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.

 We have begun an interesting group coaching process, with professional coach in training and friend of the Works-in-Progress collective,  Amy Brown.  We met individually over the past month, and as a group last week.  We are her first group coaching experiment, so we are all moving forward in faith, as you do, in the usefulness of the process. So far, very interesting, and as we take steps, the path gets revealed.  Here's a link to a VIA strengths quiz, if you like that kind of thing... it's free!

Part of the process is identifying some core values of the group.  We are still working on it but on the list was play, creativity, sustainability, and an integrity of purpose. We want the collective to support our members and build a community. To that end we are doing artist talks, seeking funding to both host workshops and pay artists to create online materials.

One of our artists- Ines Scepanovic- has an annual gig as a butter sculptor for the Royal Winter Fair.  So awesome. This year they asked her to come back, online, as part of a nation wide online contest. So of course I offered to make a video with her, support her as she ventures into online workshop world.  But, should it be a Works-in-Progress thing because, of course, butter sculpture is off brand :) We wrestle with using food in other projects, like rice or flax in hand-warmers, both for the food waste and the cost.

It is a work-in-progress.  We are artists and want to make things because they are beautiful and sometimes that means using material that is not up-cycled or recyclable or even toxic, but materials and alternatives are always part of the discussion. 

For now, some play.  The skills Ines shares in this video transfer to working with other material  And, while butter sculpture is wasteful, it is not toxic, it is ephemeral and, in the end, as Ines says, if your hands were clean, you can always keep your finished sculpture in the fridge and use it on your toast.

 there is another video on our instagram feed- she did make the chicks in the end as well.

Sometimes it takes a while, but by popular demand, here is the latest video from a workshop we actually hosted over the summer...

Really love all the approaches our artists take to both making and sharing knowledge. Gabrie brings many hours (and yards and yards) of hands on sewing experience despite her less many years on earth, and is good at passing on both the minimum effort needed and also the details you should pay attention to if you want to do it right. Even something that seems straightforward, like patch pockets, really can benefit from some experience to work out the kinks.

We just sent in a grant application with the City of Toronto Waste Reduction Community Grant program (we were shortlisted!) with our community partners Building Roots acting as our trustee. The grant is to do things like this- take workshops we are doing and record and use that material to create videos and graphics to post online for people to see after the fact- seems like a good idea!