Museum Studies Commons^™

Arimatsu To Africa: Shibori Textiles Developed For African Trade In 1948–49, Yoshiko Iwamoto Wada

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Shibori is a traditional Japanese textile term now widely used to classify a variety of patterns created on cloth by plucking, stitching, folding and then tightly knotting, binding, or clamping to compress and selectively resist dye penetration. The resulting patterns record the memory on cloth of the processes it sustained. Reading the resist marks on the cloth, shibori artisans can recreate the process or interpret various patterns. For the Textile Society of America’s Fifteenth Biennial Symposium in 2016 I organized a session with papers contributed by Françoise Cousin, Annie Ringuedé, and Ana Lisa Hedstrom and an exhibition titled “Arimatsu to …

Slipstitch: A Survey Of Contemporary Narrative-Based Stitch And Embroidery Practices In Australia, Belinda Von Mengersen

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Slipstitch, an Australian exhibition of contemporary stitch artworks was discussed in a panel session titled, Allegory and Subversion: contemporary stitch narratives, cross-cultural influences and international perspectives. This presentation situated the exhibition as one example within a broader view of contemporary allegorical, speculative and provisional stitch practices emerging within Australia and Internationally. Slipstitch is an Ararat Regional Art Gallery and National Exhibitions Touring Support (NETS) Victoria touring exhibition (2015-2017), curated by Dr Belinda von Mengersen. Slipstitch presented an Australian perspective on the contemporary uptake of stitch and embroidery practice by a new generation of artists. Long overdue, it was the first …

Abstracts & Author Biographies For Textile Society Of America, 15th Biennial Symposium (2016): Crosscurrents: Land, Labor, And The Port

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Dr. Heather J Abdelnur, Ph.D.

Reena Aggarwal

Patricia Alvarez

Cecilia Anderson

Emily Anderson

Lynne Anderson

Jaiya A Anka

Adebowale Biodun Areo and Margaret Olugbemisola Areo

Margaret Olugbemisola Areo and Adebowale Biodun Areo

David Arrellanes

Jenny Balfour-Paul

Suzi Ballenger

Ruth Barnes

Jody Benjamin

Carole F. Bennett

Julie Berman

Noga Bernstein

Medha Bhatt

Amy Bogansky

Elaine Bourque

Laurie A Brewer

Carrie Brezine

Donna Brown

Sarah S. Broomfield

Susan Brown

Heather R Buechler

Shelby A Burchett

Tara R Bursey

Bonnie S. Carter

Nynne J Christoffersen

Laura Cochrane

Lia Cook

Françoise Cousin

Jamie Credle

Maria Curtis

Pamela I Cyril-Egware

Sonja K Dahl

Mary Lou …

The Fashion Diplomacy And Trade Of Kashmir Shawls: Conversations With Shawl Artisans, Designers And Collectors., Deborah Emmett

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

We travelled to the semi rural outskirts of Srinagar in Kashmir to the home of Muneer, a kani shawl weaver. In a small room on the third floor of his house Muneer sat side by side with his friend Hamid at their loom. Each weaver worked pulling small sticks wound in pashmina threads through the weft while carefully referring to a paper tucked under the warp threads on the loom. The woven design on kani shawls is formed by the manipulation of small wooden sticks called tojis that interlock different coloured threads to complete each weft of the shawl. The …

Applications Of Cross Dyeing With Natural Dyes, Catharine Ellis

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

I am a weaver and a dyer with a passion for continued investigation of these disciplines. My work integrates the two processes of weaving on the loom and dyeing the cloth after it is removed from the loom. I have spent over 25 years developing and refining a technique that I have named woven shibori. Supplemental threads are woven into the cloth while it is on the loom. Once the weaving is complete, the supplemental threads are used to gather the cloth, creating a resist for dyeing or shaping.

Both weaving and dying are essential to the final textile. I …

Growing A Dye Garden, Donna Brown

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Imagine looking out from your patio to an inspiring vista of the Denver Botanic Gardens Chatfield Farms (DGB). Add to this a life-long love of natural dyes. Can you envision the garden down there, the blossoms of cosmos and coreopsis, the rows of indigo, the spreading madder, the hopi sunflowers nodding in the breeze? I am Donna Brown and this has been my vision ever since we moved to our “room with a view” that overlooks DGB, a 750 acre native plant refuge and working farm housing the Hildebrand Ranch, an historic homestead with cutting and herb gardens I am …

Bead And Beadwork Traditions: A Study Of Trade And Cultural Exchanges Across The Coast Of Gujarat, East Africa And The Red Sea, Medha Bhatt

