FishNet News

The Stitch-A-Fish workshops on Saturday, November 15th and Sunday, November 16th at Harbourfront Centre were a great way to jump start the fish crafting process. We had 25 friends, volunteers, Inner City Angel artists, and textile artists through the 2 days who helped to cut, iron and sew the fish bodies that will be embellished by approximately two thousand TDSB Grade 4 students during workshops in January and February. Many, many thanks to everyone who contributed and who continue to support the project – in no particular order: Kim, Andrew and Leah, Steffanie, Jocelyn, Tai, So Young, Leah, Louise, Ashley, Eleni, Emily, Marie, Marina, Amelia, Bernice, Isabel, Angela, Dianne, Amy, Charmaine, Karen, Judy, Allycia, Lisa, Alex and baby Kiran and Sarah. Thanks to Ilene and Patrick at Harbourfront Centre for their support as well.

The fish-making continues until mid-January so if you would like to participate in any way, please contact us at info@projectfishnet.org.

Here are a few images from the festivities. You can see more on Flickr.

Lots of busy hands

A Pink Salmon under construction (Image: Amy Barnes)

Precision Bowfin cutting

A flurry of activity - sewing and ironing

Eleni, our resident FishNet promoter extraordinaire has created some fish collages for fun and amusement. Click on the images below to see them at a larger size.

The next big FishNet event will be the Stitch-A-Fish workshop at Harbourfront Centre on Saturday, November 17th and Sunday, November 18th, from 10 - 5 pm. During the workshop we will be cutting, sewing and ironing all the different fish bodies and fins for the Grade 4 students to transform into imaginative and unique interpretations of their species in January and February during their crafting workshops at Harbourfront. There will be snacks, fun, laughter and an exchange of stories about all things fishy and crafty. If you would like to volunteer some time, please contact us at info@projectfishnet.org. 

The teacher orientation session for FishNet took place on the evening of October 30th at Bedford Park PS. Thanks to Vice-principal Jeffrey Crane and the staff at Bedford Park for providing the venue and help with the set up. Claire and Angela did a presentation and the teachers were given their resource kits and Michigan Sea Grant posters. The presentation was followed by a Q & A will lots of valuable input from the teachers. Also present were artists and administration from the Inner City Angels. Many thanks to them for their participation and input as well. Special thanks to Kim for her help and continued support.For the teachers that were unable to attend, the remaining kits and posters will be delivered to your school in the coming week. 

Preparation for the teacher orientation session took place the weekend of October 27th. Each teacher was given a FishKit with teaching resources and extra goodies for the students. We would like to thank Elizabeth Laporte of the Michigan Sea Grant and Jill Finster of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission for their generous donations to the kit materials.  
Special thanks to Eleni Alpous and her parents Gina and Jim Alpous for making all the fabulous FishNet buttons and to Andrew and Kim for helping with the kit assembly.