Things Textiley in Greece: Fibres and Fabrics - Old and New

Goats on the road, every afternoon - milking time. 

The huge variety of goat cheeses and other dairy products was a gourmet's delight while travelling around Greece. Each village seems to have its own bacterial cultures producing distinctively different cheeses. It was the same with the many different fermented drinks. The fermented honey mead drink served warm on a cold rainy day was my favourite.

I was reminded of how standardized and limited the range of the bulk of commercially available food has become in North America.

Goat meat dishes were on the menu in most places and in the antique shops, I saw many goat hair textiles, often combined with wool. I suspect the goat has been a key item in the Greek economy for centuries.

The oldest textile in Greece has been found in the Church of Saint Sophia.

These ribbons were made between the 2nd half of the 14th century and up to the 1st half of the 16th century. Using gilded silver threads and metal beads they were woven on a tablet loom and embroidered in satin stitch.

Processing Silk

Local silk production went on during the Byzantine and post-Byzantine periods - 320AD to the 1800s.

Notice the elegant Kelpht guard watching over the work.

'Metaxi present and past'

A new textile installation. The title plays with the 2 meanings of metaxi - 'silk' and 'between'.

It refers to the "unknown princess" whose clothing and hair was found when her grave in the church of Saint Sophia was excavated. 

Currently on display in the Museum of Mystras are her silk undergarment and her silk outer garment, remnants of her leather shoes and her hair still tied up and decorated in a variety of silk laces. These silk garments plus the history of silk production was the inspiration for this contemporary art installation. 'The 3D arrangement of yarns form linear patterns and reshapes the structure of the dress, reconstructing an immaterial and ethereal female figure.'

'By using yarn as a raw material, the weaving of a cultural bridge is achieved. A bridge that connects notionally the historical weaving position of women in the development of history and cultural meaning through a colourful path between past and present.'

The history of Greek textiles is long and interwoven with every aspect their culture.

National Museum of Women in the Arts - No Man's Land

Magdalena Abakanowicz, '4 Seated Figures,' 2002. Burlap, resin and iron rods.

'No Man's Land: Women Artists from the Rubell Family Collection' (here for the online exhibition.) was recently shown at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington DC.

'4 Seated Figures' may have been inspired by Magdalena's memory of witnessing her mother being shot in the hands as soldiers stormed their home in Poland during WWII. What she says about these genderless, race-neutral figures is 'they are naked, exposed, and vulnerable, just as we all are.'

Faith Ringgold, 'Jo Baker's Bananas,' 1997

One of Faith's story quilts commentating on racism and discrimination.

In Faith's signature technique of acrylic painted canvas with a pieced fabric border.

Outside the museum, a sign warned there were nuts in the building. I thought it strange and only on seeing this box of walnuts realised the sign was an allergy alert.

Jennifer Rubell 'Lysa III' 2014

Jennifer was inspired by finding a Hilary Clinton nutcracker for sale online.

She worked with the concept of harnessing female power making, as she says, 'a scary act of female power.' 

Museum visitors were encouraged, with supervision, to operate the nutcracker. The artist cleverly invites the viewer to contemplate female power in a playful way.

The Hilary Clinton nutcrackers were on sale in the museum shop at the same time Hilary was campaigning to become a president.

'Earth Repair' - the Beginings

'Earth Repair' began as a response to what I considered to be an emergency situation.

March 11, 2011 - quoting from my journal -

'Emergency. It has been a long winter here on the island. The deer are hungry. They are eating the bark on my precious Indian Plum. I need to care for this tree. The deer have free choice in the rest of the forest - even my emerging spring bulbs but my Indian Plum is not part of their buffet.

I am placing sacrificial tea cloths over the wounds to protect them. First, I lost my needle - I felt vulnerable and inadequate - I couldn't do what I needed to do because I had lost my valuable tool. Flashback to an earlier time when women depended on their needlework skills to survive. A lost needle was potentially a loss of livelihood translating to an increased risk of not being able to adequately care for her family.

