NEWSLETTER

S u m me r 2 0 1 4
Texere Newsletter summer 2014
Textiles Education and Research in Europe
www.texere-associ.org
A Textiles Education Working Group
Within the European Textiles Network
www.ETN-net.org
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NEWSLETTER
Contents
e Premio
Letter from the Chair
Inside the A.T. Exhibition
Make Symposium and Things
9th Edition of the Valcellina Award, Maniago
Hacienda Textil
International Colour Day from Milan
Brittany Broderie
The Up to Date Middle Ages in St. Petersburg
Re-opening of the Fashion Museum in Gorizia.
9th Edition of Feltrosa in Brixen
Artist Textiles
Textile
Showcase
ValcellinaJersey
Award
splits
up
Patricia Christy, England
Dorina Horătău, Romania
Pamela Hardesty, Ireland
Renata Pompas, Italy
Lala de Dios, Spain
Renata Pompas, Italy
Shirley McCann, Northern Ireland/ France
Marina Chekmareva, Russia
Carmen Romeo, Italy
Eva Basile, Italy
Patricia Christy, England
Patricia Christy, England
Letter from the Chair of TEXERE
Dear Members of TEXERE,
We have many interesting articles in this edition
covering a wide range of textile events, exhibitions
and students work, so thank you very much to all
those who have contributed to the Newsletter.
There is news of exhibitions of students’ work from
Bucharest in Romania, Cork in Southern Ireland
and Milan in Italy. Adult education textile courses
are also featured from Brittany and Madrid as well
as the annual Feltrosa event in Italy where felters
from around the world meet for courses by wellknown felting artists, exhibitions and shopping for
felting goods. The 9th edition of the Valcellina
Award took place in Maniago this year, an event
which gets bigger every year, showing the exciting
textile work of young people under 35 years old
from all over the world.
Exhibitions in St. Petersburg, Gorizia in Italy, and
London are also featured. In St. Petersburg
modern interpretations of mediaeval tapestries
were shown. In Gorizia, north east Italy, near the
Slovenian border, the Fashion Museum has reopened after re-furbishment. I have been with
Carmen to this beautiful museum and hope to go
again soon. In London there has been a very
interesting exhibition ‘Artist Textiles’ showing how
the designs of famous artists in the last century
were used in textile design. Finally you can read
about the Jersey Textile Showcase where our Art
Deco Scarves were exhibited.
We are looking forward to exhibiting the scarves in
London 12th- 21st September, along with the
CAMAC Textile Challenge, during the London
Design Festival, when all sorts of design events
will be taking place around the city. You can find
out about the Festival on the internet and the
details of our event will be announced soon, so if
you are visiting London at that time it would be
nice to see you at the Grand Opening on the 12th.
I already know that some members will be there.
This will be the last time that the Newsletter will be
sent to those members who have not yet paid their
fee. So if they wish to continue their membership
please pay the fee soon. Details of how to pay are
on the TEXERE website, www.texere-associ.org ,
in the Contacts page.
The deadline for
September 30th
the next
Newsletter
is
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Texere Newsletter summer 2014
INSIDE the A.T. exhibition at the
Romanian Peasant Museum, Bucharest
by Dorina Horătău, Ph.D. Romania
End of term exhibition of the students in the 2nd year undergraduate
degree in Textile Arts - Textile Design UN Arte, Bucharest, 2014
T. Smaranda Isar
INSIDE A.T was an exhibition event held in the Foyer
Hall of the Romanian Peasant Museum in Bucharest from
June 28th–July 7th 2013. The exhibition cymae hosted
works of the first and second year students in the
Master’s Degree Programme and a selection of topics
created by students of the undergraduate (Bachelors)
degree of the Department of Textile Arts and Textile
Design during 2013.
The curators of the exhibition were Dorina Horătău,
Ph.D., and assistant Otilia Boeru PH.D. The address of
Mr. Virgil Stefan Niţulescu, Director General of the
Romanian Peasant Museum in Bucharest marked the
opening of the exhibition.
INSIDE A.T. was meant to be an excursion into the world
of study and research workshops in fibre art, where
students, together with professors or coordinators,
explore the artistic act. The exhibition suggests a
development of the communication relationship between
students and professors, on one side, and on the other
side, the public visiting the Romanian Peasant Museum,
with a view to building a new perspective on how we view
the diversity of textile art forms, whether seen overall or
in detail.
