Hi! I’m Amanda Rataj, and I’m an artist and weaver living and working in Hamilton, Ontario.

The hand woven cloth in these packs is a blend of organic cotton and linen in various colours, and are off-cuts from my 2023 solo exhibition at Craft Ontario on Queen Street — I initially wove this cloth to recover wooden chairs built by my paternal grandfather in a project supported by a craft grant from the Ontario Arts Council. He was the principle designer for a furniture manufacturing business called Brunswick Manufacturing — if you went to school or live in the GTA, you may have sat in one his chairs at some point!

Fitting the fabric to my chairs created many small off-cut pieces that I really didn’t want to throw out after it took months of planning and weaving to make. I asked Roncy Packs if they could use one of these pieces to make a special pack for my mum’s birthday and sent my biggest pieces of leftover fabric for them to use. 

I’m really conscious of my choices and the waste created in my craft practice — it’s not something artists usually address, but waste is a natural part of creative process, and I’d like to minimize my impact. I’m very much attracted to Roncy Pack’s recycling ethos and I love that my cloth can be reused in this way instead of just sitting in a drawer as I wonder what to with it. 

If you’re interested in my work, you can visit my website at www.amandarataj.com or follow me on IG at @amandarataj

Shop the Amanda Rataj x Roncy Packs fanny pack collection now.