More textile events, in person and virtual!

Our next OATG Zoom talk will take place on Saturday 11th November 2023 at 11:15 GMT. Please note the change of time. This is to enable those who wish to do so to observe the Armistice Day silence earlier.

Our speaker is Patricia Cheesman, and her subject is Unravelling Tai Textiles from Laos. In this talk she will introduce the complicated types and categories of textiles made by the Tai peoples living in Laos. This huge subject is a labyrinth to many researchers who find the variety of textiles and their identification daunting.

She hopes to unravel the mystery and introduce a method of identification for these textiles that is based on forty years of research in the field and on historical facts. There are numerous groups of Tai living in Laos including the Tai Lao, the largest group.

By looking carefully at the clothing styles, and studying the textiles in detail, a pattern appears that is related to their community identity, not their ethnic group. We can enjoy the beauty and superb weaving techniques as well as delve into some of the shamanic and Buddhist symbols that reveal the cosmology and beliefs of the ancestors.

This event is of course free to OATG members, with a small fee payable by non-members. Please click here to register.

We are aware that the timing of this event doesn’t work for many of our US members – it has to be at this time as our speaker is based in Thailand. Members will be able to access a recording of the talk later via the password protected section of our website.

The way this woman is dressed reveals her community identification as being Xam Nuea style. She is Tai Daeng.

******************************

Also taking place on the same day is a webinar presented by The Hajji Baba Club and the Textile Museum Associates of Southern California. The speaker is James Opie and his subject is “Truly Tribal” in South Persian Weavings.

“What makes a weaving “tribal”? Is it its origin, history, complexity or lack thereof, or something else? In this virtual talk, longtime rug scholar and author James Opie will explore the topic of weavings from southern Iran, emphasising their importance in the canon of Persian weaving, as well as sharing essential assumptions. He will distinguish between urban influenced motifs and indigenous or tribal patterns by way of multiple images. By comparing various tribal confederacies in southern Iran, such as the Qashqa’i, Khamseh, Luri, Bakhtiyari and Afshar, he will further analyse the differences between urban-influenced and indigenous examples.  He will also examine other mediums of art and their impact and connections to southern Iranian rugs.”

The talk will begin at 10 am PT, which is 1 pm ET and 18:00 GMT. It’s free and you can register for it here.

******************************

I blogged last week about the new British Museum exhibition on Burma, which opens on Thursday. On Wednesday 15th November 2023 at 17:30 GMT curator Dr Alexandra Green and Professor Sandra Dudley will present an online introduction to the exhibition, illustrating “the scope, context and themes of the show and examine highlight objects including jade, textiles, lacquer and metalwork.

From influential superpower to repressive regime, Myanmar – also known as Burma – has seen dramatic fluctuations in fortune over the past 1,500 years. Experiencing decades of civil war and now ruled again by a military dictatorship, Myanmar is an isolated figure on the world stage today, and its story is relatively little known in the West. However, the extraordinary artistic output of its peoples, over more than a millennium of cultural and political change, attests to its pivotal role at the crossroads of Asia.” BM website

This online event is free, but you do need to register for it.

******************************

A book on Khmer clothing from ten different eras should be published by the end of this year, according to the Khmer Times.

“Buth Samet, a member of the Commission for the Compilation of Cambodian Costumes, said that the research book is 2,707 pages long and divided into two volumes and will depict 709 costumes from 10 different eras: Nokor Phnom, Chenla, Angkor, Chaktomuk, Longvek, Oudong, French, Sangkum Reastr Niyum, Khmer Republic and the Democratic Kampuchea (Khmer Rouge) periods……. He added that the Royal Academy of Cambodia also aims to establish the National Museum of Khmer clothing to display them for tourism and preserve it as a valuable heritage of Khmer ancestors.” Khmer Times

If each volume is over a thousand pages I need to start doing arm exercises to read it!

Two ancient Khmer costumes documented in the upcoming book of the Royal Academy of Cambodia. Kampuchea Thmey.

******************************

On Saturday 18th November 2023 the Fowler Museum Textile Council will hold its annual sale. This fundraiser offers a curated selection of global textiles, jewelry, baskets, clothing from Guatemala, India, Japan and so much more. Proceeds from the sale support the Fowler’s textile acquisitions, exhibitions, and publications. This is an in person event that runs from 11am until 4pm at the Fowler Museum in Los Angeles.

******************************

Running across 18th-19th November is the World Textiles Bazaar in Edinburgh. This will take place at The Nomad’s Tent, owned by OATG member Andrew Haughton. Whether you are looking for Indonesian batik, African beads or Japanese kimono you are sure to find something of interest!

For more information click here.

******************************

Finally, advance notice of our December event, which will be another Zoom talk. On Thursday 7th December 2023 Sheila Fruman will talk about Pull of the Thread: Textile Travels of a Generation, based on her new book of the same title.

Sheila will focus on nine intrepid travellers, including OATG members Joss Graham and John Gillow, who combed the streets and bazaars of Central and South Asia finding, researching, collecting and selling textile treasures to interested Westerners. Taken together, their stories are an enlightening guide to understanding how we connect to the past, and how textiles connect the world.

The talk begins at 18:30 GMT and registration will open in a couple of weeks time on our website.

******************************

Textile-related papers, talks, exhibitions and books

A new paper by OATG member Chris Buckley has been published in Asian Archaeology.

“This paper presents a new map and account of the emergence and spread of spindle whorls in archaeological sites across southern China and southeast Asia. Spindle whorls are evidence of intensive yarn production, and hence of weaving. In the past two decades a considerable amount of new data on the presence of spindle whorls in the archaeological record has come to light, along with improved dates for existing sites.” – Chris Buckley.

A free copy of this fascinating work can be downloaded here.

******************************

A special exhibition dedicated to weaving with banana fibre (bashofu), is currently taking place at the Japan Folk Crafts Museum in Osaka This exhibition is entitled Kijoka’s Bashofu Story and will run until 19 December 2023.

A short video of the banana fibre exhibition.

The exhibition features the work of master weaver Toshiko Taira, and you may find this article about her by Toshie Tanaka of interest.

******************************

Next a reminder of an exhibition still showing at the Asian Civilisations Museum in Singapore. Textile Masters to the World – the global desire for Indian Cloth runs until 31 December and “spotlights the historic global impact of textile production in India, and its role as evidence of trade and cultural exchange between India and regions such as the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Europe from the 14th to 19th century.” – ACM website

An overview of the exhibition. Image © ACM Singapore.

******************************

OATG members Chris and Angela Legge have an exhibition of Central Asian Ikat of the Nineteenth Century in their Oxford gallery until 21 October 2023, featuring some really stunning textiles. Open Thursday to Saturday and by appointment.

An Uzbek silk robe, currently on display at Legge Gallery in Summertown, Oxford.

******************************

The next OATG event takes place this Thursday 12 October at 18:30 BST in Oxford. Our speaker will be collector and writer Jonathan Hope, and his subject is Some observations on historic Javanese batik. He will show a series of images of batik being prepared and worn in central Java and will discuss the significance of certain traditional patterns and he will share some memories of travelling in Java over a period of almost half a century. He will also bring some textiles from his extensive collection to show attendees.

This event is of course free to OATG members. Non-members are welcome to attend for a small donation. Please click here for more details and to register.

