Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Representation And Self-Presentation In Late Antique Egypt: ‘Coptic’ Textiles In The British Museum, Elisabeth R. O'Connell

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Modern Akhmim was a productive source of “Coptic” textiles entering international collections in the late nineteenth century. Fragments said to have come from the site constitute the majority of registered textiles held by the Ancient Egypt and Sudan Department, The British Museum.  In Late Antiquity, Akhmim was the location of Panopolis/Shmin, one of about forty metropoleis and a city relatively well documented in contemporary textual and other archaeological sources.  This is precisely the period in which most of Egypt’s residents became Christian.  The abundance of material culture representing Panopolis/Shmin provides an opportunity to explore and challenge the categories scholars have …

“I’Ve Got A Feeling We’Re Not In Kansas, Anymore:” Cross-Cultural Design In Peruvian Connection’S Textiles, Margarete Ordon

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Peruvian Connection, a high-end clothing company, has built its reputation on selling clothes made from finely crafted textiles using luxury fibers.  Self-consciously marketing itself as a celebration of cross-cultural exchange, the company appropriates designs from Andean textiles and fuses them with elements from Western fashion and other global textile practices.  Through transnational and transcultural design, production, and distribution, the company simultaneously stresses distance and connection, difference and sameness, in a constant tug of war over the designs, skills, labor, materials, and products.  In exploring Peruvian Connection’s cultivation of its cross-cultural textiles, I analyze how the company promotes the design, production, …

Ethnicity Mobility And Status – Textiles From The Taklamakan Desert, Helen Persson

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Central Asia was a rich cultural melting pot in the first millennium.  Textiles provide a unique opportunity to discover more about its diverse population, different faiths and extensive trade networks.  In the early 20th century, Sir Aurel Stein travelled along the Eastern Silk Road, now within the boundaries of the Peoples’ Republic of China, collecting a wealth of materials from various remote sites.

The Victoria & Albert Museum is the custodian of nearly 600 textile fragments from Stein’s unique collection and this paper will discuss the variety of materials and techniques held by the Asian Department.  This paper will offer …

Eats, Shoots, And Weaves, Lisa Lee Peterson

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

“I assume you’re Buddhist?” My face twisted in bewilderment. I didn’t immediately know how to answer this question.

It was Good Friday 1982, the day I first met my in-laws-to-be. My future brother-in-law and his wife had driven to the family farm in northern Indiana, ostensibly to observe the spring ritual with family, but really to observe me. My soon-to-be father-in-law raised his wine glass in a toast “to all of us who celebrate this Easter season.” He then turned to me and dropped his bombshell, “I assume you’re Buddhist?”

Woven To Shape: A Pre-Columbian Trapezoidal Tunic From The South Central Andes In The Metropolitan Museum Of Art, Elena Phipps

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Garments used throughout the Southern Andean region from the early Pre-Columbian era to at least the time of the Spanish arrival in the sixteenth century, traditionally were constructed of single or multiple webs of rectangular four-selvaged cloth sometimes folded and seamed, but never cut to shape.  As a result, the drape and style of most garments retained the rigid outlines of their originally constructed rectangular format.   Sometime during the Late Intermediate Period, along the far south coast of Peru and northern Chile, a different garment style developed. It featured a wide, curving shoulder, tapered sides, and bulging lower edges, and …

Embellishments Of The Alaska Native Gut Parka, Fran Reed

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Dealing with various weather conditions is a serious matter in Alaska.  Coastal Native Alaskans have been surviving in severe environments for millennia.  Between the heat of the summer and the freezing cold of the winter is that transitional season when it rains.  Raincoats were fashioned out of bird skins and fish skins but it is the gut skin parka that became the universally adopted garment along the coast of Alaska.  Differing preparation, stitching and styling methods distinguish the many coastal villages and are expressed in embellishments and details that define the region, the culture and the function of these beautiful …

People, Place, Spirit, Denise Ava Robinson

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

People, Land, Spirit is about the deep engagement I have for my homeland, Tasmania. It is about the relationship between people, place and spirit.

Indigenous people live in harmony with the land – their very existence in accordance with rhythms of nature.  Many cultures have over time been tattered, scattered or shattered through colonisation, the Tasmanian aboriginal culture being one of them.

