1 Day Workshop Weave a Willow Obelisk with Penny Simons - 25 October 2025

1 Day Workshop

Date: 25 October 2025

Time: 8.30 am with a 9.00am sharp start- 5.00 pm finish

What to Bring:

Please bring a small sharp knife, 2 old towels and a sharp pair of secateurs

Overview:

With the guidance of Penny, Simmone has foraged the willow in which we will use for our workshop from the local area, mostly along the road approaching Essington Park and along our own little Captain King’s creek down beyond the Shearer’s Quarters vegetable garden.

After a delicious morning tea and a welcome from Simmone, Penny will share a little about her journey of weaving with natural fibres and willow.

You will learn the art of willow weaving and how to build a beautiful structure which you can use to climb your vegetables or to simply place in your garden to admire and add an interesting shape within your natural space.

A lunch will be prepared by Simmone using produce from our organic vegetable garden and then it will be back to our structures to complete through the afternoon.

We suggest you bring room in your boot to take your masterpiece home with you, and room in your bellies too, as there will be an abundance of cake and baked goodies served on the day.

About Penny Simons:

Insta: @penny_simons

https://treevenerationsociety.com/penny-simons

Penny’s work is a fusion of all her studies and lived experience in textiles, art, design, weaving, bio-dynamics and horticulture. Her work resonates deeply with the beauty, vulnerability & spirituality of nature.

Penny has worked as an artist and designer all her life, alongside the practise of gardening and working in and with nature. Penny runs workshops both locally and regionally. These and her artworks are formed from a personal practise, working with foraged materials that comes from a place of reciprocity with the earth, all indigenous peoples, and our ancestors. In this way, it aims to restore, reconnect, and heal.

Her more recent drawings, prints and wall hangings also reference similar themes: the beauty and exploitation of nature.

An English woman who has spent over 30 years in Australia and half of her childhood in New Zealand, she is connected to the indigenous cultures that lie within all these countries. Her work explores the wisdom, spirituality, and artisan crafts, contained within all these and other indigenous cultures around the world. She hopes the reverence her work makes to these themes, brings unity, collaboration, respect, and a constructive way forward, to help heal, protect, and regenerate our world. Penny was one of the founding partners of “Cloth”, a Sydney-based bespoke textile design business begun in the 1990s, that produced hand-printed, dyed, and constructed textiles for the furnishing and fashion industries. Prior to this Penny gained a BA Hons. Constructed Textiles, majoring in weaving, from Winchester School of Arts.

***Whilst we will do our very best to hold each workshop, we are a small creative business and reserve the right to cancel a workshop with a full refund if we are unable to proceed.