We’re sorry but this basketry activity has filled. If you would like to be placed on the wait list, or be contacted about future similar stewardship/craft activities, please email your name and preferred contact information (phone and/or email) to ben@nehalemtrust.org.
Stewardship of land often includes the cultivation and use of plants to meet daily living needs and for creative/artistic purposes. Here, invasive ivy collected in our stewardship of properties around Wheeler, Oregon will be used to teach weaving and basketry skills.
We do not cultivate the English Ivy (Hedera Helix). Instead, we strive to eradicate it when possible because it is an aggressive, invasive evergreen vine that is well-adapted to the mild Pacific Northwest climate. It can blanket an area and create “ivy deserts” that challenge native habitats and ecosystems. Its weight, especially when wet and in windy conditions, can cause trees to topple. The Trust strives to remove it to protect the native ecosystems. However, despite being a bane to restoration efforts, English ivy can have useful applications.
Chloë Hight will teach students how to safely harvest and prepare this versatile vine to create cordage and a small woven vessel.
The Lower Nehalem Community Trust will lead a land stewardship session Friday April 1, from 10-noon to clear an area of English Ivy. (See that 4/1 Ivy Collection activity here.) We will then repurpose the collected ivy as a creative material for this basketry class to learn foundational weaving techniques.
Chloë first learned these techniques from her mentors Sharon Kallis and Rebecca Graham at EartHand Gleaners Society in Vancouver, BC and has continued to deepen her knowledge through classes led by Peter Michael Bauer with Rewild Portland in Portland, OR.
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Ben Pittenger / He/Him / at ben@nehalemtrust.org.
(There is no need to pre-register for the 4/1 ivy collection.)
If you would like to be contacted about future similar Stewardship/Craft/Art activities, please email ben@nehalemtrust.org or << register on this form >>. (Click on the link. The form may ask you to sign in to google. If you do not want to do so, then please email your request to Ben at ben@nehalemtrust.org)
