Please visit our event calendar to see upcoming programs and events.
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From Farm Days to Cultural Extravaganzas, Fabric of Life loves to showcase the best of simple living, traditional skills, and community engagement. Join us at an event soon to explore your humanity, deepen your roots, move your feet, and laugh out loud!
Fabric of Life Programs Overview
We are always working on scheduling an exciting variety of new programs that encompass a wide selection of traditional skills. These are some of the programs we have offered in the past (and many will be offered again):
- BARNFEST – Our signature annual festival, with food, music, and hands-on activities – it’s a rollicking good time! During the pandemic, we decided to offer a virtual BARNFEST, but have since returned to in-person BarnFest celebrations and hope you will join us this year!
- Väv Immersion – This course is an 8 week long immersive experience for folks wanting to learn traditional Swedish Weaving technique. The program culminates in an Exhibition and Celebration of work and learning the participants have accomplished during the program.
- Fellowship for Black Weavers – Fabric of Life was excited to both fundamentally and financially support the formation and first meeting of a Fellowship for Black Weavers in the spring of 2022. Diversity in weaving techniques and traditions was explored as community was built around a mutual love of weaving and textile art. Read more.
- Singing Ukulele Retreat – In 2024, this musical afternoon featured Jim Beloff and Kate O’Connor. In 2023, Stu Fuchs and Justina Golden led 30 ukulele players who, for one day, became a community of musicians dedicated to improving their skills and making music together. Read more.
- Beekeeping Programs – Building a Relationship with Bees & Planning the Care of a Honeybee Hive took place in person over two sessions during the summer of 2021. During this program, a group of bee enthusiasts came together and prepared for their beekeeping journeys. We also partnered with Ang Roell of They Keep Bees to make Virtual Bee School available for folks with a bit of beekeeping experience to continue their education through the cooler months.
- Mending – Katie Cavacco led a mending workshop where she taught a variety of techniques for mending and embellishment.
- Flax & Warping – In a weekend-long cooperative set of programs, Becky Ashenden and Justin Squizzero teamed up to bring two amazing fiber programs to Fabric of Life. The first day was packed with information, demos, and hands-on experiences related to the Northern traditions of growing, preparing, weaving, and spinning with flax. On the second day, students had the opportunity to observe various warping techniques from the Scottish and Swedish traditions in addition to trying their hand at winding their own warp on a mill.
- Broommaking – Eva Gaultney has taught a number of programs on broommaking. During these workshops, participants learned the process of making handmade broomcorn brooms and were able to weave their own shaker combo broom to take home.
- Concerts and Workshops with musicians such as Troy MacGillivray & Mari Black, Larry & Joe, Pajdashi, the Tamburitza Troubadors, Ralph Iverson and the Romaniacs, and the Fabric of Life Fireside Orchestra.
- House Concerts – Intimate musical gatherings for lovers of fine traditional sounds with artists such as lydia ievins.
- Textile Workshops – An ongoing series, focusing on weaving, broomcorn making, basket making, sprang, and hand stitching.
- Farm Days – Plant, harvest, and thresh our wheat and flax for food and fiber.
- Natural Building Workshops – Projects have included building a cob oven, and harvesting local timber from the land and building a timber structure to house our cob oven in our Timber Harvest and Timber Frame Construction – a two part series that utilized traditional skills of daft horses and hand tools to build a structure, start-to-finish. Every year we will be working to feature a different workshop around skills for natural buildings.
- Paper in Motion Virtual Workshop with Barbara Blumenthal
- Digital Printmaking Reception & Workshop with John Marcy
- Dye Garden & Natural Dyeing Workshops with Michelle Parrish
- Tool Sharpening Workshops with Shelby Howland
- Working Oxen Demonstrations
- Contra Dances and Concert/Parties with the Fabric of Life Fireside Orchestra
- Book Readings with local authors such as Peggy Hart and Deb Habib & Ricky Baruch
- Garden Workshops, including a Field Walk with David Fisher, Biodynamic Land Healing with Elisha Poulin, a Shiitake Mushroom Log Inoculation Workshop, Orchard Pruning Workshops, and our Gardening Program Series, a season-long program, which was a mix of in-person and virtual sessions, ML Altobelli of ML’s Greenery in Motion helped us reinvent the garden at Fabric of Life. We started the garden-focused programming with a virtual Raised Bed Garden session. In the in-ground garden, we worked to begin creating an environment where soil microorganisms will be able to flourish, resulting in highly productive plants that produce nourishing, nutrient dense food. Throughout the season, we had monthly virtual check-in meetings with ML to avoid and correct common gardening issues and mitigate drought and then cool, wet conditions. At the end of the season, we came together for a day of celebration and planning for next year, with a garden mineral mixing event, hugelkulture garden build, and a harvest feast, complete with an assortment of amazing dishes prepared from vegetables grown in the garden. This program remains available on our website as a series of Understanding Your Garden video recordings.
2021 Programs
From bee-keeping to mending, to flax, to ways of warping, to broom making, to gardening, our 2021 program season was a success! After a year off due to the global pandemic, we were able to provide intimately-sized classes in the beautiful great outdoors and keep our community safe, healthy, and well, while also allowing all of us the opportunity to come together and learn from each other.
We also have a few virtual programs available for viewing at your own convenience as our in-person season draws to a close. We have partnered with Ang Roell to offer Virtual Bee School, which includes 9 hours of online instruction as well as support from Ang. We have made the recordings of our season-long Understanding Your Garden series with ML Altobelli available on-demand, in addition to our Raised Bed Garden zoom recording.
We hope that you will find your way to joining us on the land in celebration of these traditions and ways of life.
Programs planned for 2020 that were postponed
In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, Fabric of Life made the difficult decision to cancel all in-person events for 2020.
Sugar Maple Workshop with David Cantieni
Preparing Your Orchard For A Bountiful Harvest with Elizabeth Garofalo
Wood-Fired Ovens: A Way of Life with Jon Santiago
Broom Making Workshop with Eva Gaultney
Rug Hooking with Wool Yarn with Carole Adams
Beekeeping with the Rhythm of the Hive with Ang Roell
Local Spinning with Carole Adams
From Sheep to Yarn Workshop with Kimberlee Ruhloff
2019 Program Highlights
We are always on the lookout for new ways to broaden our program offerings!
Do you have an idea of a program that you’d like to see and/or lead? We are especially interested in offering programs and skills that enrich the lives and heritage of the BIPOC community. Reach out to us at [email protected]