Introduction to FiberArt (instructors' course)

[Mirjam Bruck-Cohen]

When I was asked to prepare an introductory lecture I agreed, and then
got a bit flustered, Not because there is nothing to introduce but
because there is too much to explain and talk about. The simplest and
easiest way, would be for me to tell that there are all kinds of threads
and various Techniques like Weaving = Ariga [Hebrew] = Khiaka [Arabic],
Knitting = Sriega {H} = Khaak [A], Crochet = Tsinora {H} = Sinora [A],
Felting, Knotting = Kshirot {H] = Marbutin [A], with which we make cloth
= Badiem [H] = Kmaash [A], or different Nets = Reshatot [H] = Shabaaka
[A], and than I will Explain to you that it is possible to Adorn and
create with Sewing = Tefiera [H] = Khaayata [A] and Embroidery = Rikma
[H] = Tereg` [A] and more, and I will remind you much of what we do with
the threads and the cloth, clothes = begadiem [H] = melaabess [A] and
things for the home like sheets = sedieniem [H] = SharShaaf [A]®
and towels = magaavot [H] = minshaaf [A], and curtains = vilonot [H] =
sitaar [A] and blankets = semiechot [H] = kharaamto [A] and just
adornments, and Tents= ohaliem [H] = khiyaam [A], bags =tiekiem [H]
=shinaat [A] and Parachutes, and Rugs = shtiechiem [H] = basaat [A] are
also possible, and with that I might really finish my introduction to
the lesson, and this would be it, But it is not so simple .®
In order to be able to work and study we should have a common Dictionary
so that when we say something or open a magazine or book , we shall
understand what is meant when they say Weft, thread, embroidery, art,
craft etc... There is no choice then, each one will prepare a little
note book in which she will write the technical words and terms in
Arabic Hebrew and English. Thread = khoot[H] = khet[A] or silki[A]. When
one does not understand something I ask you to get used to looking it up
in a Dictionary, Encyclopedia or in the last pages of some of the books
because sometimes there is a `list of words`, or a `dictionary of words`
or a `glossary` or a `list of terms`.In all those kinds of lists you
will find the meaning of the words, and you will write yourselves a
little Dictionary for you.®
Threads and fabrics as well as the Different usage techniques served
humanity for many generations, for practical needs when we call it Craft
and also for decorative uses or self-expression or for an emotional,
politcal or religious message when we call it Art. ®
Even though according to archeological findings, most of the techniques
we are about to learn were practised in this part of the world, we use a
lot of European terms for the simple reason that they documented and
wrote more about those techniques and also because those countries were
richer. Throughout history the amount of written and printed material
for all kinds of embroidery knitting and weaving was more widespread
there than in other places. Another reason why it is important that we
should know, at least briefly, what happened in Europe, mainly in
relation to textiles, is that the global perception of terms that
diferentiate between Art and craft have been influenced mainly by
European events. So we use those terms, even though right now, in recent
years, and surely in the coming years new terms are accepted which are
more respectful to what has been created in the past and present in non
- European socities, by all kinds of minorities and in this case also by
women, and yet we still have to know and use the old terms while
remembering that we are allowed to dissociate or discuss them and decide
how much they mean to us.®
Part of the knowledge we have about the past comes from remnants of
cloth or mats that have been preserved in Mud or a very dry climate. The
antropologist Olga Soffer from Illinois University Urbana checked in
1990 burned mud pieces that were found in Pavlov mountains in Chechia,
and by Carbon testing found then to be 25000-27000 years old, until
those tests, the oldest known fragments that were found were only around
10000 years old.®
We use fabrics not only for comfort and so we would not be cold but also
to distinguish a status or a role. By the dress we know many times what
the man`s or woman`s job is, or to what folk, sect or religion they
belong.®
The will or need to create is something blessed, and as we saw, very
old. The British zoologist Desmond Morris even claims in his Book
`Animal Days` that this is characteristic to all Priemates, mamal
Monkeys, He checked and found that Chimpanzees have a sense, ability and
wish for color, order and certain forms. Many generations Men and women
learned by imitation, they watched their parents, usualy the girls
imitated the mothers and the boys imitated the fathers and yet things
changed and developed. Probably there were always Individuals who found
new materials or a new way to process the available materials and they
combined it into the traditional work so that slowly it changed .®
In different places we find diverse techniques that developed from the
local materials. In Japan and China they grew [silk] worms from which
they learned to produce silk. in England there is lots of rain and grass
and sheep, so they developed wool growing and processing, while the
cotton and the linen were grown and processed in India, Egypt and
Mexico. The Local materials as well as the life conditions dictated also
the way in which the materials were processed, for instance in places
where nomads lived we find narrower looms or weaving facilities which
resulted in their weaving narower fabrics and in the creating of clothes
we find lots of seams that over time developed into very aesthetic and
beautiful forms, for example African and Mexican fabrics. In China where
they grew cotton and processed silk from worms there was almost no wool,
thus they made warm clothing by layers of raw silk or cotton, which®
they sewed one on top of the other, and even filled it with raw
unprocesed silk or cotton. While not far away from there in Mongolia we
find clothes from local leather as well as from imported silk cotton and
wool. Merchants, tourists and conquerors that traveled to other
countries brought with them not only stories but textiles and other
materials and of course the techniques to use those materails, and again
in each country this `import` developed in a different way. But we can
still identify the origin of certain fabrics by their names, Broderie
