September 2022
Studio views, dish rags, and a save the date!
In this newsletter you will find:
Studio views
Save the date
Dish rags for Sakai Bar
Reading/doing
Studio Views
It’s late summer here in my studio. The mounds of dust I’ve created weaving 12ish yards of fabric for my ongoing chair project have been vacuumed away; there are piles of bobbins full of leftover yarn being moved in one group from surface to surface because I don’t want to jinx myself by unwinding them all and then - surprise! - having to wind them again.1
Just for the heck of it I spent an afternoon making a digital composite of what it might look like if I chose fabric A, B, or C as yardage. This view isn’t what I chose, but it was still fun to visualize in this way.
I am excited to have completed the production part of this project — I think I’m feeling a bit burnt out from making the same thing over and over and over. It’s time to make samples, explore structures, and revive the generative aspect of my practice.
Save the Date
I am pleased to announce that I will be exhibiting the ‘chair project’ (a nicer name coming…) at Craft Ontario in 2023 as part of DesignTO. Opening reception TBA, but please mark January 14 - February 25, 2023 in your calendars and to-do lists — I look forward to seeing you there.
Dish Rags for Sakai Bar
Earlier this year I made a small edition of dish rags for an old friend’s sake restaurant, Sakai Bar. Stu and I finally connected this summer and I got the ‘rags’ into his hands and to the bar! They’re available for sale in person only, first come, first served. They are a thin, open, and airy cloth that dry quickly and don’t smell (I hate a stinky soggy dishcloth!!).
I’ve woven them from natural coloured cotton and linen that I’ve dyed with indigo. Practicing my kasuri skills every year is key to not forgetting what I’ve learned, and weaving for a sake bar seemed like a good time to refresh my memory. Each is one of a kind; there are ten in total. I had an organized plan for the pattern, but in the end I had to accommodate my math skills and embrace the randomness2.
Stu’s original brief was for a ‘butt rag’ that could be used to clean up the tables/bar — a functional, everyday craft object. I like the contrast between the process and name. This is not a ‘rag,’ but neither do many people feel comfortable using my work to clean up, say, a grease spill. But if you don’t use your craft objects, they don’t have a life — and then what’s the point? Use them until they’re literal rags and give them up a good life mopping up spills and stains.
I already have the next small edition of pieces in mind for Sakai Bar, I’ll be sure to show them here when they’re finished.
Reading/Doing
If you’re in Edmonton, take a workshop this fall with Gather Textiles and make my Pebble Pillows! The pattern and/or kits are also available if you’re further afield. Gather has many nice patterns available to download on their website.
An Elaborately Designed Book on Weaving Opens to Reveal a Fully Functional Loom (from This is Colossal). A book on Taiwanese weaving that allows you to weave and experience the techniques inside — clever.
Friends and craft colleagues with art projects during Toronto’s Nuit Blanche this year include: Ichigo-Ichie 一期一会: One Time - One Meeting, Mending Clinic, A point and a line, makes a curve, and then a circle. Also interesting: Colour of the Year, Wagari: Dabiyil, Biram – Vessel: water and sky — and so many others I could keep listing them! Nuit Blanche happens from sunset on October 1 to sunrise on October 2, 2023.
Weave with and wear wool, linen, and (preferably organic) cotton: an incredibly powerful advertisement about synthetic textiles.
I hope you have had a wonderful summer, and are enjoying the shift into a new season. As always, please let me know if you have any questions or comments about anything you read in this newsletter.
I am almost ready to be taking on new commissions & projects for 2023 — please respond to this email if you have a project in mind!
amanda
This isn’t even a remote possibility, but keeping them wound feels like insurance against disaster!
With apologies to Omote Sensei — my mathematics errors are not a result of her excellent instruction but merely my total inability to count correctly -!!