Join Me

FACILITATION

I have practiced art and fine-craft-making for over 43 years and have been writing for 6 years. I have worked as a therapist and teacher/ facilitator of earth-based spirituality and medicine for over 30 years.  The disciplines combine as I explore and integrate the folk traditions and sacred knowledge of my Ukrainian grandparents, particularly the handwork that accompanies life and seasonal rites.  As part of this exploration, my work is an inquiry into and expression of what it means to practice sacred handwork as diaspora on lands where I am an uninvited settler.

 

I describe myself as an advocational & relational interdisciplinary artist…  Yes, it’s a mouthful. And it’s an accurate conveyance of my work! The pieces I create are relational to the individual or community they are made for; to the lands I, as a guest, live and walk upon; to the ancestors; and to the materials I work with.        

Understanding the power of sacred and ritual handcrafting to support individual well-being and community healing, land re-connection, and revivification of blood and bone memory is at the centre of the facilitation I offer.

 

I am clear in my offerings – I do not have answers, nor the “right” or “best” path… I present workshops as a stepping stone and invitation to further personal exploration by participants.

Workshop Descriptions

 

The following workshops are available for your consideration:

 

v  Rites of the Sun and Moon & The Path of Sacred Handwork

 

Format: 2.5 hrs x 8 Rites spread throughout the year, approximately every 6 weeks. Participants can join for individual Rites or participate in the full-year cycle of Rites.

 

Learning Outcome: Reconnection with cycles, seasons, and nature through handcrafting talismans associated with each seasonal node.

 

Description:  Based on seasonal rites in the Slavic tradition, each workshop explores our connection to “natural time” as measured through direct observation of seasons and lunar cycles.  The folklore associated with talismans related to each seasonal node is explored.  Participants handcraft a unique talisman during each workshop to take home.

 

Participant Expectations:  No experience is necessary.  Some workshops will require participants to prepare materials ahead of time (for example, gather and bring a bundle of grasses and flowers).  Suggested optional home practices will be offered to participants.

 

Equipment: Tables and chairs will be needed.  Fabric, string, thread, and scissors will be provided by artist.  Participants will be informed if they are required to bring additional materials.

 

 

v  Ancestral Recognition & The Path of Sacred Handwork

 

Format: 3 hours

 

Learning Outcome: Participants are guided step-by-step in the ritual making of a traditional Motanka, a talismanic vessel intended to engage with or support resolution with one’s own ancestors.

 

Description:  Ancestral work can be challenging at times.  We may not know who our ancestors were, or if we know them, we may not like them or what they represent to us.  We may be disconnected from our roots for reasons outside of our control.  Finding ways to heal ties with ancestors, or beginning to create room for root-resolution inside ourselves is the focus of this handcrafting workshop.

 

A Motanka acts as a vessel.  They are vessels for our intentions and can also act as vessels to engage with ancestral wisdom.  Some participants may choose to work with an intention of root-resolution, healing or release.  Others may choose to invite connection to their ancestors and roots. 

 

While crafting, we dialogue about the power and healing potential of handwork practices.  What is the importance of centering ourselves in these practices?

 

For those who are settler-occupiers, guests to the lands they live and work within, what does it mean to bring (or revive) ancestral practices in a land where one is invited/ uninvited guest?

 

Participants complete and take-home their own Motanka.

 

Participant Expectations:  No experience is necessary.

 

Equipment: Tables and chairs will be needed.  Fabric, string and scissors will be provided by artist.

 

 

v  Writing from the Bones: Re-Writing (Re-Righting) our Relations

 

Format: 3 hours

 

Learning Outcome:  Participants are guided step-by-step in the ritual making of a Pysanka, a talismanic egg.  Participants explore their relationship to land, community, and themselves, and form intentions for re-righting their relationships, written in symbolic and imagistic language, onto the eggshell using beeswax and dye. (The word Pysanka comes from the root word “pysaty,” to write.)

 

Description:  Bones are seemingly “unalterable.”  They are the evidence that remains of our life-walk.  Picking up a bone reminds us of the ancestors – those who have walked life and the lands before us.

 

To write from the bones is to reach into the deepest parts of ourselves, to reach back (symbolically) through the spans of time, to the Bone Grandmothers – the first to walk life…   And then to sense and feel along the lines of time – where have our relationships unbalanced – un-righted – themselves?  Relationships to Mati Zemlya (Mother Earth), to one another, and to ourselves…

 

Accessing this deepest place, we write on the surface of bone (shell) a radical intention – to re-right relations in whatever ways we can.  Learning to caretake the talisman means that we stay active with this intention, because writing is only the first step!

 

Participants learn the folklore and traditional uses of Pysanky, elemental associations, and techniques of beeswax writing on eggshell, and take a completed Pysanka home.

 

Participant Expectations:  No experience is necessary.  Participants will be asked to bring a 500 ml wide-mouth jar, with lid, to the workshop.  If they have a journal they use at home, they are encouraged to bring it for the intention-creation exercise.

 

Equipment: Tables and chairs will be needed.  Eggs, Kistky (writing tools), candles, pencils, paper and dye will be provided by artist. Participants will be asked to bring a jar (as above).

 

Please note that this workshop utilizes lit beeswax candles – one per participant in case the Gallery has any restrictions for safety reasons.

 

 

v  Gathering Threads: Peace by Piece

 

Format: Option (a) 2 hours on a weekly or bi-weekly basis; Option (b) 3 hours as a one-time workshop

 

Learning Outcome:  Hand-stitching techniques are taught, step-by-step to those with little or no experience.  Blankets are stitched “simply” – to be time-efficient and accessible for beginners.  Participants explore the meaning of “connection” – bringing varied pieces together to communally co-create something of use for someone in-need.

 

Description:  The act of sewing, when done mindfully and ritually, is an act of binding.  We are taught to only stich while in a “good mood” and to be aware of the thoughts, intentions, and feelings we are binding into the piece we are creating.  With this awareness, we will “stitch together” stories and connections to one another, land, culture, history, and explore handwork traditions through sewing with good energy/ mood/ intent in our hands and peace in our hearts.

 

By gathering the varied threads of our life experiences together, we care for the earth, community, and one another as we co-create handcrafted blankets.  Our time, efforts and blanket creations will be gifted to those who can use them through CWAV.

 

Participants will take home hand-stitch techniques, a sense of contribution, and new community connections.

 

Participant Expectations:  No experience necessary.

 

Equipment: Tables and chairs will be needed.  Fabric, thread and scissors will be provided by artist.

 

 

***If you would like something tailored to your personal or organizational needs, please let me know – I’m happy to design something.