The Bay Area Forum for artists, Textile Arts Council aficionados & collectors of weaving, rugs & tapestries, baskets, costume & wearable art September 2007 Upcoming Programs and Announcements All programs are held in the Koret Auditorium at the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park, Volume XXII Number 3 50 Hagiwara Tea Drive, San Francisco. Admission to the programs is FREE to TAC members, $10 for non-members and $5 for FAMSF members and students with I.D. No additional Museum admission fee is necessary. You may enter from the lower garage level or from the main floor near the entrance. PROGRAMS textile design to the decriminalization of Saturday, September 22, 2007, 10:00 a.m. decoration, textiles DOWNLOADING THE TEXTILE and fiber are at the FUTURE center of some of the most exciting art and With Victor De La Rosa design work being Burn the floor loom. Smash the produced today. spinning wheel. Technology is the De La Rosa will new craft! It is time to free textiles Learning to knit include examples of –Victor De La Rosa from the constraints of the industrial his own work utilizing revolution and embrace the vast computer-interfaced weaving and printing possibilities of the technological technology on jacquard power looms and revolution. digital fabric printers. He will also discuss his New technologies are providing research into the design and development of the ability to redefine, repurpose, virtual wallpaper. and recontextualize textile arts and Victor De La Rosa is an Assistant Professor Virtual Wallpaper design. Notably, this freedom has of Textiles/New Practices at San Francisco Project Application included a renewed interest in tradition as well. State University. Rendering The future of textile innovation and creativity is promising. The visual language of textiles now Saturday, October 20, 2007, 10:00 a.m. reaches across many disciplines in fine arts and design. And the traditions of textile design ONE NEEDLE, ONE THREAD: and technique embrace technology to redefine MIAO (HMONG) EMBROIDERY what a textile is and can be. This lecture will AND FABRIC PIECEWORK FROM investigate the current state and the future of GUIZHOU, CHINA textiles in the arts in terms of both conceptual With Tomoko Torimaru and material developments. In this presentation, Tomoko Torimaru, noted Drawing on his research for textiles education scholar and author of numerous books on the and into electronic and future textiles, Victor Miao, will lead us on a cultural exploration De La Rosa will discuss the ubiquity of textile of the remarkable diversity of costume and Fine Arts techniques and language in contemporary fine adornment within the Miao community living Museums of arts. He will outline and dissect the cultural in southwest China. “If you meet 100 Miao, San Francisco and generational shifts that have led to the you will see 100 costumes” is a comment current fiber and textile renaissance in the arts. de Young frequently used to describe the Miao. From the use of repeat pattern conventions in Legion Programs continue on page 3, col. 1 of Honor 1 Chair’s Column Greetings beloved threadheads, with many other Chinese artifacts from that TAC BOARD I hope you have had a great summer filled with time, that you can still see today. China made Laurel Sprigg, creativity and wondrous fibers. such things for export then, and even changed Chair the flowers they embroidered from peonies and Kathy Judkins, Since Cheryl Samuel’s moving lecture in June, chrysanthemums to roses in order to appeal to Vice-Chair Revival of the Ravenstail, I have been thinking the European market. 17th century marketing. about the importance of textiles in our lives. Who knew? And we are all familiar with the Michelle Cheryl demonstrated how the preservation of impact of globalization on the native peoples of Nassopoulos, a dying cultural legacy has led to the active the Americas at that time. Vice-Chair resurgence of not only ancient weaving techniques, but also the deeper connections My point is that a global economy is nothing Paul Ramsey, among the community embracing that legacy. new, and will probably always be with us. We Secretary do all influence one another. The real fear is It seems to me that this is the reason we do Patricia Christensen that we might lose the old when we embrace what we do. It is not just about saving beautiful Marion Coleman the new, but that does not have to happen. As things, it is about preserving and valuing our Mary Connors with the Ravenstail weaving, we must preserve collective human history and incorporating Sue Friedland the ancient techniques and their meanings so deeper meaning back into all our lives. Linda Gass that they continue to be part of the lively and Hansine Goran I have been reading and thinking a lot about current human culture. We must also encourage Serena Harrigan cloth and culture. An article in the