Art and Design Commons^™

Silk In Ancient Nubia: One Road, Many Sources, Nettie K. Adams, William S. Webb

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Silk in ancient Africa? Most of us think of ancient Africans as members of a tribe, living by subsistence farming or herding, in villages of grass houses. But Nubia, the ancient Kush, located along the Nile in southern Egypt and the northern part of the Sudan, (Fig.l) was inhabited by an African people who, by 1800 BC, had developed their own high civilization. The Kushites were suppliers of ivory, ebony, gold, ostrich feathers, animal skins, and slaves to ancient Egypt and elsewhere in the Mediterranean world. In exchange they received a wide variety of manufactured goods.

By the fourth century …

Ribbons Around The Silk Road---Before Silk (Toward A Pre-History Of Band Weaving), E.J.W. Barber

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

The salty sands of the Tarim Basin, along the route of the later "Silk Road", have produced masses of textiles, splendidly preserved with all their colors, from 2000 BC down to the recent past. In 1995 Irene Good and I had the privilege of being invited to study some of the earliest textiles from this region--those preceding the Chinese entry into the area about 110 BC. I was particularly struck by the prevalence of textile bands, the subject I now wish to explore.

The earliest textiles there come from around Loulan, the dry, salty, and desolate northeast corner of the …

Woven Bands, Medicines And Recipes: Cod. Pal. Germ. 551. The Adventures, Provenance And Contents Of A 15th Century Manuscript Held At The Library Of Heidelberg University In Germany., Ute Bargmann

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Today, we are going to visit Heidelberg, the city where the earliest German University was founded in 1386. On account of its romantic setting, it became one of the internationally popular institutions in the 19th century. Here, we will visit the University Library, where the manuscript we are to discuss today is housed. It is on the shelf in the Department of Manuscripts, bound in a modest working cover of the 19th century.

History

We shall embark on a journey of more than 500 years into the past and through some very trying times that helped shape present-day Central Europe. …

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 Shomu …

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 …

Hither Come The Merchants: Textile Trade At The 19th Century Courts Of Lan Na (North Thailand), Chiang Tung (Eastern Shan States), Lan Xang (Western Laos) And Sipsong Pan Na (Xinshuang Banna, South-West China).

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

“Hither come the merchants’ is the beginning of a quote from the 16th century British explorer Ralph Fitch who listed goods from China traded in Chiang Mai, Lan Na.1 It is not clear whether he actually travelled to the ancient city, or collected his information from another source. It was not until the 19th century that Europeans and Americans became familiar with the inland states of Southeast Asia. What they found was a unique culture that had developed from the 12th century. In the 1890s the inland states came under the control of Siam, China, Britain or France. At the …

Copyright

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Silk Roads, Other Roads

Proceedings of the 8th Biennial Symposium of the Textile Society of America, Inc.

Copyright remains the property of the individual authors.

All rights reserved. Published 2003. Printed in the United States of America

The papers are unedited and reproduced as submitted. No part of this book may bereproduced in any form or by any means without written permission from the author. Students and researchers wishing to cite specific authors are encouraged to contact those individuals, as many of these papers represent work in progress, or work which has been committed for publication elsewhere. This volume contains …

Textiles As Image, Virginia Davis

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

I am an artist who has a strong interest in color theory and theories of perception and I have the power to weave my own canvas. I want to emphasize the importance for me of the study of textile history, and the privilege of viewing museum collections. Although I began weaving with silk, now I literally weave painter's linen canvas similar to the sort that can be purchased from artists' materials suppliers. Formally, the work explores optical aspects of vision and nuances of value contrast. Ikat and weave structure give special effects. Ikat technique, dyeing and painting the yarn before …

Japanese Kosode Fragments Of The Edo Period (1615–1868): A Recent Acquisition By The Metropolitan Museum Of Art, New York, Joyce Denney

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, recently acquired a remarkable group of over thirty-five Japanese textiles, the majority of which are probably pieces from kosode robes of the Edo period (1615-1868). This paper will serve as a brief introduction to the collection, which will be on view next summer in the Museum’s Japanese galleries.

This introduction to the recent acquisition consists of three parts. The first part discusses a few of the pieces from the recently acquired group that have companions in the Nomura collection of the National Museum of Japanese History (Kokuritsu Rekishi Minzoku Hakubutsukan) in Sakura, Chiba, …

“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 Gunma 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 …

A Study Of Fashionable Silk Veiling, Maline, And Tulle From 1904, Joanne Dolan

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

A group of silk net, veiling, tulle, and maline, all sheer draping fabrics produced in unique patterns and colors is the subject of this paper. They form part of a larger collection of materials in a variety of fabrications consisting of raffia, feathers, paper, horsehair, sequins, and chenille. The amassed group is contained in a sample book dated Printemps 1904, and suggests that it may have served as a millinery swatch service book. I intend to focus only on the silk draping materials and examine their fabrication, design, and use in millinery during the first decade of the twentieth …

The Haskell Silk Company: Manufacturers Of Staple Silks Recognized As A "Standard" In The Trade, Jacqueline Field

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Haskell Silk Company founder, James Haskell, was a native of the Cape Anne, area of Massachusetts. In this locale his early career included service in numerous public and business capacities, not least as agent for The Rockport Steam Cotton Company, and as a State Senator. He was a man experienced in politics, finance and textile production. He moved to Maine in 1858 when he acquired the cotton mill at Saccarappa Falls, Westbrook. Under his management the mill, renamed The Westbrook Manufacturing Company, flourished and expanded.

