A seasonal textile retreat with seasonal ritual, slow stitch & eco-print

Autumn emerges gently as the aliveness of summer fades. With the aroma of smoke and earth, the landscape softens with a long, liberating exhale, turning inwards and inviting us to do the same.

But while the natural world is drawing us inwards, modern life is already asking us to gear up for the madness of a season we haven’t yet entered, fuelled by consumerism and excess. Your diary is in danger of being filled with commitments your heart has no space for.

Where is your attention?

Emerging Landscapes is a day to explore your creative edge in relationship with what is here now, to make space for what wants to emerge.

It is a threshold, where we step outside of time and into sacred time. And it is where we enter the work.

We'll work with our hands, hearts, natural fibres, slow stitches, botanical colour made from locally grown and gathered plants, vintage thread and found materials, providing tangible ways to explore the relationship between the worlds inside and out, above and below.

There will be time devoted to learning, making, reflection, sharing and experimentation, with ritual woven into the structure of the day. It is not just craft, it is connection, co-creation and meaning-making!

If your heart is calling out for space, this intimate retreat day is ready to welcome you. Beginners are very welcome. If you're already a stitcher, this is an opportunity to experiment with a more intuitive approach and loosen the expectation of a perfect or predetermined result.

You will take some beautiful textile art, and be set up to continue a deeply personal practice connected to the living world.

Slow Stitch

We will work with simple stitches on fabrics infused with botanical magic, led by intuition and the slow rhythm of the stitch, responding to what presents rather than deciding the outcome in advance.

You'll learn some foundational stitches and experiment with composition, layering, natural textures and organic forms inspired by the autumn landscape.

There are no strict patterns to follow. You can work intuitively, allowing the cloth, thread and your own ideas to shape the piece. We are at once the creator and witness though this process. What emerges can reveal to us what we cannot yet put into words. 

The rhythm of the stitch is a way of finding your own way of moving — discovering when to follow, when to pause, when to change direction and when to trust what you cannot yet see.

Eco Print

Eco-printing is a sustainable textile process where natural pigments and plant forms are transferred directly onto fabric using heat.

You'll work with pre-prepared natural fibres and locally grown and gathered autumn plants to create botanical prints on cloth in a co-creative practice where result is never completely predictable. 

You begin with an intention, but you don't completely control the outcome. The plants, fabric, heat and water all participate, and what emerges, is greater than the sum of what enters. This is pure alchemy, and very addictive. At the end of the workshop you’ll have some beautiful cloth to use in future textile projects, along with guidance for working the whole process at home.

Liberate your practice.

This is an invitation to choose the emerging path hidden beneath the leaves to find your centre. Ceremoniously connect with the land and the season that holds you, reclaiming your natural rhythm as we enter this threshold with the intention to be with what is emerging.

What’s included

• All textile, materials, plants and equipment you'll need for the day
• A slow stitch beginners’ kit 
• Ritual cloth to take home— and a new love for the work in progress
• eco-dyed cloth to use in future Untamed Textile projects
• A new artful meditation practice for exploring your inner emerging landscape
• An instructional workbook with seasonal rituals and practice guidance
• A hearty seasonal vegetarian lunch
• Herbal and seasonal teas

You don't need to prepare anything in advance, but please feel free to bring any scraps of fabric that feel meaningful to your or your ancestors.