Each Little World

Fiber folk take note

The Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection (HLATC), located on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, unveiled its new Web site on Friday. Now, even if you don't live where you can take advantage of this wonderful resource and its library in person, the Web site gives you a taste. With 13,000 textiles and related objects in the collection, there is something for everyone to chew on.

HLATC

Renie Breskin Adams, who created "Let's Be Civilized" (above), was one of my teachers in grad school at UW. This is just one of many wonderful fiber pieces in the Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection.

There are a number of things that I particularly like about this new Web site — besides the fact that it is colorful and easy to navigate. The site is as smart and lively as the collection and its staff. Along with information about the collection's founders, there is actually a page dedicated to the staff and volunteers where you can see photos of all of them and then click to learn more. It's about time that the folks who keep this valuable resource running, get a little notice! 

Of course, the Web site has info on how the HLATC is used as a teaching resource, but it also offers armchair visitors images and information about a cast of featured textiles. Currently you can learn more about an embroidered Chinese Lotus Shoe (below) via a concise essay that gives the history of the object and compares it to a modern woman's floral motif shoe. Two other featured textiles are a Chinese child's hat (HLATC is particularly strong in ethnographic textiles) and a 1934 printed linen furnishing fabric by Ruth Reeves from her Hudson River series.

HLATC

In addition, there is an "Inspiration" category which features images and an article documenting how a student in a textile design class, "Manual/Computer Generated Imagery and Pattern," did a modern take on William Morris' "Honeysuckle" textile pattern. This is a more typical use of the collection — as a university resource — but just looking at this essay is enough to get the creative juices flowing no matter where you live.

SUSANNA HANSSON/BOHUS STICKNING

The site obviously includes information on how to "participate": how to become a supporter of the collection, how to volunteer and how to sign up for the e-mail list. There's an events category listing things like the textile book club and this afternoon's 8th Annual Membership Meeting ("An Afternoon with Friends" more aptly describes it) which includes a presentation on Bohus Stickning, a historic Swedish knitting tradition (examples above).

And there's information on the larger textile world like the fact that the United Nations has declared 2009 the International Year of Natural Fibres. This was news to me but now I know where to go to find out what's happening elsewhere. 

Textiles on the move

The Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection on the UW-Madison campus launched a blog by Diana Zlatanovski, associate curator and collections manager, earlier this summer. The aim of the blog is to document packing up and moving the 13,000-piece collection to an off-site location while the building where it normally lives undergoes a major transformation. That's an old campus facility where I took most of the classes for my Masters degree and thus has a special place in my heart — though I am greatly looking forward to it moving into the 21st century.

The move of the HLATC is a temporary relocation during the building project, but it is a major undertaking nevertheless. And it is fascinating to watch. The blog has tidbits about different textiles in the collection, but even more interesting to see is all the creative thinking involved in a project like this. My favorite post showed them packing an embroidered silk shawl with long fringe on all four sides ( a close-up of the stitching below). If you are a fiberista, then you'll also appreciate this beaded Victorian bell pull (above), whose juxtaposition of sharp, raised metal and beading made it another piece in the collection that required a unique packing solution.

Following the blog gives you a behind-the-scenes peek at how a museum cares for its collections. Makes me realize my clothes — as well as my antique and ethnic textiles — are not being stored at home as well as they might be. I've got things wrapped in acid free tissue, but reading these posts makes me realize what a novice I am. 

Blogger Diana Zlatanovski ponders packing up the HLATC for temporary storage while it awaits its new home.

MADISON MEMO: If you live in the area, there are two September events sponsored by the Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection that may be of interest.

Sunday, Sept. 20

8th Annual HLATC Membership Meeting at the University of Madison Foundation (1848 University Ave., free on-site parking)

"BOHUS STICKNING: Hand Knitting, Haute Couture and Social Justice" by Susanna Hansson

Bohus Stickning is a Swedish cottage industry started in the 1930s during the Depression. To make some money for their families, women started knitting socks and toy animals, then moved on to create sweaters.

2:00 p.m.  Welcome, introductory remarks and light refreshments

2:15 p.m.  Bohus Stickning presentation: documentary film/illustrated lecture/Q&A

3:30-4:00 p.m. Examination of vintage sweaters and informal conversations

 

Susanna Hansson is a teacher and collector who originally learned to knit in her native Sweden. Color, technique, history and culture in the context of knitting all interest her. Hansson’s own collection of vintage couture Bohus Stickning garments was recently exhibited at the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis.   

Space is limited.  Reservations are required before Monday, September 14. 

RSVP: susan.owen@uwfoundation.wisc.edu or call Susan at 608-262-1472. 

The Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection at UW-Madison is housed in this great old building.

Sunday, September 27

2:00-4:00 p.m., Shorewood Hills

Last spring, HLATC began an ongoing series of discussions of textile-and costume-related books. This program is a requested repeat of the book discussion: "The Afghan Amulet."  

