December 2025
A pause, a curve, a line, and a workshop or two.
In this newsletter you’ll find:
A short pause on Danish stories.
Soft Curve, Hard Line - an exhibition with Helen Kong.
Upcoming workshops.
Greetings,
I am pausing my storytelling from Denmark for December so that I can finish my fall grading and prepare for a small exhibition in January — and have a bit of a rest after a very busy term. I’ll be back in January with more, so if you’ve been enjoying it (and I thank you for all the nice messages), rest assured the series will continue in 2026.
That being said, I have a few things to share in this month’s newsletter!
Soft Curve, Hard Line
I’m pleased to share that I will have a window installation in January 2026 as part of the 2026 DesignTO Festival in Toronto. It’s titled Soft Curve, Hard Line, and is a collaboration with friend/ceramicist Helen Kong.
Helen and I have worked together several times in the past, and in this installation we explore the visual language of checks, squares, and lines and how they converse, distort, and change between ceramic and textile mediums. Which is meant to be the soft curve or the hard line is up to you!
Soft Curve, Hard Line will be available for view from January 23-February 1, 2026 in the window of Souk & Silk at 789 Dundas Street West, Toronto. You can find a map and more information at the exhibition listing here.
We’re not hosting an opening or closing reception, but Helen and I will be participating in the DesignTo Talk Within the Weave on the last day of the festival, Sunday, February 1, 2026. This conversation will trace “the meeting points of material and memory” by bringing us together with two other artists participating in the festival, Jennifer Coghill and Kathleen Morris. Helen is doing double duty that weekend by participating in the Toronto Tea Festival, where she usually has some of my tea textiles for sale.
Some other textile-based DesignTO exhibitions you may wish to see include:
Assembly Not Required, by members of the Contemporary Textile Studio Cooperative.
The Flax Project, by Rachel MacHenry, Emma Piercey, and Mika Soetaert.
Nature Textures, by Michèle Guevara.
Soft Grid, by Shao-Chi Lin.
Wild Teachings: through watersheds and bloodstreams, by Kathleen Morris.
Upcoming Workshops
My very popular Weave A Scarf class at the Art Gallery of Burlington is back for two winter sessions:
Saturday from 1-4pm on January 24th, 31st, and February 7th, 2026.
Wednesday from 6:30-9:30pm on February 11th, 18th, and 25th, 2026.
This class is geared towards people who have never used a loom or wish to try a rigid heddle loom. After three sessions (and with a bit of homework in between), you’ll have a finished wool scarf to wear and enjoy. It’s a straightforward and easy class and I think we always have a lot of fun. Here are the seven fresh-from-the-loom scarves created during the last session (they need a good wash and a fringe trim, which is why they still look a big scraggly!).
Thank you to everyone who reads, likes, or pays for a subscription to this newsletter! I really appreciate that so many people choose to have this come into their inbox each month. Wishing you a wonderful and peaceful end to 2025.
Amanda
Oh my! I did not know that there was a Toronto tea festival. I think in my next life I will be a tea sommelier.
I may or may not be out of town then so if I see you there, I look forward to it. Great newsletter as always.