Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Textile Society Of America Newsletter 4:11 – Fall 1992

Textile Society of America Newsletters

Letter from the President
“Research in Progress”
Area Activities
TSA Board of Directors
Letter from the Past President
Symposium Luncheon Meetings
The Practicing Artist
European Textiles
Aspects of Social Change
Announcements
Calls for Papers & Proposals
Lectures, Classes, and Workshops
Conferences, Meetings, Symposia
Textiles at Biltmore House
Fellowships & Prizes
Peggy Stoltz Gilfoy Memorial
Publications
Exhibitions
TSA Calendar

Textile Society Of America Newsletter 4:2 – Spring/Summer 1992

Textile Society of America Newsletters

From the President
Symposium Registration
TSA Board
1992 TSA Nominations
Update on the Gobelins
Classes, Conferences, Lectures, Symposia
Events
Publications
Exhibitions
TSA Calendar

Textile Society Of America Newsletter 4:9 – April 1992

Textile Society of America Newsletters

Fall ’92 Symposium: A Diverse and Promising Program
Notices
Publications
Exhibits

Clothing And Textiles Of Ottoman Egypt: Examples From Art And Archaeology, Nettie Adams

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

INTRODUCTION

How many of us, all keenly interested in textiles, have not looked at paintings of a bygone age and thought: how was that garment put together? What sort of stitches were used for the seams? Or when leafing through a book with pictures of exotic places which of us has not wondered: what sort of fabric was that? Was the artist depicting a wovenin or an applied decoration?

The answers to these questions for one part of the world have been found at the archaeological site of Qasr Ibrim.1 It is located in Egyptian Nubia some 30 miles north …

Lace Production On The Island Of Pag, Croatia, From 1900 To The Present, Vjera Bonifacic

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

INTRODUCTION

In her publication "Peacocks and Penguins: The Political Economy of European Cloth and Colours", Jane Schneider (1978) describes the flow of gold and slaves from northern Europe to the Middle East in exchange for colourful textiles, during the Middle Ages. Schneider argues that European-made black cloth and clothing constituted both practical and symbolic means to resist luxury textiles from the Orient, and in this way reverse the balance of trade and power. I believe that, a few centuries later, lace played a similar role in this process; uti1izing 1ocally grown and processed white 1inen thread and the intensive labour …

A Glimpse Of Japanese Dyeing Workshops, Mary V. Hays, Ralph E. Hays

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

While in Japan in September 1991 we were fortunate to be taken to several small dyeing establishments that make fukusa, furoshiki and kosode. We were most fortunate to have an entre into these establishments because without the proper introduction we would never have been able to make the contacts necessary for an invitation to observe their operation. We were fortunate also in being able to attend a special exhibition of kimono produced by contemporary textile artists. We could not help but be impressed by the cost of these kimono, which are one of a kind works of art. Those …

Sparto: A Greek Textile Plant, Helen Bradley-Griebel

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

INTRODUCTION

Cotton and flax are known as plants whose fibers are used in the manufacture of textiles, and hemp and jute are known as plants used to make rope. Less well known for its contribution to both textile and rope manufacture is the plant sparto (Spartium iunceum L.; Spanish broom) which grows wild over much of the Mediterranean region in brushwood localities of the mountainous and semi-mountainous zones, including the area of my fieldwork village on the West Coast of the Greek Peloponnesos.

Sparto is a perennial broom, growing as a shrub not reaching over 3m. in height. Its …

Trimmings In Fez Morocco, Frieda Sorber

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Decorative finishes are an integral part of textiles in many traditional cultures, both past and present. Unfortunately they have often escaped the attention of textile scholars. Published material on detailed observation in the field is often lacking. However, research into trimmings can give valuable information on technological, social and economical aspects of a culture. The city of Fez is an excellent place to study the production and function of trimmings in an urban setting with a wide variety of crafts¹.

Types of trim made in Fez

Research into trimmings in Fez started with detailed field observation of a …

Fish, Fowl And Fauna, Daphne A. Deeds

Sheldon Museum of Art: Catalogs and Publications

As the art musem of the University of Nebraska, the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery staff is committed to making the exceptional permanent collection available to all Nebraskans. The Sheldon Gallery's Statewide Touring Exhibition Program realizes that goal by circulating art of the highest quality to communities throughout the state. Each Statewide exhibition addresses an art historical genre or theme , and together the five exhibitions constitute a mini-art history course and a unique focus on the Sheldon Gallery's renowned collection. As the exhibition series continues , the relationships between diverse artworks are increasingly apparent.

