This past weekend we were invited to contribute to a community barbecue in Moss Park, co-hosted by our friends at Building Roots and the Encampment Support Network or ESN, in support of their unhoused neighbours. The gathering was part of a series of gatherings to show support for the unhoused people living in Toronto parks, under threat of eviction by the city.

I was, frankly, worried about attending a group event at this stage of the pandemic.  We have been staying mostly at home and as a group, the majority of our meetings are online or on the phone.  Plus, we were not sure what role Works-in-Progress could play, without knowing the players, but it seemed like the only way to know was to go.  I was free to go, and my friend (and occasional collaborator) Leslie is an enthusiastic social justice activist (check out her recent blog post on being a pest) and was willing to come along for the caper, so we loaded up some basic supplies (needles and thread, cutlery wraps, big dog) and biked down  to see how we could contribute.

The latest stay at home order took effect Friday night, and the gathering kept the spirit of the order, a gathering of small islands of people on tarps and blankets, supported by musicians, cooks, artists and others, including a communal art project lead by another artist that works with Building Roots, Stevie Driscoll. 

We declined the offer of a table and kept it low key, spread out on a loooong blanket from Building Roots, and worked on a row of bunting.  We were joined by two other attendees, a librarian and a teacher who, like Leslie, are part of the Bike Brigade, a group of volunteers who make and deliver food to the underfed across Toronto.  Together we made an 8 foot long row of bunting from repurposed fabric samples.  The idea was to create a gift for the residents of the encampment as we sat: bunting flags signify an event, a celebration, and delineates space, a sort of welcoming fence.  The volunteer at the info table gracefully offered to pass it on to a resident of the encampment.

Tech note: we were able to work together to create this while keeping our distance by sewing the flags onto on a looong piece of twine, and then pushing them together at the end. If you want to make your own bunting, we strongly encourage it! You can download the pdf (created by Treya Beaulieu) below... this is part of a larger project with Building Roots.

We are very happy to be working with Building Roots. Throughout the pandemic they have maintained their market at Moss Park, and worked to ensure (as they state on their website) that "no one is left behind by ensuring emergency food provisioning, at-home resources for children and families, and other innovative programming to enable social cohesion during these physically isolating times." For example, the Building Roots staff and volunteers in this picture are managing the Bookshare program they established to distribute books to residents in the buildings behind the market. 

  We started working with Building Roots in Moss Park at the end of 2019, with a clothing swap/ winter clothing free shop.  In early 2020 joined the Do it Together workshop series lead by Kate Hamilton out of the shipping container market on Queen street and once the pandemic hit, we took part in some online skill sharing workshops, plus offered physical support for a mask making project started by one of the workshop participants. Last May I worked with Dustin from Building Roots to make this video collaboration celebrating the work of staff and volunteers through the early months of the pandemic.

We continue to find ways to work together, using the Building Roots distribution and volunteers to help up reach more people and help them make things.  Our latest project is to redistribute a generous donation of material from the Textile Museum of Canada by creating physical project based kits from this donated material.  We collaborated with Works-in-Progress artist Treya Beaulieu to create some beautiful "How to Make it" pamphlets for these kits, and then in March Leah, Ursa and I masked up and joined volunteers Mary and Lindsay to put together sewing kits, plus kits to make shopping bags from your own T shirt, and a bunting kit. 

These kits are available through Moss Park market, and can be ordered either on their bookshare system or when registering for workshops.  Or you can download the pdf below and make a shopping bag from your own T-shirt.  We co-hosted a workshop on March 28th and will share a video from that and other capers soon. 

-Tanya

This project is supported by the City of Toronto through its Waste Reduction Community Grants and by the Ontario Arts Council through its Artists in Education and School Grants.

So happy equinox and happy thinking about the cycles in your household too!

​-Marnie

Anna Borstad is an artist and mender in Hamilton; she has been experimenting with mending and repair for many years.  During the pandemic, Anna started offering her repair services to her neighbours as a way of giving back. Anna views mending as a Revolutionary Act, taking pride in making clothes last, the visible mend is a badge of honour, worn on your butt.

We have no desire to, as they say, reinvent the wheel.  There are literally gazillions (gazillions!) of people who know how to weave, sew, felt, full, quilt, darn, knit, hook and otherwise manipulate fabric and many of them have generously shared these ancient media techniques in the modern fashion online (we have posted a few on this website under"useful info" ) But sometimes trying to do things "right" can keep you from starting.