Tattered cultures arouse the desire for the retracing of histories, cultural practices and traditions, many of which form the basis of contemporary practices today.  These processes bring deeper understanding and awareness: new cultural practices emerge, and the cycles …

Identification Of Red Dyes In Textiles From The Andean Region, Ana Roquero

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Identification of dyes and pigments is presently very precise by means of different systems of chromatographic analysis. Nevertheless, as the same dye components can be found in different plants and animals, it is important when studying dyes in textiles to consider the geographical and cultural context of both the textile and the possible dyestuffs used historically in the area. The presentation shall focus on a single colour: red. Various shades of red are profusely used in textiles from South America. Many of these are obtained mainly from cochineal. However, when analysing the colouring substances of an Andean textile, it is …

Spinning Pattern, Ann Pollard Rowe

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

The Textile Museum was recently given a Salasaca woman’s reobozo, collected in 1966, with an unusual design effect created during the spinning of the weft yarn.  In normal Salasaca women’s wraps, the fabric is dyed wool with a few white cotton stripes along the sides and ends and across the center.  Generally the cloth is woven in an undyed state, and then dyed.  The wool yarns take the dye and the cotton yarns do not, and remain white.  This shawl has these typical white cotton stripes but also an area near one end where the white is not continuous across …

Field Of Flowers: Mughal Carpets And Treasures, Michael Schuster

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Michael Schuster, PhD will be discussing the exhibition Field of Flowers: Mughal Carpets and Treasures. The exhibiton focuses on a rare pair oflarge carpets on from the collection at Shangri La..  Each carpet has anarched interior with pointed ends.  When paired, the carpets form a bold field of flowers with an interior void wherein a person, most likely a royal personage, could have sat in splendor. In mid-17th century Mughal India, the taste for naturalistic floral sprays reached an apogee of artistic expression.  The aesthetic style seen in the carpets and other art forms of the period dominated the arts …

Textiles Recorded: Fashion Reconstructed Through Aztec Codices, Jennifer E. Siegler

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Textiles from central Mexico at the time of the Aztec empire are generally ascribed great significance due to the historical documentation of textile tribute offerings and sumptuary laws in which textiles identified social status; however, further research is warranted on the artistry of these textiles.  While the climate of central Mexico is not conducive to preserving fiber materials, the rich manuscripts of this region preserve many images of textiles created during the Aztec empire.  Early colonial manuscripts, many of which are copies of pre-conquest manuscripts no longer extant, preserve images of textiles from the pre-conquest period. These manuscripts provide invaluable …

A New Start: Re-Thinking The Display And Interpretation Of African Textiles At The Detroit Institute Of Arts, Howard Sutcliffe

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

In November 2007 the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) will open its doors to the public after several years of renovation and rebuilding.  In a radical departure from the traditional chronological and geographical approach to art history the new DIA will provide its visitors with an innovative experience that focuses as much on the stories and connections behind the art as the art itself.  Textiles from the DIA’s encyclopedic collection will play a large and integral role in this new vision, from European tapestry to Native American beadwork textiles will feature prominently in almost every new gallery.

This paper will …

Documentary Film Presentation Local Colors: Natural Dyeing In A Milas Carpet Weaving Village, Ulara Tamura, John Wells

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

This documentary examines the process of naturally dyed carpet production in a village in the Milas region of southwest Turkey.  In large numbers of villages of this region, carpet weaving is the household based work of every woman who lives there. The carpets made by these women will be used in their own homes, or play a role as a symbol of wealth within some spheres of the local economy as in the case of dowry or donations to a mosque, or they will be sold as a commodity outside of the village for cash.

In the modern era, the …

Sea Snail Purple In Contemporary Japanese Embroidery, Takako Terada

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Shellfish purple, known also as ‘murex’, is a dye obtained from molluscs and it has long been associated primarily with Central American textiles. It is also a very ancient dye in Japan but it is less well known. The earliest evidence is from the Yoshinogari site which dates to circa 100 BCE, where a shell bracelet shows traces of shellfish purple pigment. This archaeological find is particularly important because in all of East Asia there has been little other evidence of ancient shellfish purple dye.

