Art and Design Commons^™

Tracing The Temporary Thread: Decorative And Functional Devoré Textiles Of The Early Twentieth Century, Andie Robertson

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

The temporary or supplementary thread has been employed as a supportive structure in the manufacture of utilitarian and decorative woven textiles for over a hundred years. First developed by wool cleaners and finishers during the mid 19th century, the technique has been repeatedly employed to aid innovative yarn and fabric development by some of the textile industry’s leading engineers. The devoré technique, also known as burn out, developed from this temporary thread process during the late 1880s. The popularity of devoré with textiles engineers reached its peak in the 1920s when a period of high decoration coincided with innovation in …

Cotton To Cloth: An Indian Epic, Uzramma

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

The cotton handloom industry of India is one of the great manufacturing institutions of the world: its looms have run continuously for five thousand years. Remnants of cotton thread have been found in the ruins of the Harappan civilization [5000-3500 BC], and the weavers of India have supplied the markets of the world with cotton cloth since at least the first century of the Christian era. The golden age of Indian cotton in recorded history stretches from that time until the beginning of the nineteenth century and there are testaments to the quantity, quality and variety of Indian cotton fabrics …

High Style And Cleanliness: Oriental Rugs In Toronto Homes 1880 - 1940, Neil Brochu

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Academic scholarship pertaining to Oriental rugs, which began at the end of the nineteenthcentury, has concentrated mainly on connoisseurship and the study of the cultures of origin and the peoples that have produced these items with a particular bias for items produced without the taint of Western influence. Little attention has been paid to the actual consumption of Oriental rugs in the West and the general influence of this trade on the evolution of decorative taste or how they may reflect changes in cultural and social attitudes. Oriental rugs within the Canada have received even less attention leading to assumptions …

Text & Textiles: New Writings From Spam Tales, Janis Jefferies

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Collaborations

In many essays and texts on the subject of art and science, the questions of collaboration and the points of discontinuity in disciplinary practice habitually surface. For example, C.P. Snow’s commentary on the ‘two cultures’ (as popularized in the Rede lectures in Cambridge in 1959) is frequently cited as a challenge to establishing a meeting place for artists and scientists where stereotypical expectations might be broken down. More weight, however, can be credited to Einstein’s acts of expansive thought, and the potential of what is yet to may come into existence through the open-ended processes of investigation, experimentation, and …

Sustainability Of Handwoven Carpets In Turkey: The Importance Of Technical Distinctions Between Regional Carpet Styles, Feryal Söylemezoğlu, Sema Taği

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Introduction

In Turkey, hand-made carpet-weaving is a widespread handicraft which many people are effectively busy with. It is also an important area in which unemployed labour can be put to use.

Carpet-making is a traditional craft that has been practised in Turkey since ancient times, and is still found in almost all regions today. Actually, in rural areas, many families still derive significant income from carpet-making.

The reasons why hand-woven carpet-making is crucial for Turkey can be listed as follows:

• Because of the socio economic conditions that currently exist in Turkey the rate of unemployment needs to be reduced, particularly …

Sustainability Of Handwoven Carpets In Turkey: Problems And Solution Proposals In Relation To Standards And Market Issues, Zeynep Erdoğan, Özlen Özgen

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Introduction

The purpose of this paper is to analyse sustainability of hand-woven carpets in Turkey connection with problems and solution proposals in relation to standards and market issues.

The interaction between changing social conditions and technological improvements, due to the arrival of the industrial revolution in Turkey, has influenced the production of hand-woven carpets. The option of purchasing machine-woven carpets in the domestic market has recently increased makedly. These carpets have various colours and designs, and they are cheap. Still, the interest of consumers in hand-woven carpets does continue to some extent. Collectors and investors also have a sustained interest …

Unraveling The Story: Art Holmes’ War Correspondent Uniform, Courtney Stewart

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

War correspondents have, and continue to risk their own personal safety in order to capture a story and communicate news. The first war correspondents from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Art Holmes and Robert Bowman, shipped out from Halifax in late 1939, and for the duration of the war vested themselves in standard military attire. Identical to that of the soldiers on the front whose stories they was capturing, Holmes and Bowman were given military uniforms. Although correspondents were neither soldiers nor members of the armed forces, they were given military priority and respect by association of what this uniform signified. …

Peacocks In The Sands Of Palm Beach: The Vogue Of Men’S Beach Robes, Diane Maglio

