March/April 2024
Spring colours, knots, and maintenance
In this newsletter you’ll find:
春色 - 夏彩 Spring Colours - Summer Hues
Knotwork & fun with Miriam
Loom maintenance
春色 - 夏彩 Spring Colours - Summer Hues
Spring is coming, but there is still a chill in the air and it snows unexpectedly. Outside of my studio window the garden is browns and greys, crusts of mud and old sticks. The squirrels dig holes and the juncos shake the last of autumn’s seeds from the pod.
Inside, I have a steaming cup of tea in a yunomi made by my friend Helen Kong (Secret Teatime). I am at my loom and the vegetal scent of rough-spun linen rises from my hands as the shuttle moves back and forth, back and forth, building textiles for spring’s arrival.
春色 - 夏彩 Spring Colours - Summer Hues is a mini exhibition featuring handmade ceramic teawares by Helen Kong and a series of tea cloths by yours truly. The work celebrates the nuances of local elements of spring and summer in the Ontario landscape.
My textiles present the two faces of spring as experienced in my garden. Five tea mats made in the natural tones of wool and linen explore the earth as a crust and covering, as well as last season’s dried remains: seed heads and dried leaves. Ten tea cloths burst forward in greens and pinks, the colours of the first small shoots and seedlings each spring. Paired with Kong’s tea bowls, these works may be used together or separately as a springtime setting for your tea practice.
Presented at Icha Tea at 235 Spadina Avenue in Toronto, this exhibition will be accompanied by a series of tea gatherings (formal and casual) and hands-on workshops (some offered for FREE!) facilitated by local artists and tea people, featuring teas from Icha Tea. The workshop schedule is amazing — you can see it here. Helen and I’s work is arranged as small vignettes of her ceramics and my textiles, here’s a little glimpse below.
Knotwork
My weaving colleagues Sandy Lamb (Montreal) and Miriam Parkman (Stockholm) were in Toronto this March to celebrate the opening of their exhibition Knotwork at Craft Ontario. I only took one picture at the opening, which was this one, of Miriam’s knotted pieces.
I feel very solitary as a weaver, so meeting others is always a thrill, and Miriam and I had some great days together. She came and spoke to my university class (now I am expecting my students to make exceptional woven samples, her presentation was excellent!) and we visited the Art Gallery of Ontario to look at works by the Group of Seven (wonderful parallels between Helmer Osslund and the Group of Seven). I experienced that lovely effect when you’re taking someone around things that are very familiar — you see them with entirely new eyes. Unfortunately Toronto is still very ugly in March, but the Group of Seven looked entirely new!
Miriam also taught a creative rya workshop and it was exciting to see how the twelve participants each interpreted colour and texture. Even though I already understood the rya technique, I learned a lot from Miriam and by seeing how everyone approached mixing yarns together — I have a feeling there are going to be a few knotted projects on participants’ looms in the coming weeks.
Loom Maintenance
On the Gist Blog this month you’ll find a new article on loom maintenance, a good springtime (or autumnal) task. Here is a link:
https://www.gistyarn.com/blogs/how-to-weave/loom-maintenance-101
This newsletter will return in June — hopefully refreshed after a period of personal difficulty. I wanted to make sure I shared my exhibition so that anyone interested would not miss it.
Amanda