Several issues were addressed such as inspiration, its
interpretation and the manifestation of documentary
sources, through the specialized techniques used and
the destination of the works created.
M. Bondalici
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Texere Newsletter summer 2014
T. Mirela Iordache
Ionescu Roxana
The works of six participants from the Master’s
Programme were presented in the first part of the
exhibition, under the guidance of lecturer Dorina Horătău,
PH.D. Ambient textile ensembles/installations exemplified
a number of distinct themes and projects which focused
on the investigation, the original personal contribution
and the novelty of the experiments in textile art.
The exhibition proposal came in from the public with
collections of prints, fabrics and unique accessories for
interior decoration or clothing and atmospheric drawings,
presentations of theme, material, shape and design.
The opening of the exhibition INSIDE A.T. also brought
about a festive moment when the Department of Arts
Textile and Textile Design for the Bachelor’s and
Master’s degrees announced the awards for students
with outstanding results, from our sponsor who wished to
help boost young talent.
Amina Elnayef
The second part of INSIDE A.T. presented the works of
fourteen first year undergraduates of the Bachelor’s
Degree, made under the guidance of Dorina Horătău,
Ph.D. and assistant lecturer Otilia Boeru, Ph.D., in
collaboration with assistant lecturer Iulia Toma, Ph.D.
Mirela Iordache
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Texere Newsletter summer 2014
Make symposium and things/daiktai
exhibition
Crawford College of Art and Design, Cork Ireland
(part of Cork Institute of technology) 7 March, 2014
by Pamela Hardesty, lecturer in textiles
MAKE Symposium was my own initiative and featured
distinguished experts who offered a sell-out audience a
range of perspectives on the role of touch, of tactile
dialogue with matter, of making---across several varied
fields, from textiles art to open-source hardware
engineering.
From the field of art/craft, of making, we were very
honoured to welcome Prof. Lesley Millar, MBE,
international textile art curator, author, and academic,
who shared a strand of her research in a wide-ranging
and authoritative keynote address on touch and haptic
experience; Alice Kettle, famed UK embroidery artist,
who spoke of the transformative power of making, and
various collaborative projects such as the Making It
social/cultural project in Winchester in 2012; and Ingrid
Murphy, the Subject Leader for Ceramics and Maker at
the National Centre for Ceramics in Wales at Cardiff
School of Art and Design. Ingrid makes ceramics that sit
into traditional categories of form, yet have embedded
technology, and allow expanded readings.
ASTA PUIDOKAITĖ (Kaunas) A detail of a large free-hanging length
of weaving—using black plastic stripping as weft. Her inspirational
starting point was a scrap of rubbish in the form of black plastic. . . .This
dark castoff suggested thoughts of mourning ribbons, and her weaving
cast interesting shadows from its expanse in the centre of the gallery
space.
Alongside these makers we presented some parallel
developments in science and technology, where an ethos
of hands-on engagement in design development, and an
appreciation for more tactile forms of knowing and
communicating are driving innovation. Kieran Nolan of
Dundalk IT bemused us all with his complex talk on the
exciting world of open source electronics. Trevor Hogan
of our CIT Department of Media Communications
presented his current PhD research (at the Bauhaus
ANN MECHELINCK (Cork) created dense knotting of rope and
upholstery frippery---then loosened it all in a free flow. Her object
was a key and she looked at owning things, materialism---and
releasing this tie that binds us to our need of owning
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Texere Newsletter summer 2014
University in Germany) that recognises sensory response
as an alternative and richer mode of technological
communication, beyond the visuall; and Fran Hegarty, a
clinical engineer at St. James Hospital, Dublin, gave us a
dynamic and moving account of his creative
interdisciplinary projects as a maker in the healthcare
space.
MAKE was partly developed to highlight our new
BA(Hons) in Contemporary Applied Art, which has at
its heart a commitment to hands-on engagement with
material as a path to concept, a kind of thinking through
making, through dialogue with a material. We stress
experimentation
and
innovation
within
an
interdisciplinary offering of Ceramics, Glass, and Textiles,
addressing current debate in the culture of the object and
in material culture, all within the context of historic and
contemporary fine and applied art. We aim to place our
new BA(Hons) in Contemporary Applied Art at the
forefront
of
a growing
awareness
of
and
heightened appreciation of the role of the hand-made in
contemporary art and in the wider culture of Ireland and
abroad.
