Shibagau Creek Forest Farmstead
A place to learn, create, recharge and connect with nature.
See what we have been up to!
We had a wonderful sunny day walking the property as a group of 6, spotting and identifying by sight and song. Beginning early in the open fields, it was clear and pleasant. With the leaves just budding, one could see a wide variety sitting in the trees, calling and swooping across our view. Scott Russell wrote down the list of more than 30 species in his notebook as we progressed.
At a one-day workshop in January, with 5 of us at the Sydenham Library, we went through the process of folding, gluing and trimming the binding which has no sewing, which opens up flat and can use a variety of materials for the spine and the board covers. The binding is attributed to American master binder Tim Ely. Peter learned boxmaking and gold leafing from Tim in workshops and boxmaking is high on the wishlist for this summer’s binding adventures.
Working with Walter Bergmoser and Peter Sramek, the workshop participants explored image-making with collaged natural materials exposed in the bright sunlight onto cyanotype paper and regular silver photo paper.
An introduction to the concept of art and interventions in nature supported by watching the documentary film of Andy Goldsworthy’s site-specific works, led to participants creating works in the forest and the creek bed. Enlarged acetate negatives were used to print images as cyanotypes and also for experiments in exposing directly onto large tree leaves of various kinds.
This summer series of workshops introduced making books by hand, covering basic techniques of folding and sewing books without glue and moving on to historical sewing formats appropriate for a wide range of art and bookmaking projects. They were held in Kingston at the Tett Centre and at the Sydenham Library and Heron Point on Eel Lake.
August 9-11
Handbound Artists’ Books: Introduction to Non-adhesive Binding Structures
$300. plus accommodation if required ($175)
This workshop intensive introduced a range of basic sewn structures and each person made a range of samples over the weekend.
Sydenham Library, Ontario and Heron Point on Eel Lake – August 2024
Future sessions will be organized in different locations and take a similar approach with the possibility of diverse content and emphasis. To express your interest and help with planning these offerings, please fill out this form and subscribe to our mailing list to be informed.
Tett Centre Gallery, Kingston, ON – July 2024
Introduction to Basic Hand Bookbinding
Learn how to easily create small, decorative blank books and later assemble your own contents into book form. This workshop will cover basic folding and sewing of small sample bindings, covering a range appropriate for newcomers to book making: single section pamphlets and stab sewings, albums and multi-section formats with paper covers.
Only basic hand tools are required and all materials will be provided. Bring your lunch.
Linkstitch and Album Binding Structures
This workshop will cover two (or more if we have time) formats adapted from historical bindings which allow for the creation of multi-section books. Decorative spine sewings, as well as a format appropriate for use as albums with inserted contents will be constructed. Once again, we will make a number of blank books with paper covers. This workshop will follow well from the skills covered in the Introduction day. Only basic hand tools are required and all materials will be provided. Bring your lunch.
These two one-day workshops took place in the TETT Gallery at 370 King Street West, Kingston, coinciding with an exhibition of photographs and books by Peter Sramek. Future sessions will be organized in different locations and take a similar approach with the possibility of diverse content and emphasis. To express your interest and help with planning these offerings, please fill out this form and subscribe to our mailing list to be informed.
July 6 11:00-4:00
Introduction to Basic Hand Bookbinding
$90.
Learn how to easily create small, decorative blank books and later assemble your own contents into book form. This workshop will cover basic folding and sewing of small sample bindings, covering a range appropriate for newcomers to book making: single section pamphlets and stab sewings, albums and multi-section formats with paper covers.
Only basic hand tools are required and all materials will be provided. Bring your lunch.
July 7 11:00-4:00
Linkstitch and Album Binding Structures
$90.
This workshop will cover two (or more if we have time) formats adapted from historical bindings which allow for the creation of multi-section books. Decorative spine sewings, as well as a format appropriate for use as albums with inserted contents will be constructed. Once again, we will make a number of blank books with paper covers. This workshop will follow well from the skills covered in the Introduction day. Only basic hand tools are required and all materials will be provided. Bring your lunch.
In conjunction with the Nature Conservancy of Canada we are inviting you to join us on the August long weekend for our second BioBlitz at Shibagau Creek.
The Nature Conservancy of Canada is calling for its annual countrywide BioBlitz on the August long weekend and we invite you to participate with us.