Anglaise= English Embroidery, Calico from Calcuta India, Bengalinedesoie
silk from Bengal, Damask from Damascus, Arab cloth, Cahmier, Shantung,
Pananma cloth, Gauze from Gaza, Denim from Nim in France etc.....®
In Europe of the 12th cent. we can read about Family workshops where all
members of the extended family worked in order to create, sell and make
a living. All the families that made the same product were members of a
Guild, that dealt with all kinds of laws and regulations in favour of a
certain profession. There were guilds of Weavers, Knitters, painters and
buiders and the like . We are of course interested in the guilds that
made fiber related works. In the Middle Ages Economy, Women were Equal
in Duties and Rights. In the Rennaissance as Statesmanship and Banking
came to be, women were pushed towards more homebased occupations, in the
same time when a division was formed between Sculpture & Painting as art
and all other professions as craft. Women were educated in the house or
maybe in a convent towards the homely occupations, a heavy emphasis was
put upon the textilic abilities because the woman had to provide the
clothes and their repairs. Men had more educational possibilities open
to them, the mercantile and statemanship professions. They studied
outside the home reading, writing and math, which was also necessary to
the study of painting because great emphasis was made on Perspective.
Slowly Women were pushed towards the tasks that seemingly required less
learning or training. The importance of the Household and its tending
and managing rises while women have less and less time for activities
that are termed non practical and things made by females seem less
respectable. The guilds too change for they are not a working group but
they accept the name of the Group head or family and there is lots of
documetation, of women creating beautiful rugs or designing wonderful
clothes or painting but it is sold under the name of their father or
husband.®
Simultanously in Asia and Egypt there is documentation of Men who go on
weaving, embroidering, and knitting. The Greek Historion Herodutus
already mentions in his writing that..." in Greece weaving is part of
the housewife`s duties, while in Egypt in same period the man is the
weaver. In the 16th cent. we find in the papers of the East-India
company that in vilages or famlies that produce cloth for them, the men
weave while women and children spin, dye and wash the materials. In
other documents by Embroidery merchants it is specified that European
oriented embroideries were made by men while the women worked for local
markets or what is meant to be sold in neighbouring Islam countries. It
is important to know all this in order to uderstand how the European
opinions defining fiber works as a female occupation have spread, gained
the Upper hand everywhere even where it was not the local tradition.®
In the mid 15th cent, a trend starts in Europe that the drawing for the
enbroidery will be made by a man while the actual labour, can be done by
women, children, or somebody with a lesser eduaction. As embroidery was
already pushed to status of a home based craft that needs lots of
handwork but no eduaction, so `the equation` folows us - embroidery= not
skilled work=female work. In art the woman becomes an object to be
drawn or the Worker who makes other`s instructions and she surely does
not sign her work, many beautiful quilts or embroideries exhibited in
museums today are shown under the title Maker Anonymous.®
In Churches of that period we start to see paintings of the Madona
knitting and in general she is in a homely suroundings while she knits,
usualy in the round on 5 double pointed needles and the message is
clear- sit home woman amd make clothes .®
Simultaneously The Knitter`s Guild with only male membership still
exists, they specialize in knitting Silk Stockings, Variuos Jackets as
well as clerical wear and they control the market.®
In the 300 years that followed, this was the situation. Men traded and
sold and fought and women took care of the family needs . In England of
the 17th cent. thousands of families made a living from the home cotton
industry, the women and the children sort and spin while the men weave .
In 1793 the American Eli Whitney invented a machine that separated
efficiently the cotton seed from the fiber, and this realy symbolizes
the start of Industry. In America they needed more and more African
Slaves, in 1860 there are more than 4 Million slaves in the cotton
fields of southern America, at the same time in England various machines
are developed that accelerated the weaving of fabric, women and children
work on, under, and around those machines and there are horendous
stories about their lives. The functions of foremen, clerks or®
warpers are held by men because it is considered more clever and of
course simoultaneously they get better pay, and so we go on with the
equation woman= textile =less. Gradually women get more eduaction, The
ecomomical situation demands their cooperation, the woman learns
reading, writing, and arithmetic mainly for home economics and so that
she can pray and help the husband. Throughout Europe and later in
America Embroidered Letter samplers appear. This was realy Ideal, the
girl learned how to read and write and sew, and mainly to darn and
repair all in one needle`s prick. Girls 5 years and up learned different
stiches , they embroidered the Latin A B C , in print letters and script
letters and the digits. Very often they embroidered a phrase from the
New Testament as well. They learned to copy several patterens of animals
and flowers so that in due time they would be able to adorn their house.
The finished project was hung in the Salon as a public anouncement that
here they finnished the training of a future housewife. In 1799 Mrs
Hurley, advertises in a paper in Boston that she just came back from
London and she opened a school for Young ladies where they will learn
Reading, writing, arithmetic, Geography, History, French, all kinds of
needlework and Drawing `upon very moderate Terms`. Aquarel was thought
to be appropriate for women. In 1879 Sarah Anna Emery writes in letters
and articles that "At each of the female schools, in addition to
knitting and plain sewing, Ornamental needlework was taught..." The
upward swing of equal rights for women that started with WW1 caused