On the evening of MAKE we hosted a special opening of
our student exchange project exhibition in collaboration
with Kaunas Textiles Faculty of Vilnius Art Academy,
Lithuania. Lesley Millar kindly opened our student show--where she said, “This doesn’t look like a student show!”
that filled our CIT Wandesford Quay Gallery just down
the street from our College.
Our project,
THINGS/DAIKTAI –(DAIKTAI means ‘things’ in
Lithuanian)—was the brainchild of some sessions and
emails I shared with Vita Gelūnienė of Kaunas last year.
We hoped to develop links between our courses, and felt
a shared project could reveal similarities and differences,
and we presented the project theme simultaneously in
both Colleges in autumn 2013. Our theme focussed on
the everyday, mundane things we live with, that
increasingly we never notice. We asked students to each
choose some object, an important part of their daily lives
yet heretofore never thought about. We asked them to
deeply regard these ‘things’ and their contexts, their
worlds. In Cork I used collaborative writing and drawing
workshops to open up these objects (such as keys, light
bulbs, tampons, or clothes pegs) in the early stages. Vita
and I set up a blog and Facebook page so that students
could meet and share, and then posted boxes of samples
to each other in early late November, for some tactile
sharing. . . as sampling became finished textiles works
toward a spring exhibition in Cork.
MARGARITA ŽIGUTYTĖ (Kaunas)
Margarita used receipt paper that she heat-marked to reflect traditional
Lithuanian belt patterns. . . a wall installation of many strips of these
talked about a change of values, in fragile patterning. Interesting that in
both Cork and Kaunas several students focussed on issues relating to
consumerism.
DEREK O’MEARA (Cork) Part of Derek’s battalion of 100+ dinner
napkins as an installation. . . .His object was an electrical cable. From
this cable he thought of binding, then about what kinds of things bind
us---such as the rules of etiquette. This army of napkins is meant to
bring us back to ideas of proper dining!
On 3 March two members of the faculty in Kaunas,
Monika Grašienė and Giedrė Kriaučionytė arrived in Cork
with a large suitcase of the Kaunas artworks, along with
two of their participating students. We had a great week
installing the complex variety of textile works that
featured, to name just a few of the techniques----weaving,
plaiting, bojagi, origami, papermaking---as well as
photography and video.
Students creatively used all
kinds of materials such as chewing gum, thermochromic
inks, receipt paper, rubbish, cutlery, grass, and hair.
THINGS/DAIKTAI involved 35 students, ran in the Gallery
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Texere Newsletter summer 2014
for over a month, and hosted various events such as a
Ceili (Irish party, with dancing!); Artist Talks, and a
Writer’s Event with poetry/prose from 11 Cork writers
(and some translations from Lithuanian).
The THINGS project was great for encouraging students
to think more widely and creatively---and there was an
obvious sense of group effort and bonding, and, from my
own students in Cork, a real curiosity about their Kaunas
counterparts. In grappling with the challenges of the
project, some students departed greatly from their usual
processes and formats. THINGS allowed this freedom
and many flourished, finding important new strands of
personal research.
Overall
these
two
initiatives,
MAKE
and
THINGS/DAIKTAI represented a high point in my
Crawford career, and, I believe, in the culture of textile art
in Cork. At last creative textiles gained prestige and
respect in the eyes of our administration and in local and
national media. How to follow this in 2015? I am already
planning MAKE 2!
One of our Facebook promotional features (this one is about Rachel Doolin of Cork)—Each student had a special focus posted during the leadup to
the show.
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Texere Newsletter summer 2014
9th Edition of the Valcellina Award,
Maniago
by Renata Pompas, Italy
Young artists from all over the world took part in the ninth
edition of the 'International Competition of Contemporary
Textile / Fibre Art Valcellina Award': Yi-Chung Chiung,
Ying-Ting Chen and Wei-En Cheng arrived in Maniago
from Taiwan (R.O.C.), to show their art works.
The theme of this edition was “Double, suggestive
complexity between the imaginary and the real”, that was
played by the final 23 participants, selected by the Jury,
with different interpretations.
The Jury was composed of: Francesca Agostinelli, art
critic and professor; Andrea Bruciati, art historian and
curator, Renata Pompas, Director of Digital Textile
Design course at Afol Moda-Milano, journalist and
essayist, Carlo Vidoni, artist and teacher, Marina
Bastianello, art gallery manager. It conferred three cash
prizes, accompanied with free internships at one of the
three partner schools: 'Lisio' of Florence, 'Accademia di
Belle Arti of Bologna' and 'Accademia Internazionale di
Alta Moda e del Costume Koefia' of Roma.