We are interested in the artist's approach, the experimenters who learn through doing, researching and questioning.  We are interested in works-in-progress, and want to join the journey.

Part of the Works-in-Progress manifesto is to share skills and encourage makers, so when Anna wanted to run an online mending workshop, we offered to host the workshop online if she advertised and ran it- and it worked out great!  The workshop quickly filled up with neighbours and friends (about 20 people)  and Anna led a fantastic, inspiring mending session, which we recorded.  She came to (metaphorically) teach us to fish; to share not just how to mend clothes but encourage all participants to join the mending revolution.  She is inspired by the problems of each mend, and has years of experimenting under her belt- her enthusiasm for repair is infectious. 

This first video Anna clearly lays out the basic rules you need to know to approach your mend-: knits vs. weaves, patching vs. darning- and gives you permission to ignore the rules.

If you want get some more specific tips and steps, the two videos below are step by step approaches to a simple top patch and a simple woven darn.  Settle in! Grab those PJs or socks you have been meaning to fix and press play.

Gomo George is an artist and storyteller working in paint, sculpture, performance, a part of the Works-in-Progress collective of artists. Part of being in a collective means that when we can help each other out, we do, and working with artists with diverse stories, experiences, and mediums means we learn from each other.  This is a video we made together, at a storytelling event for Black History Month, at a school library that doesn't exist anymore. I was there to document and create a video from the event; the stories are all from Gomo.

Storytelling is a political act- the act of remembering and adapting and keeping the past alive. Political doesn't mean adversarial, it just means there is an agenda, a reason to tell stories beyond the enjoyment of a good tale. Gomo explains that people who have to leave their home bring it with them, in stories. They adapt those stories to keep their home alive in their new home. By hearing stories of Black experience, Black history becomes becomes our history, all of us.  Play the video, he says it better. Happy Black History Month.

A (very) little more about the artist:
Gomo George emigrated to Canada many years ago from the Caribbean island country of Dominica, and he has drawn on the rich history of his country of birth through his intricate paintings of Carnival.  You can read an article about these paintings in Moko Magazine here.

Gomo and his daughter Abeyomi shared their kite-making passion with us in the summer in an online workshop for Father's day, You can see more about that in our blog here. He is preparing new work for a show at the Art Gallery of Ontario in August, and will share another workshop with us once the weather warms up and we can get together more.

-posted by Tanya Murdoch

More Gomo George works online:
https://www.facebook.com/gomo.george
https://rasgomo.wixsite.com/gomo-george-1
https://www.instagram.com/gomo.george/

We plan to host a pandemic safe clothing swap in the Spring (you can find out more about those plans and how you can be involved here) There are so many benefits to a clothing swap: community building, saves money, keeps clothing in use, out of the landfill, but also, some good stories and funny connections.

My son got these snowpants when he was six. It was the year of the ice storm and the natural ice rink at June Rowlands Park. He is now 13 and taller than his mother; he outgrew these snowpants 5 or 6 years ago and swapped up for a bigger size. This week his well used pants (name still on them) returned in a trade with a neighbour- they have been through many hands in between.  The plan was to swap another pair of outgrown pants for these, so I could do an up-cycle experiment. It was a surprise to see them again.

The pants are good sturdy pants, and once I saw them, it seemed a shame to cut them up (plus the side zippers wouldn't work for my experiment) so they became an experiment in mending instead. We usually seek out natural fabrics to up-cycle but also have accumulated some funky acrylic indoor/outdoor fabric samples. These are all indoor/outdoor swatches that can last for 15,000 double rubs! (I don't know what that means but seems durable.)  NOTE: These fabric samples accumulate with designers and furniture shops, and get tossed, so you can ask your local upholsterer or designer if they have any.

True up-cycling- this is an improvement on the original.  The traveling pants are modeled here by the original owner -much too big for them- as we pass them on back again, with a bonus patch if needed to get them through to Spring and their next story.

​Behold the humble pom-pom. Though small, it is mighty in its ability to spread joy.

Happy new year! Looking back at our past year as a collective and- all things considered- while 2020 did not go the way any of us were expecting, but I think we have made do the best we could under the circumstances.  We have continued to play and learn and re-imagined ways to continue creating and building community despite this year 2020.

