photo courtesy of Jenn Playford (www.furochic.com)
Thank-you to everyone who came out to enjoy
Buy Nothing Day at Plenty! The store was filled with folding and wrapping as well as tea, coffee, hot apple cider, and samples of chocolate. There was wonderful conversation, creativity and laughter throughout the day.
A colourful crane created with paper collected by Gillian Gravenor
We made a good start on creating
1000 Cranes for Action on Climate Change. The store filled with people creating cranes. Thank-you to everyone who stopped in, Tatiana for sharing her photo, and to Gillian for sharing her fantastic collection of papers and leading us in crane making! Veronique, from
Not Just Pretty (next door) also created cranes and brought them by at the end of the day. We’ll continue to make and put cranes up until December 18th when the Copenhagen climate summit concludes. If you’ve contributed cranes that you’d like to collect back please pick them up on December 18th. After that date we will be selling the cranes (many are very remarkable - made from a collection of maps and posters that artist Gillian Gravenor has contributed). The cranes will be sold for $2 each with all proceeds going to the
Mustard Seed Food Bank.
On December 7th world leaders will meet in Copenhagen, Denmark for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, the 15th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). They’ll be negotiating future agreements for countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as our current commitments under the Kyoto Protocol expire in 2012.
—- UPDATE —-
We’re still making and collecting cranes for the 1000 Cranes for Action on Climate Change. We’ll continue to add to the collection in our front window until December 18th when the Copenhagen climate summit concludes. If you contribute cranes that you’d like to collect back please pick them up on December 18th. After that date we will be selling the cranes (many are very remarkable - made from a collection of maps and posters that artist Gillian Gravenor has contributed). The cranes will be sold for $2 each with all proceeds going to the Mustard Seed Food Bank.
—-
Join us at Plenty on Friday, November 27th (Buy Nothing Day) to make 1000 paper cranes symbolizing our desire help heal the planet and begin to reverse the effects of climate change. From 11:30 - 1:30 artist Gillian Gravenor will be helping us to get started on the goal of 1000 paper cranes.
Legend says that anyone who folds one thousand paper cranes will have their heart’s desire come true. Cranes have also become a symbol of healing and peace. Unfortunately, like many species (including our own) cranes are threatened by the effects of climate change.
Copenhagen must be a turning point where we stop fighting the planet that supports us and instead commit to heal the damage we’ve done. We need a climate change treaty that is fair, ambitious, and binding.
If you can’t join us on November 27th (11:30 - 1:30) please make a paper crane and add it to our collection in the front window. We’ll be collecting them until the end of the Copenhagen Conference on December 18th, 2009.
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image courtesy of www.adbusters.org
We will be closing the till at Plenty on Friday, November 27th, 2009 in support of Buy Nothing Day.
As mentioned in an earlier post, Buy Nothing Day is a day to pause and reflect on the need to make our consumer choices more sustainable: eco-friendly, organic, and socially responsible.
At Plenty we will be closing our till and hosting a celebration of these principles on November 27th. Here’s the schedule so far:
- 10 - 11 is a Coffee Break Open House (tea, coffee and samples of organic, fair trade chocolate etc)
- 11:30 - 1:30 a drop-in origami workshop led by local artist Gillian Gravenor
- 2 - 4 is a Furochic (furoshiki is a japanese tradition of wrapping in cloth) wrapping workshop and book event with Jenn Playford the author of Wrapigami (click here for details - preregistration required)
- 4 - 6 is a Happy Hour Open House (tea, coffee and samples of organic, fair trade chocolate etc) with local guitarist Stuart Munro
Hopefully people will be duly bemused but not upset with us if they arrive looking to make a purchase on the 27th. We’ll have a hand-out offering 10% off BC-made items during the following week and there’ll be a small note explaining our support of Buy Nothing Day. Please mark your calendars and stop in for a workshop or a cup of tea - but be prepared to Buy Nothing at Plenty on November 27th.
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Image courtesy of www.furochic.com
We are very pleased to announce that Jenn Playford will be conducting a Furochic workshop at Plenty on November 27th from 2 - 4 pm (part of our Buy Nothing Day activities, a day to pause and reflect on the need to make our consumer choices more sustainable: eco-friendly, organic, and socially responsible. More activities to be announced shortly).
What: Furochic Workshop
When: November 27th, 2 - 4 pm
Where: Plenty, 1034 Fort Street, Victoria, BC
Cost: $28, to be paid in advance
Furochic is a reusable cloth gift wrap in brilliant colours and patterns designed by Jenn Playford. It is easy to use, versatile, eco-friendly and fun! Jenn based it on Furoshiki, the traditional Japanese wrapping cloth used to embellish gifts as well as a handy everyday item to wrap, protect and carry. It is perfect for green gift giving as it replaces disposable paper gift wrap and bags, and can be reused over and over again and to make gifts feel special and unique. Get hands on with Furochic and learn easy and inventive wrapping techniques.
Advance registration and payment ($28) is required for the workshop. The cost includes one Furochic wrap ($10 value) and a copy of Jenn’s new book Wrapagami ($20 value). Please register by phoning us (250-380-7654) or dropping by the store prior to November 27th.
Image courtesy of www.furochic.com
A fundraiser for the Victoria Film Festival is coming up this weekend. The Art of the Cocktail features a great mix of workshops. [ READ FULL ENTRY ]
One of the wonderful things about Plenty is that I get to surround myself with great food and goods that delight me. And these seem to attract people that delight me as well.
One of those people is Gillian Gravenor, a fantastic textile artist, seamstress, and creator of extraordinary things. She came into the store asking for a fair quantity of whole star anise and I imagined that she was making up a batch of something quite exotic. Gillian was using it in collages she was creating on cards. Soon we were selling those cards and I feel so grateful for everything Gillian brings in from her studio. We have some of her curio boxes in the store - whimsical match boxes filled with curated urban detritus - they are little palm sized galleries. We also have some of her tea cozies made with repurposed sweaters and in a month we’ll be bringing back her Christmas stockings (made from sweaters that are now fantastic as stockings but may have been a bit garish in their earlier form). Gillian has also brought in vintage aprons that she’s collected and aprons that she’d made from vintage tablecloths and repurposed fabric. Last Fall we featured a display of felted sculptures that are difficult to adequately describe but gathered together they looked to me like whimsically coloured sea squirts or perhaps a garden of fantastical squash.
Recently Gillian brought in an incredible wall hanging (pictured above) that features a crow made from shiny black buttons. It is currently featured in one of the display windows at the front of the store with some fabric crows, some incredible crow tea cozies, and some of Gillian’s aprons. [ READ FULL ENTRY ]
