Tension Tray Weaving
August 16 @ 10:00 am - 3:00 pm
$100.00
De-stress and fall into the soothing pattern of weaving, adding a better kind of tension into your life. Tension Tray (also called Catalan Tray) Weaving is an ancient type of basketry. Designed with aesthetics and utility in mind, and made of foraged materials, these trays exemplify the beauty and simplicity of the art of weaving. Instructor Michael Marie Schofield will lead the class through the project, sharing her deep reverence for the materials and the meaning that comes from weaving pieces with your own two hands.
To begin the project, you’ll have the opportunity to walk through the forest, identifying, selecting, and harvesting the variety of local materials that can be used for weaving. You just might discover that weaving materials exist all around you: in your backyard, the ditch by the road, or around the corner of your local grocery store! Learn to harvest these materials sustainably and how to process them for weaving. Once the materials are prepared, Michael will guide you through the process of weaving. Slow, methodical, and intentional, watch as your tension tray takes form-one weaver at a time!
Weaving is a craft that our bodies and minds are well suited for. As you create your multipurpose woven tray, you just might find that you have a knack for weaving. Learn the foundational skills of weaving, and continue to explore the vast world of wild basketry!
Itinerary:
Morning: Gather at Cedar North and begin the day with some introductions. Michael will give an overview of the project and the plan for the day before the class sets out into the woods to forage weaving materials! After materials are foraged, you’ll return to the classroom space to prepare the harvested materials for weaving.
Break for lunch
Afternoon: After lunch, Michael will guide students through the process of laying out weavers and creating their tension trays. Learning and practicing alongside one another, most of the day will be spent weaving with moments of instruction and ample time to share stories, struggles, and successes with one another. As the day wraps up, there will be time for closing and reflection.
What you get from the class:
- Guided foraging walk through the forest
- The ability to identify and sustainably harvest weaving materials
- Small group and at times individual instruction on the practice of tension tray weaving
- Your own, hand-woven tension tray
- The foundational skills necessary to continue exploration of basket weaving
Meet Your Instructor:
Michael Marie Schofield
Michael stumbled upon wicker basketry while touring green burial cemeteries with a family member preplanning their eventual funeral. She saw a photo of a willow casket at one of the cemeteries they visited together, and suddenly found herself strongly pulled to learn to weave one of these gorgeous baskets for her loved one. What followed was a bit of a quirky mutli-year journey involving a forever growing collection of out-of-print text books, long road trips for rather hard-to-find in-person learning opportunities, and finally an amazing apprenticeship with an established funerary artisan. She gathered her family in the Autumn of 2023 to collectively weave the casket that began this basketry journey. It is being utilized as a rather gorgeous but eccentric bookshelf until it’s time to return to the soil. Weaving this basket as a family really emphasized how this craft can be used as a powerful to tool to begin to process grief and the challenging subject matter of death and dying. She now weaves caskets, burial trays, and urns for the wider Michigan community and welcomes the opportunity to help individuals weave their own threshold vessels, including alongside their own loved ones (no weaving experience required!).
Michael’s affection for all plants in the willow family has grown the more she’s planted, tended, woven, and learned, and it very much mirrors the love she feels for the family member that first inspired this journey. Michael will be growing, tending, weaving, and learning with this plant for the rest of her life and is eager to share her love of this plant and this ancient place-based craft with her wider community.
Weaving Something Bigger: Basketry may be considered a dying craft. Many balk at the amount of time it takes to craft intricately woven pieces; however, it’s this very time-intensive process that makes hand-woven baskets remarkable. It is in this process that makers fall into the mesmerizing pattern of weaving, and find themselves connected to the natural world. Weaving is a form of biomimicry, or the practice of creating things that mimic the natural world. Humans, after all, aren’t the only species that weaves. (ahem…spiders).
In addition to creating a material that resembles structures and systems of the natural world, the repetitive motion of weaving has an effect on the mind. The cross-lateral movements can enhance the connection between the right and left hemispheres of the brain. As a result, many find weaving to be a very healing practice.
Green Door classes are immersive and intentionally long. We find that over prolonged time together, students form deeper bonds with each other, the craft, and their instructor for an over all more impactful experience. Even if you are a Traverse City local, the intention is that these classes feel a bit like a retreat away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. If you are visiting from afar, the experience can be even deeper.
Class Details:
Where is the class held?: This class will be held at Cedar North, where you’ll be able to forage and weave in close proximity!
Cost: $100 (includes all necessary materials)
Date/Time: August 16th @ 10:00 am – 3:00 pm
Prerequisites/Skill Level/Age Requirements:
- No prior experience required.
- Ages 18+
Booking Information and Policies:
What happens after I book the class?: After you book, we will send you a confirmation email that you are IN! A week out from the class, we will send you an email with more details about our meeting locations and some housekeeping items.
Want to make sure you have all of the information before you dive in? Here’s our cancelation policy: We understand that plans change, and we do our best to accommodate while honoring the time, energy, and resources that go into preparing for each class.
Cancellations made more than 14 days before the class start date Receive a full refund, minus a $25 administrative fee. This fee helps cover the cost of filling your spot. Unfortunately, we are unable to offer refunds for cancellations made less than 14 calendar days before class begins.
At this time, we are not able to offer:
• Course credit
• Transfers to other courses
This policy allows us to keep class sizes small and intimate, while minimizing pressure to increase overall course costs.
If the class is canceled by the school: In the event of inclement weather or other disruptions, we will issue a full refund and do our best to offer a reschedule option.
Policies:
Go for it! If you’ve got rhythm, love a process, are in need of a place for all of your collected bits and bobs, or have always wanted to try weaving, this is the class for you!