Diligence and Elegance: The Nature of Japanese Textiles at the Textile Museum of Canada This month we have our annual trip to the Textile Museum of Canada, this time for a guided tour of the current exhibition, ‘Diligence and Elegance: The Nature of Japanese Textiles’.
Diligence and Elegance: The Nature of Japanese Textiles presents over 50 textiles and garments from the Textile Museum of Canada’s collection of 19th and 20th century artifacts made in Japan for both everyday and occasional use. The exhibition focuses on the highly refined skills and materials by which textiles have been constructed and decorated over centuries, and on how diligence and ingenuity have shaped their timeless beauty.
This event is for members only. Please arrive at 6:15pm, sign in at the desk, then meet upstairs outside the shop for a tour (6:30-7:30pm). Feel free to come earlier to browse the museum in your own time.
Exhibition runs 15th – 26th January. The venue is open 8am – 8pm everyday.
As part of the Toronto Design Offsite Festival, this exhibition by weaver Dani Ortman Complexities & Cloth looks at the detailed process involved in crafting woven textiles, while opening a dialogue with the fabrics of our time. Using natural and organic yarns she encourages the viewer to revaluate the value of cloth.
Through the lens of hand weaving you are invited to take a closer look into the process of making cloth. Where each thread is calculated to bend over and under one another, creating the structural bonds that form our fabrics. Observing that within these bends of interwoven lines, lays the potential for delicate pattern work.
Nourish to Flourish is an exhibition of works by the instructors who teach at the Neilson Park Creative Centre in Etobicoke, spanning a wide range of mediums and disciplines. Join the exhibitors at this opening reception to celebrate their skills and hard work in passing on those skills to others.
The exhibition runs from the 8th January – 4th February and is open at the following times: Monday – Saturday: 9am – 4pm Tuesday Evening: 7pm – 9pm Sunday: 12pm – 4pm
Our very own spinner/knitter extraordinaire, Diane Martin, is displaying some pieces – do go and support her!
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REGULAR MEETINGS
MONTHLY GUILD MEETINGS Beginning April 2023 we will resume holding in-person meetings at Riverdale Farm. We will continue to hold some meetings virtually. Our Member’s Meetings are held from September-June, with a break for the summer. Check out the Calendar for up-to-date information. If you are interested in spinning or weaving, you are welcome to join us as a guest at one of our monthly meetings. When: 2nd Wednesday of the month, 7:30 – 9:00 pm for in-person meetings; 7:00 – 8:30 pm for virtual meetings Where: In-person meetings are held in the Meeting House at Riverdale Farm- come in the gate and keep going past the sheep.
IN THE COMMUNITY
The Guild generally participates in the following Riverdale Farm events , demonstrating fibre processing, spinning, weaving, and other textile skills to the public. After a hiatus during the pandemic, we look forward to resuming these events this Spring.
FAMILY DAY Riverdale Farm is a great place to spend Family Day, with lots of fun activities taking place, including weaving and spinning demonstrations and activities that the whole family can enjoy.
SHEEP CELEBRATION Riverdale Farm opens its doors with the farm’s popular Spring Festival at which Guild members use the fleece shorn from the farm sheep to demonstrate the skills needed to wash the wool, prepare it for spinning, make yarn, dye it, and weave it into cloth. Come and watch the process, from sheep shearing on!
FALL FESTIVALS See the Guild in action on the second weekend in September at the Riverdale Farm Fall Festival, and at the Cabbagetown Festival too!