whimsical weaving for a softer world
Weaving has been an incredibly intuitive and meditative way to use my hands. Noticing what colours I feel drawn to on a given day, choosing a palette, and changing yarn and patterns when it feels right to - following the feelings with abstract, textural pieces.
I love that creating something happens slowly and steadily, one strand at a time. And that a weaving is held together by the tension and the interactions of the many strands. It’s all just yarn. Sometimes a knot or two at the top, but more often than not, the end of strands are just woven in.
I love the metaphors of weaving and community, of needing and holding each other.
Why “tender futures”?
It’s borrowed from the name of a one-off queer dance party that was pretty pivotal for me, but it also represents an overall hope, vision, guiding light...
“We have to consciously study how to be tender with each other until it becomes a habit because what was native has been stolen from us but we can practice being gentle with each other by being gentle with that piece of ourselves that is hardest to hold.” -Audre Lorde
In wild times like these, what else is there to do? It's one thing to be hard on systems that aren't working, to stand up and fight against the injustice we see unfolding (at times more boldly and more terrifyingly than we have seen before)…
But I really believe it’s equally important to get clear on what it is we’re fighting for.
To engage our imaginations, to create what we most need, to nurture the kind of world we want to live in, and to dream tender futures into being, where we can be ever softer and gentler with ourselves and each other.
Not in a way that minimizes accountability, but moving through the world and acting in a way that holds onto our humanity, and the humanity of those around us.
Tough and tender, both. Strong spine, soft belly. Sturdy loom, adaptable yarn.
Commissions
aka how the magic happens!
We’ll talk through colours and choose yarn together. I will gather your chosen colours together for you to get a sense of the feel of the combination.
Then we’ll discuss any particular elements you’d like in your weaving - stitches, shapes, abstract or image, emphasis or things you’d like to avoid.
And then maybe I’ll ask you for a song or an album to weave your piece to :)
Weaving has been such an intuitive process for me, so I do need a little more free rein with the design elements, especially with abstract pieces, but here are some questions to help guide my process for commissions:
Is there any particular energy / feelings / thoughts /prayers / intentions / hopes, etc. that you would like to be woven in?
What is the overall feeling you want the piece to have?
What would you like to receive from the weaving?
Oh hai.
My name is Sam Cheng (she/they) and I’m stepping into the idea of being an artist in the same way I’ve been stepping into the idea of becoming a future ancestor - tentatively, sensitively, and with healthy doses of courage, audacity, and imposter syndrome, too.
I’ve tended to think of myself as a dabbler in terms of art and creativity, and I’ve been surprised by how quickly I immersed myself into weaving and the ease it’s offered me in terms of accessing flow. It’s become a practice in continuing to build trust with my intuition and myself too.
It's a little newer for me to share things so widely, but I’ve been feeling the pull to do so and just going with it.
The making is the initial expressing - just for me, and then the bit of putting it out into the world is… vulnerable. And feels like high risk, but also possibly high reward – modelling putting it out there, modelling putting myself out there, so that hopefully others will choose to, too.
Because we need each other, and I think sharing these acts of creativity is part of how we make our marks on the world, and how we can begin to step into becoming ancestors.
“There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique, and if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium; and be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, not how it compares with other expression. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer, divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.”
― Martha Graham
I’m so grateful to be living and creating on the beautiful and unceded ancestral lands of the Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and Shíshálh (Sechelt) nations and to be continually learning from the land and its people.
I also feel very lucky to be part of a community that supports and values art and artists as much as it does.
Most of the yarn I work with has been yarn ends gifted from the Tuesday night “Knittaholics” group that meets at Persephone, and I learned to weave from Janna on one of her beautifully crafted Everlea mini loom kits.
And my first art show will be held at the Gibsons Public Art Gallery’s Tiny Art Gallery display from April 27th - May 25th 2025.