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Textile Society Of America Newsletter 14:1 – Winter 2002, Textile Society Of America

Textile Society of America: Newsletters

TSA Symposium
Collections News
From the Listserve
Letter from the President
Textile Art and Design at Southern Illinois University
New Education Programs
Member News, Letter from the President
TSA News: Shep Award Winner
Calls for Papers, Conferences & Symposia
Conference Reviews, Exhibit Reviews
Exhibitions Calendar
Lectures/Workshops
Tours/Courses, Publications
Shep Award Call for Nominations

Torn Notebook: The Creative Process, Daniel Siedell

Sheldon Museum of Art: Catalogs and Publications

Torn Notebook: The Creative Process features twenty artworks related to Torn Notebook, a large-scale public sculpture made by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje can Bruggen in 1996 and installed in downtown Lincoln, Nebraska. This exhibition focuses on one of their more recent public sculptures and celebrates the creative process that characterizes all serious artistic endeavors.

From The Village House To The Urban Markets: The Evolution Of Silk Production In Laos, Linda S. Mclntosh

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

This paper examines the development of silk textile production in Laos (Lao People's Democratic Republic). Silk textiles have important socio-cultural roles in Lao society, as markers of identity and wealth in contemporary Lao society as they had in the past. The various Tai ethnic groups, including the Lao, who have been the political majority of Laos since the 14th century CE, are the producers of silk textiles in Laos. Women are historically the producers of textiles for domestic consumption and exchange at the village level and beyond. Silk textiles signify special occasions such as weddings, religious events, and funerals and …

Marketplace Handwork Of India: Impacts On Artisan Capabilities, Mary A. Littrell, Marsha A. Dickson

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

At the 1998 TSA Symposium in New York City, we presented a paper that documented the work of three textile artisan enterprises. All embraced a fair trade approach to their work. Known as Alternative Trade Organizations (ATOs), these enterprises are deeply committed to a mission of sustainable, people-centered development (Littrell and Dickson 1997). More specifically, this fair trade partnership between textile artisans and retailers involves joint commitment to:

• paying fair wages within a local context,

• providing healthy and safe working conditions,

• sustaining the environment,

• promoting capacity building through business and technical training, and

• honoring cultural …

Knitted Silk And Silver: Those Mysterious Jackets, Deborah Pulliam

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

This is a preliminary consideration of the late sixteenth/early seventeenth century gilt and silk knitted jackets, based on close examination of seventeen examples held in various collections in North America and Europe. Little is known about them, so that mostly speculation has been published as fact. They have been identified as jackets for men, created on knitting frames and on knitting machines, and in the past, were almost always identified as of Italian origin or manufacture.

My argument, having closely examined seventeen, is that

• they were in fact handknitted: the technology simply did not exist in the early seventeenth …

The Invention Of Machine Twist The Nonotuck Silk Company, From Moths To Millions, Marjorie Senechal

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Introduction. Cocoons and raw silk; thrown silk and dyed silk; spun silk yarns and fabrics; plain woven silks; lutestrings, sarsenets, satins, serges, foulards, tissues for hat and millinery purposes; figured silk piece goods, woven or printed, upholstery silks; crapes, velvets, gauzes; cravats, handkerchiefs, hosiery, knit goods, laces, scarves, ties, veils, all descriptions of cut and made-up silks; ribbons, plan fancy, and velvet; bindings, braids, cords, galloons, ladies' dress trimmings, upholsters', tailors', military and miscellaneous; machines for the manufacture of silk goods: the American silk industry's proud display "had the post of honor at the east end of the Main …

Entrepreneurship And Control In Eighteenth Century Silk Manufacture: The Case Of Philippe Lasalle, Lyonnais Silk Designer Extraordinaire, Lesley Ellis Miller

