2022 Instructors
Danielle’s path to tanning was meandering and certainly not the most obvious choice of a then vegetarian, budding biologist. However, upon seeing and treading that path, she was drawn in and continues to go deeper into this old and arguably endangered craft. Over the past 8 years, Danielle has sought out traditional and natural practitioners to apprentice under. Through much experiment, persistence and research, she continues to hone her practice and continues to fall deeper in love with the work.
She finds it an honour to do and share this craft, and has found that it really engages folks, and ignites an old remembering. Based in the lovely woods of Brooke Valley, Danielle wears a few hats but feels truly called to the tending of this ancient craft, as it satisfies many needs. The desire to learn, to share, to participate in something old with one’s hands, to keep something alive and to co-create things of beauty.
The art of brain and smoke tanning is a practice that mostly carried forward on turtle island. Many communities still have very skilled practitioners and Danielle is ever thankful for the chance to share in this craft, as a settler, especially knowing that this craft and its remembering have slipped from some communities.
www.instagram.com/natural_tannery
Scott Dobson has been building traditional, old-style, cedar rail fences for over 20 years. He grew up on a farm in Smiths Falls and first began building fences as a teenager. This is a job that suits him well, while he loves working creatively with his hands in the great outdoors. Traditional rail fence building has long been considered a dying art but Scott Dobson is keeping the tradition alive in Eastern Ontario. He not only loves the actual hands-on craftsmanship of building fences, and the sourcing of materials, but also delving into the history of local fence building traditions in the area.
Scott Dobson is lucky enough to run a successful business without a website. So, trust us in saying that his skills and talents are well worth passing on through his workshops.
2019 Instructors
Danny Barber started his career as a boy working with his father at their family memorial business, just as his father did when he was a boy. After 15 years of learning the trade, Danny decided to pursue the craft further and in 2002 he moved to England to study architectural stone work at Weymouth college, in Dorset. Following college he stayed an additional 3 years to do an apprenticeship with the company Centreline Architectural Sculpture. Since returning to Canada in 2006, Danny has worked as shop foreman with masonry contractors rehabilitating important heritage buildings in the area. In 2012 he co-founded Smith & Barber – Sculpture Atelier Inc. for the rehabilitation of the West Block on Parliament Hill where they produced nearly 2000 carved replacement stones. Danny now runs his own company, Barber – Carving & Sculpture Inc. where he produces custom stone carving commissions and teaches courses in various stone craft disciplines.
Andrea Belcham is the owner of the Quebec-based yarn label Renard Et Fleur, which offers plant-dyed yarns from primarily Canadian fibre farms and mills. She leads workshops on a variety of topics related to natural dyeing and sustainable textile arts, including indigo resist-dyeing, Boro patchwork, and eco-printing.
Scott Dobson has been building traditional, old-style, cedar rail fences for over 20 years. He grew up on a farm in Smiths Falls and first began building fences as a teenager. This is a job that suits him well, while he loves working creatively with his hands in the great outdoors. Traditional rail fence building has long been considered a dying art but Scott Dobson is keeping the tradition alive in Eastern Ontario. He not only loves the actual hands-on craftsmanship of building fences, and the sourcing of materials, but also delving into the history of local fence building traditions in the area.
Scott Dobson is lucky enough to run a successful business without a website. So, trust us in saying that his skills and talents are well worth passing on through his workshops.
Jason Gibson has spent over 15 years building and restoring timber frame buildings in Eastern Ontario. Jason and his wife, Kandace Brown, worked together to start and operate their own custom timber framing company, Gibson Timber Frames just outside of Perth, ON.
Jason has been running private timber framing courses for the past 16 years. He has also instructed timber framing courses at St. Lawrence College (Kingston, ON), Algonquin College (Perth, ON) and Willowbank (Queenston, Ontario).
Jason runs a safe and fun workshop. Within the company, all of his employees are highly skilled craftspeople.
