Art and Design Commons^™

Many Makers: Collaborative Renewal Of Chahta Nan Tvnna (Choctaw Textiles), Jennifer Byram

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Using an Indigenous research model of relationality to community and to land, this paper presents the production of a 1700’s style skirt in bison and dogbane fiber by a group of Choctaw textiles artisans. By translating existing archaeological and textual resources into newly produced garments, these practices communicate the research to the Choctaw community in an accessible and inspiring format. Textiles discussed in this paper are made with twining and oblique interlacing techniques using dogbane, bison, and nettle yarns decorated with natural dyes, pigments, or shells. Members of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma revitalized a traditional art that had been …

Transformative Power Of Stitchery: Sashiko From Cold Regions Of Japan And Embroidery Work Of The Nui Project, Yoshiko Iwamoto Wada

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

This paper seeks to reveal the transformative power of stitchery by examining textile practices in Japan and articulating how a threaded needle can be viewed as the co-agent of stitchers, infusing their materials with properties in a “processual” and relational manner that reflects the currents of their lifeworld.^[1] I will contrast and compare two practices, one ancient and one modern, one responding to life’s necessities and the other simply to the act of stitching. In the ancient world, stitchery was essential for human survival, and later in rural Japan, sashiko stitchery was a medium that connected textiles with daily …

The Arts Of Urgency: Textile Practices And Truth-Telling, Catherine Dormor

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

To think of the arts of urgency is to think about tactics for making public realities and ‘truths’. It is to ask how art and artists can express horror, suffering, collective and individual trauma with intelligence, rigour, truthfulness, integrity and ethics? In this paper I explore the role of textile as a set of practices deployed as acts of resistance, focusing on the work of Chinese artist Lin Tianmiao and the US artist collective behind the Pussyhat Project (Jayna Zweimann, Krista Suh and Kat Doyle). Both deploy a tactics of spatiality and collaborative action to produce discourse around female disempowerment …

Cassimere: Hiding In Plain Sight, Peggy Hart

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

In the nineteenth century, cassimere was one of the most produced woolen fabrics in American mills. Cassimere appears in nineteenth century texts, as in George Cole’s Complete Dictionary of Dry Goods, first published in 1890. Cole describes cassimere as “the general term applied to that class of allwool cloths used for men’s clothing, woven either plain or twilled, coarse or fine of “woolen” yarn.” Cassimere is much in evidence in census reports of wool manufacture from 1837 to the early 1900s. It appears early in the twentieth century in the Thomas Register of American Manufacturers Buyers guide of 1905-06 under …

Viscacha: Luxury, Fate And Identification In Precolumbian Textiles, Elena Phipps, Caroline Solazzo

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Since the sixteenth century, references by Spanish chroniclers to the use of chinchilla hair (Andean rodents of several species including viscacha) by Andean weavers indicate that the fine hair of these animals had been incorporated into textiles. Their fine soft hair, often mottled in color, has distinctive characteristics which vary and, as a result, make them difficult to identify. Some archaeological finds, primarily in Chile have reported viscacha skins and fur bags, but few if any reports have identified the presence of textiles or spun yarns that incorporate this special fiber. The depiction of the animal takes on special meaning …

Creating The Sensible: Weaving The Colonial Aesthetic At A Colonial Obraje, Maria Smith

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

When the Spanish arrived in the Andes, they encountered a rich textile production industry. The colonists quickly recognized the economic opportunity that skilled Andean weavers provided to colonists and in 1545 the first colonial obraje (textile mill) was established in Peru (Silva Santisteban 1964: 18). Roughly twenty-five years later Antonio de Oré established the Obraje de San Marcos de Chincheros outside the colonial city of Huamanga. There Indigenous and mestizo weavers produced textiles that were transported to Cusco to enter the global textile market. At the Obraje, forced Spanish techniques and technologies mixed with the Indigenous techniques and technologies that …

The State Of Traditional Albanian Kilims, Their Motifs And Narratives, Alexis Zoto

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Albania is a cultural crossroads. Its history is rooted in the ancient Greek and Roman worlds. It has been part of the Republic of Venice and part of the Ottoman Empire. It has maintained its own identity and language in spite of many occupiers. Like many of its neighbors, it also has a rich weaving tradition influenced by hundreds of years under Ottoman rule. However, the knowledge of the old ways of this craft is quickly dying out. There are splits in knowledge and documented information between pre-communist Albania and Communist Albania and post-Communist Albania.

In the mid twentieth century …

Ecological Art Exhibition As Transformative Pedagogy, Stacey Skold

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Environmental degradation is considered one of the biggest issues facing humankind. The problem is deep and global with fast fashion playing a significant, yet underrealized role. Scholars have established that developing the sustainable behaviors necessary to mitigate the effects of environmental degradation is a complex process, that knowledge of environmental degradation alone is insufficient to develop sustainable behaviors, and that both attitudinal and behavioral transformations are necessary for global environmental action and stewardship. As a result, researchers have called for new approaches to environmental education to promote transformative learning.

