Fiber, Textile, and Weaving Arts Commons^™

Velvet And Patronage: The Origin And Historical Background Of Ottoman And Italian Velvets, Sumiyo Okumura Dr.

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Velvets are one of the most luxurious textile materials and were frequently used in furnishings and costumes in the Middle East, Europe and Asia in the fifteenth to sixteenth centuries. Owing to many valuable studies on Ottoman and Italian velvets as well as Chinese and Byzantine velvets, we have learned the techniques and designs of velvet weaves, and how they were consumed. However, it is not well-known where and when velvets were started to be woven. The study will shed light on this question and focus on the origin, the historical background and development of velvet weaving, examining historical sources …

Non-Specific: Ubiquity, Invisible Labor And The Moving Blanket, Callen Zimmerman

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

“A textile is not simply a binary system of spun, twisted or spliced fibres, but first and foremost a result of complex interactions between resources, technology and society.” Eva Anderson Strand The crash of metal on asphalt as the back of a truck lowers its lift, a grunt of exertion, a buoyant step on the platform, the shuffling of work boots in calculated motion, the crumbled sigh of fabric folding falling on itself. This observed situation is typical to the daily ins and outs of the moving blanket, a complicated dance to aid objects of importance in transit. Even if …

From Function To Fashion To A Contemporary Art Process, Journey’S Within A Fisherman’S Rib Jumper, Christine Wiltshier

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

This paper investigates a number of journeys discovered within a fisherman’s rib jumper. The thread of each journey was unravelled whilst considering the notion, Could a process of unmaking become a form of making. This question framed a process lead studio research that centred on haptic experimentation. The vehicle chosen to investigate this question was that of the unravelling of a knitted garment. Along side a studio investigation, a number of threads were followed that connect a 1980’s fashion garment with historic coastal fishing economies in the United Kingdom. Connections were also unravelled between the machine construction of the garment …

Sumptuary Synergy: British Imperialism Through The Tartan And Slave Trades, David Loranger, Eulanda A. Sanders

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Sumptuary laws have been a useful tool for various national powers in regulating subjects and to promote class differentiation and business interests. The genesis of this study was one such law, entitled the South Carolina Negro Act of 1735, stipulating that slave garments could only be made of low-quality textiles. These fabrics were reflective of slaves living in chattel environments, thus also representing a slave’s status in society. This law forbade slaves from wearing “any sort of garment or apparel whatsoever, finer, other or of greater value than Negro cloth, duffels, coarse kerseys, osnabrigs, blue linen, check linen, or coarse …

Veiled In Ignorance And Clothed In Reason: Jimmie Durham’S 2014 Exhibition Traces And Shiny Evidence, Andrea Feeser

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

In the 2014 London exhibition “Traces and Shiny Evidence,” Jimmie Durham showed on one floor brightly colored oil barrels, car parts, pcv pipes, and reproduction animal skeletons covered with or leaking ooze that shimmered with rainbow hues. On a floor one level up, Durham exhibited wall size drawing-prints he made by throwing stuffed animals coated with charcoal at very large pieces of paper. In the video that recorded Durham making the drawing-prints, the artist wears a workman’s vest labeled “Steiner. Maison de la Paix.” A video that is featured in the exhibition itself shows Durham in a business suit seated …

Embroidery In The Circle Of The Last Romanovs, Wendy Salmond

Art Faculty Articles and Research

This article essay examines the liturgical embroideries associated with the Empress Alexandra Fedorovna and her sister Grand Duchess Elizaveta Fedorovna. It suggests that the sisters’ needlework for sacred purposes was invested with a significance not seen in elite Russian society since the late seventeenth century. At a time when the arts of Orthodoxy were undergoing a state-sponsored renaissance, who was better suited to lead the resurgence of liturgical embroidery than the wife and sister-in-law of the Emperor, the last in a long line of royal women seeking to assert their piety and their power through traditional women’s work? In the …

Quality Evaluation Of Jeans At Three Price Categories, Behnoosh Ghaani Farashahi

Theses and Dissertations--Retailing and Tourism Management

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the specifications, appearance and performance characteristics of jeans at three price categories and to evaluate the relationship between price and product quality. Three brands; Lucky, Gap, and Faded Glory represented men’s jeans in the price categories of better, moderate, and mass merchant (budget). Jeans were inspected and the design, material, and construction specifications were identified and compared. The appearance and performance characteristics of jeans were evaluated initially and compared to the initial characteristics after one and five launderings. ASTM and AATCC test methods were used to evaluate color difference, colorfastness to dry …

Work It: A Study In Fashion Photography Portraiture, Dominic J. Iudiciani

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Fashion is a device with which the perception of one’s appearance is manipulated. It is a device that is used across all cultures to identify, symbolize, isolate, and appropriate. It is figuratively and literally woven into the fabric of humankind as a whole. Fashion has the ability to reinforce gender or create dissonance within it through androgynous silhouettes. It can express strength and confidence or emphasize vulnerability.

Through this study, the use of specific studio lighting techniques accentuates design elements of a highly curated collection of avant-garde, 21^st century garments. Drape, texture, form, and luster are but a few …

Body Memory, Juana Cecilia Arias

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The Arts Center of St. Peter, located at 315 S. Minnesota Ave, in St. Peter, MN, hosted the thesis exhibit, Body Memory. The exhibit ran from April 8, 2016, through May 8, 2016. The opening reception was held on Saturday, April 9, 2016.

Ceramic sculptures were created with a variety of textile and paper imprints on the clay surface, then folded over an internal paper structure, and placed in a constructed canvas hammock to allow gravity to alter the form. All sculptures were finished using underglaze washes to emphasize the surface textures. Gloss tile sealer, wax, waxed paper, silk, or …

Some Form Of Blue, Zena A. Zakanycz

Theses and Dissertations

Through my art process and material selection, I investigate how interior spaces long to accumulate memories and possessions. I am interested in encroaching floor to ceiling build-up of collected goods kept in the homes of individuals unable to discard or part with possessions. These individual’s daily movements through their space and their denial of the surrounding mass informs my work. My work is larger than human scale, made of multiple units, and dense; yet understated by the subtle use of color and repeated materials. When I make an installation it often begins with creating a wall or a floor that …