Art and Design Commons^™

Rethinking The Tiwanaku Phenomenon In San Pedro De Atacama Through The Study Of Textiles Of Solcor 3 And Their Associated Contexts (400-1000 Ad), Carolina Aguero, Mauricio Uribe

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

From San Pedro de Atacama, Chile we examine the alleged relationship with Tiwanaku. Our investigation focuses on elaborate and plain textiles with associated ceramics and recent bio-archaeological data that allow us to question this relationship. We see a heterogeneous and unequal society in San Pedro rather than one that responds to a superior political entity and a culture born from a strong tension between dominant and subordinate groups. Discussing the funeral bundles discovered in Solcor-3 we characterize individuals who wear Tiwanaku textiles with their contextual associations and compare them to others who do not wear such textiles. Solcor-3 presents contexts …

New Directions In Australian Aboriginal Fabric Printing, Louise Hamby, Valerie Kirk

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Missionaries, teachers and art advisers during the 1970s introduced the process of fabric printing to Aboriginal people, particularly in remote areas. Printing was a means to encourage productive work and income generation. Early forms included lino block and stencil prints, followed by screen printing. Bima Wear, was the earliest cooperative to established a business initially producing fabrics for their own clothing and then to sell to others. Historically men were the primary producers of artistic works dominating the production of carvings, sculpture and painting. Designing for fabric printing opened up a new space for men and women to work freely …

Touch And Technology: An Individual Perspective, Vibeke Vestby

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

The development of the Single Thread Control Loom (TC-1) resulted from my fascination with ancient Chinese silk fabrics featuring detailed motifs of flowers, dragons and clouds. I wanted to be able to weave designs of similar complexity and remember to my disappointment that my introduction to weaving provided no connection to the silks I admired. I realized then that what I wanted to explore would be very difficult and time consuming to achieve on a shaft loom. But I had no idea how this interest would affect the trajectory of my life and career goals.

In 1984 as a young …

Interior Textiles And The Concept Of Atmospheres – A Case Study On The Architectural Potential Of Textiles In Danish Hospitals Interiors, Jeppe Emil Mogensen, Anna Marie Fisker, Søren Bolvig Poulsen

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

The architecture of modern hospitals in the western world are often criticised of being too clinical and institutional, causing patient stress and general longer hospitalisation. However, in regards to the international focus on constructing new hospitals, new ideas are introduced and focus has shifted towards the design concept healing architecture, visioning an improved healing process supported by stimulating design and architecture.

In this paper we will relate to this future, and by examining the design history of textiles, we discuss how the use of textiles in hospital design can contribute to this vision of healing architecture.

Textiles in architecture has …

Textile Materials And Techniques In Central Europe In The 2nd And 1st Millennia Bc, Karina Grömer

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

For over a millennium, the site of Hallstatt, located in the Austrian Alps, was a meeting point between north and south, east and west, serving as a melting pot of new ideas and innovations. About 300 textile units (more than 700 single fragments) from Bronze and Iron Ages are known from the prehistoric salt mines, dating from 1500-300 BC. They display a wide range of textile techniques and provide insight in different aspects of textile craft. Their outstanding preservation allows us to investigate many crucial steps in the chaîne opératoire of textile production. The 2nd millennium BC is a time, …

Wikispaces: Technology, Textiles, And Public Engagement, Blaire O. Gagnon

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

In a world where technology is constantly changing and cultural institutions such as universities and museums are being asked to do more with less, the question becomes how to improve efficiencies but also expand access. University based museums and collections, have, perhaps, an even greater challenge because their faculty and staff may focus on teaching, service, and publication in ways that do not directly support or integrate their collections or their collection/object related projects are turned primarily inward, through such projects as student papers. On the other hand, they have the opportunity to engage students in object-based research that can …

Integrating The Evidence: Historic Silk Production In Context, Julia Galliker

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

This paper presents the results of my PhD research which applies computer-based imaging technologies to examine historic silk production evidence more intensively than was formerly possible. My program combines high-resolution images with a computer vision software application to measure identifiable quality and workshop characteristics for weft-faced compound weave figured silks attributed to Mediterranean workshops between ca. AD 600-1200. For a variety of reasons, research progress for this category of textiles has slowed in recent years. While essential to protect fragile textiles from damage, the consequence of conservation standards has been reduced collections access. Resource constraints and changes in museum practices …

