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Symposium Program- Contents

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Plenary Session

Handwork

Costume

Trade

Power of Pattern: Textiles, Politics & Persuasion (Panel)

Individual Papers—South America

Symbols of Influence

Threads of Change: The Transformation of Textiles in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Panel)

Mexico and Guatemala

Weaving

Embroidery

Textile Society Of America Newsletter 16:3 — Fall 2004, Textile Society Of America

Textile Society of America Newsletters

Oakland Beckons! TSA Symposium, October 7–9, 2004
From the President
TSA News
TSA Study Tours
TSA Member News
Symposium Exhibition: The Past in Present Tense: Four Decades of Baskets by Julia Parker
Member Reports
Collections News
Exhibition Review: The 11th Triennial of Textiles, Central Museum, Lodz, Poland
Book Reviews
Opportunities
Grants and Awards
Call for Papers
From the Editor
Calendar-Exhibitions, Lectures, Seminars, Tours
Conferences and Symposia

Effects Of Accelerated Heat And Light Aging On Textiles Marked With Fabric Marking Pens, Janet Evenson, Patricia Cox Crews

Department of Textiles, Merchandising, and Fashion Design: Faculty Publications

Despite reasonable concerns that fabric marking pen inks may prove damaging over time, some quilters use them to temporarily mark quilting designs on quilt tops. Unfortunately, no published results concerning long-term effects of these products exist. The purpose of this study was to determine whether marking pen inks contribute to degradation or discoloration over time. Samples were marked with one of three brands of marking pen and subjected to ink removal treatments, followed by heat or light aging. Changes in color and breaking strength were measured before and after heat or light aging. Results showed that a water immersion ink …

Improving Knit Fabric Upf Using Consumer Laundry Products: A Comparison Of Results Using Two Instruments, Jihyun Kim , Janis Stone , Patricia Crews , Mack Shelley Ii, Kathryn L. Hatch

Department of Textiles, Merchandising, and Fashion Design: Faculty Publications

This study investigated the use of two instruments to measure the ultraviolet protective factor (UPF) of T-shirt knit fabrics. After various laundering treatments, specimens were cut and UPF was measured from the wale, course, and bias directions with the ISO MET® UV-Meter and the Cary UV-Visible Spectrophotometer. Similar results were found between the two instruments and among repeated measures. Before UPF measurement, the shirt fabrics were repeatedly laundered using various household detergents and laundering additives commonly available to consumers. Statistically significant effects on the mean UPF values were found related to type of fabric, type of detergent/laundry additives, number of …

Textile Society Of America Newsletter 16:2 — Spring 2004

Textile Society of America Newsletters

TSA Symposium, Oakland, CA Oct. 7-9, 2004, by Inez Brooks-Myers
President's Letter
New TSA Board Slate
TSA Study Tour of Ghana, Jan 7-20, 2005 (Dr. Lisa Aronson)
TSA Study Tour to Turkey (Walter Denny)
News: Mona Berman, Deborah Corsini, Virginia Davis, Genevieve Duggan, Judy Frater, Judith Poxon Fawles, Jane Hoffman, Suzanne MacAulay, Deborah McClintock, Elin Noble, Teresa Paschke, Fran Reed, Bela Shanghvi, Ruth Scheuing, Karen Searle, Myra Serrins, Barbara Shapiro, Carol Westfall, Patricia Williams, John Barker, Francis Concato, Sophie Desrosiers, Elana Dickson, Elizabeth Wincott Heckett, Edward M. Franquemont
Textile Conservation in the Kingdom of Bhutan -- Julia M. Brennan
Exhibition …

Traveling Stitches: Origins Of Fair Isle Knitting, Deborah Pulliam

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

The beginnings and "invention" of knitting has long fascinated knitters and amateur historians. Only recently has it come to be studied seriously, and there is still much folklore and fantasy repeated and published as history.

This paper (and discussion) considers some of the best known and most popular stories about the origins of Shetland and Fair Isle knitting and compares those with more recent considerations of color patterning in northern Europe, especially in the Baltic states and eastern Europe.

Fair Isle color patterning has been explained for many years as having been inspired by a wreck of the Spanish Armada …

Javanesque Effects: Appropriation Of Batik And Its Transformations In Modern Textiles, Abby Lillethun

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

American batik practice emerged in the early twentieth century based on traditional techniques from Java and those filtered through Dutch Nieuwe Kunst. The promotion of batik through the Arts and Crafts movement in North America fostered egalitarian endorsement from artisans, individual practitioners, and consumers, across geographic locales, social milieu, and skill levels. Encouraged by manuals, magazine articles, and exhibitions, enthusiasm for batik grew across the nation and in the avant-garde enclave of Greenwich Village. While practitioners were cautioned to avoid excessive veining or crackle in their works in emulation of fine tradition, commercial enterprises helped to transform the aesthetic …

