The Space Between Us Isn’t Empty
Across Canada, the seasons shift dramatically.
Prairie skies stretch wide and open.
Grasslands roll into horizon.
Winter light changes the colour of everything it touches.
Some people travel south for part of the year; others work from cabins, studios, or kitchen tables.
On paper, these Snowbirds are separated by thousands of miles.
And yet ~ the space between them is anything but empty.
It’s full of sketches sent across time zones, stitched samples shared on Zoom, thoughtful comments left in the group space, and the quiet companionship that forms when people learn together consistently, gently, month after month.
This is what makes the Snowbirds extraordinary: they are living proof that creative connection doesn’t depend on proximity. It depends on presence.
A Community Built Across Distance
When Artybird first imagined a way for Canadian textile artists to learn design principles together, it wasn’t clear whether distance learning could hold the same warmth as an in-person group.
What emerged surprised everyone.
The Snowbirds quickly became a community whose strength comes from their distances.
Different landscapes.
Different materials to hand.
Different rhythms of life.
Yet all working through the same design challenges, sharing the same discoveries, and witnessing the same moments of growth.
Judy describes it beautifully:
“It’s a great feeling to know you can sign up for a class, and still be able to work on your ideas wherever you happen to be.”
Portable media ~ a pencil, a travel-sized sketchbook, a needle and thread ~ became symbols of creative freedom.
And because the group is always there, and the monthly Zooms offer a steady anchor, no one ever feels like they’re learning alone.
Friendship as a Form of Learning
One of the unexpected gifts of the Snowbirds has been the depth of friendship that has grown alongside the learning.
There is open sharing of materials, tools, techniques.
People swap suggestions, troubleshoot together, and offer perspective through the lens of their own experience.
Judy, with her background in fine art, brings a sharp design sensibility and an understanding of composition and abstraction. Others bring deep knowledge of felting and fibre structure, garment construction, or natural dyeing.
Everyone brings something.
Everyone receives something.
“Everyone learns from everyone in the group,”
Judy reflects - and that reciprocity has become the heart of the Snowbirds.
Creativity That Travels
Distance learning only works when the learning itself can move - when artists can carry it across landscapes and seasons.
Judy often works while on the move, switching freely between watercolour, ink, pencil, cloth, and stitch depending on where she is. She shows how creative research doesn’t need a fixed studio; it needs a mindset of attentiveness.
Cheryl adds another layer ~ the way shared ideas ripple outward into lived experiences.
The Grasslands retreat was born from a simple “What if?” that turned into an in-person gathering of eleven Snowbirds in rural Saskatchewan.
They wore aprons handmade by Cheryl and her granddaughter.
They worked side by side.
They invited locals to see their process.
They made a noticeable dent in the population of Val Marie - and an even bigger impression on one another.
Retreats like this don’t replace distance learning; they amplify it.
When people meet in person after learning together online, the trust and shared language already exist.
The layers of connection deepen.
Seeing Through Each Other’s Eyes
The Snowbirds have become skilled at offering the thing most artists long for:
gentle, thoughtful, honest noticing.
Someone shares a felt vessel ~ and others see shape, shadow, structure.
Someone posts a stitched line ~ and others see direction, tension, movement.
Someone uploads an ecoprint ~ and others see contrast, repetition, tonal patterning.
Distance doesn’t dull the view.
If anything, it sharpens it.
The group sees each person’s work in context - of their landscapes, their seasons, their personal journeys.
Creativity becomes something shared, not solitary.
Across Distance, We Learn Together
What the Snowbirds show us is that learning expands when people gather with intention, regardless of geography.
They have created a practice grounded in generosity.
A rhythm that can flex around real life.
A community that grows layer by layer, idea by idea, stitch by stitch.
And in the process, they have become something rare:
a creative ecosystem held together not by place, but by purpose.
Find Your Birds
If you’re seeking a creative community that sees you, supports you, and grows with you ~ wherever you are ~ our next DesignPlus Discovery Call is a wonderful place to begin.
👉 Join the waiting list to receive the call link
Your "‘birds’ might already be there.