Join us for an immersive Nature Texture Rubbing Workshop where we explore the beauty of nature through tactile art techniques. In this hands-on workshop, you'll learn how to create stunning texture rubbings using natural elements such as leaves, bark, stones, and more.

Throughout the workshop, you'll discover the art of observation as we venture outdoors to gather inspiration from the surrounding environment. We'll delve into the textures, patterns, and shapes found in nature, understanding how each element tells a unique story.

Guided by experienced artist Maia, you'll learn how to capture these textures using simple materials like paper, crayons, and charcoal. You'll experiment with different rubbing techniques to reveal intricate details and create layered, dynamic artworks.

This workshop is perfect for nature enthusiasts, artists looking for new techniques, or anyone seeking a creative and meditative experience in nature. No prior art experience is necessary; just bring your curiosity and a sense of adventure!

Your Facilitator
Maia Walker
(she/her)

Maia is an artist hailing from the unceded territory of the T'kemlups people in Kamloops, BC. Art has been her lifelong companion, shaping her identity and purpose from a young age. Her creative journey spans a diverse range of mediums, including painting, textiles, and digital art, through which she explores themes of nature, the human body, social justice, and spirituality. Driven by a passion for sharing both artistic and spiritual knowledge, Maia extends her expertise through workshops on astrology, painting, and crochet. Beyond the studio and workshop space, Maia finds joy in reading, playing Dungeons and Dragons, and embarking on outdoor adventures with her beloved adventure cat, Raven.

Love to sing? Then join this impromptu, sing-a-long session that incorporates a wide genre of music including gospel, pop, folk, and country. I’ll play the piano, you bring the music YOU want to have us sing together, and we all join in! Play an instrument? Bring it and join us as well.

Your Facilitator
Rev. Curt Allison
(he/him)

Curt is the Minister of 2SLGBTQ+ Ministries at St. Andrew’s-Wesley United Church in Vancouver. In addition to leading The Word Is OUT!! 2SLGBTQ+ spirituality group, he also directs the church's Gospel Choir, and participates in worship leadership. His passion for music and inclusive church communities has also led him to serve the greater community of the United Church of Canada through music leadership at the Naramata Centre’s summer programmes, EVOLVE, the Pacific Mountain Regional Meetings, and as preaching and music resource at various local United churches. He is the music lead for the United Church General Council 44. As a follower of Jesus, Curt finds great satisfaction in helping others discover and live to their full potential in the body of Christ. His call is to journey together with others who are seeking to faithfully follow Jesus with honesty, integrity, authenticity, and joy! Curt resides in downtown Vancouver with his miniature Dachshund Jimmy. He loves music from the 70s & 80s, yoga, volleyball, walking along English Bay, a good theological book, and Tex-Mex Mexican food.

A group experience to explore your habits and unconscious beliefs around money.

There’s often no better way to test and draw out our hidden behaviours and assumptions than by playing a game. The Money Game helps us explore (and manifest) the habits and unconscious beliefs that determine our relationship to money and learn through both our individual experience, as well as interactions and reflections with the wider group.

As a personal experience in a group setting the Money Game is never the same, but varies each time based on what all participants bring to the table. Your experience is shaped by your own relationship to money, the qualities you attach to it and the histories & imagined futures you associate with it. While this can surface discomfort and painful emotions for some, it also creates fertile ground for individual & collective growth.

How it works

What happens during the game is quite simple — Over the 1.5 hours, several rounds of “play” in a group of 4-10 people, interspersed with journaling and reflective dialogue — but in keeping with tradition of the game, we don’t share all the details in advance. There is also magic that happens.

Participants are asked to BRING a meaningful amount of real money that they feel comfortable letting go of, but that is enough to “trigger” their learning. To ensure a meaningful experience, it is important that participants take a few minutes to feel into what this amount might be for them. People have played with anywhere from $10 to over $500.

Your Facilitator
Nancy Shadlock
(she/her)

Nancy has had an interesting relationship with money for most of her life... from starting a paper route at age 7, to being missionaries collecting money to go overseas, to being a tree planter who gets paid for each seedling planted... it's amazing how 10 cents + 10 cents eventually adds up when you bend over thousands of times throughout a day!

Most recently Nancy has been leaning into doing what she loves, with AND without money. That has changed how she works, where she lives, how she plays and how she mothers.

As a Queer Coach and Spiritual Director, Nancy is a gifted facilitator with over a decade of experience taking groups into the deep places, where each person comes to know themselves in a new way.

Come explore your unique relationship to money, and transform it into an even healthier relationship that will impact all parts of your life.

Pictures and images can communicate profound truths about our lives. SoulCollage® is an intuitive collage process for individuals and groups. If you can cut and you can paste, you can do SoulCollage®.

Join with others in this engaging, hands-on workshop to create your own SoulCollage® cards. Then use your cards to access your own inner wisdom by reading your cards individually or in groups. Sharing SoulCollage® cards is an enjoyable, enriching way to learn about yourself, deepen intimacy and strengthen community.

There is a $10 materials fee for this workshop

See more about SoulCollage®

Your Facilitator Natalie (Nan) Maxson

Natalie (Nan) Maxson resides with her family in Naramata/ citxʷs paqəlqyn on unceded Okanagan territory. She has a background in social justice education. Her work has taken her from Grassy Narrows First Nation to Palestine. Natalie has been involved with Naramata Centre for over twenty years leading programs for all ages, contemplative retreats and leadership training. She is a deeply spiritual individual with a love for crafting. Nan has spent most of her life in Okanagan/Syilx territory but also lived in Geneva, Switzerland for five years where she worked for the World Council of Churches and deepened her love of the French language. Nan is a spiritual director trained through Pacific Jubilee, a SoulCollage® facilitator, and is completing a master’s degree in psychological counselling.

There are a number of options for you at Naramata Centre. Click the button to se a description of all the housing available

We know, it sounds like so much fun! If you haven’t registered yet (or maybe there are some folks you want to invite along) just hit the button to get started!

Ideas of things to bring and how to prepare