January to March aka "the Before TIme":
   Clothing Swaps: We ran a series of clothing drives, exchanges and freecycle shop experiments that ran from November 2019 under the title #eternalswap.  We did a winter clothing drive and swap at one school, set up a free shop in another and then climaxed in January 2020 with a giant clothing drive at Hodgson school.  After that drive finished we continued to support ongoing Winter Freecycle shops in Beverly Heights MS and Moss Park Market with Building Roots that we helped maintain until March 2020, with help from staff and students and volunteers at both locations.

Makeover: We revamped our logo over the new year as well, came up with a simple use for the swirling arrow to use on labels we could print and use in our workshops, incorporating the idea of transforming something into another thing, central to up-cycling and creation.

Community building through workshops: We had a great time co-hosting alternate Sundays with Kate Hamilton in her Do it Together series run out of the same little shipping container at Moss Park, where she ran empowering DIY (but actually T) where she taught us about making sachets and balms and shared knowledge about plants, and we did simple up-cycling sewing projects, like hand-warmers, sewing kits and bags from jeans. We loved the new or "former" sewers who discovered they could actually make many things. This seed kept growing, as you will see below.

Planning ahead: Looking ahead, we had one more workshop in the series, we had started applying for grants with the OAC and the City of Toronto, to do more workshops, produce materials and work with educators: big picture plans.  For March, WIP artist Ines Scepanovic and I (Tanya Murdoch) were collaborating on an interactive art project and swap to activate and Eco Summit for naturopaths hosted by CCNM and WIP collaborator Dr Leslie Solomonian.  Prepping got as far as prepping and braiding two baskets of future rope letters... did numerous experiments with tearing and braiding rug letters...

But by March 13, the global Covid 19 pandemic overwhelmed everyone, and all gatherings and workshop plans were shelved as the world went into lockdown.

March to May aka "the First Lockdown":
First we did nothing. Hard. At home where possible. Global pandemic, and no one knew how it was spread.  Donated blood. Bought canned food. Shared seeds (thanks Food up Front) Looked for sustainable alternatives to disposable wipes and masks. Started researching homemade masks, did numerous experiments with styles, were inspired by the Sewing Army, made masks for family and friends near and far. 

Mask-making: there was an obvious need for and shortage of medical masks in the face of the pandemic.  We have fabric stashes, and began making masks, as well as homemade wipes.  Masks were controversial from the get-go, their effectiveness against this tiny virus was questioned.  But nevertheless, seemed like a solution, and a way to help. As individuals we made masks for friends and family, as a collective, we shared our experiments and had people reach out to us with fabric donations for masks which we redistributed to fledgling makers and the amazing Sewing Army.

Online workshops:  we realized immediately that we would not be able to do workshops in the same way we have done before, and began to experiment with online workshops. We taught each other how to make reusable period pads over Zoom. By April Fool's day we had played around with the medium and did our first formal workshops in collaboration with our new partners the Textile Museum of Canada. We did similar experiments with Building Roots skill sharing workshops and came back for a very timely and fun discussion about all things masks with volunteers and members of the TMC.  We have always structured our workshops with two artists, so no one is sent out alone; people with knowledge to share (lead artist) are supported with another artist. We continued this structure with online workshops and it worked well. We also learned a lot from other creative experiments online.

Many of these initial workshops were run by core WIP leaders, Tanya Murdoch, Marnie Saskin and Leah Sanchez, but as we got our footing we looked for ways to involve more of our community as teachers or collaborators.

Community Collaborators: In the initial lockdown, the government scrambled to decide what services were essential and should stay open.  Community gardens could only operate with very limited access; farmer's markets were restricted; museums were closed; public gatherings were shut down.  Our partners responded in different ways: the small Davisville community garden (aka Renata's Garden) pared down to one or two volunteers maintaining, but we did contribute signage. Appletree markets went online and we contributed a video.  The Textile Museum of Canada continued processing fabric donations, and ran online workshops (we took fabric and collaborated on workshops) that were shared to a larger community through other online platforms that sprang up, like the City of Toronto run Arts@Home and Building Roots really ran with their resources, expanding the Moss Park market to offer delivery services, expanding their volunteer team, maintaining the Ashbridges Farm with minimal volunteers until they could expand members and experimenting with online skill sharing workshops.

