Plantcraft
Community and connection with plants through art, craft, food and medicine.
PlantCraft is a 6-month, arts-based immersion into the world of plants where we learn by making and doing. We’ll explore local plant ecology through an arts-based lens, exploring land-based artistic mediums like wild basketry, carving with local wood, crafting herbal remedies, botanical dyes and inks, and much more. Each session, you’ll be introduced to local species of plants and trees and their use in a variety of projects.
Using plants for food, medicine, utility and adornment are practices both ancient and timeless. In this program, you’ll be invited to reconnect with skills that have been woven into our cultures, histories, and bodies for generations. Whether you’re an experienced artist or curious crafter, PlantCraft is designed to help you carve out time each month to nurture your creativity, on the land, in good company.
This program is for those who want to
Deepen relationship with the plant world through embodied skills
Cultivate hands-on skills and practices to share with your community
Gain direct knowledge of key species that make up our local ecosystem
Learn in a community setting with like-minded folks
PlantCraft is guided by an ethic of care for the land. We’ll be working with plants for their beauty and utility, as well as investigating their role in the landscape. Along the way, we’ll learn responsible harvesting guidelines and practices for stewarding wild plant communities.
Session Dates and Information
PlantCraft consists of 7 sessions from May - October 2026, each from 10 AM to 3 PM at GOS’ Stone Road site. Register for the full program here.You can also register for individual sessions starting Thursday, April 9th by clicking the links below.
Sunday, May 10th: Wild Basketrywith Jen, Annie and Dani
In our first session, we'll meet some locally abundant plants that can be used to create baskets and other vessels. We'll discuss ecology, ethical harvesting, process and working with local plants for basketry, and create a small vessel to take home. Focal species include dogwood, willow, iris and more. (Note: May 10th is Mother's Day!)
Sunday, June 7: Earth, Water, Firewith Annie and Jen
New for 2026! This session weaves the elements into our land-based art practice, and might include working with clay deposits on the banks of the Eramosa, making artist charcoal over the fire, and more.
Sunday, July 5th: Wild Foodswith Dani and Annie
Take an edible tour of field and forests surrounding GOS, foraging and preparing delicious local ingredients over the fire. Focal species include dandelion, nettle and staghorn sumac.
Sunday, July 19th: Carvingwith Annie and Dani
Identifying, harvesting and techniques for working with local woods to create utilitarian and artisan carved items. Focal species include poplar, basswood and pine.
Sunday, August 16th: Medicine Makingwith Dani and Jen
This session places special emphasis on herbal medicine for self-care: Luxuriate in herbal footbaths, enjoy wild-foraged tea and learn to make plant-infused first aid remedies for your medicine cabinet. Focal species include plantain, bee balm, elder, and pine.
Sunday, September 13th: Botanical Dyes and Ecoprintingwith Jen and Dani
Welcome to the art and science of extracting colour from local plants, including vat dyeing, bundle dyeing, making inks and pigments, and eco-printing with plants and minerals. Focal species include goldenrod, black walnut and buckthorn.
Sunday, October 4th: Plant Fibres & Cordagewith Dani and Annie
Processing plants into workable fibres, and transforming those fibres into cordage (rope and string) is one of the oldest human technologies. We'll look at producing cordage from local bast fibres like basswood, stinging nettle, milkweed and hemp dogbane, and explore how our cordage translates to mediums like sewing, embroidery, and weaving. We'll learn how to turn cordage into useful items like looped bags and coiled baskets.
Program price: 698+ HST. If cost is a barrier, please see our sliding-scale options here.
Meet your instructors
PlantCraft is co-created by Annie Sanassian, Jen Britton, and Dani Hagel, three artists and educators who believe in craft as gestures of care for ourselves, each other and the lands that sustain us. We can’t wait to introduce you to some of the plants and skills that inspire us.
Annie Sanassian is an educator, naturalist, spoon carver, mushroom farmer, and artist inspired by the natural world. As a child, she stumbled upon camel bones in the desert while exploring with her family. They were gifted to an artist friend and transformed into art, a moment that sparked her lifelong curiosity and love of creating. Today, she works with wood and organic materials, carving playful, eccentric spoons and exploring the edges of conversation between humans and the more-than-human world. Through her craft, she invites curiosity, connection, and new ways of seeing and being.
Dani Hagel is a herbalist, artist and educator whose work weaves together the art and science of plant medicine, naturalist knowledge, and folk craft. Inspired by the everyday magic of of interspecies collaborations and wild plant stewardship, Dani believes land-based practices can help us guide us into right relationship with each other and the more-than-human world. These days, she’s obsessed with foraged fibres, homegrown plant pigments, and growing flax for linen. She cultivates a diverse landscape of medicinal, edible, ecological, and craft plants on her permaculture-inspired herb farm, Eramosa Herbals.
Jen Britton’s relationship with plants began as a wee free girl of the 80's, romping through forests and watching her Oma garden. Plant crafting has provided her an opportunity to explore reciprocity, connect with community and deepen her relationship with the land. She is ever so grateful for the mothers and women in her life who gardened, preserved food, shared their knowledge of plant remedies and medicines and for her father’s love/respect of the natural world and all its beings.
Cailey Campbell is a mama, seedkeeper, culinary artist, and food grower. She has found solace and joy being by water for as long as she can remember and believes that the land and water are one of life's most precious teachers for cultivating our inner worlds. Through her various roles at Skaronhyase'ko:wa (The Everlasting Tree School) in Six Nations, Cailey has had the honour of experiencing the multitudes of benefits to children in an earth-based education that is culturally-rooted. These experiences continue to inspire her and deepen her commitment to cultivating equitable and liberated relationships with the earth and each other.
Here’s what past participants are saying:
"I absolutely LOVED PlantCraft! It was such a wonderful way to connect with myself, creativity, and the land. I really liked the process of each week - it wasn't just show up and do a craft. We were engaged with the plants we were working with in a really connected way. The carving week stood out to me - harvesting and processing our own tree made the experience real, and was a great reminder of the living beings we're crafting with."
"I really enjoyed being part of PlantCraft! Connecting with the land through the lens of creativity helped deepen my appreciation for all the life forms who share themselves with us in various forms as helpful tools (e.g. spoons, baskets, writing utensils, dyes, etc). Our lives are deeply enriched by plants, and I'm grateful to have had PlantCraft experiences which helped illuminate and deepen these connections. Understanding all the work (both the work humans put into creating art, as well as the work plants put into growing) that goes into creating a craft piece also inspired more care, reverence, and consideration both for the objects as well as the plants and people who make these objects possible."