******************************

A new exhibition devoted to Syrian textiles will open on 14 October 2023 at the Katonah Museum of Art, in New York State, and will run until 28 January 2024.

“Stories of Syria’s Textiles: Art and Heritage across Two Millennia highlights textiles’ outstanding contributions to Syrian culture during antiquity and the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as well as today……. In the exhibition’s first section, which focuses on the ancient cities of Dura-Europos and Palmyra, ancient textile fragments will be displayed with sculptures that depict people wearing luxurious clothing with intricate embroidery and silks from China: together, these objects evoke and attest to Syria’s role at the western edge of the Silk Routes in antiquity. The second section features clothing designed and created by skilled artisans in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These textiles reveal the social and cultural traditions not only of elite city residents in Aleppo and Damascus, but also of desert nomads and villagers living in the Syrian countryside and mountains.” – museum website.

Woman’s coat, probably from Northern Syria, late 19th-early 20th century. Photograph courtesy of the Museum of International Folk Art.

******************************

The next event to be hosted by the Textile Museum Associates of Southern California will take place on Saturday 21 October 2023 at 10am PT, 1pm ET, 1800 BST. This is a Zoom talk by author Sheila Fruman and her subject is Pull of the Thread: Textile Travels of a Generation, based on her new book of the same title.

“Sheila Fruman has concentrated on nine intrepid travelers from the 1960s up to now, who, in their youth, combed the streets and bazaars of Central and South Asia finding, researching, collecting and selling antique woven ikat and embroidered Uzbek textiles and robes, Kashmir shawls, Anatolian kilims, Turkmen carpets and many other textile treasures to interested Westerners.  This generation of dealers and collectors all made important and even essential contributions to their fields, publishing books, staging exhibitions, and often gifting items to major institutions such as the V&A and MET.” – TMA/SC 

Pip Rau in her Islington shop in the 1980s

One of these intrepid travellers was Pip Rau. I never had the chance to go to her shop, but did visit a wonderful exhibition of her Central Asian ikat textiles – twice!

This Zoom talk is free, but you do need to register for it here.

******************************

On Sunday 22 October 2023 at 11am OATG member Walter Bruno Brix will be giving a talk at the Museum of Folk History in Vienna as part of the re:Pair Festival. His subject is Mottainai – don’t waste anything!

“Repairing has a long tradition in Japan. Especially with textiles, which are valuable because they had to be made entirely by hand. Obtaining the fibers, spinning the threads and weaving required a lot of time. So it’s understandable that every little scrap of fabric was used and every piece of textile was repaired and recycled. Pants and jackets, even entire garments, were lined with other fabrics and sewn through with small stitches to make them warmer and more durable. Today, sashiko is mostly only known as a decorative technique; it was originally used to make textiles last longer. The word ‘boro’ means shreds in Japanese.” – museum website

******************************

New talks and exhibitions this summer

IMPORTANT – If you subscribe to this blog via email you will need to click on the blog title to take you to our WordPress site to ensure you can view the video included here.

The OATG have recently had a couple of in person events, with a visit to the British Museum and a talk by Rachel Silberstein. Members who are unable to travel to Oxford will be delighted to hear our next event, which will take place in early September, will be an online lecture by Dr Dorothy Armstrong.

In the meantime the next edition of our Asian Textiles journal will be published shortly and members may also enjoy looking at the recordings of some of our previous talks. Simply go to our website and click on the Events section and then on the Members Resources page. You will need to enter the current password, which can be found on the inside back page of the current Journal. I was travelling in April and missed the talk on Frontiersmen of the Crossroad: The Fusion Style of Chinese Shan Dressing by Ake Rittinaphakorn, so am looking forward to watching the recording of it.

******************************

The current exhibition at the Design Museum in London is The Offbeat Sari, curated by Priya Khanchandani. This major exhibition celebrates the contemporary Indian sari, bringing together dozens of the finest and most innovative saris.

“Worn as an everyday garment by some and considered by others to be formal or uncomfortable, the sari has multiple definitions. Conventionally an unstitched drape wrapped around the body, which can be draped in a variety of ways, its unfixed form has enabled it to morph and absorb changing cultural influences.

In recent years, the sari has been reinvented. Designers are experimenting with hybrid forms such as sari gowns and dresses, pre-draped saris and innovative materials such as steel. Young people in cities who used to associate the sari with dressing up can now be found wearing saris and sneakers on their commutes to work. Individuals are wearing the sari as an expression of resistance to social norms and activists are embodying it as an object of protest.” – Design Museum website

The short video below gives an insight into the exhibition, and more information on some of the highlights can be found here.

There is also a book, edited by Priya Khanchandani, to go with the exhibition.

******************************

David Richardson and I will be giving a free online talk on Saturday 29 July 2023 as part of the Textile Museum’s Rug and Textile Appreciation sessions. Our subject will be Changing Women’s Fashions on the Indonesian Island of Sumba. Most textile lovers are aware of the Sumbanese men’s hip wrappers known as hinggi, but many know little about the women’s tubeskirts, known as lau. These are made using a wide variety of techniques, which we will discuss in this talk.

Woman from East Sumba holding a lau hiamba – a tubeskirt made using the ikat technique

The talk is free, and begins at 11:00 EDT/08:00 PDT, which is 16:00 BST, and you can register for it here.

******************************

The New TRIBAL ANTIQUE & DECORATIVE TEXTILES FAIR will take place on Sunday July 30th at St Mary Abbots Centre, Vicarage Gate, W8 4HN, near Kensington Church Street, London. This is an upcoming new antique textile fair, following the demise of the Hilton Olympia Tribal Art Fair. All of the best dealers, from that event and more, will be exhibiting on July 30th. The organisers hope that this will become a destination event and will happen in June and November in subsequent years.

******************************

On Thursday 3 August Assistant Curator Eliza Spindel will be conducting a free tour of the current exhibition on Palestinian embroidery at Kettles Yard in Cambridge, UK. The tour is timed to begin at noon and there is no need to book ahead.

Material Power: Palestinian Embroidery Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge

You can learn more about some of the dresses in the exhibition in this blog. Did you know that the vine leaf motif indicates a dress is from the Hebron area, due to the large number of grapes grown on the Hebron hills?

******************************

I wrote in my previous blog about the new exhibition at the Brunei Gallery in London on the Japanese Aesthetics of Recycling – The Karun Thakar Collection. On Thursday 10 August at 18:00 Karun will be giving a talk and guided tour of the exhibition. Admission is free, and attendance highly recommended!

*****************************

Quite a few members of the OATG are also members of the Textile Museum Associates of Southern California. The TMA/SC are celebrating 38 years of presenting textile programmes next month, and will hold a special event on Saturday 19 August. This will be a symposium and banquet lunch, and they have two great speakers lined up. The first is OATG member and Textile Museum curator Lee Talbot, who will speak about Indian Textiles: 1,000 Years of Art and Design. The second speaker is Professor Walter Denny and his subject will be How We Look at Turkish Carpets: James F. Ballard and a New Way of Collecting. For further details of this event click here.

*****************************

More textile related events, some of which are filling up fast!

Please note that the best way to view this blog is by clicking on the title, which takes you to our WordPress site. The video links do not always open if you read this as an email.