Substitute Innovation: Rethinking The Failure Of Mid-Twentieth Century Regenerated Protein Fibres And Their Legacy, Mary M. Brooks

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Politicians and planners in Europe and America in the 1930s and 1940s were increasingly anxious about the availability of wool for military requirements and actively encouraged research into substitute fibres. Innovation energised by the needs of war informed the development of processes to transform proteins normally used for food (milk, soya, corn, and fish) or perceived as waste (egg whites, chicken feathers and slaughter-house products) into fibres. This paper explores both innovative technology and conceptual models of innovation as applied to substitute fibres which were intended to result in both technical and cultural shifts. Substitute innovation was used to modify …

Stitches Of War: Women’S Commentaries On Conflict In Latin America, Deborah A. Deacon

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

In the past thirty years, new forms of women’s textiles began appearing throughout Latin America. The techniques used were not indigenous to the region, yet they were used as forms of self-expression of the horrors and sorrows the women experienced as the result of warfare in the region. In the 1970s Chilean artist Violeta Parra Sandoval introduced arpillera-making to women living in Santiago who experienced first hand the agony of having family members tortured, killed or “disappeared” at the hands of the government. Arpilleras use embroidery and appliqué to create scenes of repression, violence and loss. Banned within Chile and …

Writing Textile, Making Text: Cloth And Stitch As Agency For Disorderly Text, Catherine Dormor

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

This paper focuses upon means and ways in which knowledge gained through textile practice can be expressed using language and imagery drawn from within that practice itself. In this it draws upon Žcriture feminine to develop a matrix of knowledge upon and within which text and textile intertwine. Here cloth and stitch are considered as co-agents for a disorderly text that dissolves boundaries between theoretical and practice-based concerns through a process that Bracha Ettinger refers to as ‘borderswerving’ (Ettinger 2006). In this paper such disorderly text or working in and through body, cloth and stitch, will be addressed through three …

Polychrome Nets Italian Lace From The Collection Of The Metropolitan Museum Of Art, Chiara Romano

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

If you think that white is the only color for lace...think again! My research focuses on a group of polychrome Italian laces dating from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The category I have identified in the MMA lace collection is known as “embroidered laces” and includes the techniques of Filet and Buratto. These early lacemaking techniques are often characterized by the use of different materials for the foundation and for the embroidery (textile and metallic threads). Despite the visual variety represented by these Italian laces, they all share the same basic structure of a net foundation, making them a particularly …

Finding Binding Points: Design Development And The Digital World, Wendy Weiss

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

A master weaver at work is in a state of exchange with the material, the design, the craft and the process. The artisan at work is so fully engaged words and photographs alone cannot capture the action. Digital video can bridge that gap. Complex weave patterns published centuries ago are housed in rare book and manuscript libraries. Digital archives make them widely available. Jute fiber thrives in Bangladesh and India and factories in Patterson, NJ processed it until the 1950’s when the synthetic fiber market began to dominate the traditional jute trade. On-line research allows rapid access to historical and …

Textiles And The Virtual World Broadening Audience Engagement At The Textile Museum Of Canada, Roxane Shaughnessy

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Museums with textile collections face challenges in providing meaningful public access to these cultural objects. Textiles can only be displayed for limited periods to minimize damage from light and exposure, and the fragility of most textiles requires careful handling to prevent deterioration. Textile exhibitions and special visits to storage areas provide opportunities for public engagement with textiles. However until recently, the close study of materials and techniques required direct access to the object.