Kaajuk Kablalik is an Inuk artist who grew up in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut Canada. In 2007, he moved with his wife and children to Iqaluit, Nunavut where he took the Jewelry and Metalwork program at Nunavut Arctic College.
Kaajuk now lives in Almonte and works as an artist and entrepreneur/consultant. He has over a decade of experience in the arts and a lifetime of experience in his Inuit culture. The various art mediums he works in are traditional Inuit tool making, Jewelry making, pottery, sculpting (soft metals, stone, ivory, muskox horn, baleen, and caribou antler), drawing and glass fusion.
His style is a mix between traditional and contemporary Inuit art and his artwork has been shown at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, in Finland and in Denmark. He won the BMO 1st Arts award for Nunavut in 2010 with a copper etched print called “When We Were One”.
Kaajuk is an active member of the urban Inuit community in Ottawa and the surrounding area. He is the vice president of the board of directors for Tungasuvingat Inuit, in Ottawa. This is an organization that provides social and cultural services for urban Inuit.
Dawn King is the previous owner of the property that the Cordwood Studio sits on and she built the house (that is now the studio) herself in 1979. She moved to area, along with a handful of other like-minded individuals and back-to-landers who were seeking out a peaceful, community-minded lifestyle. She worked as a gardener, midwife, weaver, and cedar furniture maker while raising four children.
Dawn has been growing garlic for many years and braiding these pungent bulbs into beautiful hangings, decorated with flowers, to dry and be a constant source of beauty and ingredient through the long winters. This was just one of the many late summer traditions that came and went every year after the garlic harvest for herself, friends and family to participate in together.
Likewise, pickling and canning were a weekly task while the cucumbers, beans and tomatoes were quickly ripening from late summer to early fall. For several years, she had a small pickle business, providing the Green Door Restaurant in Ottawa with pickled cucumbers and fiddleheads, as well as local families.
Dawn took over 50 years of experience growing and preserving food with her when she moved to the U.S.A. to manage an organic garden and preserve food at a Buddhist retreat centre serving up to 40 people on a daily basis.
Dawn does not have a website, but she’s very computer savvy.
Zoë Lianga began working as a felt maker and instructor in 2014. Since starting this work, she has been dedicated to refining her skills and to deepening her understanding of the unique styles and ways of making felt.
Earlier, Zoe completed a two-year program in fashion design and then spent a year biking around New Zealand. It was there that she continually stumbled upon beautiful works in felt by a wide range of New Zealand felt makers. She sought out two well-established felt makers who were also instructors, and spent 6 intensive days learning from them. The methods she learned there have enabled her to design and construct her work from single fibres to finished pieces. The nature and characteristics of the individual fibres fascinates Zoe, as does the felt making process itself – a process that dates back to 4000 BC.
For the past two years Zoë has worked to connect with local sheep, alpaca, and goat farmers, and with local fibre mills, so that she can integrate more ethical and sustainable practices into her business. Zoe’s choice to be part of of her local ‘fibre shed’ means she does not support unethical animal husbandry practices and poor working conditions for factory workers. It also means the environmental impact of worldwide shipping is lessened. The hard working individuals within her own fibre shed have become her working family. It’s a lovely family to be a part of.
Zoë continues to make strong community connections and to derive inspiration for her work from property and forests surrounding her home. She is the owner and operator of the Cordwood Studio, where she lives with her partner, Ben Hendry.
Lene Rasmussen of Lakeshore Willows grows basketry willows that she uses to create unique, beautifully-woven pieces.
Inspired by the willow fences and hedges in her native Denmark, it was during a visit home in 2005 that Lene says she got the idea to pursue a career selling willows and baskets from her current home in Wainfleet, ON.
Lene now grows 30 varieties of cultured willow without the use of chemicals or pesticides, and sells willow cuttings, dormant willow rods for planting, and dried willow for basketry. She also offers workshops and regular classes in willow weaving and basketry.