Several years ago I was asked to investigate the dye. My project was to research …

Tunics From The Azapa Valley, Late Formative Period. A New Weaving Tradition In The Lower Valleys, Liliana Ulloa

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Three tunics from the Azapa Valley, in northern Chile, dating to the Late Formative Period (330 A.D.)  are presented showing the first complex ways of weaving from this area.  They are woven as warp faced and the pattern design is made changing colors through discontinuous warps and mixing with weft faced weaving at the bottom of the tunics.   One of them has coarse embroidered selvedges, which probably were created as reinforcement for the sides and as decorative features for the textile. The tunics originally formed part of mummy bundles that were excavated in small mounds or funerary túmulos  between several …

The Cloud Brocade And Yangzhou, Ying Wang

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

The kind of silk textile famously known as cloud brocade, from Nanjing, developed during the Yuan dynasty of China (13th -14th century).  Its production reached its peak during the Ming and middle Qing Dynasties (15th -18th century), and was monopolized by the royal court. The incredibly rich textures and fantastic designs fascinate people even today.

Throughout the 18th century, the successive officers in charge of cloud brocade production (members of the Cao family) were also responsible for the salt trade of Yangzhou. The salt trade was the most important industry controlled by royalty, providing almost 50% of the court’s annual …

“Revisiting The Ocucaje Opened Tunic From The Textile Museum; Washington, D.C.: Textile Models And The Process Of Imitation”, Sophie Desrosiers

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

The opened tunic from the Textile Museum in Washington D. C. (fig. 1) is a beautiful object the colors and design of which are well known since a part of it was used 22 years ago on the cover of The Junius B. Bird Conference On Andean Textiles. The tunic has no archaeological context, but its characteristics place it among Early Horizon Epoch 9 woven fabrics from Ocucaje.

Mary Elizabeth King has described the piece in her doctoral thesis. It is made of four widths: two main panels in balanced plain-weave with discontinuous warp-and-weft, and two borders in triple …

Supplementary Warp Patterned Textiles Of The Cham In Vietnam, Michael C. Howard

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

The Cham People

The Malayo-Polynesian speaking peoples of Vietnam and Cambodia speak languages belonging to the Malayic group of Sundic languages. Sundic speaking peoples lived on the island of Borneo prior to their spreading to adjacent regions. From Borneo they sailed north to Vietnam, west to peninsular Malaysia and Sumatra, and south to Java and Bali. While Sundic speaking groups appear to have migrated to parts of Indonesia as early as 1500 BC, they do not seem to have arrived along the coast of Vietnam until some time around 600 BC. It is during the period 600 BC to 300 …

Omoshirogara Textile Design And Children’S Clothing In Japan 1910-1930, Jacqueline M. Atkins

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

The early twentieth century in Japan was both a culturally and technologically expansive period. The Taishō era (1912-1926) spurred a new sense of freedom and experimentation in many parts of Japanese culture. Fashion was not immune to the invigorating atmosphere that prevailed, and, although Western fabrics and dress were popular, especially in among the affluent in urban areas, innovations in fabric production in Japan itself also brought new and appealing products to the marketplace. Some of these textiles, several of which had been developed earlier in the century and begun to be mass-produced by 1912, were especially well-suited to traditional …

The Colour Of Women’S Culture: Natural Dyeing As Self-Expression In America, Japan, Norway And Australia, Karen Diadick Casselman

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Natural dyes are currently undergoing a revival in craft and academic circles. The resurgence of attention is due to several factors. One is the popularity of natural dyes among European textile historians, dye chemists, and archaeologists, all of whom rely on natural dyes as an academic and educational tool. Scholars worldwide have developed a rigorous cultural context for natural dyes that embraces disparate fields such as clothing and textiles, religion and philosophy, nineteenth-century medicine, and as curious as it may seem, eighth-century Irish law. Other prominent themes in natural dyeing today are contemporary aspects of gender, ecology, and ethics. Art …

Mending As Metaphor: Contemporary Fiber And Cultural Change, Mary Babcock

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

I grew up predominantly in a context of privilege and protection, with a goodly smattering of denial and despair. I remember as a child sitting in my mother’s sewing room watching her mend socks wondering why – like the other kids—I couldn’t just get new socks instead. It wasn’t until later, far past the time those stitches became the soul-saving sutures of the permanent vest my mother stitched across my beloved stuffed rabbit’s chest, that I realized those mending stitches reflected an act of care – of preserving and mending relationship.