FISH, FOWL AND FAUNA, offers a …

Textiles As History; Clothing Clues To 500 Years Of Mexican Acculturation, Patricia Anawalt

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

INTRODUCTION

The history of peasant peoples all too often is sparsely recorded and poorly understood. This paper suggests that sometimes there are clues in the clothing of certain present day groups that can provide insight into their past experience. To demonstrate the point, a group of contemporary Mexican costumes are examined that reflect the sixteenth century collision of the Old and New Worlds and the subsequent melding of these two disparate civilizations. This, then, is a study of the acculturation process through an analysis of peasant clothing viewed against a time line extending over almost 500 years, from Spanish Conquest …

Coptic Dress In Egypt: The Social Life Of Medieval Cloth, Michael Bazinet

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

"Daily life" is a catchword in historiography for many of the things that historians traditionally have not considered, or have not been able to study due to gaps in historical records¹. In archives and archaeology, the record of daily life activities is often very slim, even for times and places where both archives and archaeology are relatively rich. Egypt is one such place.

"Daily life" also implies a potential focus on the poor as well as the wealthy, on the oppressed as well as the empowered. The methodology for creating this focus remains difficult, even for ancient Egypt. …

Luxury Textiles From Feudal Workshops: 19th Century Russian Tapestry-Woven Shawls, Arlene Cooper

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

At the 1829 First Public Exhibition of Russian Manufactured Goods in Saint Petersburg, "The public stopped in amazement before an expensive white shawl with a European pattern, priced at 12,000 rubles. On the edges were roses, lilacs and other flowers; in the borders (there) were roses only. You cannot imagine anything more beautiful than this shawl."¹ Sixty different shades of colors were used in the flowers and green leaves. The shawl, an almost-transparent web woven in double-interlocked 2/2 twill, was produced by the serf workshop of Nastasia Andreevna Shiskina. Nicholas I acquired it from the exhibition.²

This paper, …

The Decline Of Jaspe (Ikat) Rebozo Weaving In Oaxaca A Video Interview With Fidel Diaz Valencia, The Last Maestro Of Jaspe Weaving, Virginia Davis

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

The dark blue and white jaspe (ikat) rebozo is a traditional shawl-like garment still worn daily in Mexico by many women and girls, especially in the State of Oaxaca. Formerly,this type of rebozo was mainly produced locally in tatteres (workshops) in Oaxaca. Now such rebozos are almost entirely made in other centers, most probably Tenancingo and Chilapa de Guerrero, and brought into Oaxaca. When asked about the number of jaspe reboceros in Oaxaca in former times, informants would reply "a lot," or "many." By the early 1960's, eight of these remained. Not only had other types of weaving become more …

Statements From The Loom And The Needle: Woven And Embroidered Anatolian Textiles In The Home Environment, Serim Denel

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

INTRODUCTION

With their innovative images and messages, Anatolian textiles bring statements from history and witness social change as well. This conversation with the past appears on embroideries (isleme), weavings (dokuma), flat woven carpets (kilim), rugs (hali), needlelace (oya), or a variety of other artifacts from the loom and the needle. They take their impetus from Turkish culture and traditions. However, they extend well beyond these, into the lives and roots of the many peoples of Anatolia who have left their marks on the multi-cultural urban, rural, or semi-nomadic environments. Since their themes and motifs appear on architecture and artifacts alike, …

A Wisteria Grain Bag And Other Tree Bast Fiber Textiles Of Japan, Mary Dusenbury

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Throughout most of Japan's long prehistory (Jomon period: ca.8,000- 300 B.C.)/ the hunting and gathering Jomon people stripped the bark of a variety of native trees, shrubs, and grasses and processed it into cordage, baskets, nets, and various twined textiles. Impressions of cloth on the bottom of some of the distinctive cord-patterned pottery for which the period was named, suggests that weaving was not practiced until the very end of the period.

Dislocated by the expansion of central Chinese authority, groups of immigrants from the continent moved to Japan in the third and second centuries B.C. These peoples brought irrigated …

Preface- 1992, Beverly Gordon

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Preface

In choosing the theme "Textiles in Daily Life" for its third biennial symposium, the Textile Society of America has provided access to an intimate view of textiles - the way in which textiles touch the lives of everyone, from rich to poor, from East to West, from past to present, from birth to death. The theme has provided a showcase for the diversity of disciplines, approaches, and sources of information which characterize our membership and which energize our organization.