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

As early as 1787, the abbe Bertolon lauded the achievements of the Lyonnais designer and manufacturer Philippe de Lasalle (1723-1804). In the course of this now oft-cited eulogy, Bertolon called Lasalle variously designer, manufacturer, and businessman, three terms that Lasalle himself was happy to adopt from the late 1740s onwards. In the 1770s. Lasalle added to these social descriptors, those of inventor and Chevalier de I 'Ordre de Saint Michel, having been rewarded for his improvements to the drawloom, one of a long list of services and inventions for which he sought State subsidies from the late 1750s. While …

Managing Mapula: Defining Markets For An Embroidery Project In Post-Apartheid South Africa, Brenda Schmahmann

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

My aim in this paper is to explore the kinds of strategies used to market a contemporary needlework project in South Africa - one entitled "Mapula" (which means "mother of rain"). Members of Mapula embroider cushion covers and, more occasionally, tablemats. But the art form that has been especially successful and provided members of the project with the widest scope for innovation is embroidered cloths - works that were first made in 1996.

The Formation of Mapula

While currently operating in a post-apartheid South Africa, Mapula was in fact formed in 1991, three years prior to the first democratic …

Threads Of Resistance: Unraveling The Meanings Of!9ih Century Tlingit Beaded Regalia, Megan A. Smetzer

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Although not the first to make the connection, Ensign Albert Niblack of the U.S. Navy wrote most succinctly in 1888: "There seems nothing unreasonable in tracing the origin of much of the dance and ceremonial paraphernalia to customs originating in war." Since that time, numerous scholars have suggested and disputed links between Tlingit carved and painted armor and ceremonial regalia. Beaded regalia, on the other hand has been almost entirely neglected in Northwest Coast ethnographic literature due to notions of authenticity and cultural degeneration. In 1945, anthropologist Erna Gunther for example, explained beaded dance collars as a mere disguise for …

Expressions In Silk: Embroidered Miniatures On Historic Textiles From The Armenian Apostolic Churches Of Istanbul, Marlene Breu, Ronald T. Marchese

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

"The perfection of execution, the rendering of figures, garments and faces is as magnificent as the best embroidery work of any period and any nation." (Kouymjian 1992, 59)

Introduction

The assessment of Armenian embroidery offered by Kouymjian in his publication The Arts of Armenia is reflected in a collection of textile objects housed in the treasuries of the 33 Armenian Apostolic Churches and the Patriarchate (the official residence of the Patriarch) in Istanbul, Turkey. The textiles, many donated by devout members of the Church community, are still used in celebrations of the Divine Liturgy. The collections contain examples of the …

Peacock Alley: Highway 41 And The Growth Of The Chenille Bedspread Industry, Ashley Callahan

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

In the fall of 1935, a newspaper editor traveled from Oklahoma City to Atlanta to attend a baseball game, and along the way encountered a stretch of road near Dalton, Georgia known as Bedspread Boulevard. He recorded his experiences in his daily column: “Twisting through northern Georgia late Saturday afternoon, dodging cotton wagons and trying to get an eyeful of the gorgeous tints that glorified the turning trees in the mountains, I thought I saw a washing strung on a line by the roadside. Soon another flashed past. Then they followed in regular succession. . . . Is it possible …

Re-Inventing Cultural Heritage: Palestinian Traditional Costume And Embroidery Since 1948, Jeni Allenby

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Prior to 1948, when the State of Israel was declared, Arab society in Palestine consisted of three main groups - the townspeople, a small percentage of nomadic or semi-nomadic bedouin tribes, and the villagers or "people of the land" who made up three quarters of the population. Over eight hundred villages were scattered from the coastal plains to the Jordan River. While costume in the urban regions historically reflected the current occupiers of the country (for example, Turkish styles during the Ottoman period, and European fashions under the British Mandate) Palestine's many villages were economically and socially independent, and difficulties …

The Associated American Artists: Textile Art For The Masses, Karen Herbaugh

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

The American Textile History Museum acquired its first Associated American Artists fabric in 1996. From a curatorial viewpoint the fabric was intriguing because although it’s rare that useful information is printed in the selvage, this fabric was labeled “A SIGNATURE FABRIC "GAY FACADE" © CREATED BY JOHN HULL OF ASSOCIATED AMERICAN ARTISTS.” As the Museum expanded its collection of AAA fabrics it was discovered that most of these fabrics also have the date printed on them. The selvage inscriptions and the nature of the designs and fabric names prompted further exploration of the organization.