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Indian cotton textiles were the key commodity that powered the Indian Ocean trade exchanges. Gujarat played a significant role not only in the manufacture of cotton textiles but also carnelian beads that was used for commercial trade exchanges in the markets of East Africa, the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. While these two commodities of trade have been studied separately in detail, less well examined is the interaction between the two and the emergence of glass beads in the commercial exchanges of the trading communities of Gujarat. The bonding of the beads to the fabric led to a sophisticated …

From Chintz To Chita: A Brazilian Textile And The Construction Of National Identity, Willian Nassu

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Bilingualism has always been a constant in my life. My father’s side of the family migrated from Japan as my surname suggests, whereas my mother is of Polish descent. But while my father comprehends Japanese and my mother grasps some Polish, I was denied learning either languages. Since I was born and raised in Brazil, I have Portuguese as my first language, and acquired English as my second. The ability to use these two languages – sometimes mixed and other times switching – along with this multicultural background, has had some ripple effects. The first one was an inclination to …

Cutting Edge Technology: Knitting In The Early Modern Era, Jane Malcolm-Davies Dr.

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

New scientific evidence of trade in raw materials and finished goods for the knitted textile trade is emerging from a study of more than 100 extant knitted caps from the 16th century. These long-overlooked archaeological data are being re-excavated from museum archives for analysis in innovative ways. The caps are recorded in European collections as having been shipwrecked, deliberately concealed, preserved in peat bogs, or discarded as beyond use. Many were unearthed during construction work in cities, during building renovations or discovered on the seabed in far-flung locations across Europe – as far north as Norway and as far south …

Shifu: A Traditional Paper Textile Of Japan, Hiroko Karuno

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Looking back at the history of Japanese textiles, the beginning seems to be braiding and/or netting fibers made from tree bark or tall grass (Jomon period - approximately C13th - C10th BC.). Weaving seems to appear after the mid-Jomon period. Silk was brought into Japan in the late-Jomon to the Yayoi period (600BC-200AD), and for a long time its use was restricted to the upper class. During the Momoyama period (1573-1603) cotton seeds were introduced and cotton grown in Japan. By the mid-Edo period (1603-1868) cotton cultivation had spread over the southern part of Japan, and cotton became available to …

Textile Art As A Locus Of Colonization And Globalization: The Tapestry Project, Eunkyung Jeong Mfa, Ph.D.

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Tapestry Project was a 3+ year effort to plan, fund, design, create, and exhibit a 7’ x 14’ work of collaborative fiber art in a small rural community in Western Oklahoma. This project was remarkable for the ways it exhibited the historical concepts of colonization and globalization. From its inception, the project featured aspects of colonization, since the project’s formally trained founder envisioned herself sharing her knowledge and experience with interested but untrained local amateurs both for nobler purposes but also in order to help ensure her own tenure and promotion. While the “colonial oppressor” eventually succeeded in this quest, …

Byzantine And Oriental Silks From A Royal Shrine In Denmark Ad 1100, Anne Hedeager Krag

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

In Denmark, in Odense, the Danish King Canute IV was murdered July 10, 1086, from behind in front of the altar in Albani Church. The king was killed together with his brother Benedict and seventeen of his knights, by Danish rebels. His half-brother Eric I “the Evergood” (ruling 1095-1103) achieved Canute’s recognition as a saint from Pope Urban II in 1098, and in 1100 the shrine containing the body of St. Canute was installed at the high altar of Odense Cathedral.1 St. Canutes remains were wrapped in a silk weaving with eagle motif and put into a shrine. Today the …

Tablet Weaving In Myanmar, Tomoko Torimaru

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Tablet weaving is one of the oldest techniques of expressing patterns, including script, with a warp thread. It is practiced in an extremely limited area and was considered a rare weaving technology. However, in the past it was developed to a level of highly skilled production among the people of Burma (now Myanmar). The scripts reveal the patronage of specific Buddhist believers and sometimes the provenance of the textile. The script on the belt that secures the covering on the sacred book of the palm leaf manuscript of Myanmar includes dates that establish that this type of weaving was practiced …

Importing Irish Linen And Creating American ‘Art Moderne’: An Analysis Of An Early 20th Century Trade Catalog, Lacy Simkowitz

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

During the late 1920s, a collaborative effort was launched by designers and manufacturers in the United States to develop indigenous modern decorative arts and unite art with industry. They were motivated by the realization that Europe surpassed U.S. in the production of contemporary furnishings—a fact made evident at the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in 1925, an event that the U.S. tellingly declined to participate in because it believed it could not meet the requirement of presenting new and original designs.1 The exhibition, a selection of which toured the US in 1926, became a model for the …

Mending As Metaphor: Finding Community Through Slow Stitching In A Fast Paced World, Ruth Katzenstein Souza

