The basket and the song are two expressions of the same ancient human impulse: to gather, to make, to remember, and to belong.

To be Woven is a day-long weaving and song immersion exploring the ways creative practise can draw us into deeper relationship with ourselves, one another and the living world.

About this workshop

Throughout the morning we will introduce the practice of coil basket weaving, allowing our hands to settle into the gentle rhythm of weaving. Song will weave through the day, sometimes gently accompanying our making, at other times inviting us to pause, listen, and enjoy resting in collective singing.

After sharing a potluck lunch together, the afternoon will open more fully into collective song. Through simple melodies, layered harmonies and the richness of many voices entwined, we will discover how singing can deepen the weaving, and how weaving can deepen the singing.

Through rhythm, repetition, shared voices, and shared work of the hands, we begin to experience ourselves being woven together, as community, as village, as companions in the creative act.
We come to weave. We leave having been woven.

Event details

Private Address, Preston/Naarm, Wurundjeri Country, given upon booking.

$140 full / $120 concession/Bring a Friend price / $90 supported.

If you come with a friend/buy two tickets in the same purchase - tickets are discounted to $120each.

Reach out if cost is prohibitive yet this calls to you deeply or if you would like to sponsor a ticket for someone who cannot afford this workshop.

This workshop is also available for a private group of 10+ participants.

Who this workshop is suitable for 
You don’t need any experience in weaving or singing to attend this workshop, just a curiosity and a feeling that these practices speak to you. Feel free to reach out if you would like to discuss if this workshop is suitable for you.

Photography 
Photographs may be taken during this workshop. By attending, you provide consent to be photographed and to having these photographs used for promotional purposes only. Please notify us if you wish to be excluded.

Cultural sensitivity
 We must acknowledge that there is complexity in working with weaving on stolen land; a practice that is so culturally rich and intertwined with the sacred. We acknowledge the traditional practices of Indigenous weavers who have woven these lands since time immemorial and have developed and refined basket weaving practices over this time. Shelley is not an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person and Indigenous weaving, stories and lore is not the content of this workshop. We stand as allies to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and strive to avoid cultural appropriation in offerings as a workshop facilitators and in life. Shelley is happy to refer you to Indigenous weavers who you can learn from and remunerate fairly for their work if this is what you seek.

Facilitator bios

 Shelley Krycer is a visual artist based on Wurundjeri country who came to basket weaving over 15 years ago. When she did, Shelley found that her hands had a sense of ‘returning’ to something that they had long known. They wove and wove, and continue to weave, with a sense of remembering and learning with each stitch. Working as she does primarily with foraged and home grown plant materials has brought an additional layer to her practice; an ongoing, living relationship with the natural world. Through her weaving practice Shelley finds that she is able to listen to, observe, participate and deepen her sensitivity to the eco-systems around her, working cyclically across the seasons. Shelley’s process-based art making practice which includes basket weaving alongside painting and other nature based art processes is informed by trainings within a Fine Arts (Honours) degree she completed in 2004 (Monash University) as well as studies in Art Education (Grad Dip Ed. Melbourne University), Permaculture (Advanced PDC with Peter Allen) and Steiner Education (Advanced Diploma, Melbourne Rudolf Steiner Seminar). Shelley has been teaching art and facilitating workshops since 2004 and sharing basket weaving workshops since 2014. She has been invited to bring this work to festivals such as Seven Sisters and The Village Continuum, as part of programs hosted by Nature’s Apprentice as well as facilitating weaving circles for groups of people at significant moments and transitions. Shelley is continuously moved by the depth of presence, nourishment, connection and joy that sharing these processes and practices in circles brings.

instagram: @shelleykrycer
facebook: Shelley Krycer - artist
website: www.shelleykrycer.com
email: hello@shelleykrycer.com

Eddie FitzPatrick is an English-Australian songwriter, storyteller and facilitator who lives and loves on Wurundjeri Country, in Naarm (Melbourne), Australia. Growing up in the English countryside, she sung before she could talk and connection with the earth is a keystone of her work.

As a performer, her songs ripple with authenticity as she weaves poetry, nature, and old ways of storytelling into gatherings that feel like gentle rituals. Audiences have described her work as “sound healing in its purest form” and “like being anointed”.

Eddie also journeys with the voice as a guide for others: inviting people into deep listening — to themselves, to each other and to the living world. She holds ‘Our Earthen Prayer’ - a women’s ritual choir), other song circles/workshops around Naarm and singing/Canoeing journeys along the Murray/Dhungala river. Her work rests on a simple, joyful truth: that all humans can sing (and should!), and that singing together is our birthright — a tiny, radical act of aliveness in the midst of modern life.

Eddie trained at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts, has studied Vocal Sound Therapy with Githa Ben-David, and worked with the Roy Hart Theatre tradition in France. When she’s not guiding song and story, she’s producing festivals and gatherings internationally — with a devotion to creativity, connection, play and the more-than-human world.

We respectfully acknowledge the Wurundjeri People of the Kulin Nation, who are the Traditional Owners of the land on which this workshop will be run, pay respect to their Elders past, present and emerging, and acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded.

Contact the host of ‘To Be Woven’ - A day long workshop weaving baskets together as we sing in circle.