Organizational History

In 1934 the Associated …

Marketplace Handwork Of India: Impacts On Artisan Capabilities, Mary A. Littrell, Marsha A. Dickson

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

At the 1998 TSA Symposium in New York City, we presented a paper that documented the work of three textile artisan enterprises. All embraced a fair trade approach to their work. Known as Alternative Trade Organizations (ATOs), these enterprises are deeply committed to a mission of sustainable, people-centered development (Littrell and Dickson 1997). More specifically, this fair trade partnership between textile artisans and retailers involves joint commitment to:

• paying fair wages within a local context,

• providing healthy and safe working conditions,

• sustaining the environment,

• promoting capacity building through business and technical training, and

• honoring cultural …

Entrepreneurship And Control In Eighteenth Century Silk Manufacture: The Case Of Philippe Lasalle, Lyonnais Silk Designer Extraordinaire, Lesley Ellis Miller

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

As early as 1787, the abbé Bertolon lauded the achievements of the Lyonnais designer and manufacturer Philippe de Lasalle (1723-1804). In the course of this now oft-cited eulogy, Bertolon called Lasalle variously designer, manufacturer, and businessman, three terms that Lasalle himself was happy to adopt from the late 1740s onwards. In the 1770s, Lasalle added to these social descriptors, those of inventor and Chevalier de l’Ordre de Saint Michel, having been rewarded for his improvements to the drawloom, one of a long list of services and inventions for which he sought State subsidies from the late 1750s. While Lasalle’s prominence …

A Tradition Of Weft-Oriented Silk Weaving In Japan: Samit And “Post-Samit” From Japanese Temple And Shrine Collections In American Museums, Yuko Fukatsu

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

During the twentieth century, American museums acquired rare ancient and medieval textiles derived from Japanese temple collections. Among them, several types of weft-oriented polychrome silks from the eighth to fourteenth centuries can be identified.

Polychrome silks brought to Japan through the Silk Road had been treasured among the Japanese aristocracy, and mainly preserved in Hōryuji temple, and the Shōsoin of Tōdaiji temple. They contained a specific group of early weft-oriented silk textiles called ‘samit,’ a type of weft-compound weave that was dominant in China as well as in the Byzantine world. The weaving technique was introduced to Japan from China …

The Silk Road Textiles At Birka: An Examination Of The Tabletwoven Bands, Cathy Ostrom Peters

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

On the Swedish Island of Björkö, that today lies in Lake Mälaren, is the Viking Age (eighth-tenth century) town of Birka. Between 1871 and 1895 Hjalmar Stolpe excavated approximately 1100 graves in the vast grave-fields lying outside the walls of this town. Stolpe's excavations provided not only one of the richest quarries for the archaeological interpretation of the Viking Age but revealed the diversity of the approximately 600-900 inhabitants who lived in this international trading town. Among these approximately 1100 graves, were a group of male graves that contained a various array of splendid silk textiles, embroideries and trimmings in …

Contemporary Embroideries Of Rabaris Of Kutch: Economic And Cultural Viability, Judy Frater

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Monghiben Rabari is attending an exhibition and sale in Mumbai. Her traditional embroidery has taken her from Vandh, her village of mud huts and camels on the seacoast of Kutch to India’s most cosmopolitan urban metropolis. She is thrilled by the glittering bustle, and by the customers’ enthusiastic response. She deals directly with them, as a professional artisan. And not only do the customers buy; one woman is so impressed that she wants to learn embroidery. She engages Monghi as a teacher during the afternoon lulls of the exhibition.

