Fiber, Textile, and Weaving Arts Commons^™

Unveiling Existentialism And Self-Expression: Utilizing The Arts, Raquel Eduardo Nunez

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This analysis is an exploration of identity through the examination of art as a means of self-expression and societal critique. It delves into existentialism to explain the impacts of art on both positive societal experiences and negative interactions unique to the immigrant and Mexican American community. The artist, Raquel Eduardo Nuñez, examines their own art to dissect their position in life as a Mexican-born individual living in a foreign country. This method was chosen to allow a space of self-reflection and awareness to explore the components that shape identity and reveal art as a medium for interpretation of links between …

Exploring The Potential Of Soy-Based Materials: Sustainable Textile Design And Apparel Production, Kasandra Wright

Bumpers Research Symposium

The textile industry is a significant contributor to environmental degradation, particularly through water, energy, and chemical pollution. Soy-based materials offer a sustainable alternative due to their biodegradability, renewability, and reduced water and chemical usage compared to traditional textiles. However, the potential of soy materials in fashion design remains largely unexplored. This project aimed to investigate the feasibility and aesthetic potential of soy-based materials in fashion design, with a focus on creating sustainable soy textiles using batik techniques.

The completed soy textile design showcased a moth motif crafted through batik techniques. Vibrant colors and a distinctive texture were achieved through wax …

From Field To Fashion: A Journey In Sustainable Design And Regional Understanding, Lily Turner

Individually Designed Interdepartmental Major Honors Project

As the fashion industry became globalized over the past century, it has become a major environment polluter and exposed laborers to hazardous conditions. This honors project considers sustainability in the textile industry at large and at the regional scale of the Upper Midwest. Its scholarly component offers an overview of the current textile production, details how the industry may become sustainable, and suggests practices of environmentally-conscious and ethical design. The creative component is a soil-to-soil seasonless capsule collection titled From Field View that incorporates biomimicry and interrogates the concept of place by referencing the Midwest’s flora, wool, and linen fibers.

Evolution Of The Human Eye: As Compared To Other Vertebrates, Madison Queener

Honors Projects

There are three different types of eyes, the simple eye, the compound eye, and the camera eye (Cambridge Dictionary) (Myer-Rochow, 2014) (UCL, 2020). The retina of the eye has evolved and adapted to fit the lifestyles of the respective organisms. Because of this part of the eye, organisms are able to see different colors and use light to define the world using photoreceptors. Photoreceptors are rod cells, which are light sensitive and process light, and cone cells, which perceive the different color wavelengths, that pass visual information to the brain (Kazilek, 2010). About 5% of the photoreceptors in the retinas …

Education For Sustainable Development Competencies In A Community-Engaged Art Workshop, Amy J. Schmierbach

SACAD: Scholarly Activities

Arts participation can expand empathy and cognitive growth capacity while creating a social bond and communal meaning (McCarthy et al., 2004). As an art instructor for over twenty years, I have witnessed the bonds that can be created through collaborative art experiences. These bonds are nurtured from a space of equity and inclusion. Teaching a community-engaged art course can bring these qualities into the community, allowing university students to use their art skills in real-world applications to impact society through experiential learning art practices. Making art with others will enable us to help others build empathy and social bonds that …

Blanket Statements, Issue 163, Spring 2024

Blanket Statements: News Publication of the American Quilt Study Group

Blanket Statements, Issue 163, Spring 2024

Identidad Bajo Amenaza En Chinchero, Perú: El Megaproyecto Del Aeropuerto Internacional Plantea La Cuestión: ¿Cuál Es Más Importante Para El Estado Peruano—El Turismo O El Patrimonio?, Celeste Funari Muse

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

El megaproyecto del Aeropuerto Internacional de Chinchero inicialmente fue propuesto hace 46 años, así que ha sido un símbolo del futuro del distrito durante casi cinco décadas. Ubicado a sólo una hora de distancia de la ciudad de Cusco, el pueblo de Chinchero es conocido por su hermoso paisaje, tradición e impresionantes ruinas incas. De todo el mundo, los turistas desembarcan en el aeropuerto de Cusco y pasan por Chinchero de camino al valle sagrado y Machu Picchu. Desde el inicio de la construcción en 2017, el sitio del nuevo aeropuerto es visible desde casi cualquier lugar de Chinchero, como …

