Embroidered Truck Art Keychains (Beginner)
Saturday, November 28, 2026 | 1-4 PM
FREE
This workshop has been developed exclusively for Immigrant, Refugee, and Newcomer participants, with thanks to Toronto Arts Council Funding via their Newcomer and Refugee Arts Engagement program.
This workshop introduces participants to the Pakistani tradition of Truck Art reinterpreted through thread embroidery. Truck Art in Pakistan has strong connections to identity, self-expression, and belonging. Freight trucks are highly personal objects, and their decoration often reflect the personality and individuality of their drivers through colour, imagery, poetry, humour, and symbolism.
In this workshop participants are invited to re-interpret a truck-art motif (the “gulab”/rose) using thread, transforming an art form that is typically large, public, and highly colourful into a small, tactile, personal object. The process requires adapting elements such as colour, line, scale, and detail to the possibilities of thread rather than paint. Participants will experience this translation themselves as they reinterpret the rose motif using embroidery and ultimately turn their piece into a keychain they can cherish for a long time.
During the workshop three stitches will be demonstrated (back stitch, satin stitch, and leaf stitch) and Hafsa will explain how each can be used to interpret different elements of the prepared rose motif. Participants will work on their prepared rose motifs, with guidance and support throughout the process. Participants will be encouraged to develop their own approach to colour, stitch direction, and detail within the provided design.
Towards the end of the workshop, Hafsa will demonstrate how to finish and transfer the completed embroidered motif into a keychain ring, allowing participants to leave with a functional object featuring their own interpretation of Pakistani truck art.
This is a beginner-friendly workshop with no previous weaving experience required. All materials and step-by step guidance will be provided.
For any accessibility needs, please email Marium Durrani (mdurrani@textilemuseum.ca).
This workshop is part of the Museum’s workshop series: Liminal Threads. In this workshop series, the Museum aims to create space for newcomers, refugees, and immigrants, where they can bridge the divide of settling in Canada. Taught by local Immigrant, Refugee, and/or Newcomer artists, participants learn new modes of sustainable thinking, textile making techniques, and creating new community. We would like to thank the Toronto Arts Council Strategic Funding: Newcomer and Refugee Arts Engagement, for funding this program.
Facilitator Bio:
Hafsa Durrani is a multidisciplinary artist, born in Islamabad, Pakistan, and currently lives and works in Toronto. Her practice spans ink illustration, watercolour painting, and fibre arts, particularly embroidery. Her work draws inspiration from everyday life, capturing small, fleeting moments and finding beauty in their simplicity. More recently, she has been exploring the translation of visual traditions and fine art into fibre arts particularly embroidery. This has led her to consider how an image changes when it moves between mediums. While the fundamental principles of composition, colour, line, and form remain, they must be adapted to the possibilities and limitations of each material. Through embroidery, Hafsa is interested in this process of translation, reinterpretation, and discovering what can be expressed through thread that cannot be expressed in the same way through paint or ink.
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