Amanda Rataj

Name: Amanda Rataj

Studio location: Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Website / social links: amandarataj.com, @amandarataj

Loom type or tool preference: I have a four harness LeClerc ‘Fanny,’ and an eight harness Bergå ‘Savonia’

Years weaving: 9

Fiber inclination: Wool and linen

Current favorite weaving book: I just ordered Canadian master weaver Laura Fry’s book The Intentional Weaver and I am excited to see what I can learn from her 40+ years as a professional weaver - she’s a treasure!

 

1. How did you discover weaving and was what your greatest resource as a beginner?

I discovered weaving through my mother - who in turn will say that she started weaving because of me! While I was at university, I noticed that the fibre studio was selling an old loom for $50 - knowing that my mum had always wanted to try weaving, I gave her a call and soon we were strapping this mystery machine to the roof of the car. A few years (and looms) later, I wanted to give it a go and she helped me warp my first project. I studied photography and paper making during university, and was always incredibly focused on the materiality of what I was making; with hindsight, weaving seems like an inevitable next step.

2. How do you define your practice – do you consider yourself an artist / craftsperson / weaver / designer / general creative or a combination of those? Is this definition important to you?

Right now I call myself an artist and weaver - having rewritten this answer a handful of times, I can tell you that I find it difficult to answer concretely - hence the ‘right now’! It’s very encouraging to see that other folks you’ve interviewed also feel unable to answer with just one thing - to me it’s very reflective of what it means to be making craft in the 21st century.  For now I am happy to continue exploring the many different ways I can express myself as artist/craftsperson/weaver/designer/maker/what-have-you.

3. What is your creative process, from the initial idea to the finished piece? Are there specific weave structures, looms, or fibers that are important to your process?

I don’t have a measurable creative process - things can progress from any number of different points. Sometimes I make little sketches in my notebook, other times I might be thinking about a shape or texture or colour that I want to highlight. I always leave a little extra on my warp to ‘play’ - many new ideas have been born from these leftovers. And I sample a ton!

I also like to start with existing textiles - I often take pictures of textiles on trains, strangers, thrift stores, shops, etc. just because something about it intrigues me. I am really interested in vernacular textiles, the everyday, ordinary cloth that is usually forgotten in the rush of life, and I am very much motivated by texture, materiality, and how a cloth feels - both visually, conceptually, and materially.

4. Does your work have a conceptual purpose or greater meaning? If so, do you center your making around these concepts?

I make both ‘artworks’ (textiles for exhibition) and ‘production’ textiles, and I feel like having a conceptual purpose isn’t limited to one or the other. The artworks tend to explore material, conceptual, and personal ideas that I’m stuck on, but so do my production pieces - that’s the beauty of craft work! My most recent piece is a rug exploring the idea of home and place, and there’s not too much of a conceptual difference between it and, say, the rag rug next to my bed. 

Sometimes I feel as though I need to pick one thing and say ‘this is what I am’ - but I also feel that craft has this wonderful opportunity of be everything all at once, depending on how you use or interact with it, and that’s (part) of what makes it so interesting to me.

 

5. What is your favorite part of the weaving process and why? What’s your least favorite?

The answer to this question really depends on when you’re asking - sometimes I can’t stand warping, other times it seems to sail by with no problems. I think what I like most about weaving is that it’s made up of many different distinct actions - it’s the working towards and accumulation of these actions (and then what happens once cloth is off the loom, washed, and then installed/used) that makes it a fascinating process to me.

6. Do you sell your work or make a living from weaving? If so, what does that look like and how has that affected your studio practice?

I make part of my living from weaving (selling handwoven items and weaving patterns, exhibitions, teaching) and the other part is sustained by two (part time) day jobs: one as an educator at the Art Gallery of Ontario and the other at my local yarn shop, Handknit Yarn Studio. 

I really value the time I have outside of the studio and the structure it gives to my life.  My work at the AGO is about talking, interpreting, and engaging visitors to the museum - I feel like it’s a complimentary role to my weaving practice, as it constantly challenges what I think I know about visual culture and gives me new ways of looking at familiar things. 

Working at a yarn store (for me) is about enabling and empowering people and their creative practices. Knitting is very everyday and acts as a foil to the art I work with at the museum - it’s no less intensely creative and beautiful, but a lot more real in some ways. It’s enormously satisfying to see what people make and how much happiness it brings them. 

Realistically, having ‘a job’ gives me a level of financial stability that I need to be able to function effectively in the studio (my real work). If that balance tips too far in either direction I become very inefficient and unhappy.

7. Where do you find inspiration?

I always find this to be a tough question to answer - I find ‘inspiration’ a tricky word. I am inspired, influenced, and curious about many things - sometimes for a long period of time, sometimes for only a few days. As I write this, my mind is still engaged with the seven weeks I spent in Japan in 2019, where I studied kasuri at Kawashima Textile School; the way the light shifts through the ivy outside the studio window; checks; clouds; weather; maps; and, always, the colour blue. 

8. What other creatives do you admire – weavers, artists, entrepreneurs – and why?

There’s a huge world of weaving traditions, practices, and approaches out there - some people and things that I like include:

Alex Sutherland / @haut_beau

Barbara Teller Ornelas and Lynda Teller Pete / @navajorugweaver (I am very grateful to have been able to take a workshop with them in 2018 - if you have the chance, I highly recommend it)

Diedrick Brackens

Emma Omote / @emma.omote

Ikumi Otaki / @itori.vav

Kyoko Takahashi / @tsubamekobo

Megan Samms / @livetextiles

Majeda Clarke / @majeda_clarke

Meghann O’Brien/Jaad Kuujus

Taro Hamano / @tarohamano0131

@weaversofcolor (a project by @amydmcknight)

9. If you could no longer weave, what would you do instead?

Papermaker maybe? My partner is a photographer and works professionally as an archival silver gelatin printer for museums, archives, and artists - we have a darkroom in the basement, so perhaps I would go back to that!