Japanese Fashion Legacies, Emily C. Guerry, Patricia B. Metcalf

[Archive] Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

Exploration of Japan's contributions to fashion is highlighted in our research presentation. Silhouettes, textiles, and accessories that originated in ancient Japanese culture are analyzed throughout their evolution. From these findings, a 10-piece capsule collection was made to bring these ideas further into the modern day. We displayed them from traditional to modern to highlight this evolution through the culture. Popular garments such as the Kimono were used as inspiration for details such as thick belts, ties, and wrap-style shirts. Additionally, the textile stitching technique, Sashiko, is a main source of inspiration in the collection. Sashiko started as a mending technique …

Creating An Index To Graduate Theses To Support Their Discoverability, Ellen Petraits

Transforming Libraries for Graduate Students

As a Research and Instruction Librarian, one of the most frequent questions I'm asked is how to find past theses on a particular topic or theme. There is an active thesis culture at RISD that goes beyond writing and binding a text. An exhibition is held in the graduate gallery to celebrate a curated selection of theses at the beginning of the academic year. (See Book of Thesis Books) Theses can range in format from an artist book to a loose-leaf portfolio. Many emphasize the visual and are a bridge to the student’s studio work. They may include unusual or …

Ix Jornadas Internacionales De Textiles Precolombinos Y Amerindianos / 9th International Conference On Pre-Columbian And Amerindian Textiles [Volumen Completo / Complete Volume]

IX Jornadas Internacionales de Textiles Precolombinos y Amerindianos / 9th International Conference on PreColumbian and Amerindian Textiles, Museo delle Culture, Milan, 2022

Comité Científico – Scientific Committee : Lena Bjerregaard, Arabel Fernández, Carolina Orsini, Ann Peters, Victòria Solanilla / Secretaría Científica – Scientific Secretary : Federica Villa

Milan, 19-22 octubre de 2022: Textiles arqueológicos de los Andes centrales – Archaeological textiles from the Central Andes / Textiles arqueológicos de los Andes sur - Archaeological textiles from the Southern Andes / Iconografía y simbolismo - Iconography and Symbolism / Estudios de colecciones - Collection Studies/ Conservación – Conservation / Textiles etnográficos - Ethnographic Textiles

Marina Pugliese / Carolina Orsini / Federica Villa / Daniela Biermann / Amy Oakland / Lizbeth Pariona, Carlos Rengifo …

Craftivism As Inquiry: Holding Life’S Threads, Chloe Watfern, Gaynor Macdonald, Michele Elliot, Lynne Stone, Imelda Gilmore, Manuel Tecson, Najla Turk, Penny Bingham, Jane Mears, Ann Dadich, Barbara Doran, Katherine Boydell, Sarah Wallace

The Qualitative Report

In this article, we share insights regarding an arts-based research project where carers of people with dementia conveyed their experiences in cloth. Carers face high rates of mental ill health and burnout, while forming a largely undervalued and unrecognised workforce. Through this project, carers’ knowledge was valued and amplified using an innovative methodology – craftivism. During a series of five workshops in 2021, a small group of carers, researchers and artists gathered online to develop an exhibition of craftivist textile works. They evoked the complexity of their makers’ journeys supporting loved ones at the end of life, finding joy and …

Ripe Spoils, Yan Cynthia Chen

Theses and Dissertations

Chen’s practice primarily focus on sculptures and installation. She explores the interplay between the idea of nature and the constructed environment, by examining how language informs what we know. The central thesis, "Ripe Spoils", employs citrus fruits as symbols for bodily experiences and personal identity, investigating their cultural and historical significance. Her sculptures summon the qualities and embedded meanings in materials like paper pulp and clay, wax and citrus fruits, often resulting in abstracted forms evocative of the human body. This thesis paper and exhibition reflect on themes like mortality and the essence of self.

Chinese-English Dictionary Enable Select Search …

Place-Conscious Vs. Place-Bound, Julie Avetisyan

Theses and Dissertations

Julie Avetisyan’s installation of sculptures, paintings and printmaking works are driven by an exploration of constructed identity that is not place-bound, but place-conscious. In this paper, she explores how her art practice generates world building under the context of the Armenian Diaspora – considering histories of indigeneity, migration, and assimilation.