A Ping-Pong Example Of Cultural Authentication And Kalabari Cut-Thread Cloth, Joanne B. Eicher

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

The concept of cultural authentication was first introduced to analyze the check and plaid textile called Indian madras used by the Kalabari people of the Niger Delta of Nigeria to produce a design by subtraction on the cloth which they subsequently call pelete bite (Erekosima, 1979; Erekosima and Eicher, 1981). Although the Kalabari are part of a much larger group of Niger Delta peoples, this cut-thread cloth is original and peculiar to them. They depend on the supply of madras from India to produce pelete bite to wear as men’s and women’s wrappers, to cover the face of a masquerader, …

Pattern Power: Textiles And The Transmission Of Knowledge, Carol Bier

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

If one makes an ontological distinction between patterns and textiles, an argument can be developed to assess the potential role that textiles may have played in the transmission of mathematical knowledge, concerning the spatial dimension. This paper seeks to address early Islamic textiles within the context of contemporary advances in the history of mathematics from the 8th – 10th centuries, which may have influenced, or been influenced by, technical developments in the production of pattern-woven textiles.

In particular, this paper explores patterns in woven textiles ascribed to the Sasanian Empire and its aftermath in Iran and Central Asia, with a …

Appropriation, Acculturation, Transformation, Janet Stoyel

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Investigation of high-tec processes for the manufacture of decorative materials for use in contemporary textile and fashion design. Photon Laser and Ultrasound techniques explored via engineered substrates to create patinated colour, structural surfaces, repetitive pattern, etched detailing and modernistic construction possibilities. Keywords: Photon Laser, Ultrasound, Ecological, Environmental, Sustainability, Substrates.

‘Rafoogari’ Of Najibabad, Priya Ravish Mehra

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

This paper will discuss the still continuous and centuries old skill of “Rafoogari” or the Darning and Maintenance of Pashmina Shawls by the Rafoogars or Darners of Najibabad, an historical town in western Uttar Pradesh. It is the home of several ‘Rafoogar’ families and the hub of the kani shawl trade. While Kashmiri pashmina shawls have been elaborately researched, the important role of darners in the maintenance of these priceless shawls has not yet been recognized. Although darning is a highly intricate and laborious task necessary to the maintenance, restoration, and renewal of the shawls, the role of the darners …

Dissolving The Objective Grid: Cultural Excavations In The Work Of Sharon Marcus, Mary Lane

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Sharon Marcus’ tapestries reflect her training in anthropology and archaeology. Her investigation into the notion of site and the human traces that remain within a site reveals the complex, layered and inherently ambiguous nature of the meaning embedded in fragmentary remains. Her artistic exploration also involves a critical investigation of the methods of scientific inquiry that underlie the disciplines of anthropology and archaeology. Her tapestries examine the notion of objectivity and the ordering system of the grid. In exposing the limitations of those paradigms, Marcus has adopted a subjective and multifaceted approach to representation that rejects the notion of transparency, …

International Textile Works: A Laboratory For Experimental Artists From Around The World To Create Cutting- Edge Design, Grounded In Textiles, Wendy Weiss

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Located at the University of Nebraska, our textile department launched the International Textile Works (ITW) in 2002. The department built on existing resources of a Mimaki Textile Jet Tx-1600S direct inkjet 65” fabric printer and an industrial steamer. The competitively awarded University’s Arts and Humanities Enhancement Fund provided start-up funds to invite an artist to design and print on this equipment. Internally we began applied research to test the best use of this technology for artists.

This initiative enables our design faculty, in collaboration with our scientific faculty, to create a fertile environment for developing innovative applications of digital technology. …

Transformative Prospects: Textile Structure And The Social Organization Of Pre-Columbian And Colonial Andean Production, Blenda Femenías

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

The pre-Columbian Andean material culture record is especially crucial for trying to understand social organization because Andean societies apparently did not employ what Europeans recognized as “writing.” The evidence contained in the objects themselves thus bears a larger burden in helping scholars analyze how social life was structured to enable a huge volume of cultural production. For pre-Columbian textiles in particular, the analysis of embroidered figures and their relationship to the ground fabric on which they were positioned has played crucial roles. In effective and original ways, Anne Paul used the evidence in textile objects, especially from the Paracas culture, …

Changes In Nomadic Arab Weaving Due To Outside And Internal Influences, Joy May Hilden

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Centuries of tradition in the weaving of the Bedouin, using sheepswool and goat hair, has changed dramatically in the last fifty years. With the decline of nomadism, due directly and indirectly to the discovery of oil, techniques and products have fallen to disuse or have been transformed with new materials and put to new uses.