The winners were: 1st Prize to Chiung-Yi Chung,
Taiwan (R.O.C.), with the work Face to Face but also
Livia Ugolini, ‘L'un l'altro’
by Main Street Ltd., to Rachel Sabatino, Italy, who in the
work the In-finite has compared a compact fabric and a
large and airy lace, both made of raffia weaving, wool
and rope: a work that was surprising for the lightness of
expression and heavy material.
Hiung-Yi Chung ‘ Face to Face but also Back to Back’
Chen Ying-Ting, ‘12 Different Collar Skins’
Back to Back due to the complexity of the installation, the
contemporary artistic expression and originality of the
references.
The 2nd Prize was awarded to Livia Ugolini, Italy, with
the work L'un l'altro, for the balance of the composition
and the classic delicacy of execution.
The 3rd Prize to Ying-Ting Chen, Taiwan (R.O.C.), with
the work 12 Different Collar Skins, for the visual richness,
the fusion of tradition and modernity and reactivated
cultural belonging.
The Jury also conferred the 'Calimala Award', presented
Because of the quality of the works submitted, the Jury
also decided to assign some special mentions:
to
Valerio Niccacci of 'Associazione Culturale Comitato di
Salute Pubblica' with the work Scucimi; to Wei-Jen
Cheng with the work Geology, a dress in knitted fabric
with a thermoplastic technique that transforms it into an
apparent lava material; and to Yana Drumeva with the
work Double identity, Yana mixed various media to make
the video of a wedding party and the processing of a
white bridal veil, with inserts of wool, lace, vine and twigs.
Finally to Aleksandra Janz with the work Banner, a
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Texere Newsletter summer 2014
recovery tissue, stained with strokes of indigo colour on
the back, which appear on the front, suggesting traces of
words and drawings.
Tove Andeer,’ My fabric’
Valerio Niccacci, ‘Scucimi’
This year the works were exhibited in the old Palace
D'Attimis, where the Opening Ceremony was also held, in
the presence of the authorities and the large audience.
Then we went to the Museo delle Coltellerie, where
refreshments were served and where some works of the
three partner schools were exhibited. The Lisio of
Florence, presented the woven jacquards made by some
students, Tove Andeer had decorated hers with the
words: My fabric. The Accademia di Belle Arti of Bologna
showed the performance and art works of two students:
Laura Guerinoni and Maria Savoldi. The Accademia
Internazionale di Alta Moda e del Costume Koefia of
Roma, organized a fashion show with three outfits.
In the afternoon, Zane Kokina held a Laboratory of
machine embroidery entitled: Endless stories. Write
yours?
Marta Bevilacqua
The dancer Marta Bevilacqua entertained the guests by
performing a ballet dedicated to the great philosopher
Friedrich Nietzsche, entitled: Schnurrbart. After visiting
the exhibition the public moved to the 'Sala Liberamente',
to see the exhibition of Zane Kokina: Endless Stories,
presented by Renata Pompas.
Zane Kokina, ‘Endless Stories’
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Texere Newsletter summer 2014
Haciendo Textil / Making Textiles
By Lala de Dios, Spain
Although it is possible that many of you have met me in
the frame of some textile association activity such as
ETN or ACTM Conferences or General Assemblies, my
true main occupation is teaching, weaving, spinning and
natural dyeing techniques, history and design both from
my private studio or as an invited teacher in a training
institution. I am currently moving from the world of adult
education and life-long learning into design schools and
back and feel quite happy in both. I also consider myself
a designer-maker and my textile speciality is weaving.
During the last years one of my main worries has been
that our textile community is quickly becoming what some
American colleagues have called a ‘greying community’.
There are of course new generations of young and very
talented textile practitioners (makers, designer-makers,
artists…) but on the whole I believe that our numbers are
diminishing as young makers tend to favour fast
techniques featuring small portable equipment such as
knitting, crocheting, spindle spinning, embroidery…. This
is good in my opinion. What it is not so good is that they
seem not care as much about skill and good quality as
they do about making together in public spaces and
publishing on the Internet every day. Also it is often found
in their blogs and social media pages that even the best
among them –and there are many skilful makers- fall into
a most regrettable confusion regarding concepts and
technical names such as fibre, yarn, thread, ply etc., just
basic words indeed. This is only logical as they have not
had textile training at all, either formal or informal. As a
by-product of this, in Spain many turn to English
commercial terms even if they are not Englishspeaking…That this would happen in the home country
of the merino wool is shocking to say the least!