I ran inside to get another needle after I had given up searching in the deep layers of moss and decaying leaves. When I returned with another needle I found my first one hanging by a thread - ties in with that vulnerable feeling again.

I was having trouble holding the cloth in place and sewing at the same time which had lead to the loss of the original needle. Then I heard a distant ambulance siren reminding me this is a triage situation.

Another run inside to get my wooden-based pin cushion, given to me by my mother. A reminder of how important life skills are passed from one generation to the next.

I was now performing the required surgery as I pushed a couple of pins into the bark to temporarily hold the edges of the cloth as I sutured it in place.'

The 'Earth Repair' cloth with embroidery wrought by and unknown hand.

Sutured in place around the wound to stop the deer from eating more of the bark. 

I have since read the Saanich First Nations people make a bark tea as a purgative and a spring tonic. Perhaps that is all the deer were doing because they had upset stomachs after having to eat plants not usually in their diet.

Continuing from my journal entry - 'The tea cloth continues to function - to protect wood and in doing so sacrifices itself to the elements - it was raining as I secured the cloths in place.

Inside the home, the cloth would be used to present food - outside it is now protecting the bark so the tree can get its food....

The cloth has been taken from the horizontal to the vertical plane. Does it still read as a table cloth? It has been taken from a smooth flat object to a wrinkled curved form. Does it still read as a cloth?'

These were musings for the development of work while I was studying for a BA (Hons) in Embroidered Textiles. After 6 years of study, my graduation exhibition work was related to my thoughts and actions on this Day of the Emergency.

Nyonya Baba Culture in the Straits of Malacca - Traditional Garments

Georgetown, the old part of Penang, is a well-preserved UNESCO World Heritage Site. There one can explore a unique culture that began in the 15th century when the Straits of Malacca was one of the busiest shipping routes in the world. Chinese migrated from southern China and settled up and down the Malay coast and into Indonesia. They married the local Malays and over time developed a distinct culture reflected in their houses, clothing, customs and cooking - the Nyonya-Baba culture. Here is a link to a Nyonya's blog where she explains her origins.

The above image is outside an award winning restored Nyonya Baba mansion in Georgetown. It shows the Baba (the man) in typical Western formal men's dress of the day while the Nyonya (the woman) wears the traditional garments of her culture.

An elaborately embroidered blouse is worn over a wrapped sarong.

The sheer fabric is silk crepe or Swiss lawn embroidered with silk thread in satin stitch and long and short stitch. The area around the hips is edged in buttonhole stitch before the centres were cut out to make intricate organic patterns. The blouse is secured with 3 to 5 elaborate, jewel-encrusted pins.

The fitted shape with the long front is typical. It certainly emphasised the wearer's main role in life - to produce heirs.

However, when the woman turns 60, after 5 cycles through the Chinese horoscope, she refits her wardrobe with simpler more boxy garments usually made in heavier more opaque fabrics. 

The under garment has a starched raised collar like the stay of a men's shirt and it is held together with gold studs as found on 19th century western men's formal wear. This shift to clothing elements normally worn by males is interesting. In this matriarchal society, as she ages and becomes a grandmother the woman's role changes from child bearer to being head of her family.  

She still wears her costly pins, kersang, to show her family's position in society. The Nyonya line began with a Malay born woman who owned the land and passed ownership on to her daughters, giving them long-lasting and legal authority. At the same time, the Chinese-born immigrant Baba set up the business and if  he was successful brought wealth to the family - a powerful combination.

A 1930s matron's/grandmother's over garment made from apple green embroidered flowers on lavender Swiss organdy. The 3 pins are circles covered with gold and rubies.

The starched collar of the under garment has gold studs.

A Nyonya Matriarch

The wealthy Nyonyas were expected to master the skills essential for finding a good husband - an effective beauty regime, how to behave in public, and how to run a household. 

