Making textiles with the Linen Stewards - Pascale Gatzen/Carolien Evers

What does it mean to collectively grow, process and manufacture our everyday textiles and garments by hand? Members of the Shared Stewardship community experience the intimacy, material, agricultural and social processes involved in collectively growing textiles, objects and clothing from seed. With commoning as their guiding principle, they are together implementing a new economic, social and cultural paradigm. Over the course of a year, the Linen Stewards as a group grow and harvest the flax and process the fibers - spinning linen yarns, knitting and/or weaving linen textiles and forming other objects - and ultimately creating individual pieces for personal use. All of these processes are intentionally done by hand. The community operates under a concept of shared stewardship; members share decision space with everyone and everything affected by their activities. As a community, the Linen Stewards are shaping a group agreement and collectively setting priorities that take into account the different values, knowledge, skills and competencies of each member. This includes and values the needs of the earth and creatures and systems they encounter. As stewards share responsibility for all aspects of this process. The costs of, for example, leasing the land, seeds and cultivation expertise are shared equitably by the group. The Shared Stewardship community was initiated by The Linen Project through an open call in early 2020. Participation in the 2021 season was by invitation of existing stewards, subject to a commitment to stewardship for this year-long process. The cultivation activities took place in the first two years at Ekoboerderij De Lingehof, Hemmen. This year we are working at Organic Farm De Horstenhof, Duiven. With a video presentation "how and what" about flax we start the workshop. Participants are invited to spin with a spinning top, work on a small fabric of their own, where the Linen Stewards support you in learning how to make textiles from everyday materials.

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