The Authors

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

Short professional biographies of the Contributors: Dimitra Andrianou, Giacomo Bardelli, Magali An Berthon, Tina Boloti, Cecilie Brøns, Ana Cabrera-Lafuente, Francesca Coletti, Roxana Coman, Catarina Costeira, Cristina Cumbo, Camilla Cziffery Nielsen, Klara Dankova, Anna Maria Desiderio, Kerstin Droß-Krüpe, Arianna Esposito, Astrid Fendt, Nade Genevska Brachikj, Francisco B. Gomes, Judith Goris, Audrey Gouy, Karina Grömer, Morten Grymer-Hansen, Mary Harlow, Susanna Harris, Sophia Larissa Hayda, Angela Huang, Floor Huisman, Alina Iancu, Zofia Kaczmarek, Marisa Kerbizi, Meghan Korten, Tetiana Krupa, Karolina Anna Kulpa, Lena Larsson Lovén, Ronja Lau, Yuliia Lazorenko, Susanne Lervad, Petra Linscheid, Christina Margariti, Maria João Melo, Elena Miramontes Seijas, Leyre Morgado-Roncal, …

The Euroweb Textile And Clothing Terminology Network And The Digital Atlas Of European Textile Heritage: Some Reflections And Results, Louise Quillien, Alina Iancu, Meghan Korten, Susanne Lervad, Joana Sequeira, Catarina Costeira

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

One of the research areas of the EuroWeb project during the four years of the COST Action (November 2020 – October 2024) is the comparative study of textile and clothing terminologies in European languages across time. Inside the EuroWeb network, the research group on Textile and clothing terminologies has three topics of particular interest: 1. the specificities of these terminologies, and the strategies for naming textiles and garments; 2. the impact of European geography on textile and clothing terminologies, especially visible through textile terms formed after a toponym or through the circulation of loanwords; 3. the influence of textile and …

Exploring Dress, Gender, And Bodily Capital Through Pre- And Protohistoric Funerary Contexts: Case Studies From Southwestern Europe, Francisco B. Gomes, Catarina Costeira, Anna Maria Desiderio, Arianna Esposito, Giacomo Bardelli

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

While uneven in their scope and reach, studies of dress and dress complements (fibulae, belt buckles, buttons, etc.) have a significant tradition within the broader study of the pre- and protohistory of Mediterranean Europe. Many of these studies, however, have had a strong focus on the typology of the dress complements and ornaments themselves, either as chronological indicators, ethnic markers, or both. In more recent years, however, a shift in research agendas has ushered in the introduction of new perspectives and new ways of thinking about dress and bodily adornment.

This contribution explores one such perspective in particular — namely, …

Displaying And Experiencing Dress Identities In Museums: Case Studies From The Etruscan Period To Modern Times, Karina Grömer, Astrid Fendt, Morten Grymer-Hansen, Anna Zimmermann, Kayleigh Saunderson, Camilla Cziffery Nielsen, Francisco B. Gomes

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

Dress, clothes, and accessories receive and give meaning through their nearness to the human body. As P. Stallybrass writes: “Bodies come and go: the clothes that have received those bodies survive.” It is through the close interaction between dress and person that they both receive their meaning. Clothes shape the human body, and we in return shape our clothes. Dress communicates class, gender, nationality, and marital status, and we leave behind parts of us in its smell, wrinkles, wear, and tear: “Clothes receive the human imprint.” Archaeological and historical dress — no matter how ancient — remain intrinsically linked to …

Red Dyes From West To East In Medieval Europe: From Portuguese Manuscript Illuminations To Romanian Textiles, Irina Petroviciu, Paula Nabais, Maria J. Melo

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

Red is the color par excellence, its symbolism being linked with protection and magic through its primary attributes, fire and blood. It was the predominant color from the earliest times, certainly during the Greek and Roman periods and into Medieval Europe, until blue became a competitor around the 13th century. Mineral pigments, like iron oxides, were the first red sources, used to draw lines, dots, or spots on cave walls or stones. Later, other mineral red pigments were also exploited: Cinnabar, natural mercury sulfide, since the Neolithic, and realgar, arsenic trisulfide, in Ancient Egypt. Scientific investigation revealed that, although …

Searching For The Exotic: Textiles, Orientalism, And Identities, Ana Cabrera, Roxana Coman, Karolina A. Kulpa, Tim Parry-Williams

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

Textiles, with their economic, sartorial, and identity-constructing functions, have long been at the center of cultural discourses, whether narrative or visual. Objects of desire, but also objects of curiosity, textiles have been the topic of costume books, offered in diplomatic exchanges, collected by private collectors and museums alike, and have traveled, sometimes as sample books. Their Othering function did not only differentiate between members of different civilizations, but also the members of the same society, where clothing was used to signal rank and function. The case studies presented intend to elaborate further on the role and symbolism associated with textiles, …

Clothing In Transition: Social, Symbolic, And Legal Aspects Of Garments From Prehistory To The Early Byzantine Period, Tina Boloti, Francesca Scotti, Cristina Cumbo, Petra Linscheid

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

Since ancient times, garments served a wide range of purposes: Either functional, providing protection by covering the body, or symbolic, as an element of non-verbal communication and marker of identity. In particular, this stimulates the development of specific characteristics in shape, decoration, or material composition, which generate distinctions among garments, as acknowledged by Roman jurists too.

