Art and Design Commons^™

The Influence Of Computer Technologies On Contemporary Woven Fiber Art, Cynthia Schira

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

It is generally agreed upon, by both the participants in the field and those few who have chronicled it, that the fiber art movement as we know it today began with Jean Lurcat in France in the late 1950s. He was among the first, if not the first, to make designs or cartoons specifically for the medium of tapestry. Previously, paintings were translated into the medium of tapestry. As well as creating the design or cartoon, he personally oversaw the actual weaving process. This direct connection between the process and the concept or image, the manual and the mind, laid …

Byzantine Influences Along The Silk Route: Central Asian Silks Transformed, Anna Maria Muthesius

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Silks traded along the ancient Silk Route were precious, light, and easily transportable commodities that served as ideal vehicles for cross-cultural exchange. The survival of several hundred Central Asian silks, variously datable between the seventh and the eleventh centuries, presents an opportunity to trace patterns of trade, diplomacy and cross-cultural developments at the heart of the Silk Road. These silks perfectly mirror contact, cross over, and change fostered under the auspices of Mediterranean/Near Eastern economic and diplomatic exchange.

This paper will ask three questions:

1. What lay behind Byzantine influence in Central Asia along the ancient Silk Route?

2. What …

Raphael’S Acts Of The Apostles Tapestries: The Birth Of The Tapestry Reproduction System, Marjorie Durko Puryear

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

As a younger fiber artist at the beginning of my teaching career, I rarely found European tapestries of the 16th through 18th centuries to be more than copies of paintings in a woven mask. The weaver's hand and spirit were only apparent in finite details which were resplendent with meticulous hatching, shading, and delicate slit work, unchanged from the Medieval past. But it was against my art school training to separate art concept from process. I wasn't ready to accept that the weavers were not the artists, and that tapestry was in fact an industry.

More recently, my point of …

The Assimilation Of European Designs Into Twentieth Century Indian Saris, Linda Lynton

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Although so-called "Indian" designs of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century chintzes influenced Western European [Western] textiles almost from their introduction, Western patterns did not impinge on indigenous Indian fabrics, such as saris, until the last half of the nineteenth century.

They were superimposed upon an already complex mix of textile ornamental styles, which can be briefly categorized as: (i) Mughal, (ii) Hindu, and (iii) adivasi (aboriginal). The Mughal style consists of the elaborately patterned prints and brocades typical of western India. It shows strong Persian influences, such as the kalga (Paisley motif); intertwining floral vines (bel); and life-like depictions of …

New Twist On Shibori: How An Old Tradition Survives In The New World When Japanese Wooden Poles Are Replaced By American Pvc Pipes, Yoshiko Iwamoto Wada

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

The subject of my talk is arashi shibori or pole wrap resist Although at times it is hard to recognize some arashi effects as such, technically arashi shibori is one of many forms of tie-dye. After thirty years of its exploration through art-to-wear, dyed and painted tapestries, three dimensional sculptures, and mixed media in the United States, various forms of tie-dye have now become part of the lexicon of American fabric design and fiberarts vocabulary.

On the one hand, there has been much effort by textile specialists to circumvent the term "tie-dye," due to its association with the Grateful Dead, …

From Bohemian To Bourgeois: American Batik In The Early Twentieth Century, Nicola J. Shilliam

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

In 1919 Pieter Mijer wrote in his influential book Batiks and How to Make Them, "Batik is still a comparatively recent importation; brought here some ten years ago, it was met with absolute incomprehension and lack of interest, but its real merit as a means of decorating fabrics has earned it a place in the industrial art of the nation and year by year it is gaining wider recognition."

This paper briefly considers the rise and fall in popularity of batik in America in the period Mijer indicated: how it changed from being a foreign import chiefly seen in …

Charmingly Quaint And Still Modern: The Paradox Of Colonial Revival Needlework In America, 1875–1940, Beverly Gordon

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Despite the self-conscious modernism of the early 20th century, American needlework was filled with images of flower baskets, cozy cottages, spinning wheels, and women in hoopskirts. It was dominated by seemingly old-fashioned and "quaint" techniques, such as cross stitch, patchwork, crewel, and rug hooking. In an era with teeming cities, radio, and cars pouring off the assembly line, needlework came to stand for a romanticized, seemingly simpler and nobler American past. And in an era when women were winning the vote and re-entering the professional work force, needleworkers, in turn, became identified with the domestic homebody of the past. In …

Paracas Cavernas, Paracas Necroplis, And Ocucaje: Looking At Appropriation And Identity With Only Material Remains, Ann Peters

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Paracas Cavernas, Paracas Necropolis, and Ocucaje are groups of burials made some 2000 years ago on the south coast of Peru. The Peruvian coast is a desert, and textiles, basketry, and other artifacts made from plant fiber and animal fiber and other organic materials are preserved there in ancient tombs. The Andes is known for funerary traditions that emphasize the dressing of the dead, with documented preservation of mummified ancestors or funerary bundles, and in some cases their participation as ancestors in kin group and community ritual.