It was only fitting that papers on Japanese textiles began and ended the symposium, in tribute to our host - …

Maya Weavers Of Guatemala: Implications For Marketing And Development, Annamma Joy, Kathryn Lipke, John Mckay

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

This video/presentation focuses on the active participation of women in the development process in Guatemala. Development is viewed as a larger process of socio-economic change that takes into consideration issues of self-determination and selfreliance (Joy and Ross, 1989). Modernization theorists generally assume that there is a general improvement in women's participation and status due to urbanization and capitalist development (Quinn, 1977) while dependency theorists emphasize the detrimental effects of the development process on women. In this video we provide a context for examining the causes and conditions that allow for the participation of women (Nash, 1981).

For more than a …

Embroidery In The Everyday Life Of Artisans, Merchants, And Consumers In Fez, Morocco, In The 1980s, Louise W. Mackie

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Many inhabitants of Fez welcome modern lifestyles. But they also value their Muslim faith and cultural traditions which identify their Fezi heritage. One prominent symbol of that distinctive heritage is embroidery. It is highly visible throughout the city on decorative covers used in daily life and on special occasions, especially weddings.¹

Although many cities in Morocco and abroad had distinctive styles of embroidery in the past, embroidery continues to prosper today almost exclusively in Fez. Its widespread manufacture and use provide insight not only into current practices but also into comparable customs elsewhere which have been mechanized.

The continuing …

Narratives Of Action And Identity In Cloth: The Textiles Of Highland Luzon, The Philippines, B. Lynne Milgram

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

The textile artifact, although framed by its physical existence, is not an isolated entity, but functions as a vital part in the ongoing systems of society. By viewing the artifact as an actor with its own life history and with particular parts to play in every sphere of life's narrative, we are provided with an entry to discovering how both the textile object and the subject, its creator and user, collaborate to mutually define one another. To interpret fully the significance of textiles within their cultural context one must examine not only the artifact's physical qualities, its materials, techniques and …

Silk, Power And Diplomacy In Byzantium, Anna Maria Muthesius

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

In Byzantium between the fourth and the twelfth century, a hierarchy of silken splendour was established across social, artistic, religious, economic and political boundaries. On one level silk was a decorative fabric socially exploited for its aesthetic qualities. On another level it was prized as a fabric fit for furnishing the House of God. Above all though, the Imperial house was intent to raise what was essentially a valuable economic asset to the heights of a powerful political weapon. Consequently silk was made to serve both as the prime Imperial ceremonial fabric and as the diplomatic cloth 'par excellence'.1 The …

The Women Of Coyo: Tradition And Innovation In Andean Prehistory, San Pedro De Atacama, North Chile (A.D. 500-900), Amy Oakland Rodman

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Beginning in the second century and continuing until the Spanish arrived in the sixteenth century, the inhabitants of the large cluster of oases known as San Pedro in the Atacama desert of northern Chile buried their dead in the desert, in areas adjacent to shaded habitation sites and irrigated agricultural fields (Figure 1). The scarce oasis lands have been reused over the millennium and little former architectural evidence survives, however the cemeteries and the people themselves have been preserved. The arid Atacama desert has allowed the uncommon preservation of a vast quantity of prehistoric textiles and other usually perishable materials. …

Fragments Of Everyday Life, Karen Jenson Rutherford

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

In my work I am concerned with the general concepts of movement and change and specifically with the profoundness of the idea that we are touched by fiber from the moment of birth until the moment of death. This accessibility of textiles combined with the vast historical foundation of textiles allows for abundant exploration as an artist.

In her book, On Weaving, Anni Albers (1965) defines weaving as "the making of a pliable plane" (19). She further describes six structures used to create this pliable plane. They are interlacing (which we normally think of as weaving), plaiting or braiding, looping, …

The Fashion's In The Bag: Recycling Feed, Flour, And Sugar Sacks During The Middle Decades Of The 20th Century, Rita Adrosko

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

A modest temporary exhibit, FEED BAGS AS FASHION, opened in the National Museum of American History about a year ago (See fig. I).1 The enthusiastic and personal reactions evoked by the exhibit, and a story about it picked up by newspapers throughout the United States and Canada, made clear that the subject had touched a popular nerve. The responses of those who called or wrote, and visitors' comments, revealed that the recycling of flour, sugar, and animal feed sacks was a common, if not universal practice in the States between the 1920s and 1960s, still remembered vividly by both country …