These distinctions are determined by various factors. One important factor is the social meaning of clothing: There are garments for public life, garments expressing rank, garments suited for special professions, or garments intended for sacred/priestly rites reflecting particular religious symbols. And, of course, clothes …

Blanket Statements, Issue 167, Winter 2024–2025

Blanket Statements: News Publication of the American Quilt Study Group

Blanket Statements, Issue 167, Winter 2024–2025

Túnicas Masculinas A Fines Del Horizonte Medio En La Costa Sur Central Del Perú, No Uno Sino Varios Estilos, Rommel Angeles Falcón

IX Jornadas Internacionales de Textiles Precolombinos y Amerindianos / 9th International Conference on PreColumbian and Amerindian Textiles, Museo delle Culture, Milan, 2022

Las excavaciones arqueológicas en Huaca Malena (valle bajo de Asia), en la costa sur central del Perú, han permitido recuperar una importante cantidad de textiles procedentes de tumbas y de contextos secundarios de fines del período Horizonte Medio (Siglos VIII-XI d.C.). Destaca la variedad de túnicas o uncus que permiten visualizar la vestimenta masculina de la época y conocer aspectos de su tecnología, iconografía y de las relaciones inter-regionales que se dieron durante el estado wari.

Archaeological excavations at Huaca Malena (lower Asia valley), on the south central coast of Peru, have allowed the recovery of a significant amount of …

Moche-Wari Textiles From Huaca Del Sol, Moche Influence In The Middle Horizon, Amy Oakland

IX Jornadas Internacionales de Textiles Precolombinos y Amerindianos / 9th International Conference on PreColumbian and Amerindian Textiles, Museo delle Culture, Milan, 2022

This paper analyzes a selection of textiles excavated in 2013 in the destroyed late Middle Horizon (AD 800-1000) cemetery on Huaca del Sol, Huacas de Moche in the Moche Valley of northern Peru. The Huaca Sol textile group was woven with local, Moche style S-spun cotton yarns between AD 888-1050, calibrated radiocarbon dates along with a small number of Wari textiles, late Moche and Wari ceramics and ceramics in Casma and Cajamarca styles. Textile structure and design provide the basis for reconstruction into complete garment types known to other Middle Horizon collections on the central and southern coast where Moche …

An Examination Of An Inka(?) Aksu In The Collections Of The Textile Museum, Shelley Burian

IX Jornadas Internacionales de Textiles Precolombinos y Amerindianos / 9th International Conference on PreColumbian and Amerindian Textiles, Museo delle Culture, Milan, 2022

This paper presents the preliminary results and conclusions from an examination of an exceedingly rare example of a weft-face and tapestry-woven aksu in the collections of The Textile Museum. Patterned with figurative butterflies, the garment closely resembles those depicted by Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala in several of his illustrations of ceremonies and elite women. Its features present challenges for determining its dates and the level of social status it represents or confers. The similarity between the aksu’s butterflies and those in a checkerboard unku in the Field Museum provides suggestive evidence for its use in an official state setting. …

Inka Khipus, Thread Wrappings And Subject Markers, Lucrezia Milillo

IX Jornadas Internacionales de Textiles Precolombinos y Amerindianos / 9th International Conference on PreColumbian and Amerindian Textiles, Museo delle Culture, Milan, 2022

This work aims to contribute to our current understanding of how information was organized in khipus, Andean colourful knotted cords used as writing. If the idea that khipu signs could work as a flow chart was common in the last two decades, it is not until the notion of kayte as subject marker was elaborated by Sabine Hyland on the basis of Julio C. Tello's notes that the theory could be discussed on more empirical grounds. So far, the term “kayte” applied to needlework bundles, pompons or tufts attached to the beginning of the primary cord. In this work, the …

Evidencias De Tecnología Textil En Un Basural Del Santuario De Pachacamac, Rommel Angeles Falcón, Susana Abad, Janet Oshiro

IX Jornadas Internacionales de Textiles Precolombinos y Amerindianos / 9th International Conference on PreColumbian and Amerindian Textiles, Museo delle Culture, Milan, 2022

Recientes excavaciones arqueológicas en el santuario arqueológico de Pachacamac, valle de Lurín, Costa Central del Perú, permitieron identificar un denso basural del período Inca (Siglos XV-XVI) que contenía una importante cantidad de elementos relacionados a la actividad textil: husos, piruros, ovillos, espadas, estacas y peines, entre otros que permiten visualizar la cadena operativa que se realizaba en el santuario de Pachacamac.