In recent years, the advent of the World Wide Web, digitization, and other technologies have afforded global access to museum textile collections, and enabled those interested to …

The Aegean Wool Economies Of The Bronze Age, Marie-Louise Nosch

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

This paper will explore the importance of wool in the emergence of complex societies during the Bronze Age in the Aegean. The 2nd millennium BC Aegean witnesses the emergence of a highly particular system of wool economy, beginning with the Minoan and followed by the Mycenaean centralized palace economies with strict administration of flocks, herders, wool, and textile production by thousands of women and children. This system monitors annual production targets and surplus production, and production strategies ensuring that the palaces’ needs are met. Textile production is the largest sector of the palace economy and employs the highest number of …

Textile Art: Connecting The Virtual And Material In My Work, Janice Lessman-Moss

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

As a textile artist in the 21st century, I continue to aspire to make art objects that are unique and timely, characteristic of my individual sensibility and experience. Using the latest digital tools - including the TC1(2) Single Thread Control loom - I strive to animate my woven forms through material interaction and a distinctive touch built on a foundation of research and practice - based in digital and hand craft.

In my weavings I explore relationships of abstract systems created with traditional and innovative textile coloring techniques, material contrasts, and the generative processing of the computer and digital loom. …

Traditional Textile Design For Social Innovation Toward Sustainability In Japan, Yuko Fukatsu

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Japanese local textiles are too traditional to fit in our time, however they are all earth-friendly materials those of which are significant for the sustainable society in our future. In this paper, possibilities of re-designing traditional textiles made of natural fiber are explored with local weavers at Okinawa and Nagano in Japan. Talking with craftsmen from local communities I realized that not only current issues of textile techniques and products but also those of local communities and environment should be discussed and solved at the same time.

Also, I realized that activities and creativities of young generations are necessary to …

The Fabric For A City: Development Of Textile Materials During The Urbanization Period In Mediterranean Europe, Margarita Gleba

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Ancient literary sources indicate that, by the beginning of the Common Era, different textile types and qualities were available to Roman consumers and many of the best fibres were produced in Italy, from where they spread throughout the Roman Empire in the form of sheep, raw materials or finished textiles. The variety observed during the Roman times reflects a long period of evolution, based on selective breeding and cultivation, as well as development of new and more effective processing, spinning and weaving technologies. Recent investigations demonstrate that major changes in fibre development and processing took place in the Mediterranean Europe …

Conversations Between A Foreign Designer And Traditional Textile Artisans In India: Design Collaborations From The Artisan’S Perspective, Deborah Emmett

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Contemporary textile designers are part of a cultural shift that has brought into the mainstream a sense of ecological and social responsibility. Some are challenging the way the textile industry is conducted, questioning the existing business models. International media coverage has exposed the poor and unsafe working conditions of many of the people employed in this industry, cruelly demonstrated by the collapse in April 2013 of Rana Plaza, a garment manufacturing complex in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where 1127 workers died. This awareness has developed a social consciousness in many design communities, and as a result the development of ethical design practices. …

Communicating Textiles Within And Beyond Museum Walls: New Directions, Dinah Eastop

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Innovation in the past, present and future will be considered by reference to an extraordinary but little known collection: the textiles and dress preserved in the Board of Trade Representations and Registers of Designs, 1839-1991. This set of records is held at The National Archives [of the UK government] and contains records of nearly 3 million designs, registered by proprietors worldwide (but mostly UK and mainland Europe). Innovation in the past will demonstrated by this registration scheme which encouraged investment in design by enabling copyright control over both ornamental and useful designs, for many materials and products. Recognising design as …

Adinkra And Kente Cloth In History, Law, And Life, Boatema Boateng

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Adinkra and kente cloth have changed significantly in the course of their history first as markers of Asante royal power and then of Ghanaian cultural distinction. Once handmade and reserved for the exclusive use of the Asante ruler, cheap mass-produced reproductions now proliferate in Ghanaian markets. In attempting to use intellectual property law to regulate their appropriation, the Ghanaian state has set the conditions for further changes in these fabrics, their designs, and their sources of authority. This paper examines the implications of changing political and regulatory contexts for the past present and future meanings of adinkra and kente cloth …

Highland Complementary-Warp Weaving And The Lima Style In The Central Coast Of Peru, Ca. 200-650 C.E., Sophie Desrosiers

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

For more than a century, the geometric interlocking fish or snake designs appearing on Lima style artifacts - painted ceramics and walls, engraved gourds and wooden sculptures - have been considered as reproduction of designs created through textile means. An analysis of their characteristics shows that they fit well with designs obtained with weaving techniques still practiced today in the Peruvian highlands. This discovery allows reconstruction of the models of the interlocking designs. Then, comparing the reconstructed models with the small group of textiles with similar designs excavated in Lima sites, it becomes possible to understand better the mechanism at …

Biennial Symposium Program: New Directions: Examining The Past, Creating The Future, Los Angeles, California, September 10–14, 2014

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Schedule with speaker and program information. 14 pages.