German Jugendstil Tapestries: The Daily Life Of The People Who Made Them, Marianne Carlano

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

INTRODUCTION

In the context of daily life of artists and artisans, I sought to learn about the intimate thoughts, conversations and ideas of the artists who provided the designs for the tapestries of the Kunstwebschule Sherrebek in Germany (1896-1903), as well as those of the artists/weavers who translated such designs into woven forms. Like many an intellectual endeavor, my industrious search revealed little information of this type. Nonetheless, it is possible, though surely only second best without the voices of the artists themselves, to glean some understanding of the founding of the Sherrebek institution, the people who worked there, and …

Textile Tribute In The Antebellum South, Ann Dupont

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

The involuntary immigration of African slaves to America in the early nineteenth century had a secondary impact on the slaves as well as slaveholders related to the possession and use of clothing and textiles in daily life. The slaves were not allowed to bring their clothing, or other attributions of their native culture to America. Rather, the slaveholders were required by law to provide for their slaves' adequate "clothing and basic needs." These requisitions were influenced by the slaveowner's philosophy of slave management, wealth, and temperament. Dependency for these basic necessities of life on the slaveowner reinforced the dichotomy of …

Sashiko: A Stitchery Of Japan, Cynthia Shaver

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

The term sashiko refers to the stitching of one or more layers of cloth with a simple running stitch and can also apply to the completed fabric. Sashiko is the noun of the verb sasu, meaning to pierce. Sashiko probably was initially a way to recycle or extend the life of cloth. Among the textiles in the Shoso-in, the Imperial Repository built circa 752 to preserve thousands of objects of art and other belongings of the Emperor Shomu, is an 8th Century "distant mountain" pattern monk's robe covered with a purple silk running stitch. This running stitch is superfluous …

Handweaving In The Everyday Life Of Artisans, Merchants And Consumers In Fez, Morocco, In The 1980'S, Lotus Stack

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

My original desire to study an urban center which still produced elaborate handmade textiles was to provide some possible clues to more seriously consider the practical side of historic production. In other words, what were the physical concerns and limitations of cloth production. In the end I learned that textiles often function in a very complex, multidimensional form and cannot be truly understood without considering many facets of the society which produced them. Conversely, in societies where textiles are highly valued, their study can add much to understanding everything from cultural values, economics and technology to international politics.

In addition …

Textiles As A Daily Obsession: A Day In The Life Of An Andean Weaver, Elayne Zorn

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

INTRODUCTION

This paper focuses on weavers and textiles from the island of Taquile, in Lake Titicaca, Peru, in the southern Andes. In my abstract I wrote that I would speak about both Taquileans and the Sakaka of Bolivia, but due to the richness and complexity of the material, I shall concentrate on Taquile.

This paper dates back to a conversation I had with Natividad Machaca (Figure 1), a matron of Taquile, on a winter afternoon in June 1984, after the festival of Saint John, which Taquilean families dedicate to ceremonies to increase the fertility of their scrawny sheep. Along with …

Ruth Reeves' "Personal Prints" Printed Textiles From The 1930’S And 40'S, Whitney Blausen

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Introduction

Ruth Reeves pioneered the use of vat dyes and the screen-print process for furnishing fabrics in the late 1920's. Reeves had a positive genius for publicity, and if she was not the first American to experiment with these techniques, which she may well have been, she was without doubt one of the best known.

Reeves was one of a new breed of textile designers who emerged in the aftermath of the First World War. To hope to work as a textile designer was a risky experiment in itself. American mills employed buyers and copyists in far greater numbers than …

Contents- Textiles In Daily Life- 1992

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

TEXTILES in DAILY LIFE

Proceedings of the Third Symposium of the Textile Society of America, September 24-26,1992.

Preface

Featured Speaker: Iwao Nagasaki

Textiles in the Everyday life of Artisans, Merchants, and Consumers of Fez, Morocco

• Embroidery in the Everyday Life of Artisans, Merchants and Consumers in Fez, Morocco in the 1980s.
Louise W. Mackie ........................................9

• Trimmings in Fez, Morocco.
Frieda Sorber................................ 21

• Weaving in the Everyday Life of Artisans, Merchants and Consumers in Fez, Morocco in the 1980s.
Lotus Stack................................ 33

• Artisans and Handmade Textiles in a Complex Traditional Culture.
Susan Schaefer Davis …