At our very modest scale we have been looking for
approaches to address this problem and find a way to
interest the public in general and these younger makers
specifically. Finally I designed a project, called Haciendo
Textil / Making Textiles and presented it at the Museo del
Traje – Centro de Investigación del Patrimonio Etnológico
(Museum of Custom –Ethnological Heritage Research
Centre) which is the closest we have in Madrid to a textile
museum.
Haciendo Textil is a program of textile gatherings that
finds inspiration in the old ‘filandones” or ‘fiadeiros’,
meetings where people in rural areas of Northern Spain
especially –women mostly- got together to help with the
processing and spinning of textile fibres –linen and wool
being the most common- while they chatted, gossiped,
told tales, sang songs and received interested visits by
the male population of the neighbourhood, all around the
welcoming heat of a good fire. Although they did make
some other textile labours such as sewing or embroidery,
the name “filandón” relates directly to the Galician and
old Castilian words for spinning “fiar” from the Latin word
“filus”. Filandones were also a good occasion for
socializing during the long darkness of country winters.
So much so, that there was even a period when they
were forbidden by the Church because they were
labelled as ‘promoting debauchery’. It would seem that
more than one couple got themselves lost among the
bushes on their way back home…!
To take part in Haciendo Textil gatherings the only
requirement is to practice some technique: sewing,
embroidery, knitting, crocheting, bobbin lace, weaving on
small frames or looms and, of course, spinning. I must
confess that this “rule” is not being very strictly enforced.
There are many participants who would rather just take
notes.
The meetings aim to be participative, informative and
formative. Each month there is a topic which is explored
with videos and presentations, talks, images,
etc…Participants are also encouraged to actively
participate and share any specific knowledge or
experience on the chosen topic. Where possible, there
will be invited experts and/or demonstrations of
techniques. Of course, we can also profit from the
museum collections that contain a good number of
ethnographical artefacts of great interest, textile samples,
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Texere Newsletter summer 2014
etc. Haciendo Textil is not strictly a program of
workshops but rather a chance of enjoying the act of
‘making together’ while having a nice time knowing
people with similar interests and learning at the same
time.
So far the first two meetings have already taken place
on the topic All about my wool. They have been very
successful both in terms of participation and interest.
Participation has been inter-generational and interprofessional. Participants, Museum staff and we are
quite happy with the feedback and plans to continue the
meetings program after summer are already underway.
Next topics will be Harvesting Colours and Weaves &
Looms. If interested you can find the programs and
inscription bulletins at
http://museodeltraje.mcu.es/index.jsp?id=805&ruta=5,22
(sorry, Spanish only).
No money is exchanged here. Participation is free and so
is our work as organisers and lecturers. If any of you
nd
happen to be near Madrid before 2 July, the date of our
last scheduled meeting and would like to join us you will
be warmly welcomed!
[email protected]
International Colour Day from Milano
by Renata Pompas, Italy
On March 21st, 2014, the ‘International Colour Day’,
Renata Pompas and Lia Luzzatto, together with students
of the Digital Textile Design course, organized the event
‘Synaesthesia’, with the aim of introducing the public to a
new perspective of colour, at the Lecture Hall of AFOL
Moda-Milano.
The video "Synaesthesia", was shown continuously (on
loop) to the public, written and directed by the students of
the course under the supervision of Renata Pompas and
Lia Luzzatto for colour, and of Laura Del Zoppo for
direction and production of the video.
cardboard box with one colour among the 6 proposed. At
another spot, a student proposed the stroop effect. At
another table, a poster with pictures of 4 perfume bottles
of different colours was shown to match with 4 olfactory
descriptions. At another location, a poster with pictures of
4 tablespoons with a differently coloured content was
prepared, to match with 4 gustatory descriptions.
Finally, at the last table some students asked the public
some questions about ‘Lateral Thinking’ (Edward de
Bono) related to synaesthesia.
The video "Synaesthesia" represents, in an artistic and
charming way the intimate connection amongst colour,
symbolic
aspect,
sound
and
taste.