Surely, we have succeeded in the transition from tradition to profession. …

The Hand Of The Maker: The Importance Of Understanding Textiles From The “Inside Out”, Beverly Gordon

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

This is a position paper of sorts, arguing that the experience of making a textile is an important component of understanding it, and we should be encouraging textile researchers to include hands-on experiments as part of their investigation. Some TSA members will take this idea for granted because they have first-hand experience with textile making, and may find it overly obvious. The point is hardly new, and archeologist Elizabeth Barber made a strong case for the value of textile “reconstruction” in her 1994 book, Women’s Work: The First 20,000 Years. Nevertheless, this is not a universally shared assumption, and …

American Silk From A Marketing Magician: H.R. Mallinson & Co., Madelyn Shaw

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Hiram Royal Mallinson, an ambitious and talented son of mid-nineteenth-century immigrants from Poland, entered the silk trade in 1893 as a salesman for the company of Pelgram & Meyer in Paterson, New Jersey. Just two years later Mallinson joined a new firm, Newwitter & Migel, headquartered in New York City, as head of sales. In 1900, Migel and Mallinson bought out Newwitter and renamed the firm M.C. Migel & Co.

Migel and Mallinson consciously targeted the novelty market and the high-end or “class” customer generally conceded to European concerns at the time. The company was regarded as progressive, its output …

Why Embroidery? An Answer From The Ancient Andes, Anne Paul

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

In her meticulous classification of fabric structures, Irene Emery wrote that needlework "is basically one of the simplest crafts, a homely activity that can be practiced by almost anyone on almost any material. But, with fine and carefully chosen materials plus a high degree of skill and imagination in handling them, needlework can be raised almost to the rank of a fine art" (1966:246). I suspect that Emery would not object to my deletion of the word "almost" when discussing the examples of fine art embroidered by certain pre-Conquest Andeans.

Within the ancient Andean world, needlework is not exclusively identified …

A Simple Ikat Sash From Southern Okinawa: Symbol Of Island Identity, Amanda Mayer Stinchecum

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

INTRODUCTION

When I began this project in 1999, I set out to explore a large theme: the relation between ikat textiles and ritual in Yaeyama, the southernmost island-group of Okinawa prefecture. I hoped to trace direct links to Southeast Asia, imagined by many Japanese and Okinawan scholars as the source of Ryukyuan ikat. I set out to pursue the histories of two ikat textiles—a sash and a headscarf--used on Taketomi, linked, in legend, to ceremonial or ritual contexts, and intended to include ikat garments worn by women on ceremonial occasions. As my study unfolded, the persistence of the legend associated …

On Women’S Work In Silk Reeling: Gender, Labor, And Technology In The Historical Silk Industries Of Connecticut And South China, Janice E. Stockard

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Introduction.

This paper is part of a larger project that focuses on the historical sericultural industry of Connecticut, based in the town of Mansfield during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In this paper, I focus on one specific role in the production of raw silk: silk reeling. In the heyday of its sericultural industry, Mansfield was situated in Windham County, Connecticut. The particular perspective that I bring to this study of silk reeling is one shaped by my experience as an anthropologist who has conducted research on another sericultural area: Shunde County near Guangzhou (Canton) in South China. In …

From Court To Convent: A Silk Embroidered Sampler From Colonial Mexico, Bobbie Sumberg

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Silk appears frequently in many Mexican textiles and garments such as rebozos, skirts, and huipils or blouses. In this paper I discuss a different tradition, that of sampler embroidery in the urban style.