A new exhibition dedicated to Mediterranean Embroideries opened this week at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.

“This display showcases a range of textiles from across the Mediterranean world and explores the embroidery practices that connect them. Mostly created by women, these lively and decorative textiles provided a means of self-expression for women and girls of all ages. Generation after generation of makers handed down their needle skills, creating pieces that reflected personal tastes, social standing and community affiliation.

In the main, the embroideries were made for use in the home, as cushions, towel ends, bed tents, or as clothing.

Common features included ships, vases, fantastical beings, humans, birds and even words, while other motifs denoted regional differences. Some patterns travelled, appearing on other objects, such as ceramics, from opposite ends of the Mediterranean.” – museum website

Next Wednesday lunchtime, 26 April at 12:30 BST, there will be a hybrid event when historian Elizabeth Key Fowden will talk about collectors of Mediterranean textiles in the new Fitzwilliam display Mediterranean Embroideries and discuss the short film made for the display Running threads, dancing bodies, featuring the life of a contemporary Greek collector and maker, Andreas Peris Papageorgiou.

This six-minute film tells the story of his collection. Peris is unusual in that he is both a maker and a collector, an artist who has spent his life collecting the last remnants of a once vibrant tradition and at the same time keeping them in use, outside the museum, by having his own dance troupe wear his collection for performances.

There is a small charge of £5, and booking is essential. Please ensure you book through the correct link – in person attendance or online attendance.

******************************

The next OATG event takes place on Thursday 27 April 2023. This will be an online presentation by independent scholar Thweep Rittinaphakorn, better known to his friends as Ake. His subject will be Frontiersmen of the Crossroad: The Fusion Style of Shan Chinese Dressing.

“Chinese Shan costumes, particularly those of females, are a crossbred fusion between the tradition of Tai apparel and Chinese style adornment and adaptation. The most outstanding items among the repertoire are the female festive skirts. They provide a stunning sight to those who have seen them. They have profuse, eclectic, and gaudy decoration, incorporating different material and embellishment techniques, unlike any other kind.

Relying on photographic evidence taken at the turn of the century, old books & early traveling memoirs, plus current dressing practice and physical material evidence drawn from private collections, this talk will first provide an initial backdrop of Chinese Shan culture, then dive deep to discuss their dressing style, accoutrements, plus embellishing technique and the materials used.”

Ake is an independent scholar whose work focuses mainly on textiles and arts history of mainland Southeast Asia. He curates The Siam Society’s textile collection and is a regular speaker to the Siam Society, Thai Textiles Society, and The Bangkok National Museum Volunteer group.

Please note that this programme begins at the earlier than usual time of 1630 BST, as our speaker is in a different time zone. Full details and registration for this event can be found here. It is of course free for OATG members, but there is a small charge for non-members.

Example of a festive tube skirt used by Chinese Shan ladies from Dehong area, Yunnan with sumptuous decorations of silk satin panels, miniature applique trimming, and embroidery panels.

******************************

The annual May Beattie lecture will take place on Friday 5 May 2024 at 17:00 BST at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and will be followed by a reception. Dr Jessica Hallett from the Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon will be the speaker and her subject is Knotting Threads Across the Warps of Time: Safavid Carpets in Europe 1600-1900. This annual lecture is free to attend, but you do need to confirm your attendance. For more details click here.

‘Portuguese’ Carpet, Iran, early 17th century, MAK, Austrian Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna, © May Beattie Archive, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

******************************

An exciting new exhibition at the Seattle Art Museum. Ikat: A Compelling World of Cloth runs until 29 May 2023 and showcases over one hundred examples of textiles from across the globe using the ikat technique. These include hangings and coats from Uzbekistan, kimono from Japan, ponchos from Bolivia and several textiles from across Indonesia. In this interview curator Pam McCluskey gives a glimpse into this exhibition.

On Saturday 6 May 2023 the Textile Museum Associates of Southern California will host an online programme by collector David Paly, whose textiles form the basis of this exhibition.

“Deceptively simple or fantastically intricate, ikat technique has been used for many centuries to create extravagant costumes and cloths of deep cultural meaning. The distinctively blurred, feathered or jagged patterns of ikat tie-dyed textiles are found across much of the world—from Japan in the east to Central and South America in the west, with vast areas of Southeast Asia, India, Central Asia and the Middle East in between. The traditional patterns still hold cultural relevance today in significant parts of the long-established ikat-weaving areas. Textile artists and fashion designers in many and varied countries have taken ikat in new directions, respecting traditional forms and palettes while creatively diverging from them. 

Dr. David Paly has assembled a comprehensive group of textiles representing all of the cultural traditions that used the ikat technique, and which has morphed into a collection of over 500 pieces. More than 140 of them are currently on display at the Seattle Art Museum in “IKAT: A World of Compelling Cloth.”  In this talk, he will walk us through highlights of his collection from the many places they were made.

This free online talk, entitled Global Ikat: Roots and Routes of a Textile Technique, begins at 10:00 PT, 13:00 ET, and 18:00 BST and you can register for it here.

******************************

Also taking place on 6 May is the next World Textile Day event, this time at Kings Sutton in Oxfordshire. These are always lively events, which include a textile market and talk. The speaker this time is Susan Briscoe, whose topic will be Sashiko Patterns: The Imperial Connection. Dealers include Martin Conlan of Slow Loris, the African Fabric Shop, Textile Traders, Khayamiya and Fabazaar. Click here for more details.

Examples of the sort of textiles available there

******************************

Finally, London Craft Week runs from 8-14 May 2023. There is an extensive programme of events and exhibitions to gladden the heart of anyone who appreciates craftsmanship. There are 213 events listed in the programme and, to be honest, I think the only way to approach this is to scroll through the whole list – you never know what might intrigue you! Highlights for me included Sarawak Basketry, Iban pua’ kumbu, Crafts of Qatar, Malaysia’s Heritage Crafts and Textiles and Baskets of Taiwan (which includes reproductions of Taiwanese textiles woven by OATG member Tsai Yushan). Settle down with a cup of tea and decide which events appeal to you – but don’t leave it too late as some of these are booking up fast!

******************************

I’m heading off to Indonesia soon to co-lead another textile tour so might not have time to write lengthy blogs. However I will still be sharing information about forthcoming events on the OATG Facebook page, so why not follow us there or on our new Instagram page?

******************************

Selected textile events – please note registration for one of them ends today.

Apologies for the short notice for some of these events. I’m heading off to Indonesia soon and rushing to complete everything before I leave!

The Fashion and Textiles Gallery at the ACM (Asian Civilisations Museum) in Singapore has now reopened. Textiles Masters to the World: The Global Desire for Indian Cloth features a display of stunning textiles and garments that were produced in India and traded to regions in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Europe, and Japan from the fourteenth to the nineteenth century. Find out more about this exhibition here.

******************************

The Textile Society (UK) is offering awards of up to £5,000 for a textile related project within the museum, archive and conservation sector.

“The Museum, Archive and Conservation Award is designed to support textile related projects within a museum, archive, or conservation studio for an exhibition, publication or conservation project that will help achieve greater awareness and access for the public.

The Textile Society invites applications from all museums, archives and conservation studios with accredited or provisionally accredited status.