These
correspondences lead the viewer to experience a visual
and auditory sensory experience that reflects on the role
of colour in everyday life: the taste of the red, the sound
of yellow, the significance of the blue, and so on.
Various reception tables were also organized, where the
audience shared their own synaesthetic perceptions. At
one point, the audience was invited to put their hands
inside the opening of three different cardboard boxes one with soft padding, one with a cold padding, and the
Last one with a rough padding - and to match each
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Texere Newsletter summer 2014
Brittany Broderie
by Shirley McCann, Brittany-France
I have recently joined Texere having come across it
whilst teaching at the Jersey Textile Showcase in March.
I love the idea of textiles crossing international
boundaries and creating links between people who are
passionate about textiles.
I have been living in Brittany in western France for 10
years now, having moved over when my husband took
early retirement from his job. Before coming to France I
had been working towards Part II of City and Guilds
embroidery, having recently completed Part I as it was
then called. The move in 2003 made it impossible to
continue with this course but I never stopped working in
needle and thread.
stitching in the way that I did. For me it had become a
means of expression, an art form. ‘“Where did you find
that pattern?’ was a frequent question. My reply that I
didn’t have one seemed to cause puzzlement. For the
other ladies it was a hobby and a means of embellishing
domestic linens and clothing. Both viewpoints have merit
but I really wanted to find like-minded people to share
and exchange with. Finally I put a message out on a
website for British ex-pats, Anglo-Info Brittany, seeking
other textile addicts. I had four replies and we met for
lunch to decide how to form a loose association to keep
in touch and encourage one another. We decided to
meet once a month for a creative day and a shared lunch
in one another’s homes. After a while news of our group
spread and the group grew until we had 30 people and
lunch was taking more time than the stitching. So we
formed an official association so that we could find
premises to meet in. We called ourselves Brittany
Broderie to reflect the by now bi-lingual nature of the
group.
Blackwork pears
Fortuitously my commune, (village community), had an
exhibition of hobbies coming up just after we arrived and
so I took a deep breath and entered. A wonderful day
ensued and despite my rather creaky French the event
proved an excellent ice-breaker. A very kind lady,
Michelle, invited me to join a local group of stitchers
which met twice weekly in the locality. I went each
Tuesday and it proved a great means of improving my
French. The only slight problem; nobody thought about
Brittany Broderie still meets monthly in Mûr de Bretagne
in a pleasant bright hall provided by the local Mairie. I no
longer run the group but I am still an enthusiastic and
regular member. One reason I handed over was that I
had noticed more and more schools offering City and
Guilds by distance learning and I saw the chance to go
back to studying with the aim of pushing my limits and
learning fresh techniques and skills. I eventually chose
Stitch-business, based in Durham, run by Julia Triston
and Tracy Franklin as my school, which offers courses
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Texere Newsletter summer 2014
via the internet which is ideal for me. The course has
done exactly what I hoped it would and has given me
confidence to try new things and improved my design
skills. I am currently working on the second of my four
final pieces which should see me gaining the long
coveted diploma.
In September 2012 I decided to start teaching textiles
here in Brittany. We have a holiday home here, Ty
Louisette, and it seemed a good way of utilising the gîte
during the low seasons to hold classes in there once a
month. City and Guilds has given me a very broad range
of techniques that I can draw upon to work out a
programme of workshops each year so that I can appeal
to a wide audience. The traditional techniques are always
popular and so I have taught Hardanger, Blackwork,
Goldwork, Crewelwork and other styles. Equally we’ve
had fun with wet felting, needle felting, machine
embroidery, pierced cards and painted fabric. I take no
more than seven students at a time which allows me to
give each person plenty of my time during the day. I am
pleased with the response and am gradually building up
a British and French client base in the region. It was
always my aim to share what I do and entice others into
the wonderful world of textile art and now I have a
Facebook
page
for
these
workshops.
www.facebook.com/shirleyjmccann
France has always valued traditional skills and invests
considerable funds to ensure that they are passed down
to new generations, though the standard of art teaching
in the schools I have come into contact with is extremely
disappointing. Originality is not prized, which I find
strange in a country with such a strong history of artistic
excellence, a view also shared by a number of my French
friends. Certain members of Brittany Broderie have
expressed their appreciation of the British way of doing
things, a certain problem solving, “can do” attitude that is
often tinged with a hint of rebelliousness which ignores
the rules that they themselves, trained in the French
educational system, tend to take as set in stone. I
believe that therein are the seeds of creativity.
