When people ask what makes our workshops different, the answer starts in Toronto—decades before the first alpaca arrived at Chetwyn Farms.

A Curatorial Eye, Honed in the City

Before we were farmers, Shauna and Ted were active at Harbourfront Centre's Craft Studios, one of Canada's most respected institutions for contemporary craft. For years, they worked alongside master artisans, emerging talents, and internationally recognized makers. They learned to spot excellence—not just in finished work, but in the way great artists teach, inspire, and transform their students.

That curatorial lens didn't disappear when we moved to the countryside. It evolved.

The Same Standards, A Different Setting

At Harbourfront, the question was always: Does this artist advance the conversation around contemporary craft? Here at the farm, we ask the same thing—but with an added dimension. Does this instructor understand fibre at its source? Can they help  students connect material to making in a way that honours both tradition and innovation?

We don't book workshops casually. Every instructor we invite has been vetted through the same rigorous curatorial process we used in Toronto. We look for technical mastery, yes—but also for educators who create transformative experiences, who understand that great teaching goes beyond technique to foster confidence, creativity, and community.

Learning From the Best, In the Best Possible Place

What we've built here is something rare: a workshop program that brings world-renowned fibre artists to a working alpaca farm, where students can learn from masters while connecting directly with the animals and landscape that inspire the work.

You might spend the morning learning natural dyeing techniques from an award-winning textile artist, then walk the pasture to meet the alpacas whose fleece you'll transform. Or study advanced weaving structures with an internationally recognized instructor, surrounded by the quiet rhythm of farm life that allows for deep focus and creative flow.

This is what happens when curatorial expertise meets agricultural reality—craft education that's both world-class and deeply grounded.

Why It Matters

There are plenty of places to take a fiber arts class. But if you want to learn from instructors who are leaders in their fields—the kind of artists who once taught at institutions like Harbourfront Centre—in an environment designed for immersive, transformative learning, that's a much shorter list.

Our background means we know how to identify excellence and create the conditions for meaningful learning. Our farm setting means students experience craft in context, connected to source and place in ways that urban studios simply can't replicate.

The result? Workshops that attract serious makers from across the region and beyond—students who know that when Shauna and Ted curate a program, they're learning from the best.

From Gallery Walls to Pasture Gates

We've traded gallery openings for the rythem of farming seasons, exhibition catalogs for fleece records. But the commitment to excellence hasn't changed. We're still curators at heart—we've just expanded our definition of what a studio can be.

And we think the work is better for it.

Explore our upcoming workshops and experience what happens when world-class instruction meets the working farm.