women who wanted to be equal artists, meaning not only making and
getting a place to exhibit but also Sign the works. as well as being
accepted as students in the art academies. In the last century many
terms gradualy change. Non European arts and crafts, that have been
exhibited first as Picante Curiosa or Exotica, without any consideration
to their Aestetical values are slowly being understood to be Artifacts
of another culture, of an other climate and other spiritual needs .The
European world that has put himself in the center and by means of his
imperialism also destroyed a lot of other cultures is still central but
not completely, and just as other minorities, national and religious
started to demand acknowledgement of their aestetichal values thus
variuos Female movements rose that wanted to expresses themselves
artisticly, raised their voices and said : What is that? We are artists
too and we have a need to express ourselves! First they tried to get
into their conventional shoes, in other words to create identical art.
They painted sculpted and photographed women as objects in the classical
situations. A housewife doing housework in festive attire ,women
modeling clothes, almost sterile clean children , naked women. The
homely Still life was usualy jars with flowers and fruit baskets. Annie
Albers the great teacher and creator in the Bauhous - a design and art
movement that developed in Germany between the two world wars, and which
in fact influences our building and designing and furnishing concepts
until today - complains in a 1943 article that when `a woman enbroiders
an apple it is craft, and when a man draws an apple it`s Art`. The
understaning Developes slowly, that the female creators are in fact
creators and not copiers, and if they do not copy and the idea realy
comes from within themselves and they make it themselves, then indeed it
is art for it`s own sake and not `just` craft. People understand that
one can make with the same material both a practical and an artistic
object, and many Female artists that were already adept in working with
the textilic fibers felt at ease to turn this material into their means
of artistic self expression. At the same time we find lady painters and
photographers who dared to make pictures of their homes with the dirty
dishes with unclean playing children etc, in short without the®
idealization of the home but as it realy is, a hard tedious labor,
meaning they create their own patterns from their images of what
surrounds their life the household, raising the children and using
materials they have, remnants of cloth, threads and such like and this
too can and should be considerd Art. Which got the name Fiberart to
separate it from the daily use of cloth anf thread when it is craft. Of
course there are also men who do fiberwork, but sure enough in most
circles there are more women than men and history explains it. From this
you underastand that everyone that gets a textile education realy gets
an education and preparation both towards an artistic and a practical
direction, thus you should master well all the possible techniques in
the behaviour of the materials in certain situations [for instance®
how a certain thread reacts to water or instant heating or how a thread
looks in various techniques]. The knowledge of this history of materials
and those techniques should nourish and fill the creative acummulators.
They are the Water and Earth of the maker. Even if you want to make a
new thing and also if you want to create an historical reproduction it
is good to know how and what was made by so many human generations. Of
course one should not forget to browse in magazines and books, it is
important to learn and think about new materials and new ways of
expressions, not to copy but understand and tell it in your own way.®
As you remember, I said in the begining that it was not a simple story,
you have enrolled to became instructors, this is a very important
profession, people who come to you and don`t have your knowledge expect
you to help them solve a motoric or personal problem, or just spend
their time in a nice way. In any case, the amount of your knowledge is
important. The more you know and undestand the Alpha betha of each
technique it will be easier for you to instruct. Many years ago I used
to give knitting instructions and how would this happen women would come
to me with a magagzine and ask `to knit this sweater!` and usualy they
expected me to cast on their stiches and write down for them exactly all
the stages exactly where, when and how much stiches to decrease,
increase etc.... sometimes they would come with an instruction sheet and
simply didn`t undestand what is written in them. Sometimes they DID
understand but as the gauge was different they were ever so surprised®
that that sweater didn`t fit, "you see it says 40 stiches and I knitted
40 stiches, so why is it too narrow " they would complain, I always
asked " did you check the guage?" and they always wondered why, and
every time I had to explain that not every person knits in the same
density and thus one needs to check it.Than there were those who wanted
to knit "Exactly the colour of the sweater in the picture!" and when it
was impossible to find "exactly that colour" than "They could not knit
it ! because it WAS WRONG!". I remember a case of a young woman that was
in love with a certain Sweater`s pattern, but wanted to add a pocket:"
No trouble" I told her "Where do you want it?" She insisted it was not
possible as "it did not appear in the Picture!". Sewing colegues
sometimes have a similar problem:" The pattern of the dress is marvelous
but I want a shorter or longer sleeve"." Well do it!"- "No this is
impossible because of the picture.......".®
I sew, weave, knit and embroider Art works as well as practical things
in an individual style, unique to myself.I am free to design what I want
because the techniques serve me and I do not serve them. The Fundemental
knowledge I have of the tecniques and the materials enable me to create
whatever I want . That is the feeling that your teachers in this course
want to pass on to you and what you have to do , you already know , to
learn, read, ask, try and make, look , listen, and take advantage of
this opportunity to become richer within yourselves, always try and
understand Why and How , and never to accept anything at face value but
check and understand and you will succeed .

