June 2026
Experiments with light, fungi, and a last-minute workshop link
In this newsletter you’ll find:
Studio Views
Colour for Textile Arts workshop
Look & Listen
Studio Views
This month, weaving took a backseat to photography for a forthcoming project. Experimenting with light (a metaphor for photography in general!) by covering the skylight and hanging translucent paper from the beams was fun and stressful. I’ll share more of this project when it’s ready, but completing the imagery was a great relief and allowed me a bit of space to play — something I think is essential for any creative work of any type. Play almost always leads to new ideas (and it certainly has this time, too!).
I wove a wobbly band for a gift and didn’t take a better picture than the one on the right, oops. I have been experimenting with sewing clips, rings, and other hardware onto bands and I really like it. Thank you to Sabine for the photograph of me weaving a new band on the dock.
I spent a very rejuvenating week at a dear friend’s cottage, drawing and paying attention to shadows (another type of light experiment).
The paints I used here are from Beam Paints on Manitoulin Island/Mnidoo Mnising, Ontario, which I highly recommend if you are interested in watercolours. Thank you to Deborah for the picture of me drawing.
I also helped this friend with her natural dye experiments (that’s rock tripe, on the left), and experimented myself, too (St. John’s wort on the bottom of these socks, onion skins on top).
And lastly, I saw some wonderful fungi while hiking the Bruce Trail. With the help of iNaturalist and a mushroom book, the fungi on the left are possibly Hemlock Varnish Shelf, Ganoderma tsugae, and the orange ones on the right are possibly Orange Mycena, Mycena leana. Mushrooms! I see why people could become obsessed with them.
I had a visit with my friend Ghislaine Bazir, a very talented tapestry weaver from Aubusson, France, just after her return from Japan. She found this wonderfully inspiring book of textile samples, rich with pattern, colour, and texture. Did she have to check my bag before I left? Almost.
This spring I was shortlisted for a city of Hamilton Arts Award in the Creator category. While I didn’t receive an award, there’s a forthcoming ceremony on July 9, 2026 at the Art Gallery of Hamilton to celebrate all shortlisted and successful nominees. Congratulations to the winners — it’s been an honour to be shortlisted and learn so much about all the other creative practices in the city.
Colour for Textile Arts Workshop
Whoops — I forgot to share this last month, but I am teaching Colour for Textile Arts, a class at the Art Gallery of Burlington on Saturday, July 11th from 1-4:30 PM. This is a beginner-level colour exploration class for textile makers of all kinds. If you don’t feel confident choosing colours or wish to learn some tips or tricks for mixing colours in your projects (whether it be weaving, knitting, crochet, quilting or more), I hope this course will be fun for you to take!
Registration closes by Sunday July 5th (so sorry for the short notice!), so please use this link to sign up ASAP if you’re interested.
Look & Listen
‘Have I been influenced, or is this actually me?’ How personal taste fell out of fashion, by Rachel Aroesti, in The Guardian, is an interesting read on many fronts. Taste is something I am very interested in as an artist-educator (so much of teaching is guiding people in developing their own taste!), so this article affirmed some of my own thoughts, as well as introducing new elements. What we like is so influenced by the technology that we use/uses us, and this will no doubt be of interest if you have a creative practice of any sort.
I really enjoy the playful spirit of Welsh-Ghanain artist Anya Paintsil’s work, which combines elements of folklore and personal narrative to explore “the possibilities and politics of non-representative depictions of the Black figure.”1 Anya uses a broad and somewhat maverick array of textile techniques and recycled materials to create her works, resulting in a delightful surface and material presence. Therefore, I was happy to read an interview with her in Decorating Dissidence about her exhibition, The delight of walking alone, which was part of the Glasgow International Festival of Contemporary Art in June. Although this exhibition is now closed, several works can be seen on the festival website here.
Happening on July 10-11th in Seguin, Ontario is the Wave Fibre Mill WOW Gala. At this event, Wave Ontario Wardrobe (WOW) Challenge entries will be featured — this annual challenge invites textile makers to create garments and accessories from what can be found or grown in Ontario and suggests that you might “grow your own, harvest from the wild, glean, selvedge, spin, dye, knit, weave, felt, weld, crochet, glue, stitch, fold, build, shrink, wrap, tan, paint, [or] embroider” to create your entry.
During the Gala evening there will be a slow fashion runway presentation of the winning garments as well as Wave Weir’s own locally grown and produced fashion. Entries to the challenge have been judged on qualities such as the percentage of local materials, the innovative use of materials, originality, what sort of environmental impact it may have, as well as, of course, the quality of the making.
On Saturday July 11th, there will be a family-oriented festival, vendors, and mill tours. Wave Fibre Mill (and Wave herself) are a very exciting part of the local textile community here in Ontario, and this will certainly be an inspiring event. Tickets for the runway on July 10th, as well as more information about the festival itself, is available here.
For a newsletter about weaving, it has been slim pickings lately, but I promise there are always things coming, even if they come slower than I might like. It has been on my mind that I haven’t published any new patterns in a year, but there are a few coming in the next six months, so if you’re here to learn about that sort of thing, stay tuned. Is there some element of this newsletter that you love? Find dull? Do please let me know your thoughts — I always appreciate when people reach out.
Thank you for reading!
Amanda
https://glasgowinternational.org/programme/projects/the-delight-of-walking-alone/