Bedouin weaving was formerly used for tents, rugs and animal gear by nomadic Arab tribes in Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Palestine/Israel and Egypt. Lifestyles among and influences on the bedu vary by region, but the decline of nomadism is common to all. …

The Distribution Of Cultural Identity A Canadian Case Study, Jennifer E. Salahub

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

A banner like this, hung in the central passage of a training institute … cannot fail to impress itself on the character of some, giving their tastes a bent in those directions which you would desire to push them into.

Albert Henry George, 4th Earl Grey (b.1851-d.1917). Letter, National Archives of Canada, Dated 13 March 1906.

This illustrated presentation introduces a series of early twentieth-century embroidered and appliquéd banners that were the inspiration of Lord Grey, Governor General of Canada between 1904–11. The medium – needlework – was specifically chosen because of its historic connotations. By literally fabricating material memories …

Copyright Statement

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

appropriation • acculturation • transformation

Proceedings of the 9th Biennial Symposium of the Textile Society of America, Inc.

© 2005 Textile Society of America, Inc.

Copyright of individual papers remains with each author.

All rights reserved. Published 2005. Printed in the United States of America.

No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form, except brief excerpts for the purpose of review, without written permission from the Textile Society of America. Students and researchers wishing to cite the work of specific authors are encouraged to communicate directly with those individuals, as many of these papers represent work in …

El Espiritu De Aztlan, Sharon L. Gustafson

Sheldon Museum of Art: Catalogs and Publications

The Spirit of Aztlan celebrates Mexican and MexicanAmerican art and its significant contribution to the development of American culture. Referring to the homeland of the ancient Aztec civilization, the term "Aztlan" evolved during el Movimiento (Chicano Civil Rights Movement) in a conscious effort to reclaim Native American ties and improve economic, political and cultural situations. This spirit of self-identity began in Mexico, with the Mexican muralist movement and artists such as Diego Rivera, David Siqueiros and Jose Clemente Orozco. Large mural and printmaking projects strengthened national identity and instigated change in Mexico in the1920s and 1930s. The United States government …

Textile Society Of America Newsletter 16:1 — Winter 2004

Textile Society of America Newsletters

Oakland Hosts 2004 TSA Symposium
President's Letter
Nominations sought for TSA Officers & Board
Textile Study at the University of Rhode Island
Conference Reviews: Japonnea; New Technologies and Materials; Sri Yantra Bandahni Development Project; Navajo Weaving in the 19th Century; SUTRA; Tales in the Textile: Conservation of Flags and Other Symbolic Textiles; Caring for Flags
Textile Network: WARP Promotes Development through Textiles
Collection News: British Museum, Indianapolis Museum of Art; Lost Exhibition: Palestine Costume Archive
Batik info sought
Exhibitions & Lectures
Book reviews

Churchill Weavers 80 Years Of American Handweaving, Philis Alvic

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

In 1922 Eleanor and David Carroll Churchill founded Churchill Weavers in Berea, Kentucky, and it still continues as a unique American handweaving company over 80 years later. While a missionary in India, D. C. Churchill tackled problems within handweaving, the country’s second largest industry next to agriculture. He put to use his MIT education, adapting the loom’s fly-shuttle attachment for greater efficiency. After abandoning his short teaching career at Berea College, the Churchills began a business to employ local people that had few job opportunities. D.C. manufactured the loom he had designed in India and compartmentalized weaving tasks. Eleanor designed …

Piecing Together A New Home: Needlework In Kvinden Og Hjemmet Magazine, Laurann Gilbertson, Karen Olsen

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Kvinden og Hjemmet was a magazine for women published in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, from 1888 to 1947. “The Woman and the Home” contained patterns for clothing and fancywork, as well as household hints, recipes, serialized novels, short stories, and poetry. Everything was written in, or translated into, Norwegian.

Ida Hanson, the editor of Kvinden og Hjemmet, had emigrated from Norway in 1870. She knew first-hand the trials of adjusting to a new way of life and she wanted to ease the transition for other Norwegians by providing information on how to make clothing and household textiles in the American …

From Rags To Riches To Revolution: A Social History Of 19th Irish Lace, Shiralee Hudson

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Cultural theorist Daniel Miller writes, “The deeply integrated place of the artefact in constituting culture and human relations has made discussion of it one of the most difficult of all areas to include in abstract academic discourse” (“Artefacts in Their Contexts,” Material Culture and Mass Consumption, Oxford 1987, p. 130). This is, however, the very task this discussion of nineteenth century Irish lace undertakes. This paper outlines the establishment of the lace industry in Ireland in such centers as Carrickmacross, Limerick and Youghal. It also examines both its makers and users, revealing how artefact can indeed provide a powerful …

Pleated Skirts Of Miao In Guizhou Province, China, Tomoko Torimaru, Tomoko Torimaru

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

The Miao of Guizho China are a people with no written script and therefore no written historical record. Of their pre-history, scholars are certain of only one thing: "…that the Miao were in China before the Chinese, for it is the latter themselves who indicate the presence of the Miao in the land, which they, the Chinese, were gradually infiltrating" (J. Mottin). With no written scripts, textiles are at once the Miao’s cultural identity, their history of migration, and a communication tool. For these reasons, Miao textile traditions survive to this day.

