Autumn Gardens and the Textile Museum

Autumn gardens are lovely riots of color, unlike the quiet spring gardens of pastel flowers.  Acres of pumpkins and fields of asters and sunflowers.

Today, I wish to write about another garden: “The Sultan’s Garden”, an exhibition at The Textile Museum of Washington, D.C., through March 10, 2013.

Opening reception for The Sultan’s Garden at the Textile Museum

Art of the Ottoman Empire exemplifies the wealth and influence of an empire that spanned three continents and seven centuries.  Beginning in the mid 16^th C Ottoman art changed from the “saz” style characterized by calligraphic and elaborate imagery and Chinese influences to a highly stylized floral bouquet of tulips, roses, carnations and other flowers. Sultan Suleyman the Magnificient and his vizier, Rustem Pasa along with an apprentice, Kara Memi, who rose to run the royal studio of design, supported this change, which would become vastly popular and extended far beyond the royal courts.  This artistic style would reach throughout the Ottoman Empire, through Spain and Northern Africa as well as Europe and Asia.  The Arabic influence in Spain would then be transported to Spain’s possessions in the new world and these magnificent images of flowers still live in the textiles of this tradition: velvets, silks and carpets.
The exhibition catalog by Walter B. Denny and Sumru Belger Krody is available in the Textile Museum Shop.

 

These books are good sources of Ottoman textiles

Flowers of Silk and Gold, Sumru Belger Krody, The Textile Museum, Washington, DC, 2000
Ottoman Embroidery, Marianne Ellis & Jennifer Wearden, V&A Publications, Harry N. Abrams, 2001

The Textile Museum is located at 2320 S Street in a lovely Georgian-style house in a quiet DC neighborhood.  Founded in 1925 by George Hewitt Myers, a textile expert and collector, the Museum is actually housed in Myers’ family home.  While this is all lovely, the reality is that the museum is small and lacks sufficient space for storage, conservation and research.  This month there will be ground-breaking for a new 35,000 sq ft facility on the campus of George Washington University on the corner of G and 21^st Street.  Also GWU will construct an additional 20,000 sq ft building for conservation and research on its campus in Loudon Co., VA.  Until the completion scheduled for 2014, the collection will remain in it present location.

For more information about the museum and membership benefits contact www.textilemuseum.org.

National Museum of Natural History Support Center

National Museum of Natural History Support Center

Last week I wrote about attending the Textile Society of America’s 13^th biennial symposium in Washington, D.C.  One of the extra activities available to attendees was a site seminar and I chose to visit the National Museum of Natural History Support Center in Suitland, Maryland.  I’m sure every visitor to our capital visits the Smithsonian Institute Museums on the mall.  One could certainly spend weeks at these splendid sites.  Thousands of items of every description are on display at each of the museums, but when one thinks about it, you realize that there must be much, much more stored behind the scenes for study, conservation and preservation.

At the study center we had the opportunity to visit with the anthropology department and view only the smallest number of their extensive collection (over 1,000,000 +).

I will let my photos speak for the experience.

From the conference hotel in D.C. we board our bus for Suitland, Maryland

 Study room at the center

As you can see we could closely examine and photograph, but, of course, no touching!

In the 1850's, federal law required Presidents to give the museum any diplomatic gifts they receive from foreign countries.  This magnificent silk brocade was a gift from the Queen of Madagascar to President Grover Cleveland

Kashmir shawls and the accompanying documentation presented to President Van Buren

Rolls of textiles in storage

Commodore Perry received many textiles on his diplomatic visits to Japan, including dolls and these lovely fans.

I took many photos of the collection which I will share as illustrations of other topics in future blogs.

I wish to thank the staff of the center for their hospitality and the sharing of their knowledge. 

 It is possible for researchers to visit the study center for individual study and groups can be accommodated with advanced notice.

Textile Society of America Symposium

Last week I attended the Textile society of America’s biennial symposium in Washington, D.C.  I have enjoyed membership in the society for many years.  For anyone not familiar with TSA let me briefly explain.  The Textile Society of  America is a nonprofit organization, established in 1987, with over 700 members in 36 countries.  The membership includes anthropologists and archeologists, museum curators, textile historians and teachers, designers and textile makers, as well as collectors of textile and dealers.  Besides the wonderful biennial conference some other benefits of membership include workshops and study tours, an online newsletter, an extensive bibliography of textile publications co-published with the University of Minnesota and a membership directory.  There is also a website which is right now being expanded and will be up this month.  The TSA’s mission “ is to provide an international forum for the exchange and dissemination of information about textiles worldwide, from artistic, cultural, economic, historic, political, social and technical perspectives”. (Elena Phillips, President, TSA)  That is quite the statement but, actually, it is because of this wide range of involvement that brings together so many disciplines, giving everyone interested in textiles an opportunity for interaction and learning.