Art experiences can function as a powerful tool in learning and …

By Land And By Sea: Displaced Samplers Reveal Women On The Move, Lynne Anderson Phd

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Until the middle of the nineteenth century most American girls embroidered as least one needlework sampler as part of their education. A first sampler demonstrated the girl had learned to sew a few different stitches, copy the alphabet, and “write” her own name in thread. If instruction continued past these basics, subsequent embroideries might reveal more advanced needlework techniques and the girl’s expanding literacy. Each sampler was considered a significant accomplishment—by the girl herself, her teacher, her family, and even potential suitors. Embroidered samplers were treasured objects, framed and displayed in the home or tucked away safely for posterity. When …

Artistic Philanthropy And Women’S Emancipation In Early Twentieth-Century Italy, In The Life And The Work Of Romeyne Robert And Carolina Amari, Maria Luciana Buseghin

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Romeyne Robert, married as Ranieri di Sorbello, started an embroidery school in 1904 in Umbria, at the family’s country estate of Pischiello. Her goal was to teach young peasant women to emancipate themselves by learning the craft of embroidery. She was inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement in America and by contemporary programs developed in settlement houses along the East Coast. Their aim was to help the emancipation of immigrant women from Italy by fostering the recovery of artisan skills. At the Sorbello Embroidery School, Romeyne rediscovered the Renaissance technique originally called the punto Umbro, later renamed punto Sorbello. …

Clothing The Black Body In Slavery, Wanett Clyde

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

After suffering the traumas of capture, enslavement, and the ship’s journey from their homeland, newly arrived Black people, along with struggling to understand and cope with their reduced circumstances, were often pulled in multiple directions with regard to their appearance.

Stripped of garments that represented their native culture and forbidden to practice their personal grooming habits, slaves were now reliant on their owners for care. Once a slave was purchased, it was in the best interest of the master and mistress to protect their investment by providing them with the essentials. Chief among those necessities was clothing.

This presentation will …

Camelid Fleece And The Hidden Histories Of Colors In The Andes, Penelope Dransart

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

This article explores the significance of natural fleece colors that are often hidden by dyeing processes. The earliest domesticated alpacas and llamas probably resembled vicuñas and guanacos, their wild counterparts. By 3000 years ago, differences were beginning to emerge in the coats of alpacas and llamas. Dyers, spinners, and weavers learned to exploit these variations to complement and extend the range of possibilities offered through the use of dyed yarns. The evidence from the Siguas and Nasca cultural traditions considered here is both direct and indirect, taking into account textile remains and the depiction of camelids on ceramics. It indicates …

People, Landscape And Wool Weaving In Venezuelan Andes, María Dávila, Eduardo Portillo

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Wool weaving has been practiced in the Venezuelan Andean region for centuries, specifically at the Paramo ecosystem. This activity was introduced by the Spaniards and shaped by the relation of its inhabitants with the environment, warm clothing needs, climate, and the isolation of the place. Blankets and ruanas have been made traditionally on elementary handlooms by weavers who still use handspun wool, cotton, and natural dyes. Beauty in simplicity has built a singular aesthetic to be worn within the mist of the mountains. This paper intends to share a personal encounter of the authors with the community of weavers, spinners, …

Making Siapo In Leone Today, Regina A. Meredith Fitiao Mfa

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Siapo is the Samoan word for painted bark cloth. It’s an art form that has been a part of many Pacific island nations for centuries. At one time it flourished in American Samoa, namely the village of Leone, where a group of women worked consistently with it. One of those women is my great aunt, the late Mary J. Pritchard, who taught me the rudiments of making siapo back in the early 1970s, while later it was her daughters who inspired me to become the siapo maker I am today.

“Making Siapo in Leone Today” is an elucidation of my …

Coming Together Again: A Case Study On Persian Silk Woven Textiles, Tayana Fincher

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Spanning well beyond the parameters of the Middle East, Islam has always had a global reach. It has adapted to numerous cultures and ancient histories encountered over the past 1,400 years. But, due to the prevailing Eurocentric purview in American museums, little has been recorded about the artists and makers of Islamic textiles. Many of these objects were produced by collective, royal workshops with unnamed contributors, or were intended for devotional use inside domestic spaces. With colonial ventures, too, many passed through the hands of collectors and dealers solely interested in the object’s material or aesthetic value.

