A Seaweed Workshop with Pressing and Poetry

A seaweed workshop at WorkShop in Bantry: preserve a beautiful seaweed specimen by pressing, learn about seaweed biology, and be guided by a poet in exploring seaweeds through poetry. The session is led by aquatic biologist, Frances Gallagher, and Annette Skade, award winning poet.

Follow in the footsteps of Ellen Hutchins, Ireland’s first female botanist with Frances Gallagher (aquatic biologist) showing and talking about a selection of freshly gathered seaweeds. Frances will then lead you through the process used by Ellen and her contemporaries to produce botanical specimens for identification purposes. The specimens are also beautiful and can be framed and hung.

The pressing technique has changed very little and most of the equipment is very similar, apart from one modern ingredient. Frances will provide a wonderful choice of seaweeds and all that is needed for you to undertake the process yourself and go home with a number of seaweed specimens to be dried.

The second half of the workshop will be led by poet, Annette Skade, who will lead you through the development of poetic themes from the seaweeds you have seen and handled.

Annette’s poems appear in poetry magazines and anthologies in Ireland, the UK, the US and Australia. Her chapbook Holdfast, inspired by seaweed and Ellen Hutchins, was published in August 2024 by Channel.

Frances wrote the Instructions for Pressing. She also wrote the book, An Introduction to the seaweeds of inner Bantry Bay for Ellen Hutchins Publications.

Advance booking required, price €35. Booking via Eventbrite

For information on all Ellen Hutchins Festival events in Heritage Week including other seaweed events on Saturday 15th August and more workshops on seaweeds and seaweed pressing see: https://ellenhutchins.com/event-listings-2/