The Symposium was the 13^th conference of the society and included more than 450 members plus visiting lecturers.  There were site tours of various museums and textile collections (I attended a private tour, there were only 12 of us, of the Natural History Museum Support Center, for a behind-the scene look at the extensive collection of the anthropology department.  Join me next week for my adventure.)  There were 15 different tours offered and I wish I could have attended them all but unfortunately all tours were the same afternoon, so much to learn, so little time. There was a private tour by the Textile Museum of their new exhibition ( again, another blog) and there were 3 sessions per day, 3 days, of 6 concurrent sessions each with 3-5 speakers per session from which one could chose to attend.  That adds up to more than 112 mini lectures on every textile topic one could imagine.  Again the choice was often difficult as everything in the lecturer’s abstracts sounded intriguing.  If this was not overkill enough, there is also included in each symposium additional tours that take place before and after the official conference.

Now comes the fun part, and that is shopping.  A market place of textile vendors included a fabulous selection of clothing, vintage and ethnic pieces, jewelry and accessories.

 If any member has not participated in a symposium, I would strongly urge you to consider attending.  The location for 2014 is Los Angeles.  And any textile scholar, designer, or textile lover and collector that is not a member should visit the website for more information.

tsa@textilesociety.org

Or contact: Textile society of America

P.O. Box 193

Middleton, DE 19709

Labor Day Continued

To continue our discussion on workers...

Every modern nation undergoes an industrial revolution as it enters into the competitive world of manufacture and trade.  One of the first industries to be transformed is the textile industry.  First with  water power for mills, then power looms, textile production goes from the home and small workshops to the first factory systems. When other crafts follow, the machine age has begun. Now, when a country moves from an agri-economy to an industrial one, it is greeted as a sign of coming prosperity and modernization.  That was not always the case.  For example, in England there was great controversy with opponents decrying the machines as the enemy of workers, taking their jobs and producing inferior goods.  (Sounds a bit like today)  One institution that has long praised the worker, whether the craftsman in his workshop or the factory worker on the assembly line is the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Their premise, which was and still is illustrated by examples of workmanship, has been that there can be good and poor quality in machine-made goods, just as there are good and poor examples of hand-crafted products. While workers may be replaced by machines, new jobs are formed.  New workers are needed to manufacture the machines themselves and well as maintain them.  More production means more sorting, packaging, distribution and advertising. Change is not always easy, but inevitable.

Where there are advantages, there are also abuses.  Dickens' stories of Victorian life, so  depressing,  were, I think, an understatement.  Thousands of people descended upon the cities seeking employment.  In no way were these cities in a position to sustain even the poorest quality of life for all.

The factory conditions were appalling and the treatment of the workers even worse.  Why?  EXPECTATIONS!  The cost to furnish, even a small workshop-factory with the new machinery was   enormous.  Investors EXPECTED a return on their monies, a big return, and they EXPECTED the managers and supervisors to produce. In turn, the supervisors could only satisfy if they hired as many workers as possible for the lowest of wages, kept long working hours and ignored concerns of health and safety for the workers.  The question is why did the workers stay?  They were not slaves, nor serfs.  They were free to return to their rural life and raise turnips!  EXPECTATIONS!

Some felt that if they worked diligently, they may, someday ,be promoted and earn more (right!).  Some believed that if they, their wife and children all worked night and day they could collectively save a few pennies and eventually have a better life (Some of us believe we will win Megabucks with a $1 ticket).

The majority were just stuck, downbeatened and barely surviving with no hope of anything better.

By uniting in trade and workers unions and cooperatives, workers had strength in numbers and demanded reforms.  This also was a double edged sword. The manufacturers violently opposed this system, the unions, in turn, proposed strikes and slowdowns with violence toward non-union member workers. While management grudgingly accepted the unions' role the power of the unions and their leaders was immense. Graft, political influences, and criminal associations were not unheard of.  Reforms, for both union and non-union workers,  came with legislation.  Labor laws reduced the hours workers were forced to perform and minimum wages demanded a more uniform pay scale.  There was legislation against child labor and and compensation for workers injured on the job.  Agencies were set up to inspect factories and ensure safe working conditions.