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Personally, if two years ago anyone had told me that regular two-fisted he-men would loll around on the beach in one of those “Charvet” linen robes with big wall-paper like figures two feet in diameter adorning them I would have said, ‘Crazy.’ But they are doing it [in Palm Beach]”

By 1920, the east coast of Florida was becoming an American Riviera. Journalists followed the habits and styles of socialites, celebrities, and millionaires in this “jewel of all resorts.” Palm Beach in winter was not only ideal for luxury pastimes of international society but equally important, an opportunity for men …

Weaving Messages Today: Three Decades Of Belts In Taquile Island, Peru (1976-2006), Elayne Zorn

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

In studying the past, archaeologists examine change and continuity over time, but physical processes that affect the preservation of material remains make fine sequencing, at the level of decades, difficult or impossible. Cultural anthropologists and others who study present-day material culture frequently conduct short-term fieldwork, which makes it difficult or impossible to reliably study transformations over time. One solution to this problem is long-term ethnographic fieldwork, combining synchronic and diachronic data collection, to study processes of change and continuity in the production of individual weavers and extended families over generations, in communities and regions.

This paper is a preliminary analysis …

Elemental Pathways In Fiber Structures: Approaching Andean Symmetry Patterns Through An Ancient Technology, Mary Frame

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Repetitive pattern is laden with meaning in many cultures. In Andean cultures, where no alphabetic writing system was developed during prehispanic times, patterns and graphic codes carried a large cultural load. It is crucial to have appropriate tools to investigate the integrated properties (symmetry, color, number, direction, etc.) in the graphic codes of the ancient Andes. In this paper, I will propose some modifications to the prevailing approach to symmetry classification that better fits the patterns in Andean textiles.

Approaches to Symmetry Patterns, Modern and Ancient

An approach to classifying symmetry patterns that is called “plane pattern analysis” has been …

Brides And Grooms: Embroidery Of The Epirus Region, Sumru Belger Krody

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Traditional marriage ceremonies in the Epirus (Ípeiros) region of northwestern Greece were some of the most extravagant wedding celebrations among the Greeks on the mainland and islands. The textiles produced for the young bride’s trousseau were as elaborate as the celebrations. They included garments for her and her husband and textiles for their home. These textiles tell us many things about the region’s political, economic and artistic history. Ottoman Empire held the Greek mainland and islands in their control for centuries leaving their mark in many aspects of daily life and the arts and as an extension of arts in …

White Snake, Black Snake Folk Narrative Meets Master Narrative In Qing Dynasty Sichuanese Cross-Stitch Medallions, Cory Willmott

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

The cross-stitch medallion in figure 1 was collected by my grandmother, Katherine Willmott, in the early 1920s when she was a missionary in Renshow, Sichuan Province, West China. Many years after I inherited it, I learned that it depicts a folk narrative called “White Snake; Black Snake” that was traditionally performed both on stage in the legitimate theaters and in Chinese shadow puppet dramas (Highbaugh n/d:6).

The story may be summarized as follows: There were two female snakes, White Snake and Black Snake, who were inseparable friends. They both changed into beautiful young women. White Snake got married and bore …

An Ethnographic Interpretation Of The Smoke Rising And Smoke Descending Ceremonial Attire Of The Sa'dan Malimbong Toraja, Maria Christou

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

The modern Toraja ceremonial attire worn for the smoke rising and the smoke descending rituals are woven in the Sa'dan Malimbong villages on back strap looms with a continuous warp using both continuous and discontinuous two-faced supplementary weft decorative elements (Christou, 1997; 2005). The smoke rising, or Rambu-Tuka', and smoke descending, or Rambu- Solo', ceremonies are a body of rituals associated with the traditional Toraja religion, or Aluk Todolo; therefore, they form the belief structure of pre-Islamic and Christian Tana Toraja (Mattulada, 1978, p. 135). The style and design elements associated with the traditional religion persist despite changes in materials …

Narratives Among The Mola Blouses Of The Kuna: A Blending Of The Old And New Worlds, Teena Jennings-Rentenaar

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

The Kuna of the San Blas (Kuna Yala) region of Panama are highly regarded for the mola panels that they make using appliqué and reverse appliqué. These panels form the front and back of blouses that the women and their daughters wear both in their daily lives and for special occasions. Mari Lynn Salvador found, when doing her research on the making of mola panels, that there are different types of designs and that these categories are recognized by the Kuna women themselves as being distinct. Each of the different categories requires a different approach to its manufacturing process.

