The Reason for Weaving

Women have been spinning and weaving for many, many millennia. Weaving for clothing, for sails,for bedding, for sacks to carry things...the reasons for weaving are multitude. The cloth that is made does not need to be beautiful to fulfill its purpose. But I think that artistry is a basic human need. Whether one thinks of the plaid skirt worn by the Huldremose bog woman, or the elaborate brocaded silks worn by Elizabethans; Navajo rugs, or the intricate patterns created by Peruvian backstrap weavers, it is clear that weavers have always planned to make their work beautiful.

While wandering through the Metropolitan Museum last month, I came upon an exhibit of utilitarian articles made by nomadic tribes from the area around Iran, Turkey, and Azerbaijan. Every piece had a very ordinary purpose - to carry their belongings from place to place. But the pieces were anything but ordinary. The weaving technique for each piece was chosen to suit the need of the object it would carry. Most of the pieces were executed in the sumak technique. This means that an extra weft thread was wrapped around the warp threads - over two threads, then back around one, or over four, back around two. This adds strength, makes a very dense fabric (needed when you are carrying things like salt or flour), and creates a beautiful pattern. Sometimes pile was added, to make the fabric even denser. Here are some of my favorite pieces:

 I'll start with the spindle bag (western Iran, Bakhtiari tribe, ca. 1935), because of course the women need a way to carry their spindles so they can make the thread they need to weave. The fabric is sumak weave, with pile added at the bottom where it would have the most wear. 

Here is a bag to carry salt (ca. 1920):

 again, with pile incorporated at the bottom.

A double flour bag (last quarter 19th century):

 This is quite large. I like the stylized animals. 

Even larger, this container was used to carry bedding (Azerbaijan, ca. 1825-75): 

And finally, a saddle bag (Shahsevan tribe, ca. 1875). The pattern seems so similar

 to a quilt pattern. 

I enjoy tapestry weaving. I think I will try my hand at sumak weaving this year. Perhaps I'll make my own spindle bag.

Goldwork Embroidery

I promise I will get to the post about the utilitarian weaving that we saw at the Met. But, I've been thinking about embroidery lately, and I want to show you a beautiful medieval embroidery from the Cloisters.

 Netherlandish, mid-15th century

Originally part of a vestment or altar cloth, it is done in the or nue technique. Unlike most goldwork that I have seen, where the background is couched gold thread and the figures are silk, this piece is almost entirely gold. Only the faces and hair are silk embroidery. The rest of the picture, except for a few details, is formed by altering the spacing of the silk couching threads. The closer together they are, the more the color shows up, but always the gold shines through.

Isn't it exquisite?

Happy Holidays

New Year’s Eve, and the holidays are almost over. It really has been a lovely season. We began, earlier in December, taking family to a Christmas concert, full of laughter and sing-alongs. Then, the weekend before Christmas, we had our traditional visit to New York City, to be part of the hustle and bustle, lights and decorations. Not to mention good food, and of course the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

We spent the entire day at the Met, including the extended evening hours, which gave us plenty of time to explore at a leisurely pace. We visited our old favorites, and took in several special exhibits, including Gilded Age furniture, and an exhibit of house-shaped vessels from Central and South America. This was one of my favorites:

I love the little dog waiting at the door for scraps!

And then there was the exhibit of 16^th century textile pattern books.

book by Johann Schonsperger the Younger, Augsburg, 1529

The Met has an extraordinary collection of pattern books from the dawn of the print age, and many
samples of period textiles created from the patterns. Needless to say, I spent hours in the exhibit. It clearly showed how the rise of printing influenced textile fashion across Europe. Printers were freely gathering patterns for textile prints and embroidery from Italy, Germany, France, the Levant… and binding them together for the public’s consumption. While some people may be frustrated by how all this borrowing makes it difficult to know the origins of a particular pattern, I find it exciting to think about the “free” exchange of information across great distances, for people (especially women) who might otherwise not have the opportunity to travel so far. Today these books are particularly rare because pages were often removed in order to copy the patterns onto the material to be embroidered. The Libro de rechami (1532), by Alessandro Paganino even illustrates women using various methods to copy the patterns.

I think my favorite part of the exhibit related to a pattern of birds. This was clearly a popular pattern. Here is the pattern, and its interpretation in several different styles:

I was excited to see the lacis artifacts. Since this is a technique I have recently begun to learn, it was fun to see so many period examples all together. I think I will try my hand at one of these patterns.

And then there was the modern lacis. Perhaps I need to make myself a shirt.

 c. 1920 and 1910 respectively

Then, as a little extra treat, we found our way to a little-visited part of the museum, with an exhibit of 19^th century samplers. Here is my favorite, because it was such a surprise.

London, mid-19th century

This piece is only about 3.5 inches square, so you can get a sense of how tiny these stitches are. But, who was this girl who was stitching complex math problems instead of quotes from Scripture?

We ended our trip to New York with a visit to the Central Park Zoo. The weather was perfect, and the animals were particularly active. Here is just one photo for your enjoyment: