Join the Slofemists this Saturday at the Strathcona Fieldhouse!

Lois Klassen and Lori Weidenhammer invite you to be a part of Slofemists, a long-run artists' project that offers the unhurried production of feminisms. Join in the Slofemists embroidery circle at Strathcona Field House on November 30 from 1-3pm. Participants should bring a feminist story that has inspired them to share, in exchange for a take-home feminist embroidery pattern. Supplies for an afternoon of feminist embroidery will be provided. Embroidered linen patches from Slofemists events will eventually form a composite patchwork that will be used as a couch cover or Slofa - a prop to designate a mobile space for dialogue and performance. Slofemists has been presented at the Surface Design Association of Alberta at the John Snow House in Calgary (October 2013).

In 2014, Slofemists will host Vancouver feminist embroidery events at #204-2075 Yukon Street on the last Saturday of each month: January 25 (1-3pm), February 22 (1-3pm), and March 29 (1-3pm)Register for these by emailing lois(at)loisklassen(dot)com .

Lois Klassen is an artist and writer based in Vancouver. She is interested in participatory art in the city and the social life of crafts. Her on-going social sewing project is documented at comforterartaction.org.

Lori Weidenhammer is a performance-based eco-feminist artist and educator. She prefers to make art in “galleries without walls”, i.e. gardens. She is part of the Second Site Collective and a founding member of the Slofemists. She blogs at www.beespeakersaijiki.blogspot.ca.

Klassen and Weidenhammer are past collaborators in the Means of Production Artists Raw Resource Collective (with Sharon Kallis, 2009) and CornerFarm: Repurposed Planters for Avant Gardeners (2008). Lori and Lois have collaborated on a number of projects concerning ecology and sustainable lifestyles.

Slow-Crafting Circle this Thursday Evening at Aberthau from 7-8:30 pm

After a long day outdoors with high-energy spring tasks, it's good to unwind by doing some slow-handwork. Please join me at Aberthau with your handcrafts. (I will provide some simple craft options for those who want to try something new.)

BYO Slow Crafting Circle at Aberthau: West Point Grey Community Centre: 4397 West 2nd Avenue

Thursdays April 4th, 18th and 25th

You are invited to join us from 7 pm to 8:30 pm for inspiring evenings in the elegant comfort in the salon of Aberthau Mansion. Tea will be served by Madame Beespeaker, the current artist in residence at the West Point Grey Community Centre.

Bring your crochet, knitting, tatting, stitching, sketching, mending, darning, mending, nest-building, your yarn bombs, your works in progress, your U.F.O's, your material manifesto, I.E. anything you can hold on your lap while engaging in creative dialogue. Bring a friend!
If you are feeling peckish at this hour, you must bring your own comestibles.

www.beespeakersaijiki.blogspot.com

Also, as a reminder, here a  list of the workshops I will be doing at Aberthau on Thursday afternoons:

2. Seeds for Kids (ages 3-12): Thurs., April 4, 4-5:30 pm
3. Growing Edible Flowers and Herbs (all ages welcome): Thurs. April 11, 4-5:30 pm
4. Messages for the Bees with Madame Beespeaker (all ages welcome): Thurs. April 18, 4-5:30 pm
5 Garden Journaling (age 12 and up) Thursday April 25, 4-5:30 pm
6 Singing with the Birds and Bees: exploring your natural voice (all ages welcome) Thurs. May 2, 4-5:30 pm
7th Stories with the Queen Bee (suited for children 4-11, but all ages welcome) Thurs. May 9, 4-5:30 pm
8th Herbal Craft: Bathtub Teas (all ages welcome), Thurs. May 16, 4-5:30 pm
9th Funky Humming Bird Feeders (ages 9 and up) , Thurs. May 23, 4-5:30 pm

Note: Workshops are $5 per person per session. Adults, please accompany children under 6 years.

Slo-femists Unplugged

March 7, 2013 marked the inaugural Slo-femist Knitting Circle at Shaktea on Main Street in Vancouver, Canada. Scones and tea were consumed with gusto as members, stitched, knitted and ignited the slow-burning revolution. Discussion was as rich and ripe as a peat bog. Repairs were made to second-hand sweaters. Hats were adorned with rooster feathers and a lively purple sweater grew stitch by stitch.

The birthday girl was treated to scones with lashings of clotted cream and Earl Grey blueberry preserves accompanying three steepings of a rare white tea.

 Ms. Shapiro brought one of nature's wonders (collected by her late mother) to inspire us to better our crafting skills.

Shapiro, Weidenhammer and Kindratsky in attendence ( Ms. and Miss Roy turned up later.)

Every revolution must have its own cartoonist and Ms. Kindratsky has got off to an excellent start . . . not with a bang, or a whimper, but a wink!

The Slo-femist (Un)fashion Show

Some ideas for the Slo-femist (Un)fashion Show:

People in the audience are actually knitting, crocheting, mending clothes as the show is going on. The slow fashion on display is remade, recycled, mended and re-fashioned--the more times the better. If it becomes an annual show, the challenge is to show the same remodeled pieces from the year before, and so on.

The people who narrate the show are also the people wearing and creating the clothes--the division of labor among seamstress, designer and model are not hierarchical.

Artists bring the scraps they can not use to be shared and/or composted (if they are very wee).

Artists also display unique patches, mending techniques, natural dye methods.

One part of the space could be a clothing swap depot.

There would be no division between haute couture and ready-to-wear.

Some slo-femist uniforms could be conceived and devised, for slo-femist activities such as pruning, weeding, composting, beekeeping, feeding the chickens, victory gardening, etc.
 

Introducing Slo-femism!

 

Introducing Slo-femism:

Slow, sustainable feminist revolution.

Sofamists--Women who sing solfege and sit around on sofas fomenting dissent.

Slothfemists--an extreme faction of the slowfemists.

Stay tuned for Slo-femist manifestos and more, coming in its own time.