Priority will be given to applications from small to medium sized institutions with an annual turnover of less than £750,000 per year.” Please note that the closing date for applications is 1 May 2023. More information of how to apply, and details of the projects undertaken by past winners can be found here.

******************************

I haven’t come across the tradition of barkcloth in Uganda previously, so was interested to hear of this online talk hosted by WARP (Weave A Real Peace). It takes place online this Saturday 15 April at 1100 ET, which is 1600 BST.

“For more than 700 years, the legacy cloth, lubugo (barkcloth), made from the mutuba tree (ficus natalensis) has been used to clothe Ugandans, bury the dead and mark sacred ceremonies in Uganda. In 2005, it was designated as an intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO to be preserved and protected. Today, it is inspiring contemporary artists, designers, scientists, scholars and researchers locally, regionally, continentally and globally. It has an exciting future but faces several challenges, such as deforestation and the passing away of the elderly skilled masters without their children continuing the tradition. The Bukomansimbi Organic Tree Farmers Association (BOFTA) and a global group of collaborators are working together to strengthen Uganda’s barkcloth industry and preserve this tradition for future generations.” – WARP

Click here for more details and to register for this free talk.

******************************

Another event taking place the same day, but this time in-person, is the latest programme from the TMA/SC (Textile Museum Associates of Southern California). Janet Seward will talk on the subject of Guatamala Dress: Diversity and Evolution, followed by a Show and Tell of textiles from her collection.

“Isolated villages in the rugged mountains of Guatemala have each developed their own wildly different, yet still traditional clothing. Woven on backstrap looms for over 2,500 years, the costume of each town continues to evolve, and at one time instantly signaled a person’s origin, and their economic and marital status. There are preferred colors in each village and sometimes a complete change of design between an everyday huipil (blouse) or a ceremonial one from the same place. The huipil, the most recognized piece outside of Guatemala, is a tribute to womankind’s capacity for innovation, her joy in individual creativity, her pride in her traditions and her display of admired skills as well as her wealth.”

This event begins at 1000 PT, but registration closes at 1700 PT TODAY, so don’t delay!

All images © Janet Seward

******************************

Next Wednesday 19 April ORTS (Oriental Rug and Textile Society) will hold an in-person event in London. Dr Benjamin Hinson of the V&A will talk on Collecting Late Antique textiles at the Victoria and Albert Museum: Greville Chester, Gayet, Thomas and friends.

“The Victoria and Albert Museum holds one of the world’s largest collections of Late Antique and early Islamic textiles from Egypt. Parts of the collection’s history, and the figures responsible for helping to form it, are well known – others much less so. This talk will outline some of the key individuals, but also several of the lesser-known, who donated or sold Egyptian textiles to the V&A in the 19th and 20th centuries.”

This talk is free for members, with a charge of £7 for non-members, and takes place at the University Women’s Club in Mayfair. Click here for more details.

******************************

Sunday 23 April is the date for the annual Textile Society’s Antique and Vintage Textile Fair in Manchester – not to be missed!

“The Textile Society celebrates Manchester’s heritage as the powerhouse of British textile design and manufacture. The Manchester Antique & Vintage Textile Fair is the hub for all passionate collectors of textiles. It was the first antique fair to specialise entirely in historic textiles, and it has remained a key event in the textiles calendar since 1992. From world textiles to mid-century modern, from Art Deco to vintage fashion, the fair is an exciting and abundant source for objects and ideas, wall art or wearables, the beautiful or the kitsch.”

I’ve found some wonderful things there in the past and highly recommend it. Full details can be found here.

******************************

Also taking place on Sunday 23 April is an online presentation hosted by the International Hajji Baba Society. The speaker is Austin Doyle and his subject is Shahsevan Pile Rugs and Bags.

“The Shahsevan are well recognized for the brilliant colors and fine weaving of their sumak production, but their pile weaving has been difficult to identify, much less to attribute to particular Shahsevan tribes. The Shahsevan originally had a nomadic life-style and it was surmised that they had little need or ability to weave heavier pile carpets. The pile weavings attributed to them were often small and crudely designed pieces.

The Shahsevan were not a monolithic tribal grouping and included members of Afshar and Turkicized Kurdish groups, both known to be prolific pile weavers. It also appears that some Shahsevan groups were only semi-nomadic through much of the 18th and early 19th century, and interacted closely with village groups in the Caucasus, Karadagh, and other parts of northwest Persia. Austin Doyle will review the structural characteristics, colors, and design features that may indicate Shahsevan production or influence, and will discuss pieces which might tentatively be assigned to particular areas or subgroups of the Shahsevan.”

This free online programme begins at 1300 ET, which is 1800 BST. More details and registration can be found here.

******************************

Finally the next OATG event takes place on Thursday 27 April 2023. This will be an online presentation by independent scholar Thweep Rittinaphakorn, better known to his friends as Ake. His subject will be Frontiersmen of the Crossroad: The Fusion Style of Shan Chinese Dressing.

“Chinese Shan costumes, particularly those of females, are a crossbred fusion between the tradition of Tai apparel and Chinese style adornment and adaptation. The most outstanding items among the repertoire are the female festive skirts. They provide a stunning sight to those who have seen them. They have profuse, eclectic, and gaudy decoration, incorporating different material and embellishment techniques, unlike any other kind.

Relying on photographic evidence taken at the turn of the century, old books & early traveling memoirs, plus current dressing practice and physical material evidence drawn from private collections, this talk will first provide an initial backdrop of Chinese Shan culture, then dive deep to discuss their dressing style, accoutrements, plus embellishing technique and the materials used.”

Ake is an independent scholar whose work focuses mainly on textiles and arts history of mainland Southeast Asia. He curates The Siam Society’s textile collection and is a regular speaker to the Siam Society, Thai Textiles Society, and The Bangkok National Museum Volunteer group.

Examples of festive tube skirts used by Chinese Shan ladies from Dehong area, Yunnan with sumptuous decorations of silk satin panels, miniature applique trimming, and embroidery panels.

Please note that this programme begins at the earlier than usual time of 1630 BST, as our speaker is in a different time zone. Full details and registration for this event can be found here. It is of course free for OATG members, but there is a small charge for non-members.

Ake is also the author of Unseen Burma: Early Photography 1862-1962, published by River Books. This is a record of photographs from his amazing personal collection.

“When the British colonised Burma, they brought with them the latest technology in cameras and photographic reproduction, and since these were introduced to Burma as early as the middle of the 19th century, the country is richly catalogued and photographed. The new technology was first popularised by western practitioners (Germans, Italians, and, of course, the British) and upper-class patrons, but then spread to the mass market. “

It is already available in Thailand, and you can see some of the pages here. It will be available internationally in late May/early June.

******************************

Japanese, Chinese, Indian and Swedish textiles…..

The first OATG event of the year was our AGM and Show and Tell, which was a great success. Some superb pieces were shown and a lively discussion ensued.

David Richardson showing a young girl’s zari choli, from Kachchh in Gujarat, which was made over eighty years ago.

******************************

Our next OATG talk will take place this Thursday 26 January at 18:30 GMT. Our speaker is Rachel Peat and her subject is Connecting Threads: Japanese Textiles in the British Royal Collection.

