a close. Through these four Sundays of Tea and Crafting in February, I've introduced this place to some folks from nearby in the neighbourhood and others from across town. It's feeling suitably warmed-up and broken-in. People either brought their own hand work - or needle-felted a nametag or painted a mandala. I appreciate the conversations most of all. Feeling grateful for the brave souls who came to check out the fieldhouse in these early days. 

In the past few weeks I've had a variety of visitors to the Fieldhouse and I'm encouraging everyone to bring a project they want to work on. I'm heavily textile-focussed these days - and the projects of folks stopping in have been too. Byron dyed his partner's silk blouse; Karlis made quick alterations to his PJs; and Heather had the great idea of turning a sweater into a pillow. I appreciate working one-on-one and providing a high attention experience. I'm  thrilled to connect with people through these activities. It really is my jam!
Thanks Vancouver Park Board Fieldhouse Program! You Rock!
What project would you like a Maker Buddy for? Please leave me a comment!

Around 2014 I decided to wear and work with natural materials (for environmental and health reasons) as much as possible. I learned felting from Jessica DeHaas at her studio/shop called Funk Shui which was located for many years on Granville Island. From 2014 - 2018 I worked on studio production of Jessica's designs: hats, nuno-felted scarves, wraps, vests and yardage. In the following years until Jessica closed the studio in 2024 I always enjoyed picking up a few studio shifts. What I loved most about her studio was that it was open to the public so we could have conversations with shoppers and the could watch us while we made the felt. This environment was fun and energizing and allowed for connecting while still being focused and productive. Interesting people were always walking through those doors in Railspur Alley! 

Now that I'm working at Adanac Park Fieldhouse, I'm including wet felting and needle felting as a major part of my public programming and creative practice. I've begun by dying wool and making small pieces of fabric. In the days to come I'll make hats, garments accessories and larger textiles. I'm excited to see what these pieces will look like and where this part of the creative journey leads!  You can see some of my past pieces in the shop. For 10 years now I've been making and wearing felt and I've grown to love and appreciate the qualities of this material and textile! It provides such warmth and comfort and I'm looking forward to sharing this with more people in the years to come.

Friendsday is a Tradition! A Potluck! A time to gather, Eat, Chat and Make our Handwork Together! Maybe even Jam & make some Rhythms and Music! You can host a Friendsday! It can be any day of the week! You can do it every week and then you never have to make plans to do it. It just repeats! It's a nice thing to do with neighbours. Remember to help clean up so the hosts feel like doing it again! The End.

These are photos from two recent Friendsdays held at the Adanac Park Fieldhouse. On one of them we celebrated Chinese New Year, aka Lunar New Year, aka the Year of the Snake. Harley and Ali brought some delish fish. (In Chinese, "fish" (鱼 Yú /yoo/) sounds like 'surplus'.) Cass made rosemary snake shortbread cookies. Karen made a scotch broth (homey heaven!) Mendel made spicy green beans  (they look like snakes!) I cooked some dumplings and David made a sheppards pie with chicken that we dubbed a "homestead pie."
What a feast! I Heart Friendsday + ! Heart Friends!