Winter Term: Natural Material Sampler

The natural world has so many resources to offer and humans have been inspired by their environment when creating art for thousands of years. In this course, we will take inspiration from locally available natural materials to create beautiful and useful pieces of art. We will learn how to forage, harvest, and process natural materials, as well as recycle and upcycle items from the home and garden. The focus will be on eco-friendly production and taking advantage of invasive species. Working with wood and plant materials will be the foundation of the course. Projects will depend on the season, availability of materials, and students’ interests, but potential areas that we will explore include the following:

• Woodburning (art projects, cutting boards, utensils, vases, ornaments, etc.)

• Woodcarving (jewellery, utensils)

• Basketry (coiling, twining, weaving, ribbed basketry in various materials including bark, lily

• leaves, grasses, pine needles, vines)

• Broom Making (pine needles, willow, broom corn)

• Paper and Natural Fibre Clay (cattails fluff)

• Wreath Making (grapevine, Virginia creeper, buckthorn, willow, dogwood)

• Paper Making with Natural and Recycled Fibres (cattail stems, dried flowers, phragmites)

• Ink and Print Making (black walnut and woodblocks)

• Cordage and Dying (beet juice, walnut shells, rusty nails)

• Corn Husk and Paper Flowers

• Vegan Leather (cellulose mats grown via bacterial and yeast fermentation)

• Plant Fibre or Rag Rugs

• Finger Weaving