June 2022
Discover more from Amanda Rataj Studio Newsletter
In this newsletter you will find:
Studio views
Reading material
A video
Studio Views
Summer is here, which means basketry and friendship, a walk into a labyrinth and by the river, the beautiful scent of willow, a random weave basket (as taught by Theresa English), and a cobweb broom.
Here is a sample I made purely to have fun with colours and textures. I used a tomato-red wool and natural linen as wefts, and while I knew the different shrinkage rates make it impractical for what I’m thinking of, I wanted to feel what I saw in my mind and it was not a disappointment. Those wobbling selvedges! Love! This composite shows both sides.
Many of the photographs of my samples make pleasing moiré patterns when I preview them on my computer. I posted a grid of four to my Instagram, but here is a particular favourite, seen two different ways.
Reading Material
This story/interview with Arpitha Chandrappa “a wonderfully woven personal narrative of memories, of rituals of wearing and living with six meters of cloth that carries generations of stories, warmth and love.”
Quilts please! This spring I have been very much enjoying Grace Rother’s newsletter. There is a lot of similar language (in my mind, at least) between quilts + woven textiles, and having made a few quilts (and would like to make more), it provides a related-but-different way of thinking about textiles. Her use of recycled & reclaimed materials is something I very much appreciate, and I think her No rules quilting could easily be written to read no rules weaving. If “any quilt can provide a glimpse of human life within a larger cultural context” so too, can a woven textile.
Ukrainian Mountain Weavers
The algorithm might finally be figuring out I have no interest in low-fat cooking! I do enjoy the various series by Business Insider, though I find their approach/framing sometimes misses the point, especially for the videos under the So Expensive umbrella (because how much something costs is really the least interesting part!).
This one was particularly pleasing for the incredible washing machine they use to finish the blankets.
I finally finished a textile I worked on last summer. It wasn’t exactly a success but it was a good challenge. The naturally dyed colours glow in the sun:
I had planned to publish a new pattern this month but I have overcommit myself pretty much everywhere it is possible to do so. But to dig back into the archive: in June 2021, Gather Textiles published my Pebble Pillows. The surface is so fun and easy to weave — I encourage you to give it a go if you haven’t yet and need a project for your loom.
be well,
amanda