One …

Investigation Of A Colonial Latin American Textile, Elena Phipps, Lucy Commoner

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Introduction

Museum collections often contain works of art of uncertain provenance. Additionally, hybrid works attributed to Colonial cultures reflect the composite nature of a cross-cultural society integrating native and foreign traditions. An interdisciplinary technical study often is needed to identify such an object, including where it was made, when and by whom. The following paper presents the results to date, of a collaborative investigation from art historical, scientific, and conservation perspectives, of a textile belonging to the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. (fig. 1).

Catalogued as Colonial Peruvian, the textile was considered for inclusion in the Metropolitan Museum’s Colonial Andes: Tapestries …

About Textile Society Of America

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

The Textile Society of America, Inc. provides an international forum for the exchange and dissemination of information about textiles worldwide from artistic, cultural, economic, historic, political, social and technical perspectives.

National Office

Textile Society of America (TSA)

Kim Righi, Executive Director

P.O. Box 70

Earleville, MD 21919-0070

Phone (410) 275-2329

Fax (410) 275-8936

TSA Board of Directors 2006-2007

Officers

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Co-Chairs, TSA 10th Biennial Symposium - Toronto 2006

Co-Chairs, TSA 11th Biennial Symposium - Honolulu 2008

2006 Proceedings Editors

Newsletter …

Abstracts

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Textile Society of America

10th Biennial Symposium 2006

October 11–14, 2006

Harbourfront Centre

Toronto, Ontario

A-Z

Introduction, Frances Dorsey, Nataley Nagy

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

The Textile Society of America's 10th Biennial Symposium took place in Toronto, October 11- 14, 2006. The Textile Museum of Canada and Harbourfront Centre co-sponsored the event. A springboard for discussions across disciplines, the symposium offered in-depth explorations of specific topics related to textiles. The Program, which serves as the Table of Contents, includes presentations about textiles and trade, education, ritual practices, cultural transitions, cultural and gender issues, and contemporary art practices, offering an enticing and savoury array of narratives and conversations about textiles. The organized sessions, panels, and plenary programs are designed to raise questions that encourage our talking …

Notes On Editing, Carol Bier, Ann Svenson Perlman

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Sixty-six papers and more than ninety bios and abstracts are included in this publication of the Proceedings of TSA's 10th Biennial Symposium in Toronto. The Proceedings reflect in text and image the substance and the intellectual vibrancy that characterized the Textile Society of America's 10th Biennial Symposium in Toronto. The contents are published substantively as submitted. Our editorial efforts comprised formatting of more than 500 images and preparing each paper to a standard visual style of presentation.

We have endeavored to bring all papers into a consistent visual format, suitable for either screenviewing or hard-copy print-out. Since the symposium was …

Table Of Contents

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

TEXTILE NARRATIVES + CONVERSATIONS

Harbourfront Centre, Toronto, Ontario, October 11-14, 2006

Wade Davis, Keynote Address (bio only)

Mapping New Territories: Memory, Materiality and Process

Textile/Trade

Museums and Language

Culture and Context: Innovations in Education

Women and Cloth

Objects of Memory

Artistic Production

Cultural Transitions

Textile Narratives in Book Form

...

Cultural Evolutions in Central America

About The Authors

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

About the Authors

A-Z

Nettie Adams

Monisha Ahmed

...

Yoshiko Iwamoto Wada

Stephen Wagner

Weaving Social Change: Berea College Fireside Industries And Reform In Appalachia, Sarah Stopenhagen Broomfield

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

The Appalachian subculture of America is well known for its tradition of handcrafts, and Berea College, Berea, Kentucky, played a seminal role in promoting that tradition throughout its 150-year history. This study looks at the first five decades of Berea College’s renowned handweaving program, the beginning of what is known today as the Student Crafts program. It explores the connection between Berea alumnae and the settlement school movement that promoted social change in the Appalachian region, specifically the contribution of Berea College’s Appalachian Crafts Revival to reform in Appalachia.

The historical record is full of references to Berea College students …

Talking About Textiles: The Making Of The Textile Museum Thesaurus, Cecilia Gunzburger Anderson

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

The vocabulary for talking about textiles has always been rich and evocative, but at the same time quite varied based on many different factors, such as the specialties, nationalities, geographic foci, and professions of those involved in textile conversations. Textile artists and practitioners often use different terms than academic textile historians; researchers of European historical textiles use different terms than researchers of ethnographic textiles, who often introduce foreign terms into the discussion; and, even within the English language, North American textile specialists often use different terms than their British counterparts.