. . .

It is clear that there are continuing relations of contact, …

(Re-)Fashioning Identity: Late Twentieth-Century Transformations In Dress And Society In Boliva, Elayne Zorn

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

The members of most of Bolivia's large indigenous ethnic groups, such as the nearly 22,000 people of ayllu Sakaka of northern Potosi, continue to wear a distinctive daily dress. Such dress nationally and internationally is emblematic of the Sakaka's separate, and to many inferior, identity as Indians. To the wearers also, or perhaps fundamentally, such dress marks a division between clothed indigenous humans (runa) and naked foreign outsiders (q'ara). This interpretation coincides with hegemonic non-Indian evaluations of Indian separateness, but reverses the hierarchy.

Yet most members of these large indigenous ethnic groups, whom I refer to …

Pictures On Stone: American Color Lithography, Daphne A. Deeds

Sheldon Museum of Art: Catalogs and Publications

Art is often defined as the mirror of society. Chromolithography fulfills that defmition because it was invented in response to the changing demographics of post -Civil War America. During the period 1860-1900 a variety of social changes transformed America from a small agrarian society to a giant industrial nation poised on the brink of joining the modem international world. Many aspects of American life were imbued with an egalitarian spirit. The new democracy was especially evident in the reformed educational system. For the first time in U.S. history, public schools were mandated for all U.S. children, and land-grant universities (including …

Ancient Near Eastern Fibers And The Reshaping Of European Clothing, Elizabeth J. W. Barber

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

In April of 1994, an amazing story hit the news-stands. A group of naturally mummified corpses dated to 2000 BC and later had been found in Chinese Turkestan. Not only were their Caucasian features and blondish hair well preserved by the dry heat of the xinjiang desert, but also their clothes--brightly colored plaids and twills among them (Hadingham 1994). We know from later linguistic records that a group of Indo-European speakers we call the Tocharians had made their way to Xinjiang and the Tarim Basin in early times. We also know that the Indo-Europeans began to spread across Eurasia from …

Frontmatter - Contact, Crossover, Continuity - 1994

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Frontmatter: cover, title page, and copyright page.

What’S In A Name: The Domestication Of Factory Produced Wax Textiles In Cote D’Ivoire, Kathleen E. Bickford

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

In a frequently evoked passage from Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare asks "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." Yet, as Romeo and Juliet tragically come to learn, human beings make much of names. Indeed, one's name is a significant part of one's social persona; it can describe who we are, it can join us and separate us from others, and it can link us to the past. In a sense, when we are named we are given an identity. Describing the complexities of naming for the Wamakua …

The Transformation Of Men Into Masquerades And Indian Madras Into Masquerade Cloth In Buguma, Nigeria, Elisha P. Renne, Joanne B. Eicher

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

The Kalahari Ijo people of the Niger Delta area of southeastern Nigeria use a group of dark indigo-blue cloths with white patterning to cover the faces of masquerade performers. Subsumed under the name of alubite (masquerade cloth) are at least three distinct types: (1) ukara cloth, an indigo-resist of imported muslin, stitched and dyed by Igbo craftsmen, (2) alubite cloth, a gauze-weave, also an indigo-resist, but of unknown provenance, and (3) pelete bite, an Indian madras from which threads are cut and pulled by Kalahari women to form a new pattern.

The first two types of cloth apparently come …

Continuity Of Culture: A Reenactor’S Goal, Elizabeth Mcclure

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

This paper examines the maintenance of cultural continuity through historical reenactment. It is the reenactor's goal, in this case, to portray and maintain the culture of Ireland and Scotland. They are holding on to this culture and presenting it to others by maintaining the dress, crafts, and lifestyles of sixteenth-century Scotland and Ireland.

The methods of data collection for this study were ethnographic in nature. Interviews with key informants were conducted. In addition, there was a questionnaire distributed to members of the group This method of data collection provided the insight to see how a member of this group achieved …

Supplementary Weft On An "Ikat" Isle: The Weaving Communities Of Northwestern Flores, Roy W. Hamilton

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Among textile enthusiasts, the island of Flores is known primarily for its beautiful warp-ikat cloths. Most of the island's numerous ethno-linguistic groups, including the Ngadha, Nage, Endenese, Lio, Palu'e, Sikkanese, and Lamaholot, produce related yet distinctive textiles within this tradition. It is therefore surprising to find a series of weaving districts, stretching along the northwest coast of the island, where the ikat technique is not used. Instead, weavers in this region produce indigo-dyed textiles decorated with colorful supplementary-weft motifs.

