Arts and Entertainment

Pat Hertzberg’s life with fabric: A career made from passion

June 18, 2026   ·   0 Comments

By Constance Scrafield

When Alton-based artist Pat Hertzberg was in her teens, she worked for a very high-end fabric store in Ottawa. Her fellow workers were older women who took her under their wings to teach her about fabric.

As a child, Hertzberg used her mother’s sewing machine to make her dolls’ clothing and learned to love working with fabric.

“My mother made dresses and curtains, and I quickly became interested in fabrics,” she told the Citizen. “I took to it.”

The shop in Ottawa only sold silks from China and materials imported from Europe. They did not sell the remnants left from cuts. They did, however, give them to the teenage Hertzberg for her own use and study.

They were scraps of silk and fabulous fabrics from Europe, suitable for making evening wear.

“I got to have all these scraps, and it was a turning point for me,” Hertzberg explained. “When I feel a piece of fabric, I know what it is and the rules to care for it. One of the reasons I got into this is that I wanted to break those rules. I was very lucky to have those materials to experiment with. I wanted to make unique art.

“At one point, before the internet, I thought my work was novel. Galleries were interested – they were beginning to see that fabric could be used like paint.”

She said she was lucky again to attend Sheridan College for fashion design when the program still existed. In her year, people attending also became recognized names in the Canadian fashion industry, including Linda Lundstrom, Wayne Clark, and others.

Essentially, “Fibre Art is limitless,” Hertzberg said. “Different types of fibres are interpreted by every fibre artist to do something unique to them. In my own work with fibre, I sometimes mix in other mediums.”

She expanded, “The whole fibre art world is seeing real growth. Now, I think there is an understanding of the difference between the contemporary and the traditional fibre arts, but there is also a break with those traditional techniques like crochet. Now there are people who take 20 or 30 yarns and crochet them in different directions and it looks like a work of abstract art.”

Outlining her own approach to her fibre art, she explained that what she does is cut up many different fabrics, sometimes dyeing them, cut them up in various shapes and sizes, then put them back together to look the way she likes.

The mix is a mosaic of little fabric pieces. “And if the pieces are all reassembled close together, it looks like brush strokes,” she added.

There are two ways of hanging such works of art- with or without a substrate, which is fabric placed behind the piece. Without the substrate, you can see through the negative spaces, which create shadows on the wall behind; it creates life from all the spaces. Using it or not makes the pieces very different.

Following Sheridan, where she was Valedictorian in her year, Pat Hertzberg went home to Ottawa. She was hired for a job within the federal government, interviewing CEOs about the existing tariffs protecting the Canadian Fashion Industry. This job led to a position with Eaton’s Department Store in a dual position of buyer and sales manager in the fashion department. From there, she went to Montreal as a fashion designer in a senior position, where she also met and married Steve Hertzberg. The decision to marry prompted the newlyweds to move to Toronto.

“But first, we gave up our jobs and travelled to Europe for six months,” Hertzberg said.

With their return to Toronto, her friends who were buyers encouraged her to open her own business.

Before long, she was forced to set up a factory and employ her own workers. She created a line of clothing for sizes seven to 14 and called it ‘Options’, selling it to Eaton’s, Simpsons and The Bay across Canada, as well as smaller retail chains.

Yet, in the long run, she had trouble staying on top of it all, doing the designs, and overseeing both selling and production. As well, Steve was the CEO of his company. It meant they were both very busy.

“Then [we] had kids and I wanted to get back to fabric and fibre art,” she said.

One day, a friend hired her to teach her how to choose her clothes. Very quickly, Hertzberg was asked to help many other women choose their clothing and to teach them how to project their personal image and style. She was then hired by corporations to teach primarily women in the corporate world how to dress.

“Fibre art is so versatile,” she commented. “A lot of painters are experimenting in fibre for a new challenge and for the creative potential.”

Pat Hertzberg is a member of Connections Fibre Artists, a juried collective of professional artists, only joined by invitation. Founded 25 years ago, its mission is to give fibre art its recognition in the art world.

Hertzberg notes that there are a number of excellent fibre artists in Headwaters Arts at the Alton Mill Arts Centre.

Currently, Hertzberg is showing pieces at the Wanderlust Show in the Headwaters Art Gallery until June 28 and, opening this week, ‘Spins, Swirls and The Golden Way’ to July 26 at the Paul Morin Gallery at 19741 Main Street, Alton.

The gallery is open Wednesday to Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

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