But today, there are still mining disasters, oil-rig explosions and worker injuries due to faulty and poorly maintained equipment.  There remains the problems of human trafficking and child labor issues.  Think coffee, chocolate and high-priced sneakers. 

To paraphrase an economic principle “ where there is demand, there will be someone to supply”.  But at what cost?

Labor Day

Celebrating the contribution of workers, Labor Day, the first Monday in September, was made a federal holiday in 1894.    Many other countries have special days to honor their working people.  Let’s go back in history to study the evolution of the worker’s movement. 

Earliest man lived in groups, clans and family tribes where, presumably, all contributed in some way for the survival of the group.  It wasn’t until these groups and tribes came together to form settlements, of sorts, that duties became more specialized.  Also, at this time, there came to be another source for labor, slavery.

So from early times there were always peoples who had been captured in tribal wars, the intellectually challenged and the dissidents who became enslaved to work the fields and perform the laborious (and onerous) tasks others preferred not to take on.  As man evolved and civilizations gradually created large, central cities the need for this enforced labor pool became an economic necessity.  All the “great” civilizations relied upon this labor source. 

Now we come to the end of those “great” civilizations where the cities outgrew the ability of the authorities to provide the goods and services necessary to sustain them, and man left the urban life for the rural, agricultural way of life of the past.  However, there was a great difference between the very earliest settlements and those of the Middle Ages. In Europe, by 900 CE there were more than 200 great families of the aristocracy (called the higher nobility) and these families owned more than 80% of the arable land. The social hierarchy of those days was :

                                                            #1 the Church with the Pope as the ultimate authority.  His power exceeded the kings and emperors of the European countries.

                                                             #2 the Middle Class, consisting of knights, gentry and yeomen

 ( freeholders who worked their own land)

                                                              #3 and virtually everyone else

Thus was born the feudal system, the manorial economic system in which the landholder used the social classes below him for his support.  The knights pledged their allegiance to fight for their manor lord, often having to supply their own horses and weaponry.

But the basis for this social system rested with the serfs, the lowest of group #3.  Now the serfs were not, strictly speaking, slaves.  They were workers bound to the land but were allowed property for their own use after having tended the property of the landowner.  Some serfs were workers in simple manufactory, craft and agricultural-related fields.  For their work they were granted the protection of the landlord.  Serfs were permitted to marry whomever they chose but could not leave the land of their lord.  They, themselves, were not the property of the landowner, but their forced labor was.

By the late middle ages the feudal system was gradually replaced by strong royalty-based states in England and Europe.  Trade was of major importance and guilds gradually were introduced into the social structure.  Some refer to guilds as the forerunners of the workers unions.  However, there were many differences in the organization of guilds and their later counterparts, unions.  A guild had to be chartered by the king (or equivalent in whatever country) and was managed on a local level under the authority of the town or city.  But the primary purpose of the guild, unlike a union was not the protection of the members but protection of their product.  In large centers nearly every occupation was under the representation of a guild.  The guilds wielded a fair amount of power.  The rules for membership in a guild were strict and members were divided into apprentices, journeymen and masters.  Each guild laid down rules concerning the quality of its product, methods of manufacture and the price.  This system of monopoly could potentially lead to abuse and it was up to the royal government to oversee the guilds, but where there were small, self-governing towns the system was often not controlled.

Textile guilds such as spinners, weavers, dyers and fullers as well as silk-making were among the earliest guilds.  London’s first chartered guild was the weaver’s guild.

Generally, women were excluded from guild membership, some allowed women to join but not in full participation.

Although there were obvious advantages in the guild system, one of the main disadvantages lay in the fact that the guild controlled all methods of manufacturey. This prevented innovation and if a group decided to use newer methods they were forced to leave the guilds.  One such example was the fullers of the wool industry. They turned to water-power and were then locating their mills in rural areas to avoid the guilds. 

As other innovations were developed the power of the guilds was diminished.

The system of trade unionism, many years later was an important influence on the textile industry and , perhaps, I will leave that discussion for next week.