Recent archaeological investigations in the archeological site of Pachacamac (Lurin Valley, Central Coast of Peru) allowed us to identify a dense Inca garbage dump (XV-XVI centuries) that contained an important amount of textile artifacts: spindles, piruros, balls, swords, stakes …

Equivalencias Entre La Indumentaria De Mesoamérica Y De La Zona Andina, Victòria Solanilla Demestre

IX Jornadas Internacionales de Textiles Precolombinos y Amerindianos / 9th International Conference on PreColumbian and Amerindian Textiles, Museo delle Culture, Milan, 2022

Al igual que en Jornadas anteriores presenté signos comunes en los textiles, mi interés sigue siendo buscar paralelismos y/o significados parecidos o iguales entre las dos principales zonas culturales de América precolombina: Mesoamérica y la Zona Andina, ya que creo firmemente que hubo contactos entre ellas. En esta ocasión trataré el tema de las equivalencias en las indumentarias, que creo necesitará igualmente diferenciarlas fuentes de información, como hice en anteriores ocasiones. En Mesoamérica, es preceptiva la consulta de las fuentes escritas; y en este caso las dibujadas, pues serán las principales. Además, recurriremos al estudio de las figurillas de arcilla …

Entre Lo Simbólico Y Lo Material. Textiles Moche Para La Eternidad, Arabel Fernández López

IX Jornadas Internacionales de Textiles Precolombinos y Amerindianos / 9th International Conference on PreColumbian and Amerindian Textiles, Museo delle Culture, Milan, 2022

Una revisión de distintas evidencias materiales provenientes principalmente de contextos funerarios de personajes de la élite gobernante mochica, así como de las imágenes plasmadas en la cerámica, metales y arte mural policromo, dejan entrever aspectos poco conocidos sobre el rol que cumplió la textilería en esta sociedad (100 – 850 d. C.), revelando una serie de temas simbólicos vinculados a los mitos y ritos que formaron parte de la cosmovisión andina mochica que, además, se fundieron con la propuesta ideológica impuesta por la clase gobernante. Las evidencias y contextos registrados durante las excavaciones arqueológicas permiten sostener que, en los distintos …

Behind The Scenes In Museum Collecting: The Destinies Of Henry Wellcome’S Pre-Hispanic Textiles, Penelope Dransart

IX Jornadas Internacionales de Textiles Precolombinos y Amerindianos / 9th International Conference on PreColumbian and Amerindian Textiles, Museo delle Culture, Milan, 2022

In this article, I explore the sale of pre-Hispanic textiles from Andean countries, especially Peru, demonstrating networks between collectors, auction houses and researchers. Sir Henry S. Wellcome (1856-1936) was a North American pharmaceutical entrepreneur. After transferring his commercial interests to London in 1880, he bought textiles and other antiquities at auctions. I outline the activities of Wellcome staff in registering the textiles in Wellcome’s store at Willesden, London. Textiles which preserve Wellcome labels now in the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, and the National Museums of Liverpool are described. I examine the case of a distinctive Wari …

Las Warakas (Hondas) De Arena Blanca, Cerro Colorado Y Wari Kayan En La Península De Paracas: Nuevos Datos E Interpretaciones, Jessica Lévy Contreras, Ann H. Peters

IX Jornadas Internacionales de Textiles Precolombinos y Amerindianos / 9th International Conference on PreColumbian and Amerindian Textiles, Museo delle Culture, Milan, 2022

Las hondas o warakas halladas en la Península de Paracas, contextos mortuorios que datan del final del Formativo Tardío a inicios del Periodo Intermedio Temprano, 400 a.C. – 250 d.C., ofrecen datos inéditos para entender mejor su confección, uso y función simbólica. A partir del estudio de los registros gráficos y fotográficos de las excavaciones de la tumba T.27 en Arena Blanca, realizadas por Engel y Bischof en 1959, hemos desarrollado un nuevo estudio de sus materiales, tanto para la recuperación de los datos como para su puesta en valor, teniendo en cuenta las problemáticas arqueológicas actuales. Hemos comparado los …