Plant Sensibilia at Canberra Spinners and Weavers

Activity description 

In partnership with the Canberra Spinners and Weavers, and 2026 Craft + Design Canberra Festival, please join us for the final Plant Sensibilia event for Living City: People, Plants, and Place, presented by Dr Rebecca Mayo. Visit the Canberra Spinners and Weavers new dye & fibre garden, and experience the Plant Sensibilia Machine, a large-scale, hand-operated textile dyeing device that brings the creative process out of the studio and into the public realm.  

What to Expect on the Day  

The event will commence at 11am with a Welcome to Country and opening speeches. Visitors will witness a bespoke printed textile design come to life through the Plant Sensibilia Machine. Locally gathered plants will colour the cloth, as their scent fills the air. The mordant printed toile de jouy inspired design, by Estelle Briedis and Rebecca Mayo, features images of Canberra Spinners and Weavers working and documentation of native flax processing. You will also be able to watch demonstrations of flax processing with equipment built by the Hughes’ Community Shed for the Living City Project. 

Important information

• This is a free event, no registrations required.  
• Light refreshments provided 
• In the event of extreme weather, the event may be cancelled or postponed. Please check for updates before attending. 

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. 

Acknowledgments  

We extend our sincere thanks to the following individuals and organisations for their generous support and participation:  

• Canberra Spinners and Weavers 
• ArtsACT for funding this project  
• Hughes Community Shed 
• 2026 Craft + Design Canberra Festival 
• Program facilitator: Dr. Rebecca Mayo 
• Workshop Facilitators: Aunty Deidre Martin, Samorn Sanixay and Alexander Sarsfield 
• Program assistants: Bridget Baskerville, Greta Cooper, Olivia Gates, Remi Prica 

• Designer & printer: Estelle Briedis Spelman 

• Welcome to County: Aunty Violet Sheridan 

   

 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.

  
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.