In the ikat districts, sarongs for men and women differ in their patterning and in the names applied to them. In …

The Pomegranate Pattern In Italian Renaissance Textiles: Origins And Influence, Rosalia Bonito Fanelli

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

The term "pomegranate motif" includes a series of vegetal patterns—the pine cone, the artichoke, the thistle, variants of the tree-of-life motif, and, in particular, the lotus and the palmette. These last two patterns were closely studied by Alois Riegl in his 1893 work Stilfragen (Problems of Style). The term itself came into use during the period of historic revivalism in the latter half of the nineteenth century. At that time important design theorists and practitioners such as Owen Jones, William Morris, and Walter Crane dedicated space in their writings with accompanying plates to the reconstruction of Renaissance pomegranate patterns. The …

Cloth As Marriage Gifts: Change In Exchange Among The Lio Of Flores, Willemijn De Jong

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

The exchange of gifts at life cycle ceremonies is one of the most important institutions in Lio society, as in many other societies in Oceania. The life cycle event of marriage and its exchange of gifts is often significant, because important sociopolitical alliances between kin groups are initiated or renewed. In these exchanges, cloth wealth may play a crucial role, especially in ranked societies. Weiner contends that in Samoa "each distribution [of fine mats] is an example of the negotiation and validation of rank and power." Gittinger has pointed out the economic and symbolic value of cloth gifts at marriage …

Ottoman Silks And Their Legacy, Diane Mott

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

During the late Middle Ages and the early Renaissance, luxury silks of Asia that had for centuries trickled into Europe began to enter in large numbers, fueling an appetite for the rich and exotic that was to have a lasting effect on Western textile design. In turn, expanded trade with the Levant carried Western designs and advances in weaving eastward. The Ottoman Empire, standing at the thresholds of Europe and Asia, was perfectly poised to transmit these East-West currents. Weavers in manufactories in the successive Ottoman capitals of Bursa and Istanbul, the western outposts of the Asiatic silk routes, absorbed …

Paj Ntaub: Textile Techniques Of The Hmong, Joyce Smith

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Narration of the video:

Who Are the Hmong?

What Is Paj Ntaub?

Why Providence?

Zoua V. Lor

Seng Yang Vang

Lee Khang

Chia Vue Moua

What Next?

Ancient Andean Headgear: Medium And Measure Of Cultural Identity, Niki R. Clark, Amy Oakland Rodman

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

From the earliest recorded periods of southern Andean history, distinctive clothing styles have served to identity specific socio-cultural groups and provide clues about cultural origins. Unique environmental conditions, especially present along the arid Pacific coast of South America, have allowed the preservation of a vast archive of usually perishable material. From the far south coast of Peru to the northern desert regions of Chile, textiles, and especially headgear forms were worn to distinguish between the diverse populations who established permanent settlements along the narrow river valleys linking highland regions and the coast.

The south central Andes region has always known …

Ethnic Artists And The Appropriation Of Fashion: Embroidery And Identity In The Colca Valley, Peru, Blenda Femenías

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

"When I'm in Arequipa and I see a lady in embroidered clothes, I always greet her; she's from my land, she's my compatriot. . . . [When I teach embroidery] no matter how much one teaches, the motifs don't come out the same. If there are twenty embroiderers, twenty different motifs come out although they have the same name. It's like, even if you're my brother, we're not the same."

These comments by embroidery artist Leonardo Mejfa neatly express the character of Colca Valley ethnic clothes: simultaneously shared and individual. Similar appearance is important in recognizing a compatriot, but an …

Contact, Crossover, Continuity: Proceedings Of The Fourth Biennial Symposium Of The Textile Society Of America (1994) [Entire]

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Preface 7

Contact, Crossover, Continuity: Fiber and Garment

Featured Paper: Ancient Near Eastern Fibers and the Reshaping of European Clothing Elizabeth J. W. Barber 9

Wreath and Cap to Veil and Apron: American Modification of a Slavic Ritual Patricia Williams 19

Panel: Textile Transformations and Cultural Continuities in West Africa

Akwete-Igbo Weavers as Entrepreneurs and Innovators at the Turn of the Century Lisa Aronson 31

What’s in a Name: The Domestication of Factory Produced Wax Textiles in Cote d’Ivoire Kathleen E. Bickford 39

Technology and Change: The Incorporation of Synthetic Dye Techniques in Abeokuta, Southwestern Nigeria Judith Byfield 45

The …