San Francisco artists and innovators to use new technologies Ana Lisa Hedstrom Chronicle this summer reported that Bolivia springing from the foundation of the past. We David Holloway has banned the sale of used clothes from other are all connected in this tapestry of human Darlene Jurow countries because it hurts the local economy. experience. Bans are nothing new, and have been tried Barbara Kelly in other times in other places, such as the The lectures coming up this fall are very relevant: Gerry Masteller French ban on Indiennes cotton prints in the Victor De La Rosa will present “Downloading Cynthia Shaver the Textile Future,” Tomoko Torimaru will speak 18th century, and the Turkish ban on the “new” Advisory Board: about Chinese Miao embroidery, and Connie synthetic dyes at the beginning of the 19th Peggy Gordon Strayer will discuss costumes for the stage. century. But the questions raised are good Karine Langan Food for thought and feasts for the eyes, my ones. These things are responses to economic Barbara Shapiro favorite combination. and political changes, of course, and textiles Gretchen Turner are often at the center of those changes. For See you there, Susan York more on this topic, I recommend you read The Laurel Sprigg Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy: An TAC Chair Economist Examines the Markets, Power, and Politics of World Trade, by Pietra Rivoli, for a fascinating view of current economic upheaval in today’s world. You might well ask, what does my quilting, sewing, needlework, research, etc. have to do with the global economy? Quite a lot, in fact. For Announcement example, in the 16th and 17th centuries, great TAC member Dolores Presley, TAC board member Marion quantities of Chinese silk, (along with porcelain Coleman, and Julia Vitero, in collaboration with Bay Area Black and spices) were purchased by the Portuguese United Fund, have been awarded a Creative Work Fund grant and then sold to Spanish traders who used (www.creativeworkfund.org) to produce works addressing African silver mined from Mexico to pay for the precious American health disparities. Our congratulations to the awardees. cargo. There is an embroidered silk shawl from China in the small museum in Acapulco, along TAC Newsletter 2 Programs continued from page 1 TAC Workshop NEXT NEWSLETTER DEADLINE Costumes are seen as an expression of “Embroidery Stitches and village identity and a way to proudly display Frog Closures of the Miao” November 12, 2007 each village’s special skills. With no written With Tomoko Torimaru The Textile Arts Council script, the Miao have long used textiles Location: de Young Museum newsletter welcomes and textile techniques as an instrument Date: Sunday, October 21, 2007, announcements and 10 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. of vocabulary and a way to express their columns from our members Class Fee: $40 history. Textile making is an integral part of Materials Fee: $10 about textiles and related everyday life and the Miao have developed a Limit: 13 participants events in the textile number of techniques to create their unique community. garments. Even the choice of materials, Please send your copy from thread to fabric to needle, is precise, to the TAC office attac@ purposeful, and insightful. Textiles are the famsf.org. way in which Miao communicate not only their history but how they interact with their world on a daily basis. This is a rare opportunity to get an in-depth look at Miao embroidery from one of the foremost researchers of Miao textiles. In the first half of the workshop, Ms. Torimaru will present a PowerPoint lecture on a variety of Miao embroidery stitches. Students are Tomoko Torimaru has spent several free to bring materials to follow along and years living and conducting costume practice these techniques in class. During research among the Miao. She is the the second half of the workshop, Ms. author of “Spiritual Fabric: 20 Years of Torimaru will demonstrate making Miao- Field Research among the Miao People style frog closures, a process that involves in Guizhou, China” and co-author, along cutting cloth into long bias tape, folding with her mother and research colleague, and stitching the tape into a cord, and Sadae Torimaru, of “Imprints on Cloth: 18 then knotting the cord into a pair of frog Years of Field Research among the Miao closures. Materials for the frog closures are People in Guizhou, China.” She is also the included in the materials fee. A supply list of author of the soon-to-be-released “One additional materials to bring will be sent to Needle, With One Thread: Miao (Hmong) participants. Embroidery and Fabric Piecework; Field Research among the Miao People in Class is limited to 13 participants. To sign Guizhou, China.” She recently earned up, please email [email protected] or call 415 her PhD in Asian traditional textiles, from 750-3627.