Centre for Creativity & Consciousness

22/07/2025

BOOKINGS ARE OPEN!

Stitching the sacred is a three day craft camp in the Mallee with a focus on crafting objects of personal, cultural and spiritual value and learning handcrafting skills as a way of connecting with person, place and spirit.

Spring 2025 - September 19th-22nd

Plants and Place: craft a twined basket with sculptural weaver Jodie Goldring while bathing in the exquisite Mallee landscape.

Bookings via Humanitix or Jotform.
https://events.humanitix.com/stitching-the-sacred-plants-and-place

https://form.jotform.com/251818647788072

Subscribe to the newsletter http://stitchingthesacred.substack.com/

08/07/2025

Thank you so much to Meah from Travel Art Dance Company for the beautiful Brush & Ink ‘meditation in motion’ workshop today.
What a fabulous way to cosy in away from the rain and wind. I cannot wait till the next workshop. If you would like to know about the next workshop let me know 🌱 Bianca

19/06/2025

So excited to have Meah coming to run this beautiful workshop in the first week of the school holidays.
I can't wait for some time to sink into the ink and let everything else go but the movement of my brush

Send a message to learn more

11/06/2025

Its only one week away until craft camp!

If you haven't bought a ticket yet, then you can get one here: https://www.jotform.com/250176850343859

There are only camping or shared accommodation tickets left.

We will be having a solstice celebration on the Saturday to acknowledge the winter still-point of the sun's journey and at its lowest point.

Hope to see you there.
xx

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26/05/2025

Craft camp is just FOUR weeks away!

Book now to secure your spot especially if you need accommodation!

Stitching the Sacred is a 3-day long craft camp where we craft objects of power, purpose and beauty to facilitate a deepening awareness of the presence of the sacred in the everyday.

This Winter we gather to craft Ancestor Dolls with maiki-jane blakeney () of the sage caravan.

Join us for three days of slow crafting, deep diving into the blessings of our ancestry, and celebrating the solstice around the fire.

Book now as places are limited!

Bookings: https://subscribepage.io/P1bQAy

Newsletter: https://stitchingthesacred.substack.com/

20/05/2025

Welcome!

Here's the latest instalment of the Stitching the Sacred newsletter and some of the objects that we have crafted over the last one and a half years of camp!

https://open.substack.com/pub/stitchingthesacred/p/crafting-objects-of-power-purpose?r=wtaro&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

If you are thinking of coming in June please register ASAP, as camp is fast approaching and accommodation is limited.

We look forward to crafting with you this solstice!

xx Shalome

19/05/2025

An interview with the accomplished maiki jane blakeney of the sage caravan and how she came to craft ancestor dolls and then, to facilitate ancestor doll making with and for others.

maiki is facilitating at our June (19-22) camp in Hopetoun, where you will also have the opportunity to craft your own piece of story cloth/medicine blanket if making a doll doesn't excite you.

On Saturday we will have a solstice celebration around the fire!

Shalome talks to maiki-jane of the sage caravan who is facilitating an ancestor doll making odyssey at craft camp in June

30/03/2025

In this instalment of our newsletter I take you to my little bit of forest and to different ideas about time.

And to Lakes Entrance and a beautiful community-run, artistic and economic organisation called FLOAT.

Please subscribe if you want more of these. In our next instalment we'll be talking to maiki-jane blakeney who is facilitating an ancestor doll making odyssey at the June craft camp.

Registration link for craft camp is right at the bottom so scroll all the way down if you're looking to register!

apologies on a late arrival newsletter

22/03/2025

Oh I am missing running workshops here....Whilst I am loving my foray into teaching of a different kind I am missing the deep dive into connecting that I get from holding space here.
When I hold space for you to connect with your soul and its calling it lights me up in ways that nourish me deeply. When I see the light of your soul shinning in your eyes I know that this is the work I am here to do....and I just love to play with paint and soul...it is so damn fun I don't know why anyone would want o do anything else.
I am missing the deep soul led conversations and cannot wait to gather again to push the edges of our container, to make more space for the authentic self and the longing to feel the exquisite joy that is soul awakening tingle my senses again is becoming more insistent by the day.
Sing out if this is something that is calling you too xx

05/02/2025

* Stitching the Sacred newsletter, story of a weaving lesson with Ngarrindjeri weaver Aunty Ellen Trevorrow
* Autumn craft camp has been moved to Winter for 2025!
* Bookings open for Winter craft camp
* Winter camp: ancestor doll making with maiki-jane blakeney

Shalome stops off in the Coorong to learn weaving with Ngarrindjeri elder Aunty Ellen Trevorrow PLUS autumn craft camp changes and booking link!

08/12/2024

In Autumn we welcome maiki-jane () all the way from Bega Valley, NSW, to facilitate ancestral doll making. I have not met maiki-jane but I learned about her through a mutual friend and was impressed by the simplicity and integrity of her words in describing this particular workshop, and the steadfast satisfaction of those that have engaged with her work - as described in reviews. I have four ancestral dolls/figures that I have crafted from wood, cloth, clay, wire and bandages, and other materials, and I can attest to the profound healing that comes from making a physical vessel to act as an anchor and focal point for the blessings and wisdom of a lineage. Something to interact with and pay homage to, or even ask assistance of in times of need, like the beautiful Vasilisa in the old Russian tale of the same name. I’m looking forward to making a doll with maiki, and absorbing the wisdoms that her deep integrity and beautiful space-holding skills bring into being.

And in Spring we will have Ballarat weaver Jodie Goldring () bringing her wealth of knowledge around baskets, plants, and creating form to guide us in making small twined basket. Jodie was a demonstrating practitioner at Craft Lab 24 with me (Shalome Lateef), and I was impressed by the beauty of her sculptural forms, the way she invited collaboration from the community, and her kind and humble demeanour. Like me she is a gardener, as well as a weaver and teacher, and has a great fondness and appreciation for plants. I got to see first hand the transformational nature of Jodie’s work when a woman who had participated in the community art project came into my stall in tears after doing some weaving, saying that the tactile experience of working with plants in that slow, deliberate way, allowed her to tap into a deeper undercurrent of wellness in her life, beneath the overwhelming experience of stress and anxiety from workplace issues. There’s a beautiful saintly quality to Jodie’s presence and her relationship with her materials that allows all things to be and find their place.

Don't miss out on further news about Stitching the Sacred camps. Join up to the newsletter here: https://stitchingthesacred.substack.com/

18/11/2024

Here's a peek at what we got up to at Spring Craft Camp 24. This was a beautifully intimate gathering with many fires, a light sprinkle of rain, beautiful things made with the hands, many connections made with the heart, and a constant gentle presence of the unseen.

We have some new things coming up for 2025 so sign up to the substack newsletter to stay informed or check in here in early December to see who we have coming to run some workshops.

x

Spring Craft Camp 24 in review