Lene is committed to promoting and reintroducing this ancient craft to southern Ontario and parts of the US, and to developing interest in willow and its many uses. She has been privileged to study with some of the finest basket makers around and continues to seek opportunities to learn new techniques. As she incorporates these into her own body of work, she is happy to share her knowledge, experience, and expanding repertoire of skills with her students.
“Since willow basketry has not yet enjoyed the renewed popularity in North America as it has in Europe, I feel fortunate that I’ve been able to connect with willow basket makers in Denmark,” she says. “Rekindling interest in this time-honoured craft and carrying on its traditions inspired me to to establish Lakeshore Willows.”
Erin Richan is a young, entrepreneurial, first generation farmer and forager. She runs Highland Gem Farm in Elphin, ON. She is committed to growing and enjoying high quality food by learning from traditional animal-vegetable-mixed farming practices, focused on small-scale regenerative farm management, while un-learning damaging rural colonization practices.
She studied at the University of Guelph and apprenticed on farms and gardens around Ontario before settling down on rented land at Elphin Gold Organic Farm, home of five generations of Brownlee farmers.
Highland Gem Farm is a proud member of the National Farmer Union and Ecological Farmers of Ontario.
Erin uses fermentation as a creative tool to build self-sufficiency, health, and expand the seasonal palate.
Ali Ross is the owner and operator of Swallowtail Farm. For more than 10 years she has been committed to growing the finest garlic, for planting (seed garlic) or culinary purposes (table or eating garlic). Each fall she plants approximately 4000 bulbs, made up of 7 or 8 varieties of hardneck and softneck garlic. Harvesting begins in July of the following year.
You can find Ali at the Carp Farmer’s market every Saturday from 8am-1pm and at their annual Garlic Festival which takes place on August 10th & 11th.
Dr. Shawn Yakimovich, graduated from McGill University with a BSc in Human Nutrition in 1999. After working in the natural food and supplement industry for three years, he began his medical studies at the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine, graduating as a naturopathic doctor (ND) in 2006.
Now in his 14th year of practice, Shawn confidently blends all of the naturopathic treatment tools, including nutrition, lifestyle counselling, herbal medicine, homeopathic medicine, acupuncture and hydrotherapy. Shawn is passionate about teaching the principles and practice of naturopathic medicine, especially on the topic of herbal medicine, and has been conducting medicinal herb walks for the public for nearly a decade.
www.kemptvillenaturopathic.com
2018 Instructors
Bastou Bacharach was introduced to Islam in his teens. At the time, he was living in Paris where he dabbled in graffiti art. Then, in 2007, he moved to Perth, ON and started to work with a compass and with drawing mandalas.
In 2015, while working as a web designer, Bastou began to paint and to study Islamic geometry. It quickly became a passion that eventually led him to London, England to the Art of Islamic Pattern School, where he enrolled in the Summer Intensive Course in Islamic Geometry.
Islamic geometry dates back hundreds of years. Its traditional patterns can be rendered in an infinite number of ways and through various media such as mosaic tile, wood, plaster, stone carving, gold leaf illumination, and painting. They are used in architecture, furniture, home décor, and more.
Bastou strives to create Islamic geometric patterns that honour traditional techniques while bringing his own interpretations to light. He enjoys working with watercolour, marquetry, and chip carving, and continues to experiment with new media. “I appreciate bringing my Islamic geometric work to Lanark County, where I now live, and where Islam, with its rich artistic traditions, is little-known,” he says.
Zoë Lianga, owner and founder of The Cordwood Studio, began working as a felt maker and instructor in 2014. Since starting her career, she has dedicated her days to refining her skills and to deepening her understanding of the unique styles and ways of making felt.
Earlier, Zoe completed a two-year program in fashion design and moved to New Zealand to study the ancient art and techniques of wet felting. The methods she learned there have enabled her to design and construct her work from single fibres to finished piece. The nature and characteristics of the individual fibres fascinates Zoe, as does the felt making process itself —a process that dates back to 400 BC.