Magnificent textile gifts have been a central ‘thread’ of courtly relations between Britain and Japan for centuries. From rolls of silk given to Queen Victoria in 1860, to an embroidered screen sent as a Coronation gift by the Emperor Meiji in 1902, this lecture will situate Japanese textiles within the broader history of diplomatic exchange. Alongside tapestries and embroideries, attention will be given to loyal addresses backed with silk brocade, long-lost kimono and the silk lacing on a seventeenth-century armour.

​The talk will particularly explore how specific materials and motifs on Japan’s textiles have been used to convey bonds of friendship between the two Courts. Featuring unique photographs and first-hand convey from the Royal Archives, it will also shed light on how members of the British Royal Family enjoyed and displayed these works – from adorning the walls of royal residences, to wearing Japanese garments themselves.

Kawashima Orimono Co. Ltd, Embroidered folding screen with a scene from the Tale of Genji (detail), 1970–71. RCIN 29941. Royal Collection Trust / © King Charles III 2022

Rachel is Assistant Curator of Non-European Works of Art at Royal Collection Trust. Her role encompasses over 13,000 works of art from across the globe, which today furnish 13 current and historic royal residences. She is editor of Japan: Courts and Culture (2020), the first publication dedicated to Japanese material in the Royal Collection, and curator of the exhibition of the same name at The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, open until 26 February 2023.

This Zoom talk will be free for OATG members, with a small fee (payable via PayPal) for non-members. Click here for more details and to register.

******************************

On Thursday 2 February 2023 Ruth Clifford has organised a free hybrid symposium on the subject Craft in Fashion. This is a hybrid event, taking place in person (in Liverpool, UK) and online. “The symposium will explore the role of slow craft processes in the global fashion industry, the place and importance of traditional craft skills, and the potential of craft ……. in challenging inequalities in the industry and tackling existing unsustainable practices.” Ruth Clifford

Speakers include Lokesh Ghai, a textile artist, researcher and educator based at UPES University, Dehradun, India; Justine Aldersey-Williams, textile artist and teacher, founder of the North West England Fibreshed and co-founder of the Homegrown Homespun project in Blackburn, Lancashire; Dr Seher Mirza, designer, weaver and postdoctoral researcher currently working on the Decolonising Fashion and Textiles project at London College of Fashion and Swati Bhartia, a fashion and textiles designer who has extensive experience working in craft and handloom development in India.

The session will begin at 16:00 GMT and last for two hours. To register to attend in person please click here. If you want to attend online then please click here instead.

The following week sees the opening of the linked exhibition Craft in Fashion: contemporary examples from rural India, which runs from 6-17 February 2023 at the Liverpool John Moores University.

******************************

The London Antique Rug & Textile Art Fair (LARTA) takes place at Battersea Park from 24-29 January 2023.

“The London Antique Rug & Textile Art Fair (LARTA) was launched in 2011 and is the UK’s leading annual fair dedicated to the appreciation of antique rug and textile art. Our specialist event brings together quality decorative pieces and interesting collectors’ items presented by some of the UK and Europe’s most dynamic and knowledgeable dealers.

Our aim is to promote this vibrant art form to a wide audience, and offer a tempting array of textiles and weavings for sale. The scope of our interest is broad, and includes weavings from the Far East, Central Asia, Persia, India, Turkey, the Caucasus as well as from Europe and Africa, and from all periods up to the early 20th century. Customers typically include collectors, interior decorators and designers, private buyers and international dealers.

The quality of the exhibitors at LARTA guarantees an event of high artistic significance and cultural merit. Many of our dealers exhibit regularly at important international antiques fairs and specialist symposiums. Several have written expert articles and books, travelled extensively to learn about the material culture and traditions of the weaving regions, and celebrated this extensive subject through exhibitions in their galleries.” LARTA website

A full list of exhibitors can be found here.

******************************

HALI have organised a series of special events in Italy – Florence, Milan, Turin and Genoa – from 5-11 February. These include talks and guided tours of museums and galleries. Registration is required to attend the events. The cost is £75 per person for HALI subscribers, £125 per person for non-HALI-subscribers and £40 per person for students.

©Hali

******************************

On Thursday 9 February 2023 Frances Wood will be giving an online talk on Chinese Illustration and Printmaking in China. She will discuss the “fascinating history of Chinese illustration—from the invention of printing in the 7th century through to the development of the complex sets of woodblock printing we see today.

Early illustrations were mainly of Buddhist subjects but by the 10th century books of all types, from literature to technological manuals, were widely available: expensive editions were beautifully illustrated whilst cheap chapbooks flooded the other end of the market. Colour illustrations and prints appeared from the 12th century, made from complex sets of woodblocks, most notably the ‘New Year’ prints that decorated houses at that auspicious festival.” – Museum website.

Frances has worked for more than 30 years as Curator of the Chinese collections in the British Library. I think that many of these woodcuts may show people in the dress of that time. This talk is one of a series linked to the current exhibition at the Museum of East Asian Art in Bath entitled Revolution, Propaganda, Art: Printmaking in Modern China, which runs until 3 June 2023.

For more details and registration for this free online talk, which begins at 18:30 GMT, please click here.

The video below, created several years ago by Francis Gerard and Haiyao Zheng, should hopefully whet your appetite.

https://vimeo.com/142991238

******************************

On Saturday 11 February 2023 the New England Rug Society will be hosting an online talk on Swedish textiles. This event is co-sponsored by the TMA/SC and the Textile Museum. This speaker is Gunnar Nilssen and his subject is Northern Delights: Swedish Textiles from 1680 to 1850.

“Certain textile techniques unique to rural communities in Sweden have a long history, and the best pieces stand comparison with the most celebrated traditional textile art elsewhere in Europe, including the best Flemish-weave and röllakan examples. Yet they remain little known outside their locality.  In times past, the peasantry in Skåne, southern Sweden, devised and utilised five different textile techniques about which little has been written in English.  In this program, Collector Gunnar Nilsson lets us into the secrets of munkabälte, dukagång, krabbasnår, upphämta and trensaflossa.” – Press release

This talk takes place at 18:00 GMT (10:00 PT, 13:00 ET), and you can register for it here.

Carriage cushion, röllakan (interlock tapestry), 48 x 121cm, Skytts härad (county) southwestern Skåne, inscribed and dated (in mirror reverse) END-IHS 1780

Selected textile talks and exhibitions

Some OATG members have certainly had a busy summer! Speakers in this video of an event hosted by the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, include our founder Ruth Barnes (now at Yale University Art Gallery) and Sandra Sardjono of Tracing Patterns Foundation. They talk about textiles from Indonesia and the Philippines, but the themes they cover are relevant to many more areas.

“Colonialism, changing customs, war, and contemporary collecting practices have all impacted the use and meaning of textiles in Southeast Asia. In this online Re-History Series discussion, a panel of experts explores themes of loss, destruction, and conservation during colonial periods as well as the present day. They will discuss efforts to center the makers’ voices and recover from losses through research, conservation, and collaboration.” – Museum website

Sandra, along with her husband Chris Buckley, has been working on some exciting projects within the Tracing Patterns Foundation and I hope to share more on that work in the near future.

******************************

Our Membership Secretary, David Richardson, is another OATG member who has been busy researching and writing – this time for an article which has just been published in Textiles Asia. The beautifully illustrated article discusses a collection of heirloom textiles from the Indonesian island of Solor, thus linking nicely to one of the subjects talked about by Ruth Barnes in the video above.