This bounty of terms can be exhilarating, but when it …

The Documentary Value Of Repairs To The Hwarot, The Korean Bridal Robe, Kisook Suh

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

The Hwarot is the most sumptuous bridal costume in Korea. Only noble ladies and members of the royal family wore this robe until the late Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). Later, commoners were allowed to wear the Hwarot and it is still worn in the contemporary wedding ceremony in Korea. Although the later Hwarot for commoners was plainer, it retained the same design and the structure of the early one.

The earlier Hwarot shows the excellence of gungsu (宮繡), the palace embroidery, of the royal workshop of the Joseon dynasty. Because of the delicate nature of the materials, not many of these …

Construction Of Social Relationships Through Clothes: Gender, Caste, And Inter-Religious Relationships In Kutch, India, Miwa Kanetani

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

This study examines the manner in which the odhani—a head cover cloth used by women in the Kutch District, Gujarat State, India—is worn, in order to explain how clothes create social relationships, like gender, caste, and inter religious relations.

One of the limitations of previous studies on Indian Muslims is that this community -- a minority -- was discussed separately from Hindu society, which has a different social system and structure. However, in reality, both communities share a common culture to a large extent, and regularly interact with each other. Their clothes provide a new perspective for understanding the …

Swept Under The Carpet: Subtle Tales From The Back Room, Michele Hardy

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

According to Ruth Phillips, we are poised to enter the second museum age. For many years now museums has been the object of serious criticism. First Nations have critiqued museums’ authority to represent and possess culturally significant objects. There has also been a shift away from object-based research—undermining the very foundation of museums. They have been forced to re-evaluate who they are, whom they are for, and what to do with all that stuff in the storerooms. Since the mid-1980’s there has been growing responsiveness to indigenous peoples concerns, efforts to share authority, and a re-envisioning of museums as places …

The Troyes Mémoires: A Translation Of A Script For A Late Medieval Choir Tapestry, Tina Kane

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

The subject of this essay is a late medieval French manuscript, comprising a set of written instructions for the iconographic program to be depicted in a set of a medieval choir tapestries. It is a rare piece of primary material that fills a gap in our understanding of how narrative programs for such tapestries were constructed. The manuscript is entitled: Mémoires provided to painters commissioned to design the cartoons for a tapestry, destined for the collegiate church of St. Urban of Troyes, representing the legends of St. Urban and of St. Cecilia.

These tapestries were to have hung over the …

Textile Narratives In Book Form, Robin E. Muller

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

I am a weaver and textile artist who has moved into working in the book form. As a teacher at an art college I have been looking for ways to explain this movement by myself and several other textiles artists, like the late Shereen Laplantz who wrote a book on book arts techniques after many decades of making plaited baskets. I have the pleasure of doing that today with three esteemed colleagues: Laura Strand, of Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville, Susan Warner Keene, Toronto, Bronfman award winner, formerly at Sheridan College, and Pam Scheinman, artist and historian Montclair State University, …

Suellen Glashausser: Books As Revelation, Pamela Scheinman

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Suellen Glahausser insisted she was a professional artist because she wasn’t suited for anything else. Just as she assigned herself a weekly day to see art in New York, packing a sandwich and apple so as not to waste precious time, Glashausser pushed her own work into new territory with each annual exhibit at Amos Eno Gallery, the cooperative she joined in 1976. Her titles were terse and descriptive: Mounds (1977), Stacks (1978), Fences (1979), Trestles (1980), Paper Shadows (1982), Columns/Wedges (1984), Gardens (1985), etc. They reflected her interest in structure, repetition and infinite variation. These concerns also appear in …

The Question Of Symmetry In Andean Textiles, Mary Frame

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Considering the various mathematical ideas we’ve been exploring briefly, how might these differ in textiles from ancient Peru?

In the ancient textiles that I study, Andean people seem to have made conscious use of the math embedded in textile processes for generating several kinds of graphic codes. You may have heard about a device called the khipu: it is a bunch of colored and knotted cords that looks like a string mop, but it is really an ancient record-keeping device. The knots stand for numbers in the base 10 system. Long knots were used for numbers from 2 to …