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

There is a growing movement toward repair and mending to combat the waste and over consumption that is so toxic to our planet. The environmental damage caused by textile production is the second greatest source of pollution after the oil industry.2 In light of these immense issues that are complex and overwhelming I found myself asking; “what can I do to add to the repair of the world?” I realized that we need to mend what we can in our immediate life; to truly see what needs our attention and to assess what is broken and see beauty in the …

Imagining Conquest: El Tapiz And Postrevolutionary Mexico*, Regina A. Root

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

When submitting my abstract over a year and a half ago, I had many questions of the artifact to which I would dedicate a year of intense study, the so called Tillett tapestry. I took a giant leap of hope, planning ahead with radical optimism, knowing that nothing had been published before about this subject and thinking through the material I had. Following the leads in this project became more of a Pandora’s box than imagined because its archival recovery process and oral interviews with family members and relatives converged and diverged in unexpected ways. What seemed remarkably obvious became …

The Textile Artist’S Archive: Approaches To Creating, Collecting And Preserving Artistic Legacy, Jessica Shaykett, Kathleen Mangan, Lia Cook, Stephanie Zollinger Dr., Fannie Ouyang

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

The catalyst for the following discussion of the artist’s archive in the context of fiber and textile art grew out of several in-depth consultations I have had in my time as librarian and archivist at the American Craft Council, two examples of which I’d like to briefly highlight in this introduction. First, a series of phone calls from Jenelle Porter and Sarah Parrish, senior curator and research fellow respectively, at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. Porter and Parrish were researching artists for “Fiber: Sculpture 1960-Present”, the first exhibition in over forty years to examine abstraction in fiber art …

Engineered Ikat Textile Of Gujarat - A Design Intervention, Shohrat S. Saiyed, Reena Bhatia Ph.D.

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

India – the country of rich heritage and culture is pictured through its traditional textiles which are kept alive through generations by the craftsman and his workmanship. Patola of Patan known as a double ikat silk textile, manifests the richness of heritage craft in dazzling colours and admirable motifs, but is a time consuming yarn resist textile. It cannot be duplicated anymore, since the GI recognition is served for its products under the name Patan Patola. The low cost variants of the celebrated Patan Patola have emerged in the Saurashtra region of Gujarat since last four decades as a single …

Sadu Weaving: The Pace Of A Camel In A Fast-Moving Culture, Lesli Robertson

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

As a Fulbright Specialist in Kuwait in 2015, I was introduced to a textile known as sadu, which loosely translated means “moving at the pace of a camel.“ This rich textile has been a part of the traditionally nomadic Bedouin culture of the Middle East, and is front and center in fast moving Kuwait. Hugging the shores of the Arabian Gulf, Kuwait is at the intersection of desert and gulf, a nation full of progress, forward thinking, and contemporary approaches to practically everything. On Gulf Road, right in the heart of Kuwait City sits the center of sadu weaving, Beit …

Some Of The Weavings Used In Turkish Bath In The Context Of Intangible Cultural Heritage, Ayşem Yanar, Feryal Söylemezoğlu, Zeynep Erdoğan, Özlen Özgen

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Hand weaving has a very old history in Anatolia. In addition to carpet and rugs, almost in every region it could be possible to see local weavings. Some of the weavings perished and others still continue to exist. These weavings which have to be evaluated as intangible cultural heritage have been protected by the geographical indication suspended license in order to protect them from losing their unique properties. Changes in the dynamics of tourism with the improvements in technology and the emergence of alternative forms of tourism, have increased the importance of local and touristic products. Turkish Bath has always …

Kashmir Shawls: The Perfect Exemplar Of A Textile Shaping And Being Shaped, Joan Hart

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

The history of the Kashmir shawl and its stylistic progress and appropriation by other cultures reveals that an art form can be viewed as is (sui generis), and also in a context of social life that is not always what we would like to celebrate. And because the shawls have been made over centuries, this context has changed frequently.1 The Kashmir shawl is very special because it combines: a material that is extremely rare and luxurious which we now call cashmere or pashmina, a weave structure that is unique in its region and very complex, a symbolism of design motifs …

Revitalization Of The Handloom Heritage Of Chhota Udepur, Gujarat, Bhatia Reena Phd., Pawar Pooja M.Sc.

