春色 – 夏彩 Spring Colours – Summer Hues (2024)

Sizes variable
Cotton, linen, wool
2024

Exhibitions: 春色 – 夏彩 Spring Colours – Summer Hues, ICHA Tea, Toronto, ON
March 21 – April 21, 2024

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. 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 (Secret Teatime) and a series of tea cloths by hand weaver Amanda Rataj.  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 on Spadina Avenue in Toronto, this exhibition was accompanied by a series of tea gatherings (formal and casual) and hands-on workshops facilitated by local artists and tea people, featuring teas from Icha Tea.