2014 Biennial Symposium: New Directions: Examining The Past, Creating The Future (Website Home-Page)

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Brief statement, Organizers, Officers, Chairs, Hosts, & editors.
With links.

Abstracts And Presenter Biographies From 14th Biennial

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

No abstract provided.

Coast Salish Spinning: Looking For Twist, Finding Change, Liz Hammond-Kaarremaa

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Coast Salish textiles from the Pacific Northwest (northwest Washington state and southwest British Columbia) are relatively rare and unknown yet are masterpieces of sophisticated weaving and spinning techniques. Coast Salish blankets and robes, and the tools used to make them, have been the subjects of a few seminal works (Gustafson 1980; Loughran-Delahunt 1996; Marr 1979; Vanderburg 1953), but other than the occasional recording of the direction of twist, the spinning characteristics of the yarn itself have not been the focus of research. This gap is curious, given the uniqueness of Coast Salish spinning tools, the corresponding techniques, and the fibres …

Needle Lace To Valley Walking: İğne Oyası As Landscape Ornamentation, Olivia Valentine

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

In 2012-13, I lived and worked in Turkey, researching the traditional needle lace edging of İğne Oyası and creating relationships between this textile edge, the contemporary urban fabric, and the rural landscape of Turkey. In this paper, I will speak about my time in Turkey, presenting my research into the traditional needle lace edge of oya and my studio production, where I used my research to create this needle lace edge at new scales and in new materials and contexts.

Dressing The Leader, Dressing The Ancestor: The Longue Durée In The South Central Andes, Ann H. Peters

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

The preservation and adornment of the dead in the South Central Andes can be traced over some twelve thousand years. The potential for preservation of human bodies and fine textiles in desert sands and high altitude caves contributed to a continuing social and political role of the dead in the lives of the living. Colonial period documents describe well-dressed mortuary bundles that participated in public ritual and could be cited as proof of heritage and validation of social leadership. However, the nature of social and political ancestry and its relationship to power change over time with the development of large-scale …

An American Textile Company To The Trade: The Corporate History And Textile Collection Highlights Of Kravet Inc., Deborah E. Kraak

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Historic textiles “live” in museums and private collections, carefully stored for research and exhibition. Those in the archives of furnishing fabric companies live in a different way: reinterpreted for the consumer, either in exact reproductions or more loosely in fabrics that adapt historic motifs or are inspired by them.1 One of the largest and most important collections of historic American and European printed fabrics belongs to Kravet Inc., an American textile company to the trade based in Bethpage, New York. More than 52,000 historic textile documents belong to Kravet through its own holdings and the archives of the textile firms …

The Secrets Of Alorese ‘Silk’ Yarn: Kolon Susu, Triangle Trade And Underwater Women In Eastern Indonesia1, Emilie Wellfelt

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Eastern Indonesia is known for a great variety of textiles. One part of the region that has been largely overlooked in the literature is textiles of the Alor archipelago. However, the literature does recognise and speculate about the unusual silky character of some Alorese cloths that have entered Western museum collections. Based on fieldwork among weavers in the village Uma Pura, situated on a small island in the Pantar strait, this paper reveals the secret behind the characteristic shiny finish of the ‘silk’ sarongs from Alor. Ruled by necessity rather than choice weavers used to mix cotton with fibres from …

Conversationa And Encounter, Belinda Von Mengrsen

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Textile artists often use items of traditional textile material culture as sites for primary research or encounter within their conceptual and physical practice. This research practice is, however, far more than aesthetic or visual analysis: rather, it allows for the observation of that border territory in which a new work of art begins and ends—the very place from which the ideas come—and also of how influences are layered, and evolve within our psyche. Ruth Hadlow, has described the use of traditional West-Timorese woven textiles as “a ‘tool’ with which to think?” (Hadlow, 2013). Through such tools, primary research may operate …