 
The book details embroidery scholar Sheila Paine's account of "her adventures on the trail of an elusive motif, The Afghan Amulet. Her quest takes her to some of the more remote parts of western Asia, where she chronicles her encounters with both the region's legendary hospitality and its equally famed hostility," according to an email I received from HLATC curator, Maya Lea.  

 
Lea will lead the discussion and show some related images. She notes that the earlier event was enriched by relevant pieces that people brought from their own collections and that participants should read the book in advance and come ready to share their responses.  
  

Advance registration requested by e-mailing hlatc@mail.sohe.wisc.edu (address and additional information will be sent to registered participants since this event is taking place in a private home).  
 

Textile photos courtesy the Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection at UW-Madison.

Madison memo: Fiber, food & White House farming

Culinary History Enthusiasts of Wisconsin Meeting

WHITEHOUSEFARMER.COM

“Life in the Slow Lane: A Sampling of Local to Global Experiences With Our International Slow Food Family” is the topic of the Wednesday, April 1 meeting of the Culinary History Enthusiasts of Wisconsin (CHEW)
 
Susan Streich-Boldt of Slow Food Madison will take guests on a virtual trip around the world to see local, regional, national, and international projects that embrace the principles at the heart of Slow Food, according to an e-mail press release from CHEW. Streich-Boldt is a member of the leadership team of the Madison chapter of Slow Food and a charter member of CHEW. She instituted the Slow Food Sister City partnership with Mantova, Italy. 

She'll also look at the Madison chapter's annual picnic at Crawford Farm in New Glarus, as well as Terra Madre, the international conference of food communities held in Turin, Italy. Streich-Boldt will show how the Slow Food movement promotes the principles of Good, Clean, and Fair:

Good: Food that is tasty, fresh, seasonal and pleasing to the senses, 
Clean: Produced without damaging the earth's resources or harming human health, 
Fair: Fair pay and decent workplace conditions for those who produce our food. 

THE CAPITAL TIMES

Also on the menu is beekeeper and CSA farmer Claire Strader (above), one of the Wisconsin delegates to Terra Madre 2008. Strader discovered an abundance of fascinating and sometimes strange honeys from around the world at Terra Madre and brought some home to Madison.  She will bring a sampling to taste test. 
 
Locally Strader is best known for her work as the organic farming educator for Community GroundWorks at Troy Community Farm in Madison. But this spring she also has the distinction of being the top vote-getter at whitehousefarmer.com, the site set up in response to Michael Pollan's NYTimes op-ed calling for a White House Farmer. 

The CHEW meeting is at 7:15 p.m. at the Goodman Atwood Community Center, 149 Waubesa Street.

Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection Talk:

Silks of South Asia

Professor J. Mark Kenoyer (Anthropology) will give an informal lecture in front of the hallway cases displaying his collection of wild-silk cocoons, implements, and textiles. Dr. Kenoyer has excavated the world’s oldest-known silk fiber from the Indus Valley site of Harappa. The objects on exhibit represent this tradition. 

Unlike most textile exhibits, you will have a chance to touch the different wild silks at this free presentation from 5-5:30 p.m., Wednesday, April 1,  in the hallway outside Rm. 333, School of Human Ecology, 1300 Linden Dr. The display itself will remain up through Spring term and can be seen when the building is open. For more information on the HLATC, click here.

The sun, the moon, and Victoria Rivers

"The Sun and the Moon:

Protective Motifs in Central and South Asian Embroideries"

One of the highlights of March in Madison is the Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection's annual Ruth Ketterer Harris Lecture. This year's must-attend event for local fiber fanatics will feature Dr. Victoria Rivers, professor in design at UC-Davis and author of "The Shining Cloth." Rivers will explore the ways in which many rural textiles from Central and South Asia reflect ancient ties to the sun and the moon and to their protective attributes. This free event is at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 26, in Room L160, Chazen Museum of Art.

DEBBIE ALDRIDGE/UC DAVIS

Dr. Victoria Rivers

Rivers previously gave the 2000 Ruth Ketterer Harris/HLATC lecture on "The Shining Cloth." In addition to her anthropological research, Rivers is an artist herself making her ideally suited to explore the use of precious metals, sequins, beads and reflective objects in textile embellishment, since her own work frequently uses them. 

I remember Rivers' "The Shining Cloth" as a terrific presentation and I expect this one should be the same. And it will be a particularly interesting topic, given the conjunction of the spectacular textile treasures currently on display in the Chazen's ongoing exhibit, "Writing with Thread: Traditional Textiles of Southwest Chinese Minorities, on display through April 12.

Be sure to enter a comment HERE before midnight on March 30 to take part in Each Little World's give-away of Julie Moir Messervy's new book, "Home Outside."