******************************

A new exhibition opened last week at the Deutsches Textilmuseum (DTM) in Krefeld. Peru – ein Katzensprung (stone’s throw) celebrates the museum’s important collection of pre-Columbian textiles and runs until 23 April 2023. This is the first major exhibition of Peruvian textiles at the museum since 1959. An impressive 292 textiles are on display – the vast majority of which are from the DTM collection.

In the past pre-Columbian textiles were not bought for the collection from a cultural-historical point of view, but instead because of their motifs and the variety of techniques used. This is discussed in an interesting illustrated paper by Katalin Nagy for the Pre-Columbian Textiles Conference held in 2019. Click here to read The pre-Columbian textile collection of the German Textile Museum Krefeld.

Shirt, uncu, from the Huari Culture (8 – 10 century AD). Dyed camelid hair weft on cotton warp, tapestry weave. © Deutsches Textilmuseum

******************************

This Thursday, 1 September, sees the opening of an exhibition at the California Museum, Sacramento, entitled Between 2 Worlds: Untold Stories of Refugees From Laos. This is a travelling exhibition that was developed by the Center for Lao Studies.

It ” presents crucial stages of the Lao refugee experience, inviting visitors to contemplate ideas of ‘home’ as seen through the eyes of people for whom the notion is precarious, and for those who have lived or are still living between two worlds.” – Museum website

******************************

On Saturday, 3 September 2022, the World Textile Day team will be in Llanidloes, Wales. As usual there will be an eclectic mix of textiles on sale from an interesting group of dealers. This is in addition to the regular programme of talks. Entry to the event is free, with a small charge being made for the optional talks.

Full details can be found here.

Photo from a previous WTD Wales event.

******************************

I seem to be reading more and more about textiles from the Philippines at the moment. This online event hosted by the Ayala Museum in Manila caught my attention. Intertwined Conversations: Transoceanic Journey of Luxury Goods is a conversation between Elena Phipps and Sandra Castro, moderated by Florina Capistrano-Baker. Elena will discuss how luxury goods such as silk, piña and chintz arrived in the Americas via the Manila Galleon trade and the impact these textiles had. Sandra will look at how traditional Philippine materials were used to make souvenirs in the form of Western material culture.

The timing of this event doesn’t work for our UK members (unless you are a real night owl and want to watch it at 2am), but hopefully does for some of our international members – 9 September at 21:00 EST, 18:00 PST, which is 10 September 09:00 in Manila.

For more details and registration click here.

By coincidence the new edition of Arts of Asia focuses on the Philippines, with articles including The Philippine Dress: 500 years of Straddling Polarities and Unfolding a Collection of Indigenous Philippine Textiles.

Cover of Arts of Asia

******************************

The Textile Museum Associates of Southern California hold their next programme in early September. The subject of the webinar is Kimono: Kyoto to Catwalk, and the speaker is Anna Jackson, Keeper of Asian Art at the V&A in London.

“The kimono is an iconic garment. A symbol of Japanese national culture and sensibility, it is generally perceived as a traditional, timeless costume. This talk counters that conception, revealing that the kimono has always been a highly dynamic, fashionable garment. It will explore the social and sartorial significance of the kimono in historical and contemporary contexts both in Japan and in the rest of the world, where its impact on dress styles has been felt since the seventeenth century.” TMA/SC

There will be two Zoom sessions, to accommodate participants from different time zones. The talk will be the same in each case, so please only sign up for one! The first is intended for the Western Hemisphere to India and takes place on Saturday 10 September at 10:00 PDT, 13:00 EDT, 18:00 BST. The registration link can be found here.

The talk will be held again on Sunday 11 September and this is intended for those in the East – 09:00 BST, 15:00 Bangkok, 17:00 Tokyo and 18:00 Sydney. The registration link to this talk can be found here.

Left: Outer kimono for a courtesan (uchikake), 1860- 70 (©Victoria and Albert Museum) 
Right: Kimono ensemble by Hiroko Takahashi, 2009 (©Hiroko Takahashi)

******************************

Textile talks and articles from around the world!

PLEASE NOTE Subscribers who usually read this blog via their email will need to click on the blue title to access it through our WordPress site instead to enable them to watch the video in this blog. 

I recently blogged about a lovely book for children, Mea and the Palm Flowers, produced by OATG member Sandra Sardjono of Tracing Patterns Foundation, with the help of Geneviève Duggan and Ice Tede Dara.

Young girl photographed in Pedero, the setting of the book. © David Richardson

Half of all sale proceeds will be donated to the weavers of the Tewuni Rai group, many of whom lost their homes during the devastating Cyclone Seroja last year. If you are a keen weaver, dyer or collector this would make a great gift for the children in your life.

I loved the enthusiasm of this young boy in his short video review of the book, which can be ordered here!

Video of book review

Sonja Mohr of the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum in Köln has just informed me of this very interesting article on Philippine piña textiles.

Scarf length, Philippines, mid 1800s, Rhode Island School of Design Museum.

Interrogating Translucence: Biological and Cultural Definitions of Piña is by Abi Lua, whose current thesis project explores Philippine piña textile connoisseurship and mentality. Here she discusses some of the difficulties in identifying piña, from both a biological and cultural point of view.

Sea snail and threads dyed with its ink. ©Selvedge

This article by Keith Recker for Selvedge also caught my attention. In it Keith looks at the colour purple and how it is produced by milking sea snails. The illustrations are excellent, and it was interesting to learn how the “community’s way of life was shaped around the making of purple, and the journey to the coast to dye yarns was a major event. A group of dyers would walk eight days to the coast. It was a real journey……. ‘involving several river crossings. The men would carry their own food, and when their tortillas, beans and coffee ran out, they would work in local farms to be reprovisioned. Once they reached their campsite on the coast, they’d stay for about three months before heading back to Pinotepa”. – Selvedge

Obtaining ink from the sac of the sea snail on Ternate. ©David and Sue Richardson

Sage green from the innards is used to dye these threads. © David and Sue Richardson

This reminded me of the marine dyes, which I have seen produced on the small island of Ternate in the Alor archipelago of Eastern Indonesia. There, two different colours – purple and green – are produced from the same creature. The purple comes from the ink sac and the green from the innards, with what remains going into the pot for supper.

A quick reminder that this is your last chance to sign up for a couple of talks taking place online tomorrow, Saturday 12 February. The first is on molas by Tom Hannaher, whose online presentation is entitled Painting With Scissors: Mola Art of the Kuna (Guna) Indians and takes place at 13:00 EST, which is 18:00 GMT. he second is on Uyghur feltmaking with Christine Martens.  It begins at 11:00 EST, which is 16:00 GMT and you can register for it here.

A weaver at work. ©Andean Textile Arts

The first of the 2022 series of Textile Talks, hosted by Andean Textile Arts, takes place next Tuesday 15 February, when the subject will be Textile Traditions of the Peruvian Highlands. Participants will learn “how Andean weavers use corn husks in their weaving, which natural dye was part of the Incan taxation system, why Andean brides often receive handwoven jakimas as wedding gifts, and so much more.” – ATA website

The talk also features a video, narrated by one of the presenters Jennifer Moore. The other presenter is Ercil Howard-Wroth. Click here for more information and to register. Please note this talk begins at 19:00 EST, which is midnight in the UK.