A group of …

Ethnoarchaeology Of The Textile Chaîne Operatoire. Searching For Evidence Of Prehispanic Textile Production In Domestic Sites, Bárbara Cases

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

It is proposed that detailed knowledge of the textile production sequence currently carried out by Aymara weavers of the Altiplano of Tarapac  (northern Chile) constitutes an important reference to link material and immaterial aspects and generate indicators with which to address pre-Hispanic textile production in domestic sites, the locations where fabrics would have been produced and used. This research is conceptually framed by the anthropology of technology, which considers material production as a social act. The recording of textile production processes (cha ne op ratoire) was carried out using an ethno-archaeological approach to build a bridge between the present—with known …

Casting A Wide Net: The Value Of Collaboration And Outreach With Source Communities In The Analysis Of Historic Native American Fishing Nets, Annabelle Fichtner Camp, The Lenape Tribe Of Delaware

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

The Lenape Tribe of Delaware is one of two recognized tribes within the state of Delaware. Having only gained state recognition in 2016, the group is actively working to regain the lifeways of their ancestors that have been lost in the aftermath of colonization and systemic oppression. This paper discusses collaborative research between the author, a student in Art Conservation, and the Lenape Tribe of Delaware into the once-crucial practice of net-tying. It addresses the impetus for the project and its role in object-based decolonization and Indigenous knowledge reclamation. The research was inspired by the last known Lenape netmaker, Clem …

The Yuraq Haku, Or Plain Mantle: A Long Tradition Of North-Central Perú, María Elena Del Solar, Crestina Jara

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

The haku is a shawl indispensable for depicting the lives of women and men in several districts of the department of Hunuco, in north central Peru. It is used daily in rural tasks and domestic life, and it shines during public festivals as a clear representation of local identity. The skill of the spinners in achieving an exceptionally fine yarn makes the serene beauty of these handsome cloths of a single, even color stand out. Almost transparent, the four-selvage cloth is woven on a backstrap loom of native cotton or of sheep’s wool diverse in hue. The mark of the …

A Walk Through Contemporary South Asian Textile “Daatsans”, Rohma Khan

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Dasatangoi is a Persian word for the centuries old, rich tradition of oral storytelling as practiced in the subcontinent. The epics that have passed on from one generation to another tell magical stories of adventure, war, religious anecdotes with immense details such as Arabian Nights, Dastaan-e-Ameer Hamza, and Mahabharata. Inspired by this subcontinental tradition, the presentation focuses on how these rich epics were translated into visual narratives in various indigenous textiles such as in Persian shikar-gahs and the subcontinent’s Chamba rumaals. In addition, it shows how these guided and made skeletal references for contemporary textile artists in Pakistan. Therefore, the …

Textile Memory In Colchane: Weavers Revitalizing The Aymara Tradition, Soledad Hoces De La Guardia

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

In Aymara culture, textiles have played a fundamental role as highly valued community possessions and significant media for ritual and tradition. In Chilean territory, the Colchane community has been fortunate, because they have here retained, with fidelity and vigor, their culture and traditional textile practices. However, the average age of active weavers is rising and those younger do not have the technical expertise of their elders, which has led to the loss of a significant part of traditional technical knowledge.

To not forget the “handwork” became an urgent concern for artisans in the community, members of the Aymar Warmi association, …

The Maker’S Mark?: An Examination Of An Embroidered Rebozo And Its Potential Signature, Eleanor A. Laughlin

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Mexican rebozos (scarves/shawls) range in material, design, and function from those worn by indigenous women made of maguey or cotton and used to carry children or heavy loads, to those made of silk that feature fancy dyes or embroidery, which serve as accessories for special events. Among the historic embroidered examples is a subtype called the “landscape” rebozo, which featured scenes of quintessentially Mexican locations or events stitched into the fabric of the scarf. Most rebozos, in the past as in the present, were made by anonymous artisans. However, one example bears a sign that may be a signature and …

Ways Of Life And Works Of Weaving And Dyeing In Okinawa: Toward A Possible Solution Of Carry On Concern, Yuka Matsumoto

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Okinawa, Japan’s southernmost insular prefecture, has a rich variety of weaving and dyeing traditions, but it is in the midst of issues including an aging local population and depopulating rural communities. Thus, one of the most vexing concerns is how to carry on the weaving and dyeing traditions. This study aims to find ways to ameliorate the condition in Okinawa by analyzing how the lives of Okinawa people relate to the traditional weaving and dyeing in the modern era and by understanding the current significance of them to people’s lives.

