University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Textile Society of America Newsletters Textile Society of America Winter 2009 Textile Society of America Newsletter 21:1 — Winter 2009 Textile Society of America Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/tsanews Part of the Art and Materials Conservation Commons, Fashion Design Commons, Fiber, Textile, and Weaving Arts Commons, Industrial and Product Design Commons, Interdisciplinary Arts and Media Commons, and the Metal and Jewelry Arts Commons Textile Society of America, "Textile Society of America Newsletter 21:1 — Winter 2009" (2009). Textile Society of America Newsletters. 81. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/tsanews/81 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Textile Society of America at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Textile Society of America Newsletters by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Textile VOLUME 21 ■ NUMBER 1 ■ WINTER, 2009 Society of America The Woven Word: Sasigyo Kathleen F. Johnson and Tsai Yushan Translations by Kotoh CONTENTS ASIGYO IS A BURMESE through entering the monkhood, tablet-woven cord which weaving for religious purposes 1 The Woven Word: Three Sasigyo Sis used to bind Buddhist offered them an alternate way 2 Lillian Elliott Award scriptures. In Burmese the word to make merit.4 Some of the 3 From the President literally means “cord for tying sasigyo weavers were skilled pri- manuscript leaves into bundles.”1 vate craftswomen, but most were 4 TSA News These pieces have not been woven paid professionals who took on 6 TSA Member News in Burma for many years; very few commissions for weaving sasigyo 7 In Memoriam, Call for Papers written records exist about their for individuals. The weaving of sasigyo is a 8 The Woven Word, Continued history; most of what we know of them must be inferred from the highly skilled and time-consum- 10 Symposium 08 Reviews objects themselves. ing job. Apparently it took a full 12 Collections News The sasigyo are just one part three months to train a weaver. 5 13 Featured Collection: of an integrated and complex Even then the pay was poor. Philadelphia Museum of Art artistic craft tradition surround- Some, but not all, of the com- missioned sasigyo were inscribed 14 Exhibition Reviews ing the Burmese Buddhist scrip- Rare antique sasigyo for sale in the 2 tures called kammavaca. These Bangkok weekend market. Photo by with the name of the weaver 15 Book Reviews scriptures, which pertain to the Kathleen F. Johnson. and the donor, plus the place 16 Calendar-Exhibitions and date it was made. Noel regulation of Buddhist monastic were passed through holes in all Singer has done a landmark study 18 Calendar-Lectures, Workshops, life, were often commissioned the pages and the covers and of the Kammavaca manuscripts Tours, Conferences & Symposia; by devout lay persons and tied, thus preserving the proper Book Reviews, Continued and their binding ribbons. He presented to a monastery, thus succession of the leaves. The notes that the first dated sasigyo generating religious merit for the finished manuscript was wrapped lay person. In some cases they we have is from 1785 and the in a special mat called sa-pa-lwa, last from the early 1970s.6 were a memorial offering on made from thin bamboo ribs to p. 8 behalf of a departed loved one, wrapped or woven with colored and presumably the departed 3 THHEE TEEXTILEXTILE SOOCIETYCIETY OOFF AMMERICAERICA, cotton threads. was the recipient of the merit. INNCC. PPROVIDESROVIDES AANN IINTERNATIONALNTERNATIONAL The weavers of the sasigyo The volumes were often lav- FFORUMORUM FFOROR TTHEHE EEXCHANGEXCHANGE and the mats were women, ishly decorated with ornamental AANDND DDISSEMINATIONISSEMINATION OOFF whereas the manuscript makers medallions and patterns, and IINFORMATIONNFORMATION AABOUTBOUT were men. Although women were written in elegant script TTEXTILESEXTILES WWORLDWIDEORLDWIDE, were barred from making merit using lacquered letters. The fin- FFROMROM AARTISTICRTISTIC, CCULTURALULTURAL, ished pages were stacked and EECONOMICCONOMIC, HHISTORICISTORIC, Whole sa-pa-lwa of the wrapped sandwiched between two carved PPOLITICALOLITICAL, SSOCIALOCIAL, AANDND variety, collection of Kathleen wooden covers. Two strings Johnson, gift of Keosiri TTECHNICALECHNICAL PPERSPECTIVESERSPECTIVES. Everingham, Bangkok. TSA BOARD OF DIRECTORS Stephen Beal Receives OFFICERS 2008 Lillian Elliott Award PRESIDENT Patricia Hickman at TSA Symposium TEL 845/947-8735 [email protected] HE LILLIAN ELLIOTT AWAR D, VICE PRESIDENT Testablished to recognize excel- Ruth Scheuing lence in fiber arts, was presented TEL 604/254-6322 this year to embroidery artist [email protected] Stephen Beal. He was not able to TREASURER attend the ceremony, but sent the Mary Masilimani following message: TEL/FAX 973/538-2705 [email protected] “First, I would like to thank the members of the Lillian