Join Sandy Fisher of Chico Flax for an online presentation about growing and processing flax to make linen. Sandy will first show images of this year’s crop—growing, harvesting, retting in the field and in the tanks, and drying on the lines before processing. Sandy will then do a hands-on demo of all three steps of flax processing: 1) The manual Brake and how/why the tool is used with the flax bundle. 2) The Scutching board and paddle and how/why it is used. 3) The three combs called Hackles that separates the short tow from the long lin, and an explanation of tow and long lin.

Participants will be invited to submit questions.

Register on Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_VGX1ek-HSiKRVW_E1lDioA

A video of the webinar will be made available to webinar registrants within approximately one week of the event.

Sandy has been weaving for over 35 years. Her passion for textiles began as a child when she learned to knit. She continued her love of textiles in college, graduating with a BA degree in Art, emphasis in Weaving from CSU, Chico. Over the course of her career Sandy has shared her knowledge through both private and public instruction. In 2012 Sandy was looking for a locally sourced fiber other than wool to make a unique fabric that would be called Chico Cloth. She and other community members started experiments in growing fiber flax in Northern California. In 2016 Chico Flax joined Fibershed’s Producer Program and in 2018 Chico Flax LLC was formed. Chico Flax is piloting regenerative production and processing systems for flax in our region, bringing a new industry and social enterprise to Northern California in collaboration with local community members, farmers, artisans and institutions. By winter of 2020, marketable yarns blended with wool and cotton will be available.

This webinar is part of a series that will be streaming live via Zoom from the Fibershed Learning Center,

The Fibershed Learning Center is a multi-use space to demonstrate and provide hands-on connections to natural fiber and dye systems. The Learning Center will open later this year in Point Reyes Station, California, on the traditional and ancestral territory of the Coast Miwok and within the historic Black Mountain Ranch property.

During this time of sheltering in place, we are pleased to begin offering a series of online classes via Zoom. Proceeds from each event support the class instructor and contribute to Fibershed for educational programming. A portion of the proceeds from this event will also be shared with a local and mission-aligned non-profit organization, selected by the instructor — California Indian Basketweavers’ Association. Currently scheduled online events are listed on our Learning Center page.