In 1874, his elder son, Frank Haskell, assumed the role of agent. At the same …

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 …

The Archaeology Of Early Silk, Irene Good

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Centuries before the initiation of formal silk trade with Han China ca. 2oo BC, silk appeared as far west as the Baden-Würtemberg region of Germany. The use of wild (Antheraea sp.) silks has also been documented for western Asia and the Mediterranean region since early medieval times, but the extent and antiquity of this fiber technology is presently unclear. The domesticated silkworm Bombyx mori is derived from a species native to northern India, Assam and Bengal, known as Bombyx mandarina Moore. It was in China that this moth was domesticated, and the process of de-gumming developed at some point during …

Competing Images: Silk And Rayon In Popular U.S. Publications Of The Nineteen Thirties, Jocelyn Gottschalk

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

In 1934, Mr. Paolino Gerli, President of the newly formed International Silk Guild, concluded his address at the Twenty-third Annual Convention of the National Retail Dry Goods Association as follows: “A new deal, a new era…Out of a glamorous past, not a Cinderella with a time limit beauty is beckoning to you, but a beautiful Princess, awakened by Prince Charming into a new consciousness of its eternal right to be the Queen of Fabrics.” These lofty words, delivered before an audience of American manufacturers, retailers, and wholesalers, were a call to arms for the beleaguered American silk industry. His words …

Silk Bedcoverings In The Early Chesapeake Region: Interpreting Documentary Evidence, Gloria Seaman Allen

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Eighteenth-century legal documents from the Chesapeake region occasionally refer to silk bed coverings—blankets, rugs, quilts, and counterpanes—yet very few of these bed coverings have survived in museum and private collections. It is important, therefore, to closely analyze documentary evidence, particularly probate inventories, for clues as to the appearance, construction, commonality, and possible origin of these objects that were used in Chesapeake homes and were readily identifiable by men charged with assigning values to the chattels of a decedent.

Probate inventories, taken shortly after death as part of the process of settling an estate, are rich and tantalizing documents that provide …

Siguas 1: A Newly Identified Early Horizon Culture, Department Of Arequipa, Peru, Joerg Haeberli

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

My interest in the valleys of Arequipa began in 1994. A curious set of textiles labeled Nasca1 was attributed to the “Sihuas2 Valley, Nazca region, Peru, south coast.” The iconography of these textiles was not Nasca but belonged to unidentified traditions. They most likely came from the Sihuas Valley in the department of Arequipa. In 1997 and 2000 I went to Arequipa to establish if their provenance indeed was the Sihuas Valley and other valleys in the department of Arequipa. This was confirmed in the field for the valleys of Sihuas and Vitor at four heavily looted cemeteries. In addition, …

“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 l0% (of dry weight of …

Appropriated Threads: The Unpicking And Reweaving Imported Textiles, Jessica Hemmings

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

The Silk Route has become synonymous with the movement of knowledge that accompanies the trade of objects. Many of the textiles discussed here were not traded along the Silk Route, but all are representative of the associations that are made with this artery of cultural exchange. The examples cited arrive from a range of cultures and geographies: Indonesia and Nigeria, the Southwest United States and New Zealand. From these vastly different regions, using a variety of materials, weavers painstakingly unpicked yarns from woven fabrics for use in other weavings.

The term ‘raveled yarn’ refers to threads that have been unpicked …

Clothing Styles From A Provincial Inca Outpost, Grace Katterman

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

My recent study of Inca Period clothing has involved textile collections from three south coastal areas of Peru (Figure 1): Pachacamac, a large Inca center and temple complex just south of Lima (Uhle 1903/1991: Ch XXI:89-96); Rodadero, a storage facility overlooking the Inca center of Tambo Viejo in the Acari Valley (Katterman and Riddell (1992:141-167); and Burial House #2, the western hillside cemetery affiliated with the Inca outpost of Quebrada de La Vaca in the Chala Drainage (Katterman 2003b). From the burial house (Figure 6), Dorothy Menzel and Francis Riddell collected and documented 120 burials plus an additional 140 items …

Creative Methods Of Reproduction: Two Japanese Weaving Innovations Developed In Imitation Of Complex Foreign Textiles, Keiko Kobayashi