An akotifahana from the collection of the Royal Ontario Museum.

On Wednesday 16 February ORTS will host a Zoom presentation by Dr Sarah Fee of the Royal Ontario Museum entitled Born of the Indian Ocean:The Textile Arts of Madagascar. The ROM hold 54 Madagascan textiles in their collection, some of which date to the nineteenth century. It was interesting to read about the connection with Omani traders and Indian trade cloths, almost reminiscent of the Silk Road connections. 

There is a lot of excellent information, with very good images and some videos on the ROM website, which I strongly recommend to those interested in Malagasy textiles and culture.

The talk takes place at 18:00 GMT. Non-members wishing to attend should contact Dimity Spiller.

Chief or nobleman’s headdress (detail), Congo, 20th century. The Textile Museum Collection 1962.1.15. Textile Museum acquisition.

Sarah is going to be very busy as she also features in the next in the series of talks from the Textile Museum, centred on the latest edition of the Textile Journal, which she guest-edited.

Cécile Fromont of Yale University will be in discussion with Sarah about Kongo textiles, “which are celebrated as masterpieces of exquisite workmanship but garner limited attention in scholarship.”

This talk takes place on Wednesday 16 February at 12:00 EST, which is 17:00 GMT, and you can register for it here.

Hanbok, © Minjee Kim

On Thursday 17 February the Korea Society will host a live webcast by Dr Minjee Kim entitled Hanbok: A new lexicon of women’s fashion.

“In 2021, hanbok – the generic term referring to traditional style Korean clothing – was registered in the Oxford English Dictionary. In this comprehensive series of lectures, Dr. Minjee Kim, the preeminent scholar of Korean textile and fashion in the U.S., illustrates and elucidates hanbok in sartorial, socio-cultural, and historical contexts.

In the first lecture of the series, Dr. Kim discusses some distinctive qualities of women’s hanbok in comparison with other dress traditions; terminologies of the components and their structural parts; colors, materials, and embellishments; and symbols and ideas behind design principles and ways of dress.” – Korea Society

The webcast begins at 18:00 EST, which is 23:00 GMT and you can register for it here.

Working at the loom. ©Susan Schaefer Davis

On Saturday 19 February the Textile Museum associates of Southern California (TMA/SC) will host a presentation by Susan Schaefer Davis. Her subject will be Women Artisans of Morocco: Their Textiles, Their Stories, Their Lives.

Most textile talks focus, naturally, on the textiles themselves, looking at which materials and techniques were used to create them, in which area they were made etc.

“In this talk, anthropologist, and author of Women Artisans of Morocco, Dr. Susan Schaefer Davis, whose work focuses on Moroccan women, their textiles, changing gender roles, and adolescence, will include all of those aspects of textiles, but will also introduce you to the actual Moroccan women who make them. You will meet several of these women virtually, and to see and learn about the unique textiles they produce, the lives in which they produce them, and their thoughts about their work and goals.”

The talk begins at 10:00 PST, which is 18:00 GMT and you can register for it here.

Textile with embroidered hummingbirds, early Nasca, Peru 100BC – AD 200 
© The Trustees of the British Museum

Our next OATG online event will take place on Thursday 24 February at 18:30 GMT, and the subject will be Peru: A Journey in Time, based on the exhibition at the British Museum. Cecilia Pardo’s talk will introduce you to some of the extraordinary artefacts produced with incredible skill by the different peoples of the Andes displayed in the exhibition. She will focus on the magnificent textiles drawn from both the British Museum, and collections in Peru and beyond. 

​Helen Wolfe will end with a brief overview of the British Museum collection of Early Andean textiles, numbering over 1,000 pieces. This event is free for OATG members and a very reasonable £3 for non-members, payable via our PayPal account. For more details and registration please click here.

Don’t forget to let me know of any textile-related events or articles you think I should include here!

Molas, Uyghur felt, Suzani and fish skin robes

There are lots of exciting events coming up this month and I’m highlighting a few of them below.

I mentioned in my most recent blog that the OATG have arranged a small group visit to the exhibition Peru: a journey in time at the British Museum on Friday 11 February at 14:00 GMT. Cecilia Pardo, lead curator for the exhibition, will give a short talk in the Great court first. Then our Chair, Helen Wolfe, who has recently retired from her role as Textile Collection Manager at the British Museum will take the group through to the exhibition and be available to answer questions. Our tickets are available at a reduced price of £10, payable on the day to Helen. There are still two places available for this very special visit. To reserve one please email our Secretary Cecilia Lloyd.

A mola in the collection of the British Museum featuring nine squirrels or ‘ukswinni’. These are one of the Kuna’s favourite subjects for molas. © The Trustees of the British Museum
 

On Saturday 12 February Tom Hannaher will give an online presentation on Painting With Scissors: Mola Art of the Kuna (Guna) Indians. This programme is co-sponsored by the Textile Museum Associates of Southern California and the New England Rug Society. The focus of the presentation will be early and middle-period molas (1910-1970) and will include many rare pieces.

“Molas are panels used in blouses worn by women of the Kuna (Guna) culture of Panama and Colombia. Using a combination of applique, reverse applique, and embroidery, Kuna women create dazzling imagery based on Kuna mythology, customs, and daily life. They also seek graphic inspiration from non-Kuna references ranging from political posters to cartoons to advertising campaigns. This presentation by Tom Hannaher will focus on pre-1970 examples and will include a number of unpublished masterpieces, some from the early part of the twentieth century. Many of the pieces are from the collections of Kit Kapp and Ann Parker Neal, two authors of early books on mola art.” – TMA/SC

The talk begins at 10:00 PST, which is 18:00 GMT.

Slightly earlier that same day the Textile Museum will hold its regular Rug and Textile Appreciation Morning by Zoom. The speaker will be Christine Martens and her subject is Distinguishing Uyghur Feltmaking.

“Feltmaking has existed for millennia in the cities and villages of what is now the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of northwest China — homeland of the Muslim, Turkic-speaking Uyghurs. Archeological discoveries give a sense of this ancient art, which continued to flourish in the oases that dot the southern rim of the Taklamakan desert.

In this virtual talk researcher Christine Martens examines the felt processes and compares Uyghur felt with the traditions of the Turkmen, Kyrgyz and Turks, including gender roles in felt making.

Martens also examines how Uyghur cultural history and the “everyday” exist within the spiritual landscape of southern Xinjiang. She explores the participation in shrine visitation and the use of the “risala,” a treatise or guidebook governing the moral, spiritual and ethical behavior of artisans, to shed light on little-known aspects of Uyghur sacred history and accompanying rituals.” – TM website

Chris has conducted fieldwork and led tours in Central Asia for many years and I’m sure this will be a fascinating programme. It begins at 11:00 EST, which is 16:00 GMT and you can register for it here.

On Thursday 17 February the Hajji Baba Club of New York will be hosting London-based specialist and dealer Ali Istalifi. His online talk is entitled Central Asian Suzani: Understanding the Tradition and Attribution of Silk Dowry Embroideries.

“Over the past half a century, Suzani embroideries of Central Asia have captured the imagination of textile collectors and aficionados around the world. Examples from the late 18th Century up to the early 1900s are now considered as some of the most coveted of all textile arts and most tend to demand high prices at major auctions, antique fairs and galleries.