Funding: We spent March/April applying for funding for these initiatives, and did our final report for OAC grant we received in March 2019.  Luckily we had outlined the work we wanted to do and how funding could support these initiatives earlier in the year, over a proper coffee/bun meeting.  We wanted to work more with educators of all kinds (school, home school, workshop facilitators) to develop creativity kits, we wanted to create materials based on our workshops to share these ideas beyond the in person meetings- these had to be adapted- pivoted- for these unprecedented times, but really, we were already adapting. 

 June to August aka "Plague summer":

Summer 2020 in Southern Ontario was gorgeous... warm, not too hot, and blessedly long.  As businesses opened up again and many of us started working at home or some hybrid, we continued to meet online, but the idea of spending time online when there was the possibility of porch visits, park walks and gardening became less appealing.

Spending time outside at home meant gardening, firepit visits, investing in composting toilets and using all parts of our homes in creative ways.

BIPoC lives matter: In the wake of the very public murder by police of George Floyd, it was also the summer where systemic racial injustice took centre stage, with Black Lives Matter taking a lead on demands for real change. This didn't surprise us but did make us see the need to be more explicit in the benefits of a diverse collective, and to take steps to involve and spotlight all members of our collective, esp. members who are Black, Indigenous or People of Colour. Here's our newsletter from June.

Experiments with online creating: We continued to participate in online workshops that we hosted or were hosted by our community partners.  The Textile Museum hosted a very successful Visible Repair Workshop that Leah Sanchez, Marnie Saskin and Tanya Murdoch all played roles in. Leah Sanchez gave an artist talk about Resurrection Furniture- an ongoing reclaimed materials furniture shop she began in the Philippines 10 years ago- hosted by Building Roots.  Works-in-Progress hosted a socks themed workshop/brainstorming with a lovely group of creative people- all things socks (darming, balls, wrist warmers) followed by an online kite-making workshop for Father's day with visual artist Gomo George and his daughter Abeyomi Bird-George and, later in the summer, a Patch pocket workshop lead by WIP artist Gabrie Mills. We built on our strengths with Show and Tell sessions like the Creative Alteration session with WIP artists Jiyoon Moon, Tanya Murdoch, Marnie Saskin and Leah Sanchez. 

Collaborating and visiting: The warm weather seemed to make visiting safer (outdoors, at a distance) and we took advantage to do some in person visiting. Over the summer Kate Hamilton (our workshop playmate from Building Roots) got back to her first love, running the community farm at Ashbridges Estate in East end Toronto; one of the participants, Cairine, began making masks for the volunteers, stewards and staff from the farm, and WIP supported her endeavours with fabric from our stash and printing labels for the masks she would offer at the Market. Amazing. I got to represent WIP at the Building Roots/Ashbridges Estate Farm volunteer picnic at the end of the summer.

Funding: we received our OAC grant just before school restarted- yay! but of course, our educators in the school system were all quite busy, we started slowly collaborating. We also got shortlisted for the Community Waste Reduction grant and Building Roots agreed to be our big sister for the final process, but we have yet to get results of final funding (supposed to notify us January 11 2021)

September to December aka new normal into end of year lockdown

Autumn 2020 in Southern Ontario continued warm and lovely... these summery pix are from September/October.  We lead a Back-to-school Neighbour-to-Neighbour clothing swap in September using a new, safer plague protocols that ended up being much better in all ways.  Individual hosts hosting one size meant work was well divided, clothes went where they were wanted or needed. Best of all, it can be replicated! 

Art-making: we worked on our individual skills: Marnie started a small batch business making masks sold online and in coffee shops in Hamilton and Kensington market.  Tanya went deeper into making patterns and visible repair, and Leah worked on carpentry skills.  WIP artist Ines Scepanovic was commissioned to revisit her recurring annual gig as a butter sculptor for the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair.  Jiyoon Moon began her art school again, and doing portraits, and Gabrie Mills launched her Futuristicruins 2020-21 collection online.

Workshops: We were very excited to be part of the EcoFair 2020 lineup, reviving our visible repair workshop and co-presenting with HelenmendsTO a repair expert with a mission to repair... over 1600 items kept from the landfill via her hands alone!  The workshop hosts were the Textile Museum of Canada, Green Neighbours Network and st. Clair reduces, and the event had 80+ participants registered. We also launched our in class collaboration, making pompoms with Ms. B's kindergarten class.

