Art and Design Commons^™

Silk Underwear For Ny Swells In The Age Of Victoria, Diane Maglio

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

This appears to be an age of silk. The correspondent of a country paper, writing from New York, says that men are becoming very luxurious, and their... wardrobes and repositories for personal belongings display tastes more costly than those of women.... [as they put on] underwear of the softest, richest knitted silk.

During the last quarter of the 19th century affluent men of leisure and fashion had many hours every day to "loiter at the various clubs and discuss matters of taste." Those who displayed an exceptional interest in fashion were labeled "swells." This research was inspired by a fictional …

Textile And Embroidered Bookbindings Of Medieval England And France, Robin E. Muller

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

I am a textiles artist who has become interested in book arts, as have many others. In looking for historic precedents, I was amazed to learn that there was a history of books bound in fine fabric dating back to medieval Europe. These are rich, elaborately crafted objects that required binders to collaborate with craft persons skilled in needlework. Beautifully woven fabrics were used, some of which were made for clothing. Other fabrics had been made for smaller, more durable objects like books or perhaps hats and handbags. There are records of milliners making some of the bindings. The appearance …

"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 …

Weaving Traditions Along The "Wool Road" In India, Suzette R. Copley Patterson

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Introduction

Although the "Silk Road"' is by far the most famous network of trade routes connecting China, Central Asia, and India, there are other significant, ancient trade routes between these regions of which many may not be aware. One such trade route, known informally as the "wool road", connected the plains of the Punjab in India to Tibet, Central Asia and China. This route, and several others, passed through the Kullu and Kinnaur regions of the northern Indian state known as Himachal Pradesh. The "wool road", which was really merely a donkey trail, was the traditional main trade route in …

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 …

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 Bjorko, that today lies in Lake Malaren, 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 …

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" and associated with the concept of "Oculate Being" developed by the Berkeley School. 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 of more …

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.l). 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 …

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 …

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 …

Hand Spinning And Cotton In The Aztec Empire, As Revealed By The Codex Mendoza, Susan M. Strawn

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

At a lecture titled "Growing Up Aztec," art historian Jill Furst illustrated Aztec childhood with images from the Codex Mendoza, an extraordinary, post- Hispanic pictorial manuscript from central Mexico. The Mendoza specified the lessons, punishments, and even the number of tortillas appropriate for boys and girls during each year of childhood. Interestingly, the Codex Mendoza showed spinning as the only instruction given to Aztec girls between the ages of four and thirteen years. In 1992, the University of California Press published a full color facsimile of the Codex Mendoza with a translation into English and with extensive interpretation in …

The Klotz Throwing Company In Lonaconing: Opening Tut's Tomb, Rebecca M. Trussell

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

"At last have made a wonderful discovery in valley, a magnificent tomb with seals intact": Howard Carter described the opening of Tut's tomb. Carter's experience is so familiar to me. I need only to change a few words: "Darkness and blank space—but presently, as my eyes grew accustomed to the light, details of the room within emerged slowly . . . strange machines, bobbins, and silk—everywhere the gloss of silk .. . Packed tightly were scores of objects, any one of which would have filled us with excitement."

One hundred forty miles northwest of Washington. D.C., where Dans Mountain stands …

Contributors

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Contributing Authors

A-W

Nettie Adams

Monisha Ahmed

Gloria Seaman Allen

Jeni Allenby

Elizabeth Wayland Barber

...

Bobbie Sumberg

Rebecca Trussell

Yoshiko Iwamoto Wada

Stephen Wagner

Torn Notebook: The Creative Process, Daniel A. 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 van 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.

The unique artistic collaboration between Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, which began in 1976 with the installation of Trowel, a colossal hand tool installed permanently on the grounds of the Kroller-Muller Museum in Otterlo, The Netherlands, has resulted in more than twenty-eight large-scale public …

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 …