For the past two years Zoë has worked to connect with local sheep, alpaca, and goat farmers, and with local fibre mills, so that she can integrate more ethical and sustainable practices into her business. Zoe’s choice to be part of of her local ‘fibre shed’ means she does not support unethical animal husbandry practices and poor working conditions for factory workers. It also means the environmental impact of worldwide shipping is lessened. “The hard working individuals within my own fibre shed have become my working family. It’s a lovely family to be a part of,” she says.
Zoë continues to make strong community connections and to derive inspiration for her work from The Cordwood Studio, where she lives with her partner, Ben Hendry.
Chenoa Marshall is a fruit tree grafting enthusiast who first attempted grafting (unsuccessfully) as a teenager. She finally succeeded years later after discovering detailed grafting instructions and stubbornly making repeated attempts, over a few years, analyzing results and researching the topic until her first grafts took. She has been growing her own rootstock and grafting actively for the last 8 years. Due to popular demand, she started putting on workshops in order to help fellow enthusiasts to try their hand at grafting.
Willa Murray has spent nearly a decade designing and making handmade leather products. She began her career in Toronto as owner of Mariclaro, where she fashioned bags made from recycled materials. That year-long small business venture soon transformed into an eight-year journey and life passion, and Willa has since broadened her craft to include shoemaking, custom work, and teaching. In 2014, she enrolled at the Chicago School of Shoemaking. Making shoes, she says,is an art that offers limitless opportunities for growth.
She recently returned to her carpenter roots to make leather tool rolls for carpenters and masons and is currently renovating her home and workshop in Westport, ON.
Sharing her knowledge and passion for making things with her hands, Willa’s work reflects her deep appreciation of the process, and her desire for high quality, beautiful, and functional pieces that can be used every day. Her commitment to ecological and social sustainability is also evident in her work. Each of her creations, whether chisel rolls, aprons, belts, shoes, or household items, offers an alternative to a disposable culture.
“Even after working with leather all these years, the beauty of the material continues to inspire me,” she says. Willa is particularly proud to offer leather from hides of moose and deer hunted by subsistence hunters in Ontario.
Lene Rasmussen of Lakeshore Willows grows basketry willows that she uses to create unique, beautifully-woven pieces.
Inspired by the willow fences and hedges in her native Denmark, it was during a visit home in 2005 that Lene says she got the idea to pursue a career selling willows and baskets from her current home in Wainfleet, ON.
Lene now grows 30 varieties of cultured willow without the use of chemicals or pesticides, and sells willow cuttings, dormant willow rods for planting, and dried willow for basketry. She also offers workshops and regular classes in willow weaving and basketry.
Lene is committed to promoting and reintroducing this ancient craft to southern Ontario and parts of the US, and to developing interest in willow and its many uses. She has been privileged to study with some of the finest basket makers around and continues to seek opportunities to learn new techniques. As she incorporates these into her own body of work, she is happy to share her knowledge, experience, and expanding repertoire of skills with her students.
“Since willow basketry has not yet enjoyed the renewed popularity in North America as it has in Europe, I feel fortunate that I’ve been able to connect with willow basket makers in Denmark,” she says. “Rekindling interest in this time-honoured craft and carrying on its traditions inspired me to to establish Lakeshore Willows.”
When Amanda West Lewis was a child, her mother, who worked as a book designer at the University of Toronto Press, invited her to take a calligraphy class with a group of designers. This spurred her love for the shape of letters.
Now, as a calligrapher, she works with letters and words to create visual meaning. “With the English alphabet’s 26 elegant shapes, we can express everything that the human mind is capable of thinking and feeling”.
Amanda went on to teach calligraphy at the University of Waterloo. She was particularly interested in letterform and the development of writing styles. In her personal body of work she plays with colour, texture and form to interpret words and meaning.
Her love for letters and words is at the heart of everything she does. She currently spends her time between working as a calligrapher, a theatre director, a writer, and an instructor.