Bibliography:®

Animal days by Desmond Morris , Bantam books, 1981.
Anonymous was a woman by Mirra Bank, St. Martin press 1979.®
The Art and Craft of Handweaving by Lili Blumenau,Crown pub.1964.®
Art history`s history by Vernon Hyde Minor, Prentice-Hall inc.1994.®
Bilingual etymological didtionary of spoken Israeli Arabic and Hebrew,®
By Abraham Stahl, Stahl& Dvir, 1995.®
Chinese dress by Verity Wilson,Victoria&Albert museum, 1986.®
Mongol Costumes ed. by Ida Nicolaisen, Thames&Hudson, 1993.®
Needlework by Adolph s. Cavallo, Cooper Hewitt museum, 1979.®
Weaving 27000 years ago, from brief notes, Textileforum, 4/95 p.2.®
Women art&society by Whitney Chadwick , Thames&Hudson 1994.®
.

Mirjam Bruck Cohen®
(c) 1998 - All Rights Reserved®

[Gemini]

Wow! Thank you for sharing with us, Mirjam! This is very interesting, and
I have saved it to be able to read again in future. :o)

Peace! Gemini in Ontario, Canada
http://members.nbci.com/planetgemini/
(remove the 2 in my email to reply)

[Mirjam Bruck-Cohen]

Thank you Gemini , I was afraid it Was TOOO much or too long or tooo
....you know......
But if it pleases you Be my guest Friend !!!!! ps reads Much better
with Coffee or tea near you !!!!hahahaha
mirjam

[Kerstin Geiger]

What a great piece, Mirjam!!!!!!
I printed it out - I don't trust my hard drive to last the test of time.

Kerstin