This study uses nineteen cases from all over Okinawa, and …

Henna Ritual Clothing In Anatolia From Past To Present: An Evaluation On Bindalli, Ozlen Ozgen, Feryal Soylemezoglu, Zeynep Erdoğan, Sevinc Arcak

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

The rites of matrimony, which are formed with various rituals and activities, have been accepted as one of the main components of Anatolian traditions from the Ottoman period to the present time. The marriage is celebrated with ceremonies that include a series of entertainment activities. The henna rituals are conducted prior to marriage. In these rituals, first, various folk songs are sung to make brides, who will be away from their parents, cry. Then, fun music is played to entertain the bride, who wears dress in traditional henna clothes called bindalli on henna night. The material, colors, motif, and ornaments …

The Hidden Story Of The Quilted Cover In The Benaki Museum Collection, Sumiyo Okumura

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

There is a big, green linen quilt cover, a so-called Mamluk quilt, in the collection of the Benaki Museum (Athens). It looks like a Mamluk cover in terms of colors and designs such as endless knots and flower motifs, but the emblem showing a double-headed eagle in the center of the cover is not the same as other Mamluk blazons. It raises the question of where and when this quilt cover was made. A similar type of linen textile, the so-called trapunto fiorentino, can be seen in a private collection in Florence. It shows similar motifs on the green-colored ground. …

From Birth To Death. The Silk-Flower Industry In Mexico., Adriana Sanromán Peyron

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

For centuries silk flowers have been used by different societies as personal and spatial adornments. Flowers, both natural and man-made, have diverse meanings in daily life and rites of passage, accompanying individuals from birth to death. During the nineteenth century, the use of silk flowers gained in popularity and, thanks to the industrialization of textile weaving and the discovery of chemical dyes, silk flowers became available not only to elites but to the growing bourgeoisie, and later, even low-income classes. During this boom, Judith Deschamps and Etiesenne Pucheu met and were married, both of them florists. After the 1851 great …

Project To Recover Prehispanic Textile Techniques In Peru: A Brief Review, From Its Initiation To Today, Yuki Seo

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

I have lived in Peru for approximately 20 years, devoted to research and the study of prehispanic textiles. Because of the rich heritage and enormous quantity of tangible textile patrimony that exists in this country, I have chosen Peru to be able to pursue several interests. Over time, I worked in different museums, which motivated me to promote the study, understanding and recovery of prehispanic techniques. I proposed to give them life, so that they would be appreciated in these times. Along the way, I have met admirable self-taught persons who come from my country, Japan. This led me to …

Wool Sells Itself: Tracing The Movement Of Navajo-Raised Wools, Emily Winter

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Every June for the last eight years, a coalition of commercial wool buyers, the Diné College Land Grant Office, and the Black Mesa Water Coalition has hosted a multi-site wool buy in the Navajo Nation of New Mexico/Arizona. Historically, the primary outlets for Navajos to sell their wool were trading posts and border towns, which paid far below market price. Over the last several years, the wool buy has effectively doubled the price per pound paid to Navajo producers by bringing them into direct contact with buyers. In June 2019, an estimated 160,000 pounds of wool were purchased from over …

India In Situ: Textile History And Practice, A Team Approach, Annin Barrett, Carol Bier, Anna Jolly, Louise W. Mackie, Barbara Setsu Pickett

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Five textile specialists from various backgrounds came together to explore shared interests in Indian fabrics, histories, and architectural patterns. Guided by Rahul Jain’s extraordinary scholarship and generosity, we visited weaving workshops producing exquisite fabric and metallic yarn in our quest to understand the naqsha system for drawloom patterning. In Cholapur and Varanasi, we studied drawlooms set up to weave velvet, lampas, and samite, and a distinguished naqshaband demonstrated the making of a naqsha that provides the design for drawloom lifts. We examined rare historic textiles in New Delhi’s National Museum, Ahmedabad’s Calico Museum of Textiles, Varanasi’s Bharat Kala Bhavan Museum, …

Four Artists: My Angels And Mentor, Polly Barton

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Interwoven into my life at the loom are the stories of four women: a weaver, a painter, an embroiderer, and a fiber artist. Their histories have guided and pulled me forward in my own growth as an artist. Yet it is to their art that I feel a heartfelt, visceral, and almost spiritual resonance. I would like to present to the TSA conference in 2020 my research into the lives of Sumiko Deguchi (1883-1952), Helen Frankenthaler (1928- 2011), Adya van Rees-Dutilh (1876- 1959), and Pat Hickman (b.1935).

As an artist who has wound, tied, dyed, and woven silk into contemporary …

Enigmatic Mediterranean Silk Quilts, Kathryn Berenson

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Nearly two dozen centuries-old, corded quilts and fragments made of jewel-toned silks rest in North American and European collections. Expertly designed, they are variously stitched with imagery of ships sailing over waters that teem with fish, musicians who play amidst animals that gambol and prance to their music, armed hunters and their dogs in pursuit of boar, wolf, and even lion, and arcaded galleries where half-dressed women pose beneath the arches. Double-headed eagles, a symbol of both political and religious significance, and roundels featuring profiles of men wearing turbans or crowns, are also common motifs.

Each quilt is completely reversible; …