Above is a painting on the side of a Georgetown building of 3 Nyonyas having afternoon tea.

In several museums, I did notice it seemed pretty important also to learn how to master bead embroidery because one was expected to make one's own bridal shoes.

Here is a mother teaching her daughter to bead. The daughter's unmarried status is evident by her side-buns hair style. Her married mother wears her hair in a single high bun. Gold, silver and jewelled hair pins, Cucuk Sanggul, are worn in the buns. 

Bead-embroidered shoe fronts still in the frame.

A pair of velvet beaded bridal shoes, embroidered with phoenixes and peonies, made sometime before the 1930s.

A pair of beaded pink and green check bridal shoes made in the 1920s or 1930s. 

This culture was very open to new ideas and trends. Trade ships brought the latest commodities and luxuries from around the world and the wealthy travelled to other countries. Evidence of this can be seen in the Art Deco influenced design this modern bride worked on her beaded shoes compared with the more traditional floral design seen displayed under the shoes.

I must say my family was very patient as I absorbed and documented what we saw in the museums we visited. They would even come and find me if they saw something they thought I might be interested in. I am so fortunate to be fully supported by my family in what I do. 

Etsy Shop - Ravenmade Works: My Process

I go to thrift stores, garage sales and estate auctions in search of embroideries, hand made works that have essentially been discarded. Each one has a story about its maker, its owner and its history but for most of them this provenance has been lost.

Sometimes, when I take a work out of it's dusty framing, I'll find a name and maybe a year. Sometimes the stitching has been completed but the work is not framed or finished.

Sometimes the work is unfinished, then I wonder what stopped the stitcher working on it.

Each work is soaked then washed according to the materials it is made from. It is dried quickly in a drying room so the colours don't get a chance to run. Once it is damp-dry, it is pressed and blocked with a steam-generating iron, until it is dry.

Works made from wool are fulled lightly during the washing process so they won't unravel during the cutting up stage.

Individual elements are cut out and grouped according to a colour scheme. 

Crewel embroideries work particularly well.

I go into my stash of vintage textiles to find a background that will work with the collected elements.

Elements are selected, auditioned and composed before I hand and machine stitch them in place.

With needlepoint works, I find 2 that work together then cut them into strips. The 2 different lots of strips are woven together to make a new image but the physiology of the female eye enables her to still see the 2 different embroidered images.

These small works are then mounted in black, shadow-box frames so they can be hung together in groupings or singly.

New Work

For many months I have been collecting woolen embroideries from second-hand/thrift stores. Friend Carol has also been collecting for me - she has superior gathering skills.

They are being used for a series called 'Handwork' and are about acknowledging the creative work done in the private home, by woman - work with no value.

I take the embroideries out of their frames, always hoping there will be some provenance but there usually isn't. These are anonymous creative works.

They are washed.

I picked the 2 on the right....

...to make this work. It is about how the human eye is designed to look for a figure on a background.
 The male eye looks for a focal point in the figure while the female eye searches for all-over patterns.
This work is for the female viewer.

Try again

Opps, I think I uploaded just one still. Hopefully this second attempt is the whole video.

Nope, it doesn't work. I'll have to play around some more.

In the meantime, I must get back to my Opus work. I am reading about whether there is a way of seeing the world that is inherently male or female. A big question. I know there are differences so I am looking into recent scientific research on the topic of differences between the male and the female brain. If I can't find anything convincing then maybe the differences are cultural.

Alberta College of Art + Design, Artawearness IIX

This Is Kyle Nylund, a gifted fibre arts graduate from Alberta College of Art + Design here. His costumes, makeup & hair design & choreography all came together to delight the audience.

Kyle told me his entry this year was largely influenced by his experiences at Burning Man in the Nevada desert.

Kyle said, " I have combined masculine & feminine materials as signifiers to create a world that exemplifies confidence, sexual liberation, & the severity of the desert." A wheelchair bound mermaid?