Category Archives: Sugar Cube In Between

Re – Rooted

An up-date about the week-long event:

In true West Coast style, artists Shane Tweten and Jesse Toso demonstrate the beauty and tradition of wood carving in their upcoming show “Rooted”. Bowen Island resident and local arborist, Shane Tweten blends traditional First Nations carving techniques with legends and mythology of his Nordic heritage. Jesse Toso works in Vancouver creating one-of-a-kind solid wood furniture and is an award-winning chainsaw carver.

Together they share a passion for wood and honouring the tree. For one week only, they will exhibit their works on Bowen Island at the Sugar Cube Gallery (461 Bowen Trunk Road, Snug Cove, BC). There will be live chainsaw carving demonstrations daily at 3pm.

Jesse Toso

Shane Tweten

Book Launch

The book launch for:

The Urban Homesteading Cookbook: Forage, Ferment, Farm and Feast for a Better World

was held at the Sugar Cube Space last night. The evening marked a fine accomplishment for the author, Michelle Nelson, and a happy evening of feasting for friends, family and fans.

 

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Urban Homesteading

We are delighted to announce the book launch for:
The Urban Homesteading Cookbook: Forage, Ferment, Farm and Feast for a Better World  at the Sugar Cube Gallery on May 23rd.

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This sumptuous book was written by Bowen resident Michelle Nelson and marks the culinary zeitgeist while firmly connecting with our past. Michelle has a PhD in conservation biology and sustainable agriculture and her beautiful book is complimented with delicious photographs by Alison Page.

 

Bullfrog catchingby Alison Page

 

As well as how-to chapters the book is a compendium of recipes such as:

Tree Tip Syrup

Use the soft, bright green tips bursting from the ends of spruce, pine and fir branches. Makes 1 litre.

Ingredients

  • 4 cups (1 L) fresh evergreen tree tips
  • 3 cups (710 ml) brown sugar

Method

  1. Remove the papery coating from the tree tips.
  2. Layer about 1/2 cup (120 ml) of sugar ont he bottom of a clean 4-cup (1 L) glass mason jar, then add one layer of tree tips, then cover in sugar, then another layer of tree tips and so on.
  3. Put a lid on the jar and place on a shelf until the sugar dissolves, about a week in total. after the sugar has started to turn to liquid (about 1 or 2 days) shake the jar once a day or so to mix.
  4. Once all the sugar has dissolved, strain syrup to remove the tree tips.
  5. Store the syrup in the fridge for 4 weeks or more.

Following the book launch there will be a series of workshops where Michelle will act as a guide to foraging, fermenting, farming and feasting. Dates to be announced.

Russell Hackney

On the evening of July 24th a Lantern Gathering will illuminate the Sugar Cube Space
with these beautiful porcelain pieces.

On the weekend of July 25th & 26th the Gallery will show new and old work from
Russell Hackney, master-ceramicist & Bowen Island resident.

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Russell states:

If all art is in some way a reaction, then the pursuit of beauty is my reaction to the world around me. Where nature is at its most memorable, I draw inspiration from it. In response to the bland or ugly, I react by wanting to create something beautiful.Beauty calls us to itself. It halts us in our daily routine and just for a moment all distractions, all opinions, are silenced—beauty becomes the unifier.
I enjoy the process of creation, be it my own artwork or someone else’s vision. Working with customers to get their ideas into production has always been a big part of my working life—from the traditional large pottery companies in my native city of Stoke-on-Trent, England, to creative entrepreneurs from Europe and North America.
With over 20 years’ experience in the making of pottery I have been part of some challenging and exciting work, including modelling a figurative clock presented to Her Majesty the Queen. Every new idea a client brings into my studio here in Vancouver, BC is the start of a great creative journey.

For more information and inspiration please visit the artist’s website:

http://russellhackneyceramics.com/

Work in progress

Jesse Tøso of Tøso Woodworks is working at the Sugar Cube Space turning this:

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into this:

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The beautiful planting is from Nicole, our favourite Girl in the Garden. The tree is a snake skin maple and we look forward to watching it grow.

We await the finished deck / sundial and look forward to Phase II – the viewing platform, suspended high in the mighty cedar. The cedar now houses a visiting owl and is a fixed point in measuring our position in the Earth’s rotational axis. The exact timing may be slightly awry but we are confident that proportionally it is entirely correct.