"It is the NCC's intention to unite thousands of people across Canada in a collective community effort to celebrate and document the diverse species across our beautiful country. Bioblitzes are a community-led gathering of information about species in a certain area held over a certain length of time. These community science events have led to the documentation of rare or endangered species in many countries, including Canada. Our collective observations can grow our knowledge of native species’ distributions and help conservationists target areas to eradicate invasive species. These efforts may help conservation efforts to restore the balance and health of our local ecosystems. By documenting the natural world and sharing these observations to a global database, anyone can give back to nature."NCC BioBlitz Call
As we learn more about who and what inhabits the land, we celebrate all that we encounter.
Please come for a few hours on Saturday and/or Sunday. We can’t wait to hear/see what we all discover.
Please fill out the Registration Form
to let us know when you will join us and receive further details.
Victoria and Peter
P.S. See what happened last year!
The Shibagau Forest Farmstead is situated within the traditional territories of the Mississaugas, Anishinabewaki (ᐊᓂᔑᓈᐯᐗᑭ) and Wendake-Nionwentsïo peoples who are the original owners and custodians of these lands on which we are honoured to gather. As part of the Upper Canada Land Surrenders, under the Crawford Purchase of 1784, no treaty was ever signed.
August 23-25, 2024
Poetic Whispers: Installations in Nature
$350. plus accommodation if required ($175)
The remote farm setting at Shibagau Creek Forest offers a unique backdrop for exploring nature through art and photography. The structure of this workshop will encourage participants to engage deeply with nature and their own artistic processes, reflecting on the transient beauty of natural art and how it can be captured and conveyed through photography.
Work with Walter Bergmoser and Peter Sramek, photographic artists and educators to expand your creative approaches and share insights together.
An introduction to the concept of art and interventions in nature will lead to discussion of how interventions can be made in nature responsibly and meaningfully, emphasizing the impermanence of some artists’ works and how to document these changes through photography.
Field Exploration around the farm will identify sites and gather natural materials that can be used in an art installation. Discussions will develop how these materials can be used to interact with the landscape, while simple experiments will be made with photographic materials utilizing alternative printing such as luminogram and cyanotype processes.
Participants will sketch their ideas and plan their installations, receiving feedback from peers and instructors. They will then select sites and construct their installations and/or natural art objects to then be documented in place with photography. Works made with natural materials will mostly be ephemeral and go back-to-nature, but then live on in the photographs which participants make.
Complex photographic experience, technique and equipment are not required for this workshop. Those interested in developing their relationship with the natural environment are invited to arrive with a cellphone (and appropriate outdoor wear).
Walter Bergmoser is an art photographer, designer and professor at the University of Europe for Applied Sciences in Berlin. As a partner in the International Art Collaborations Network, he has also been an exchange professor at OCAD University in Toronto. This will be his second year at SCFF collaborating in a photography workshop with Peter Sramek.
Peter Sramek is a photographic artist and professor emeritus at OCAD University in Toronto now living in South Frontenac. His recent exhbition at the Tett Centre in Kingston was titled The Abstraction is Not the Reality.
Participants will arrive on Friday afternoon or evening and may stay an extra night on Sunday to make a long weekend should they desire.
Cost: $525 includes tuition, accommodation and meals;
$350 for those who do not require accommodation and breakfasts.
A deposit of $60 will hold your place with full payment due 2 weeks prior to the workshop. A non-refundable fee of $60 will apply if you cancel less than 2 weeks prior.
Ride sharing can be coordinated where possible. Pick-up and drop-off in Napanee is also possible should one wish to take the bus or the train.
Finding oneself within nature and creating portraits and self-portraits the 100 acre landscape becomes a stage, either expansive or enclosed. A combination of visual play with solo and collaborative activities led to staged photographs that explore representing the self in relation to the natural environment.
We had a wonderful weekend exploring approaches to self-portraiture with wonderful guidance from Walter Bergmoser. It was just a start into this sometimes challenging but also fun experience of placing oneself in front of the camera.
The First Ever SCFF Bio Blitz weekend organized in conjunction with the Nature Conservancy of Canada’s Big Backyard Bio Blitz 2023 was an exciting event. We learned a great deal from the expertise of members of both the Kingston and the Quinte Field Naturalists who, among others, joined us over the two days. iNaturalist now boasts over 700 observations and 300 species on the SCFF property.
