Textiles 101

NOW OPEN! Textiles 101 is open for all to enjoy as part of their museum visit, as a center for museum workshops, and as a starting and ending point for textile tours. 

One artist who visited the space during its first week laughed a little at the question “How long did it take to make this?” posted outside the door. She gets asked that question a lot about her own artwork... Her answer, simply, was “All my life.” 

And that’s the answer to the question here! It took all of OUR lives, collectively. Developing textile technologies, design techniques, meanings, functions, and aesthetics has been a major enterprise since the beginning of human history. I hope visitors will leave with a better understanding of the human ingenuity and creativity behind textiles which makes them a special part of our existence. 

Installation is done! I got to give some friends a sneak peek at Textiles 101 today. It was so satisfying to see people enjoying the space and thinking about textiles in a new way.

I felt great that everything is installed and in working order. Now, all that is left to do is some fine tuning we’ll be ready for the public to join us in two weeks.

I’m giving the director of the museum, John Wetenhall, a little preview of what’s to come for Textiles 101. The beautiful photography by Pam Kaplan and the real (not this prototype) warp and weft activity will be gracing our gallery soon.

Installation begins next week!

Fiber is where all textiles begin. During the Agricultural Revolution, humans began domesticating the best plants and animals for textile production. Cotton, silk, wool, linen, and other fibers we love didn’t get selected by accident. Fibers must be long, thin, strong, flexible, and cohesive enough to be spun into yarns (that’s a lot of qualities).

I’m excited about this part of Textiles 101 because visitors will have a chance to get their hands on nine types of fibers from around the world.

Color was perhaps the most difficult section of Textiles 101 to figure out (note the many discarded design concepts littered about my desk). Dyes don’t work the in same way as paint, nor in the way you think traditional color mixing should go (red + blue = purple). Dyeing is essentially chemistry at work and natural dyes still retain a lot of variance and mystery. Dyes can produce one color under some conditions, and another color under different conditions, making it really difficult to talk in absolutes. 

I loved digging in deep to figure out how to tell the best stories about textile colors. Special thank you to patient curators, our librarian, and a couple of highly recommended books:

Natural Dyes: Sources, Tradition, Technology and Science by Dominique Cardon

Wild Colour: Sources, Methods and Applications of Natural Dyeing by Jenny Dean

I’m testing materials on the prototype of our loom (the warp and weft activity). This will be a big improvement to the little looms and tiny samples we currently have for demonstrating woven structures. This simple loom will let visitors try out a variety of weaving techniques on a large (and easy to maintain) format.

Here, I’m demonstrating a 2/2 twill for our designers at Quatrefoil’s studio. You should have seen the "aha!” moment when I did a carpet knot right before their eyes!

To better illustrate categories of textile structures, we commissioned three local artists who specialize in weaving, felt making, and knitting to make us custom instructional banners that show the variations of techniques within each type.

The banners are spectacular! Thank you to our artists, whose work will be a focal point in the Textiles 101 exhibition.

Hillary Steel - weaving

Renate Maile-Moskowitz - felt

Our education items for study are now fully organized and accessible! A big thank you to the museum docents for working throughout the summer to make this a working archive ready for Textiles 101.

Corcoran students from the New Media Photojournalism program collaborated with the museum to contribute to the film archive in Textiles 101. Students created videos featuring fiber production for cotton, silk and wool. They also filmed three local artists creating the instructional banners on textile structures (weaving, looping and felt).

A huge thank you to Kristin Adair, JD/MA ‘06, MA ’17; Maria Luz Bravo, MA ’18; Maria Helena Carey, MA ’14; Jessica Lockoski, BFA ’19; Nosrat Tarighi, MA ’17; and Chris Zarconi, BA ‘04, MA ’17.  Pamela Kaplan, MA ’16, is a museum docent and serves as the project coordinator.