A Passion for Pattern

My book budget is busted — which is why I was thrilled to walk into my local branch library and find a design blockbuster right there on the new books shelf. Susan Meller’s
“Russian Textiles: Printed Cloth for the Bazaars of Central Asia” is a book that demands attention by virtue of its size — 10.5” x 12” — as well as its color: cherry red. And that’s just the background for outsize swirling flowers and vines.

You’ve never seen most of these designs before because they are all from Meller’s personal collection and are being reproduced in the book for the first time. There are more than 190 patterns that cross the borders of history, culture, and design. They are visual documentation of the cultural riches of today’s countries of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan — the area that imported these fabrics from Russia where they were created and manufactured from 1860 to 1960.

But what amazes me looking at the images in this book is knowing that these beautiful fabrics were used inside garments as linings or as backing on wall hangings. There are bold florals, paisleys, tiny block prints like Pierre Deux, faux ikats, intense color, mesmerizing patterns and yet rarely seen! Perhaps that’s why they are so powerful and compelling.

Four essays place the people and the textiles in context, including “The Social Life of Cloth” by Kate Fitz Gibbon who covered a similar topic when she was in Madison in 2007 to deliver the Ruth Ketterer Harris Memorial Lecture, annually presented by the Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection.

I can’t think of too many patterns today that could hold their own against these images. The fabrics I photographed with “Russian Textiles” are from the Ume Komachi collection by the Japanese design group, Kokka. Ume, a Japanese plum, is one of the most traditional Kimono motifs, according to Kokka which has revived various plum patterns into contemporary arrangements. I bought them from Purl in NYC but both designs are now out of production. I think the strong red as well as the red/green combo subtly reference these Russian Textiles.

If you’re flush, the book costs $50. If you have $500 to burn, you can buy a DVD with over 200 high-resolution jpeg images from the book like the one directly above. Purchase of the DVD includes a license allowing for royalty and permission-free use of the designs.

The morning after I found the Russian book, I zapped into the same library’s monthly sale and found a first American edition of Katrin Cargill’s “A Passion for Pattern” in virtually perfect condition. For $2. Photos are by James Merrell who’s done so many design books including the must-have “Living with Decorative Textiles.”

Cargill has written dozens of design books and this meets my standard for purchasing: logical format, excellent pictures, a few little projects, lots of inspiration. I felt I’d had my money’s worth (and I mean the $40 original cover price) by the third page of the introduction.

There, spread across two pages, is a room that combines a yellow and taupe striped chair and its dotted pillow with dining chairs whose seats are red and white toile de Jouy. They are drawn up tp a solid red settee and a table dramatically covered in an African Kuba cloth (misidentified in the book as Kente). There are Kuba-covered pillows on the settee as well. The walls are neutral but the adjoining room — which is very visible — is almost totally toile. A carpet in caramel, golds, cream and navy runs from one room to the other.

As someone who loves African art and textiles, I’ve never thought they were easy to use in a room — especially one with French antiques. This combination is a triumph! Is it the most masterful room in the book? Luckily, no; there are more than enough ideas to keep one's imagination busy for quite some time.

Now I just have to wait a few years for someone to donate the Russian Textiles book to the library sale.

Photos: The fabrics with "Russian Textiles" are from the Ume Komachi collection by Kokka and are out of print. The woman's Munisak coat is early 20th century, lined in pre-Revolutionary fabrics and appears on page 80 of Susan Meller's book. An old sample of a Givenchy design for Fabriyaz is in the Cargill cover shot and African Kuba cloth appears in the 2nd Cargill photo.

Textile treasures

Washington, D.C. has The Textile Museum.
New York has The Costume Institute at the Met.
Chicago has the Department of Textiles at The Art Institute.
Minneapolis has the Textile Center.

And Madison, Wisconsin has the Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection (HLATC).

But, unless you’re a fiber fanatic like me, HLATC seems to be an unintended secret. The collection is a critical part of the academic program of the School of Human Ecology at UW-Madison. It includes 12,000 textiles and costumes representing countless eras, places, and techniques, making it one of the largest university textile collections in the U.S. A pretty big secret.

You can take a peek at the collection and what it has to offer at the HLATC Annual Open House today, Sept. 9 and Wednesday, Sept. 10 from 4:30 pm. to 6:30 p.m. in Room 378 of the Human Ecology Building, 1300 Linden Drive.

There is also a Gallery of Design where both contemporary textiles and items from the collection are periodically displayed. For those of you who live elsewhere, you can also view on-line exhibitions. The Ruth Ketterer Harris Special Collection, a non-circulating library containing more than 4,000 books, pamphlets, and journals on textiles and related topics, is available to scholars.

"Overlooking Kingston" (top) is a linen furnishing fabric designed by Ruth Reeves for her Hudson River Series in 1934. "Kanchali" (directly above) is a woman's blouse possibly from the Harijan people
in India, Gujarat, Kutch or Surindernagar District,
1930-1963. It is
silk and cotton with silk, cotton, and metal embroidery and mirrors, 29 x 22 inches long. Images from HLATC.