Flax Processing with Rebecca Mayo at Canberra Spinners and Weavers

Join Rebecca Mayo for an engaging hands-on demonstration on processing native flax (linum marginale) from plant to fibre.  
 

All are welcome to this drop-in demonstration, where you will hear more about native flax, see the Canberra Spinners and Weavers garden, and take a turn braking, scutching and hackling flax. 
 
The Hughes Community Shed have purpose built a range of flax processing tools for the Living City: people, plants and place program which will be in use for this hands-on demonstration. 

This is a free, drop-in event, no registrations required.  

This event is part of the 2026 Living City Canberra Spinners and Weavers collaborative project and coincides with the 60^th birthday of CSW, including other hands-on demonstrations such as Lomandra Weaving with Aunty Deidre Martin and Indigo Dyeing with Samorn Sanixay.  

 Location & parking details: 

• Canberra Spinners & Weavers, (inside Chifley Health & Wellbeing Hub), 70 Maclaurin Crescent, Chifley ACT 2606   
• There are two car parks – both off Maclaurin Crescent. The upper carpark has several disability parking spaces. The lower carpark is larger.  Both entries to the building are wheelchair accessible. More details here. 

About the Facilitator, Partners and Project: 

Rebecca Mayo is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Art & Design, ANU whose practice uses plant-based dyes and printmaking to examine interspecies and ecological relationships. Working collaboratively with plants and specific sites, she foregrounds environmental conditions, embracing what plants yield rather than pursuing a predetermined palette. Guided by curiosity rather than control, Mayo opens ways of attending to the temporalities of plants’ lives, exploring how these interactions play out, politically, historically and locally. Mayo has begun growing dye & fibre plants at Hack St Garden, the ANU School of Art & Design and at the Canberra Spinners & Weavers.  
 

Canberra Spinners and Weavers (CSW) bring together people interested in spinning, weaving and related activities. They encourage the art and craft of spinning and weaving in the ACT and surrounding region. In 2025 CSW received funding from the ACT Government to establish a dye and fibre garden at their studios in Chifley. In 2026, CSW will celebrate their 60^th birthday with numerous public activities and events. Learn more.  

  
Living City: people, plants and place is a three-year visual arts and design program working with Canberra’s suburban communities and many urban natural environments. The program encourages accessible and inclusive, art-based engagement with urban spaces while addressing climate change, urban biodiversity, wellbeing and conservation.   
 
In 2026, the ANU School of Art & Design has collaborated with Canberra Spinners and Weavers to deliver the Living City: people, plants and place program. 

  
The program is funded by ArtsACT and the ANU School of Art & Design.