The egret's wetland has handles now

The egret lowers its long neck over a dark tote bag, with fine rings of quilting around its feet. Someone has put a zip in its wetland. It seems to have no objection. The fiddler crab in front is making considerably more of an entrance: one claw nearly the size of its body, purple and blue stripes running in all directions. Whatever these two are doing tonight, they are not going to the same party.

Textile artist 洪碧穗 has sewn her familiar Tamsui all the way from the river mouth onto the dinner table. Her exhibition, 《淡水生態與味覺探索——洪碧穗布藝工藝創作展》, includes egrets, fiddler crabs, mudskippers and magnolia, then a-gei, iron eggs and fish-ball soup. A-gei is the town's stuffed fried tofu; iron eggs are its dark, repeatedly braised snack. Hand sewing, piecing, appliqué and three-dimensional shaping give the things you see along the shore and eat along the street plump cloth bodies.

The venue, Shi Family House, has handled its share of objects. Built in the nineteenth century and later bought by the Shi family, the courtyard house witnessed their agricultural-processing, timber and shipping businesses. The family's 1920s firm, 施合發商行, traded across northern and central Taiwan. Under the old tiled roofs, among the red brick, the gathering now consists of small animals and local food, having a party of their own.

The exhibition runs until Monday, October 19, 2026, and admission is free. The house opens 09:30–17:00 on weekdays and 09:30–18:00 on weekends and public holidays. It closes on Monday, October 5, for its monthly first-Monday break; the final Monday is an ordinary visiting day, open until 17:00. From Tamsui MRT Station, the walk through the lanes is about 550 metres; allow eight minutes.