Community Gardens Art Project - Wetlands

Wherever you are in the world, you can participate in this special Community Gardens Art Project, which is all about getting to know your local wetland. This could be a nearby waterway, river, lake, ocean, pond, marsh or swamp.  Waterways and wetlands have abundant biodiversity, yet we often don't know much about them.  How healthy is your local wetland? Are you familiar with the plants and animals that rely on the water for survival? The Wetlands Community Gardens art project will get you out and about in your local neighbourhood doing a bit of research before the collaboration begins. 
 
Once you've purchased your spot, here's how the project works:
 
In the second week of September, Julie will email you a PDF  with instructions for making a loose gestural drawing of a plant, insect, bird or animal you have found at your local wetland.
You do your drawing and snail mail it to Julie by October 1.
Julie creates cut paper stencils from everyone's drawings and uses these to print a unique 12-metre length of repurposed fabric all about wetlands.
Julie mails you your very own 45cm x 75cm piece, cut from the fabric length. 
You slow-stitch on your piece of fabric to embellish its loveliness, enjoying the sense of flow and slowing down.
Now you can use your finished piece of fabric to make something - a cushion, a bag, a lampshade, a stretched canvas artwork for the wall... whatever tickles your fancy. 
 
There are just 25 spots available on the Comunity Gardens Wetlands project, so purchase your spot early if you are keen to take part. 
 
Julie will begin the printing for the Community Gardens Wetlands project on 11 October while she is artist-in-residence at Gallery 76 at the NSW Embroiderers' Guild, Concord West. Her residency is part of an exhibition focusing on the health of the Baaka Darling River called  Baaka Ngamaka’Inana: The River, Our Mother. Both the exhibition and the residency are part of Sydney Craft Week.