Like many, I live in a world of contradiction, …

People, Place, Spirit, Denise Ava Robinson

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

My name is Denise Ava Robinson. I am Tasmanian, often referred to as a Tasmanian Aboriginal Artist. Others question or ‘challenge’ me on being Aboriginal. Almost daily I raise this question myself. I have no simple answer. In the words of Henry Reynolds “There is no easy, nor a collective answer to the question of Aboriginality…. such identification should not be undertaken lightly”1 In Barry Lopez’s Arctic Dreams he refers to a quote by Peter Schledermann: “Everything we are is in our spirit. In archaeology, you are examining the long line of what we are” My paternal ancestry is Aboriginal, …

From Construction To Ritual Function: An Exploration Of New Guinea Fiber Masterworks, Jill D’Alessandro, Christina Hellmich

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

The island of New Guinea is fringed by many small islands to the east. The west portion of the island, called Papua or West Papua, is politically part of Indonesia. The narrow Torres Strait separates New Guinea from Australia to the south. Physical features have profoundly and diversely shaped the lives of people living there for over fifty thousand years. The natural world, supernatural world and the rituals surrounding life’s passages, inspired the creation of the Jolika Collection works we explore today. They are complex compositions layered with imagery and meaning. Designs and motifs are often specific to clans and …

Black Silk, Brown Silk: China And Beyond—Fabric Analysis, Margaret T. Ordoñez

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

A piece of unusual fabric that is shiny black on one side and red-brown on the other laid unidentified among the Chinese textiles in the University of Rhode Island (URI) Historic Textile and Costume Collection for over half a century. Abby Lillethun’s interest in analyzing mud silks brought this cloth, identified as Xiang-yun-shā, from obscurity to notoriety. Its most obvious feature is the two-colored surfaces created by first dyeing the fabric and then coating one side with black mud as described in the preceding papers by Lillethun and Lin.

The selvage of the URI fabric, seen from the backside in …

A New Start: Re-Thinking The Display And Interpretation Of African Textiles At The Detroit Institute Of Arts, Howard Sutcliffe

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Introduction

When the DIA began implementing its renovation, restoration, and expansion project in 2001, its objective was to make essential upgrades to the Museum’s aging facility, improve traffic flow and way-finding patterns and increase gallery space. The enormous task of the building project presented the unprecedented opportunity for the Museum to reshape the visitor experience, not only through an upgraded building and new amenities, but also by rethinking how to present its world-class collection to the public.

More than 5,000 works of art have been reinstalled in some 150,000 square feet of gallery space in a way that allows visitors …

About Tsa

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

TSA Board of Directors 2006 - 2008

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TSA Board of Directors 2008 – 2010

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Notes On Editing, Ann Svenson Perlman

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

The manuscripts contained in this digital proceedings CD-ROM have been edited by formatting in MSWord to comply with the TSA 11th Biennial Symposium 2008: Digital Print Manuscript Guidelines while maintaining the substance of each presentation as submitted. Each paper was edited to a standard visual style of presentation. In very few cases manuscripts were edited for clarity and understanding as a written document for English readers. European and British English spellings and foreign words and markings were not changed or removed. Images were sized to fit the 10 page limit and no images were rejected. Authors retain copyright for their …

Preface: The Cooperation Of The Virgin Mary In Redemption, Thomas A. Thompson

Marian Studies

No abstract provided.

Wisdom From The Tortoise, Ruenruthai Sujjapun

Manusya, Journal of Humanities

The Hare and the Tortoise Part II: We do not race anymore won the ?7 Book Awards? of 2005 as the best work of children?s literature. This book borrows its plot from a well-known Aesop?s fable and creates some new content and philosophy. Instead of ignorantly running a race against the aggressive Hare, the Tortoise refuses to compete but rather walks slowly and happily to his destination. In addition to the plot from Aesop?s fable, the writer H. Nikhooky applies Buddhist doctrines with regard to defilements, i.e., lust, greed, anger, and delusion, as well as the Four Sublime States of …

The Quranic Concept Of Peace And Humanity, Patchrathanyarasm Salamat

Manusya, Journal of Humanities

The Quran is the principal source of reference in Islam. Some people outside the Muslim world relate the religion to violence and value Islam according to what some of its fellows, the Muslims, have done in the name of Islam. The principle of judgement thus has unfortunately drifted away from its true source and meaning. The very basic concept of peace and humanity as stated in the Quran seems to have no place in reality at all. This paper will bring such issues back to our attention and show the true teachings of this most distorted of religions.