Works-in-Progress in Review: The problem with such prolonged social isolation is that is makes it hard to collaborate organically... we are thankful for the possibility of meeting online but it is physically tiring when you are online all the time for work. But we went back online to begin a very fruitful + focused team coaching process with our WIP collaborator, life coach Amy Brown, allowing us to make our group values explicit and actionable.  Here are a pretty good list of words outlining our values: Play, Kindness, Integrity and clarity Sustainability, creativity,  Inclusion/collaboration, responsiveness "yes, and..." The process continues in 2021.


Extember: This same Amy came up with an idea in a dream, where she felt like there is a month she has forgotten, and called that month Extember.  With her permission, we are borrowing this idea as a metaphor and a title for another project we began in this later part of 2020, a place to park what we have learned and will continue to learn, a place that is outside of time: a 'zine called Extember.  We want to use this as another place to encourage creativity and collaboration... See you in Extember.

Welcome to 2021, thanks for playing with us in 2020.
-Tanya

We are making a 'zine.  'Zines were a thing when we were youth, and still exist: small books, like a magazine, but short, non-commercial, homemade, photocopied or online publications with a niche subject matter- very on brand for Works-in-Progress.

As we entered our second lockdown and the 10th? 11th? month of this pandemic experience, we were thinking about all the things we had learned. I have learned a lot about time, pacing... plus how to darn socks, slash sourdough and make kombucha (tip- don't smell it, just drink it.) A 'zine seems like a good place to share all sorts of things.

So, the working model is to create four simultaneous issues about making things from other things.  We are seeking tips, not recipes; inspiration, not aspiration; works in progress, not finished masterpieces.  The content will be playful, launch pads, more visual than text. Collaborative and inclusive, with lots of contributors involved.

These will be published (online and also as downloadable pdfs to print) as they get full, and grouped along 4 themes: Food, Cloth, Plants and Stick & Stones.

And the name- I was mulling over a few names along with the idea.  It could be something playful and a little 90s,like Make/Do or more explicit, like A magazine about Anything but Shopping but then inspiration came from a wise friend (this is not unusual and also another good reason to do a group project like this.)

"I dreamed they added a new month called Extember. 'I always forget Extember,' quoth I, in my dream"
-Amy Brown, earlier in 2020

This inspiration of whimsy from our friend Amy is a perfect name: Extember- literally a month out of time.  e have all been experiencing a strange time out of time, and this is a place to share what we have learned to help each other out. We are seeking images and ideas that inspire, ways of making do that you have learned over this Extember.

If you feel inspired or have something to share, email us works.in.progressto@gmail.com or check out the sample pages on our website.

Marnie has been making a lot of these (and upcycled blankets and masks) and cranked up the old online store as well, check out www.marniesaskin.com

Some images from today's online workshop, part of the sustainable Textile Teach-in series run by the Textile Museum of Canada, the fourth one we have done together. This one was Hosted as well by EcoFair Toronto 2020, during #wastereductionweek

Our hosts invited a tailor, Helen, who runs a business called Helen Mends- she began offering repair services in Toronto just a few years ago, with a mission to help divert waste by repairing and teaching repair skills, and it was really great to have her skills in the mix. We hope we can do more collaborations with her in the future!

The workshop was very well attended... the eventbrite was maxed out in a few days so the hosts set up an "overflow room" on youtube live. Hosts estimate 80+ people, and we have heard from the chat, the hosts and on social media that attendants were inspired and had fun so mission accomplished.

Here are the takeaways: If you need to get new clothes, swap, purchase second hand or invest in clothes that are single fiber well made clothes worth the investment.  Don't buy more than you need. If you have more than you need, swap or find a new home where you know they are needed before you unload them where they may not be needed.  If you manage your own textile waste you know it is not ending up in the landfill, where possible find a new use for old textiles- stuff your own pillow, make rags, repair them or use them as patches. Stylish and fun.

Eco Fair 2020 will be posting the video from today's workshop, and we will be posting excerpts of the useful bits on our website soon. Thanks Aelena, Annette, Leah, Marnie, Helen and all the teams for a great day.