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

When a certain effect in textiles can be achieved on two different weaving apparatuses, it is common practice to assume the simpler method to be the more primitive and thus antecedent to the more advanced technique. This paper will discuss two unique Japanese weaving methods that testify to the fact that simple techniques do not always predate their more sophisticated counterparts. In these examples, the simpler weaving methods were actually created in imitation of preexisting textiles from other regions that had been woven on more complex looms. The first of these examples is the Japanese method for voided velvet; the …

Jeweled Islamic Textiles - Imperial Symbols, Louise W. Mackie

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Soon after Islam was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad in Arabia in the early 7th century, his followers began spreading the faith. Within one century, Islam had been carried across North Africa to Spain and across the Middle East to Central Asia. Great centers of civilization developed in the political capitals, such as Damascus, Baghdad and Cairo, and later in Istanbul and Isfahan, accompanied by elaborate court ceremonies to promulgate their wealth and power. Imperial ceremonials were equivalent to theatrical settings, usually based on strict hierarchies and rigid protocol, in which luxurious textiles were vital symbols.

Four overt textile symbols …

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

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 sociocultural 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 …

The Evolution And Changes Of Moche Textile Style: What Does Style Tell Us About Northern Textile Production?, María Jesús Jiménez Díaz

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Although Moche textiles form part of the legacy of one of the best known cultures of pre-Hispanic Peru, today they remain relatively unknown. Moche culture evolved in the northern valleys of the Peruvian coast (Fig. 1) during the first 800 years after Christ (Fig. 2). They were contemporary with other cultures such us Nazca or Lima and their textiles exhibited special features that are reflected in their textile production. Previous studies of Moche textiles have been carried out by authors such as Lila O'Neale (1946, 1947), O'Neale y Kroeber (1930), William Conklin (1978) or Heiko Pruemers (1995). However, in spite …

Traces Of War: The Revival Of Silk Weaving In Cambodia, Morimoto Kikuo

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

This report is the outcome of the research commissioned by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). In this research, I visited more than 36 villages in 8 provinces between January and March 1995. Because of the civil war disturbance beginning in 1970, few information relevant to textiles remained in Cambodia. Even maps, which are indispensable for a field survey, were not available at first. My research, therefore, began with asking shopkeepers at the markets in Phnom Penh, "Where did this fabric comes from?" Then, I arrived at remote villages, where I heard weaving activities still continues. When I …

“Dichotomies In Silk: Sheer And Opaque”, Yuh Okano

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Since my days as a student of design, I was interested in fiber as a means to express myself creatively, influenced largely by Junichi Arai’s innovative works in the 1980s. As an artist, I emphasize the material itself and how it takes on shape in the same manner as that of a sculptor. It is in my character as an artist and designer to play with diverse materials and experiment with an array of techniques that can be applied to them. Illustrated by slides, I would like to share my creative exploration using silk fabric and recent technical improvements in …

Travels Of A Rayed Head: Imagery, Fiber, Structure And Connotations Of Early Textiles From The South Central Andes, Ann H. Peters

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

The "rayed head" image has long been identified as a central symbol associated with the Paracas tradition, also called the "sun face" 1 and associated with the concept of "Oculate Being" developed by the Berkeley School. 2 Prominently repeated on the central ground of the famous "Paracas Textile" at the Brooklyn Museum, this image has much earlier antecedents in the region. Scholars disagree on the extent to which many Paracas, Topara and early Nasca images with large round eyes, grinning mouths, and serpentlike appendages emitting from the head and body may also be manifestations of a particular "Oculate Being" or …

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 …

Hausa Hand-Embroidery And Local Development In Northern Nigeria, Elisha P. Renne

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Introduction

The Hausa people of Northern Nigeria have long been known for their production of voluminous robes known as babban riga (Heathcote 1972; Kriger 1988; Lamb and Holmes 1980; Perani and Wolff 1999; Picton and Mack 1979), which are handembroidered in a range of embroidery stitches, materials (mainly cotton and silk), styles, and designs (e.g., fig.1). Until recently, the embroidery of these robes was primarily done by men (Heathcote 1972, 1979). However, women have taken up this work (fig. 2) in the past twenty years, as men have turned to machine embroidery and other occupations, though women generally sell their …

Mildred T. Johnstone’S Needlepoint Tapestries Of Bethlehem Steel: A Less Travelled Road, Ruta T. Saliklis

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

The steel mills in Bethlehem are quiet now, but Mildred T. Johnstone's boldly colored needlepoint tapestries vividly remind us of their awesome power in the 1940s and 1950s. Far from being realistic, literal renderings, these abstract and highly textural interpretations use steel making as a metaphor for modern life. The machinery is larger than life, crackling and spewing out the molten steel used to construct oilrigs and skyscrapers. The people in the mill are very small—the anonymous steelworkers in masks, the artist as a bewildered Alice in a Wonderland of Steel. Mildred Johnstone’s needlepoints are personal and spiritual. Her …