This talk will explore the aesthetic and artistic merits of these traditional dowry embroideries in order to help understand and appreciate their appeal. By analyzing and categorizing the specific characteristics of design, color, type of stitches and material used to make them, dating and attribution will become easier for both those who are familiar and unfamiliar to this textile art.” – Hajji Baba Club website

The talk begins at 11:00 EST, which is 16:00 GMT . More details and registration available here.

Woman’s festive robe, Nanai people, REM

I recently shared a post from the Russian Museum of Ethnography about clothing from fish skins. The robe (pictured above) was stunning and I wanted to learn more about this type of clothing. It appears that the skins used were mainly those of large salmon, and the clothes produced were lightweight and waterproof. Decorations were added in various forms – appliqué, embroidery, and drawing directly on the garment either freehand or using a stencil. It clearly took months to make a robe such as this.

Tanned fish skin leather  and products made from it. © Kathleen Hinkel

I was delighted to then be directed to this article on The Art of Turning Fish into Leather by Chloe Williams in Hakai magazine. In it she examines how various artists are rediscovering this ancient craft, and explains some of the different methods they have tried – some more successful than others. Coffee, black tea, eggs, alder bark and even urine have all played a part.

The article is also available in audio format here.

Collection Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen. Coll.no. RV-434-1

That led me to another Hakai article, this time by Jude Isabella, called The Secret Language of Salmon Skin Coats. She describes how a Nivkhi woman from the Amur River area would have prepared around 100 salmon skins to make one robe. “She would have scraped away the flesh before washing the skins in salt water (women keeping the craft alive today use soap), then drying and beating the skins before piecing together the coat with thread fashioned from fish skin or sinew.” I was amazed to read how the thread expands when it gets wet, meaning that the holes made by the sewing needle are then filled and the garment becomes watertight – ingenious!

Nanai stencil

Tom Murray (he of the Textiles of Japan: The Thomas Murray Collection fame) then directed me to this website on the Costume of the Peoples of the Lower Amur, which again has lots of useful and fascinating information and images, including a diagram of the coat construction. The author notes how in some instances the fish skin leather has been dropped in favour of woven cloth, but the motifs have remained in the form of appliqué. He also includes many excellent black and white images. Tom has also informed me that the long-awaited Minneapolis Institute of Art exhibit based on his book will open in June and will feature not one but two salmon skin robes!

New Year, New Textile Events!

On Monday 10 January Dr David Hugus will give a talk on the Evolution of Chinese Rank Badges. David is the author of Chinese Rank Badges: Symbols of Power, Wealth and Intellect in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. These badges were officially worn from 1391 to 1911, and thus illustrate the textile art of China over a span of 600 years.

This will be the first of a two-part talk on the evolution and dating of these badges. It begins at 19:00 PST, which is 03:00 GMT so doesn’t really work for our UK members, but hopefully some of our many overseas members will enjoy it.

Click here for more information and registration details.

Slide ©Dr Dorothy Armstrong

On Thursday 13 January the Hajji Baba Club will host an online lecture by Dr Dorothy Armstrong, the current May Beattie Fellow at the Ashmolean Museum. Her talk is entitled Mrs Beattie and Mr Getty: A Carpet Controversy.

In 1969, May Beattie, a British carpet scholar with no academic affiliation, working from her home in the provincial city of Sheffield, UK, was invited by John Paul Getty, one of the world’s richest men, to catalogue his growing collection of carpets. In the following months, the two strong personalities went head-to-head over their provenance. This quarrel had a direct effect on the collecting practices of what became the world’s richest arts institution, The Getty Museum, and has left open questions about a set of Persian and Indo-Persian carpets. It’s a revealing episode of the interaction of scholarly challenge, collectors’ drive and market practices, played out through a set of beautiful and luxurious carpets.

All of this may sound familiar to OATG members, as Dr Armstrong gave this talk to us last August. It was extremely well-received, and if you missed it a recording is available in the members’ resources area of our website. However you may well want instead to join this online event, as the Q and A session afterwards is sure to be stimulating. The talk begins at 11:00 EST, which is 16:00 GMT, and you can register for it here.

Fragment (Tunic), 1532/1700
Inca; probably Cuzco or Lake Titicaca region, southern highlands, Peru. Bessie Bennett Endowment

On the same day, Thursday 13 January, the Art Institute of Chicago will host an online lecture by Andrew Hamilton entitled Inca Textiles under Colonial Rule. This talk focuses on two fragments of an Inca tunic, explaining “the appearance and usage of the original tunic; the tunic’s elusive designs, called tocapus in Quechua; the European design influences manifested in the garment; and how an elite Indigenous man might have worn such a tunic to express his nobility under colonial rule. Most importantly, this talk will illuminate the knowledge and skills of the tunic’s weavers and show how their work upheld long-standing Inca techniques while also inventing new ones in response to their much-changed lives in the Viceroyalty of Peru.” – AIC website

The talk takes place at 17:00-17:45 CST, which is 23:00-23:45 GMT, and you can register for it here.

The Textile Museum Associates of Southern California begin their 2022 programme on Saturday 15 January with an online talk by Abel Trybiarz, author of Rugs & Art: Tribal Bird Rugs and Others, published in 2017 by HALI. The title of his talk is RUGS & ART: South Persian Tribal Rugs with Birds and Other Creatures.

“The so-called “bird rugs” of the Khamseh Confederation and the Qashqa’i are among the most charming and colorful of figurative rugs of the Southwest Persian tribes. Their rows and columns of birds, and all kinds of other animals including human figures, have been made in an infinite array of combinations and colors, with a huge variety of border motifs. Over many years, Buenos Aires collector Abel Trybiarz has quietly built a previously unknown collection of bird and animal rugs that has at its heart a superb selection of antique knotted-pile rugs, woven by the nomadic tribes of the Khamseh Confederation in southwestern Iran during the 19th century.”

The talk takes place at 10:00 PST, which is 18:00 GMT, and you can register for it here.

Cover of Mea and the Palm Flowers. ©Tracing Patterns Foundation

OATG member Sandra Sardjono of Tracing Patterns Foundation has been instrumental in producing a lovely book for children, telling the story of a little girl called Mea who dreams of wearing a new ikat cloth to the Harvest Festival on the island of Savu in Indonesia. One of the advisors for this book was Geneviève Duggan, who last year talked to our members about the textiles of Savu, in particular those woven by the women of Pedero village, the setting of this book. The book is beautifully illustrated, and half of the proceeds of sales will be going to the weavers – who you may remember suffered dreadfully after Cyclone Seroja. Click here to order this delightful book.

A young girl from Pedero we photographed during one of our many visits to Savu.

I missed Joe Coca’s talk on textile photography last month, so am glad to see that a recording of it is now available on Youtube. In it he talks about the trials and tribulations involved in taking some of the photographs of weavers and people in their traditional dress.

On Thursday 27 January we will hold our Oxford Asian Textile Group AGM via Zoom. It will begin at 18:00 GMT and will be followed by a talk by Sue Stanton, conservator at the Ashmolean Museum. All members should have already received the Zoom link, which will be resent along with the agenda and committee reports well in advance of the meeting.