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

The rich and beautiful products of the weavers of India have been rightly called “Exquisite poetry in colourful fabrics.” These beautiful traditional textiles were woven on the simple loom and the technique has been passed on through generations. However, many traditional weavers have either lost or are fast-loosing the essence and aesthetics of their indigenous crafts and craftsmanship. The researcher’s concern is for the preservation and revitalization of one such handloom heritage, the tribal cloth of Chotta Udepur, Gujarat, before it vanishes from our sight was high. Snow ball technique was used to draw a convenience sample. The data was …

The Changing Role Of Chaguar Textiles In The Lives Of The Wichí, An Indigenous People Of Argentina, Rachel Green

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Beating, spinning, and sewing fiber, a woman works to perpetuate her culture a thread and stitch at a time. While her hands work expertly and she talks casually, Carolina is crocheting a hat from a fiber called chaguar to be worn under a motorcycle helmet. She learned to crochet five years ago from a nonindigenous woman whose house she was paid to clean. Because crocheting is not a traditional technique, she only does it to sell to the local townspeople, preferring the techniques from her Wichí heritage. “Wichí” means simply “the people” in her original language. Their culture is centered …

Title: Ajrakh- A Textile Tradition In Transition, Sharmila J. Dua Prof. Dr.

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

The region of Gujarat in the west has been an important textile export zone of India and remains an important source of printed cloth, in terms of both volume and quality. Early evidence of Gujarat’s involvement in international trade of colourful block printed textiles comes from the fragments found at the Fostat excavations in Egypt. These have been dated back to the fifteenth century and have been printed by the resist printing technique. The designs, motifs and colours are typical of the hand block printed textiles characteristic of the region today. Khavda and Dhamadka villages in Kutch were known for …

Dyeing With Morinda Citrifolia: In Pursuit Of Sustainable Future, Sudha Dhingra

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Green and sustainable practices are the future of fashion. It aims to nurture the environment through effective use of resources in order to minimize the cruel impact for both producer and customer. It employs techniques of environmental friendly ways of growing, extracting, producing and processing fabrics. Fashion industry as such involves highly unsustainable practices as there is always an urgent need to get faster and uniform results. It has a high carbon footprint as each stage of clothing lifecycle generates environmental and occupational hazards. Socially committed fashion takes into account the place of production, producers well-being and conditions under which …

“Meshed With A Million Veins”: Seafaring Networks & The Norfolk Sampler, Joanne Martin Lukacher

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

The title of this article is taken from a line of a poem by the 19th-century Georgia poet Sidney Lanier and is presented as an homage to the location of the 2016 TSA conference. “And the marsh is meshed with a million veins” is Lanier’s description of “The Marshes of Glynn” in his poem of the same name, Glynn being one of the Atlantic coastal counties south of Savannah. I have taken this alliterative evocation of the sinuous verge of land and sea as a metaphorical point of embarkation for a discussion of the distinctive needlework of another, more distant, …

The Power Of Color: Anatolian Kilims, Sumru Belger Krody

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

The kilims of Anatolia are great contemplative and minimalist works of art as stated by a kilim enthusiast.1 Created by women who had a magnificent eye for design and an awesome sense of color, these textiles are prized for the purity and harmony of their color, the integrity of their powerful overall design, their masterfully controlled weave structure, and their fine texture. The kilims are large tapestry-woven textiles. The visually stunning and colorful Anatolian kilims communicate the aesthetic choices of the village and nomadic women who created them. Yet, while invested with such artistry, Anatolian kilims first and foremost were …

For What It’S Worth: The French Knot As A Basic Trade Commodity, Jeana Eve Klein

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

For nearly twenty years, my primary studio production has been in the form of mixed media quilts. These quilts draw—both visually and conceptually—on the abandoned houses that color the landscape of my North Carolina mountain home. They are constructed using traditional quilting techniques married with digital processes and acrylic paint—a hybrid product that lands at the intersection of fibers, photography, painting and digital media. Although their conceptual purpose is to investigate the narrative past, present and future of these homes and their values, the questions with which I am most often quizzed at exhibitions focus purely on time and technique: …

Here And There, Now, Sandra Heffernan

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

A textile installation shaped by traditional embroidery, geographical differences, technology and novel natural dye is the focus of this paper. ‘Through the globe’ [Através do globo] is the result of a six week artist in residency at Contextile 2016 in Guimarães, Portugal.1 It builds upon environmental pest invasive weed dye research, interprets ‘traditional’ embroidery illustrating the poetics of place.2 The essence of Guimarães embroidery provides the narrative along the fourteen metre length and is the physical embodiment of the antipodal link between and Wellington, New Zealand. The challenge offered by Contextile 2016 was to collaborate with Oficina embroiderers to learn, …

Some National Goods In 1871: The Rebozo, Marta Turok

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

The history of rebozos and jaspe (ikat) in Mexico still presents many enigmas and fertile field for research. Public and private collections in Mexican and foreign museums preserve a variety of rebozos from the mid-18th through the 20th centuries. However, it has been complicated to correlate these extant pieces with exact places of production and dates. Other sources such as written accounts and images focus mostly on their social uses, sometimes places of production or sale are merely mentioned yet techniques and designs are the information least dealt with. Virginia Davis mentions this problem while analyzing the Frederick Church collection …