Hi, I’m Tani. Just Two Hands is where I find my breath in the busyness of life. I’ve been weaving for 10 years, first taught by my mother; it was her love of craft, leaves underfoot and creating in outdoor spaces that kick started my own love affair with basketry and working with natural fibres. I’m endlessly passionate about handmade products that come from the earth and delight in our ability to do it with just our hands. It’s the slow, tactile and mindful nature of weaving that captivates me.
My workshops are designed to introduce your mind and muscles to weaving with natural fibres. Whilst there are endless joys in the process, the outcome it also fun. At workshops you’ll create and take away practical objects to use in daily life. Objects that inevitably inspire more joy, knowing they came by your hands, from materials in your backyard.
I believe weaving is a conversation; between the weaver’s hands and the fibres as they twist, but also a conversation with the environment. And all good conversations both give and receive. One of the primary fibres used in my workshops is cat’s claw, an invasive climbing vine that devastates native vegetation when left alone. By repurposing these troublesome but beautiful weeds, weaving also becomes a sustainable practice – a chance to give back to the forests. You might take home a little basket with which to collect eggs or hold letters, but success in sustainable weaving is also about what you’ve left behind. A tree able to flourish. A flower able to bud.
The future of environmental conservation lies in our ability to share sustainable ideas and practices together. Weaving and teaching weaving is one way I do that, and I’m also available to collaborate in art spaces and at events and festivals that hope to promote a similar ethos.