Magical Mirrors and Special Shells

 There is something irresistible about a mirror.  It dazzles, it shines and it reflects light so that you can see your own image when you open your compact.  Who can resist checking yourself out when passing a mirror in a store in the off chance you have become the twin of Audrey Hepburn, while crossing the parking lot.  (I happen to think Miss Hepburn was the most beautiful and classiest woman).  Shiny elements are so attractive they are used in luring us to buy lurex and satin and dresses with rhinestones, not to mention diamond baubles to wear to the palace.  Advertisers have a field day with mirrors and reflective surfaces.

The earliest mirrors were hand mirrors and by the 1^st century CE they were made to reflect the whole body.  These early mirrors were made of highly polished metal.  The use of glass, which was then backed with a metallic coating, was perfected by the Venetians during the Middle Ages.  Today mirrors are made by applying a thin coating of aluminum or silver onto a plate of glass in a vacuum.

To certain ethnic peoples mirrors play a very different role, one of protection.  Some believe, especially in the Islamic world, that mirrors can trap the Evil Eye holding it forever. And because mirrors can also refract (refraction is bending the light ray) it can disperse the power of the Evil Eye.  To those unfamiliar with the concept of the Evil Eye, it simply means that some people possess the power of harming others merely by looking at them.  I believe I have actually met such people.  So it is not unusual to find textiles embellished with small mirrors or other reflective objects in NW India into Afghanistan, Central and Eastern Europe and W. Sumatra  where there is a history if Islamic influence.

So onto the Special Shells.  The cowrie shell of the mollusk cypraea moneta, is one of the most powerful of all embroidery embellishments thought to possesses magical powers of protection and to bring good fortune to the wearer of the garment.  The white cowrie is found in the Indian Ocean around the Maldive Islands. This shallow water species is found around reefs and rocky shores.   It was widely accepted as trade and currency.  The shells were embroidered onto royal robes of Africa and headdresses and animal trappings from India to the Middle East.

It is in the textiles of India that the combination of small round mirrors and cowrie appear most often.

The mirrors, originally small bits of mica, now glass or even plastic, are held in place with a few cross stitches and then securely fastened with a button-hole like stitch.  They are not scattered randomly but are usually found to be placed as the eye of an embroidered animal or the center of a flower.  

These plastic "mirrors", ready for use, were purchased as craft supplies

Woman's embroidered head scarf

Embroidered tables cover. Note the mirrors as eyes of the birds and elephant and also as centers of the flowers

Animal forehead cover. Mirrors and cowries shells are used.

Fabric is Faster than Skin

Like millions of other sports fans my husband, Ian and I watched as much of the Olympic Games as we could.  One night while watching swimming competition, Ian observed that “fabric is faster than skin”, referring to the high-tech swimwear that the athletes wore. As I always look for textiles in every situation, I considered including the innovations in sportswear manufacture in today’s blog. 

Adapting clothing and other textiles to environmental conditions is not a new concept.  From earliest days man sought to improve his lifestyle by making improvements to the manner in which textiles were produced, often by trial and error.  Ancient warriors reinforced their body wear with elements from wicker to metal.  The Chinese are credited with the production of asbestos and used this mineral as fireproofing for their firemen.

In April I wrote about the early processes of waterproofing fabric for making rain wear using rubber. Today there are various methods using polyester and polyurethane films, various immersions and other techniques.  There is a very large, detailed website from REI called “Rainwear and How it Works”.

Of course every athletic activity has its own requirements for athletic wear for their athletes.  Often individual participants have their own preferences.  But one does not have to be a professional nor spend hours seeking the newest textile innovations.  Of course there is Internet shopping, but nearly every town has many sources for apparel from big box stores to small specialty sports stores.  Sports such as cycling and running require lightweight wicking fabrics.  Wicking fabrics keep the wearer comfortable by allowing perspiration to wick thru the fabric, keeping cooler in heat and warmer in cold.  The properties of many fabrics do not satisfy this criteria of breathability, polyester for one.

Other outdoor activities  require sun protection.  Many textiles have UV protection, which is important for everyone, but critical for children.

Of course not all outdoor activities are practiced in the warm summer months.  Winter sports need clothing that is lightweight and can retain body heat.

Just as new technology improved tennis rackets, baseball bats and golf clubs, the new sports fabrics can  make our experiences in the gym, on the courts and in the pool more enjoyable.  But they probably will never improve my tennis game.