Johanna Amos discusses her experience in weaving Guilds in British Columbia, Ontario, and Nova Scotia and how making informs her Art History research.

Johanna Amos discusses her experience in weaving Guilds in British Columbia, Ontario, and Nova Scotia and how making informs her Art History research.

July 27, 2021

© Kingston Handloom Weavers and Spinners

Shaelagh Cull

Johanna Amos

Zoom

My involvement with the fiber arts I would say dates back to being a child and learning how to knit. And I always wanted to make my own clothes. When I was in about grade 6, so 12ish, I started making my own clothes. Some turned out successful and others, not so much. But that interest, I would say over time kind of gradually morphed into an interest in making that stayed sort of consistent but then also, over time, and as I became, you know, went to university and became more involved in academics, sort of realizing that you could also research textiles and fiber and fashion and dress. So that became a big part of my research as a PhD student, and then continuing on as an academic in the field of Art History. And I don't think I ever really wanted to be like a fashion designer or anything like that. But for me, the creativity and the hands on understanding of fiber has been really important to keep up alongside my research because I think it informs that material in quite a special way. But also, because I just love it. I love going into a yarn store and just touching, you know, everything in the vicinity, like what does this fiber feel like? What's the difference in the properties between mohair and Merino? And really thinking about the longer histories of these things and how they come into our daily lives. Yeah, so I think that's sort of the general interest in fiber arts and the extent of the time I've been involved. What I like to think about is how the creative process happens in the act of making and so that even if you follow a pattern, right, if you get a pattern out of a weaving magazine, or you follow a knitting pattern, that there are so many decision steps that also go along with making it you know, like, sizing, and what alterations do you want to make and colors and fibers, and how do you adjust the size of the needles or, or you know, the, you know, the way you're going to arrange things on a loom. So like all of those decision steps, that creativity, I would say that's really informed my research because I often deal with women who've worked in the fiber arts and whose creativity has not really been understood, because the idea of following a pattern, or you know, working to someone else's design is not seen as creative, traditionally, in Art History and so a lot of that agency has been given to, like in my field of interest, William Morris, versus some of the women that he worked with. I think the process of making has really informed the way I think about what goes into the creation of a work of fiber art, and how it's not this process of design and creation are not really kind of separate activities. Spinning is one thing I want to learn, but weaving for me came into the picture more than a decade ago. But I still think I would like to take the beginning weaving course again because warping a loom is not something that I remember very easily. And all the tools, I don't have all the tools that go with it yet. So there's, you know, things that are easier if you can do it within a course and one of the reasons I joined the Guild is because I wanted to learn from all the you know, the expertise that's available in the Guild. So I first learned to weave, I joined the spinners and weavers guild in Smithers, British Columbia, when we were living there. It was maybe eight members total, I would say and I think I was the youngest by 50 years at that time. And my teacher's name was Sheila, and she spent some time with me aside from we would have, you know, regular one-on-one meetings and we didn't really offer programs or workshops, but she would give me lessons and lent me a small table loom. And so I made my first set of placemats as a gift for a friend who was getting married that summer. And then of course we moved, first to Ontario and then to Nova Scotia, and so I did a beginner weaving course in Nova Scotia at the studio that's connected with Mary Black's legacy out there. And then when we finally moved back here more permanently to Kingston, joined the spinners and weavers to kind of take advantage of all the great expertise that is here. One of the things that really surprised me, or I was kind of shocked when I joined the Kingston Guild, was how much it was treated like a business, like a proper Guild. And so that meetings, yes there was program and show and tell and the hands on you know kind of interaction, but then also this business meeting where we, you know, we have minutes and we think about the budget and the sort of the sale and the programming, and how all this fits together to create, you know, a functioning community that does outreach and education. And that was something that wasn't really part of the guild I was in before. So that was a, you know, kind of quite surprising and quite fascinating. Also, just, I think, because of my interest in the Arts and Crafts Movement and thinking about the history of guilds, more generally so seeing that still in existence in Kingston was pretty interesting.