Although it is true the Miao have hundreds …

Textile Exchange And Cultural And Gendered Cross-Dressing At Palmyra, Syria (100 Bc—Ad 272), Cynthia Finlayson

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

For millennia, textiles have been utilized by human civilizations to define gendered identities as well as ethnic and political affiliations. Textiles have also been utilized as lucrative objects of trade. As such, their utilization in societies foreign to their origin of manufacture presents an interesting study in the power of trade textiles to transform the very essence of both gendered and cultural manifestations of identity through the absorption of foreign clothing styles and textile motifs.

Perhaps no society utilized the influence of trade textiles with more eclectic creativeness than the ancient citizens of the Palmyrene trade oasis of Tadmor, Syria. …

West Anatolian Carpet Designs: The Effect Of Carpet Trade Between Ottoman Empire And Great Britain, Elvan Anmac, Filiz Adigüzel Toprak

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

West Anatolia is a region that holds diverse precincts of carpet weaving in terms of colour, motif and composition features the carpets display throughout history. The carpet weaving tradition of West Anatolia till the middle of the 19th century had continued as a home industry which was manufactured by the villagers. The weaving style followed a sample rug called “örneklik” (a sampler with many motifs on it); the weaver was selecting the type of design she wanted to use. It was not the custom to draw the design of the carpet on a design paper.

Together with the increase in …

Cultural Authentication And Fashion In The Global Factory: A Panel Of Four Papers, Hazel A. Lutz

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Erekosima and Eicher (1981) first published a cultural authentication (CA) analysis. Of the Kalabaris’ adoption of Indian madras cloth, they asked four questions. Selection: how was the new cloth selected by society members? Characterization: what is the adopted cloth now called? Incorporation: how has the cloth’s use changed vis-à-vis categories of persons who wear it, occasions of wear, and its meaning? Transformation: how has the cloth been physically transformed?

Lutz (2003) incorporated the four CA questions into her study of the producers and traders of Indian cloth exported to the now transnational Kalabari market. She found …

The Ubiquitous T-Shirt And Fashionable "Islamic Dress" Cultural Authentication In Turkey, Marlene R. Breu

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

From both rural and urban traditions, the dress of Turkey is rich in historical forms that have been transformed over the years. Transformation occurred as individuals and groups reacted to the external influences of trade, technology and political events. With the incorporation of the global market economy and a greater variety of inspirations and products available in rural and urban areas, individuals and groups combined elements of traditional dress with modern forms to create dress that is distinctively Turkish. These multi-layered cultural authentications are incorporated into use with meanings that function to maintain a social order and act as a …

Fashion, Tradition, And Cultural Authentication: Change In Hmong American Ethnic Textiles And Aesthetics At Hmong New Year, Susan J. Torntore

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

This paper discusses the concepts of fashion and tradition as they relate to the process of cultural authentication. Historically, in the context of Laos and Thailand, Hmong textiles were used to create distinctive ensembles worn as everyday dress. They were handwoven and embroidered by women, and specific patterns or color combinations in the cloth denoted membership in regional language groups. Today, Hmong ethnic textiles are used in the United States to express ethnic identity and display cultural heritage in a more general context, worn instead at festive occasions such as Hmong New Year. Significant changes in “traditional” Hmong textiles have …

Culture On A Platter: Politicization Of Central Asian Ikat Patterns, Victoria Z. Rivers

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Textile patterns and motifs are powerful cultural markers conveying much more than mere geographic origin. Businesses and even governments have harnessed the meanings conveyed through the visual construct of textile patterns by adapting and interpreting them into products. This resulting, distinctive "otherness" has been used to express geo- and sociopolitical interests, ethnic identity and unity.

This paper investigates a curious example of textile pattern appropriation and explores its geopolitical and cultural meanings within a particularly volatile time and place. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Central Asian embroidered textiles and silk ikats began appearing in markets. Along with these …

Symbolic Defiance: Questions Of Nationalism And Tradition In Middle Eastern Textiles, Jeni Allenby

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

While the historical importance and visual beauty of Middle Eastern textiles have long been acknowledged, their contemporary role as a vehicle for political and nationalist expression has rarely been studied.

How has nationalism been transfigured into historical and contemporary Middle Eastern textile traditions? What new forms of textiles have developed from nationalist/political origins and what other cultures influenced their design and media? To whom was their political message addressed (were these textiles produced for local or foreign markets or as a means of symbolic private protest?) and has their creation altered traditional gender and/or social roles? What specific changes and …