Yrene Escandon was reported to be a lady in waiting for Empress Carlotta, who reigned in Mexico with her husband Emperor Maximilien from 1863-1867. During this time and before entering a convent after her service she and some friends embroidered a sampler replete with floral, religious, animal, and bird motifs. Using this remarkable piece in the collection of the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe …

Historical Buddhist Kesa Robes As Inspiration For Contemporary Fiber Art, Betsy Sterling Benjamin

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

The Japanese kesa or kasaya in Sanskrit, originated in India in 4th century BC as a robe for the devotees of Buddha Sakyamuni. Created in the brick-like pattern of the Asian rice-field, the original kasaya were constructed of discarded fabric that was cleansed, (redyed and stitched together with prayers as a devotional act. When Buddhism came to ( Japan in the 6th century AD the kesa followed, a treasured manifestation of the Buddhist dharma. One of the earliest extant Japanese kesa, composed of seven layers of silk, in nine vibrant colors, bound together with tiny stitches belonged to Emperor …

Introduction To Chachapoyas Textile Catalogue., Lena Bjerregaard

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

This work contains the thorough analysis of forty-one of the best-preserved textiles from the mummy find at Laguna de los Condores (1997). The textiles are now all in the Leymebamba Museum, either in storage or on exhibition. The textiles were partly found loose in the chullpas, partly as part of a mummy - either as inner or outer wrapping or for instance tucked under the chin of the deceased to keep the head in place.

Conditions:

All the textiles analyzed were in surprisingly good condition - after about 500 years in the rainforest all "normal" organic material would have …

"Dichotomies In Silk: Shrinking And Stretching", Genevieve Dion

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Shibori processes can be used to generate highly-textured surface designs for the production of pure silk garments that permanently retain their form and elasticity. Fabric is first shaped using a variety of traditional stitch-resist shibori techniques on greige goods (untreated fabric) of Japanese Guntna silk, a special fabric with highly over-spun silk filaments. Next, fabric is scoured, causing it to shrink — an effect of the high-twist yarns. In unprotected areas, the textile is permanently pleated, whereas the remaining stitch-resisted and protected areas of the fabric become permanently textured. Texture can further be enhanced 0through shibori dyeing.

A major consideration …

The Women Of Palmyra—Textile Workshops And The Influence Of The Silk Trade In Roman Syria, Cynthia Finlayson

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

By the second century A.D., the oasis empire of Tadmor, Syria (Roman Palmyra) had eclipsed Nabataean Petra to the south in Jordan as the premier trading conduit for the exotic goods of Asia, India, and China as they found their way by caravan and ship to the hungry markets of the West and Rome. Palmyra functioned as the only viable source of water, salt, and pasture for all large trading expeditions as they ventured across the Northern Syrian Desert to the Mediterranean ports of Antioch, Tyre, Sidon, and Aleppo. Sensuous silk was among the most prized of the exotic goods …

A Tradition Of Weft-Oriented Silk Weaving In Japan: Samit And "Post-Samit" From Japanese Temple And Shrine Collections In American Museums, Yuko Fukatsu

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

During the twentieth century, American museums acquired rare ancient and medieval textiles derived from Japanese temple collections. Among them, several types of weft-oriented polychrome silks from the eighth to fourteenth centuries can be identified.

Polychrome silks brought to Japan through the Silk Road had been treasured among the Japanese aristocracy, and mainly preserved in Horyuji temple, and the Shosoin of Todaiji temple. They contained a specific group of early weft-oriented silk textiles called 'samit,' a type of weft-compound weave that was dominant in China as well as in the Byzantine world. The weaving technique was introduced to Japan from China …

"Dichotomies In Silk: Crisp And Soft", Ana Lisa Hedstrom

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Shibori, a compression resist dyeing technique, has increasingly become part of our textile vocabulary and for over 25 years, I have explored these techniques in my own production of fabrics for clothing and interior wall pieces. The opportunity to work with silk greige goods (untreated fabric) and the possibilities with shibori - together, this combination expands the shibori vocabulary with exciting possibilities for the studio artist and designer.

In my application, I use arashi shibori, itajime clamp resist, and nui-shibori stitch resist on the raw yardage. The cloth is simmered in a solution of 10% (of dry weight of …