Elliott RECORDING SECRETARY Award committee for this signal Roxane Shaughnessy honor. I am very, very sorry not TEL 416/599-5321 ext. 2226 [email protected] to be able to be with you at the conference. A double disk fusion DIRECTOR OF INTERNAL RELATIONS Mary Anne Jordan in July has been painfully slow to tEL 785/749-0564 heal. If I were with you tonight, [email protected] I would speak of color, the prime DIRECTOR OF EXTERNAL RELATIONS motivator in my art. The minute Janice Lessman-Moss I walked into a needlepoint shop TEL 330/672-2158 FAX 330/672-4729 in the 1970s and saw a whole [email protected] wall of Paternayan yarn I was “Vincent Tries on Rembrandt‘s Hats”, 21” x 23", by Stephen Beal, 2008 win- PAST PRESIDENT hooked. I could work with color, ner of the Lillian Elliot Award for outstanding work in contemporary textile Carol Bier hold color, create with color, art by an emerging artist. This work appeared in the exhibition, “Pricked!,” TEL 510/849-2478 have fun with color. Like Donald at the Museum of Art and Design, New York, 2007-2008. [email protected] Duck’s nephews with Uncle The piece “They were Young, pieces are exquisitely constructed, DIRECTORS AT-LARGE Scrooge’s millions, I could throw They were Rich, They were with rigorous attention to compo- Joanne B. Eicher color up in the air and let it fall on TEL 651/645-2914 Happy–Gertrude Stein’s Troop sition, animated by rich and full my head. I felt that I was home. [email protected] Presents Don Quixote” is visu- color mixing. I later switched to DMC Barbara Shapiro ally complex, rich in iconogra- Beal’s work has been includ- embroidery floss for ease of mix- TEL 415/882-7401 phy, and is both amusing and ed in several significant recent [email protected] ing colors, and those colors led to poignant. “Peaceful Day on the exhibitions, including “Men of my first collection of poetry, The Fran Dorsey Persian Gulf” has another kind the Cloth,” and, most recently, TEL 902/494-8113 FAX 902/425-2420 Very Stuff, in which each poem of poignancy. “Pricked: Extreme Embroidery” [email protected] is inspired by a shade of DMC The later work becomes at the Museum of Arts and Sumru Krody floss. For me color led to poetry, less literal and more metaphor- Design, New York, in 2007. TEL 202/667-0441 ext. 37 and now the written word often FAX 202/483-0994 ic, as in “The Periodic Table The next Lillian Elliott leads to a canvas. Gertrude Stein [email protected] of Artist’s Color.” Beal plays Award will be presented at the is a constant inspiration, and I’ve Matilda McQuaid with the art historical canon in 12th Biennial Symposium of the done a series of Flaubert-inspired TEL 212/849-8451 “Vincent Tries on Rembrandt’s Textile Society of America, to be [email protected] works.” Hats.” “Nature is Never Spent” held Oct. 7-9, 2010 in Lincoln, Stephen Beal’s website, www. Elena Phipps is inspired by Hopkins’ son- NE. The LEA Board welcomes TEL 212/650-2465 stephenbeal.com, reveals an intrigu- net “God’s Grandeur,” one of contributions in the name and [email protected] ing body of work, of both poetry Beal’s favorites. “Level Crossing” memory of Lillian Elliott or Joanne and stitched pieces. While working TASK REPRESENTATIVES explores space while joyfully Segal Brandford in support of as a teacher, writer, or editor for TSA WEBSITE abandoning good taste in color emerging artists working in Fiber. Susan Gunter, [email protected] Interweave Press, he published a choices. Beal’s most recent Please send donations to: volume of poetry as well as an TSA LISTSERVE piece, “The Dude Abides,” Barbara Goldberg, Laura Strand, [email protected] impressive body of small cross- presents a 17th-century por- 74 Sargent Beechwood stitched images. TSA NEWSLETTER trait of the Amsterdam Wine Brookline, MA 02445 The early work is engag- Karen Searle, [email protected] Merchants Guild, into which ing, funny, playing with human –Fran Dorsey Beal has inserted six male TSA SYMPOSIUM 2010 CO-CHAIRS foibles, but with a slight edge, and characters from the Coen Bros. Diane Vigna, [email protected] with elaborate titles that serve to film, The Big Lebowski. This is Wendy Weiss, [email protected] contextualize the observations. an Elliott-worthy canvas. The SYMPOSIUM PROCEEDINGS EDITOR Ann Svenson Perlman, [email protected] 2 TSA NEWSLETTER rare and unique collections in Ann Svenson Perlman for gen- Board Concerns Honolulu, and to the exhibited erously offering (again, this time The 2008-2010 Board will meet work of the local contemporary as Designer and Senior Editor) to rom he in New York City Mar. 6-7 at F T fiber arts community. For me it guide this publication along. the Cooper-Hewitt Museum. was also a return visit to a place resident Our business will include a dis- P I love that was home to me for 2010 Symposium cussion of TSA Membership, 16 years, and to colleagues and Now we look ahead with antici- expansion and involvement, former students to whom I had pation.