I was delighted to be asked to teach in Jersey this year
and would love to travel further to share my passion for
textile art in its many forms. My head is full of ideas that I
want to explore further so I am looking forward to
finishing my course of study so that I can have more time
to experiment and follow my own path.
www.shirleyjmccann.com
www.tylouisette.com
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Texere Newsletter summer 2014
The up-to-date Middle Ages: A glance
from St. Petersburg
by Marina Chekmareva, PHD, Russia
Contemporary art constantly turns for inspiration to
diverse sources, finding them both in the present and the
distant past. This sort of endless game of past epochs, so
characteristic of the postmodernism, serves an attempt to
rethink the heritage, accumulated for over two millennia
of the Christian civilization. The textile artists’ exhibition
‘The Middle Ages’, which took place in St. Petersburg this
spring, came as a part of such meditation. To the
viewers’ approval, the organizers submitted works
inspired by the spirit of the Russian and European
medieval art. Among the diverse techniques, ranging
from textile painting to hand weaving, from collage to
embroidery, one could find both works of interpretative
character and rather liberal renditions of the tradition.
The two monumental works by Andrei Kudriashov ‘The
Knight’ and ‘The Lady and the Unicorn’, which are the
master’s interpretations of the medieval works, were a
sort of exhibition landmark. Whereas the latter piece is a
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reproduction of the 15 century original from the Musée
de Cluny (The Museum of the medieval Abbey of Cluny,
Paris, France), “The Knight” is a rendition of the medieval
image through the impressionistic contour blurring
technique. This technique is complemented by a special
softness of the form of objects and the main character,
which dissolve in the millions of colours of the
background. This device literally illustrates the concept
‘mille fleur’. The artist creates a medieval European world
of his own, populated by fair ladies and knights in shining
armour. The impressive size of the tapestry (about two
and a half meters high) and a combination of such
materials as silk, wool, and hemp make the figures
particularly textural.
Andrei Kudriashov, ‘The Knight’ (tapestry)
The mythical unicorn reappears at the exhibition, this
time in the same-name collage with embroidery by
Margarita Shirikovskikh. It derives from the image of the
Cluny tapestry, but the contemporary artist emphasizes
the simplified forms, rejecting the richness of texture. The
primitive language, defined by particular expressiveness
and characteristic of the early Middle Ages, is also used
in the collage ‘The Knight’. Here the artist combines the
features of a Russian warrior and a European knight. A
disquieting atmosphere is created by the appearance of a
red horse resembling the second Horseman of the
Apocalypse, who personifies war. The dull black colour of
the wide stripe on which he is placed is interrupted by the
stern pattern of vertical golden lines of the beige
background, resembling the logs of wooden fortress
walls.
The image of the ’dark’ mysterious Middle Ages is
captured in ‘The Light of Roses. Morning – Night’ by
TEXERE member Nadezhda Oleinik, a panel on batiste
in the shibori technique. The rose-windows of the Gothic
cathedral portals with the shimmering reflexes of stained
glass that resemble gigantic fantastic flowers appear in
her works. The light scarcely piercing through the
darkness of the night and the daylight filling everything
around, only the black lintels shape it and limit the
endless glow of Godly white light – this is the main
character of these works.
Andrei Kudriashov, ‘The Lady and the Unicorn’ (tapestry)
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Texere Newsletter summer 2014
organically with the two-dimensional space, and
fantasticality, sometimes, fabulousness, of imagery are
the traits acquired by Svetlana in the tradition and
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transformed into the language of the 21 century textile.
Nadezhda Oleinik, ‘ The Light of Roses. Morning – Night’ (shibori)
Gothic architecture inspired Liudmila Sanaeva’s series
including such works as ’The Dark Angel’, ‘The Gothic
Motif’, and others, created in the author’s technique
combining collage, textile painting, and embroidery. The
artist attains the delicacy of the colour scheme, the
exquisite sophistication of silhouettes and a special
mysterious sadness, characteristic of a romantic
perspective on this mythologized epoch.
Liudmila Sanaeva, ‘The Gothic Motif’, author’s technique
A different mood pervades the hand woven tapestry by
Svetlana Andrunina ‘Adam and Eve’, ‘Pastures of
Heaven’ and ‘Apostle Peter’. These are generously
saturated with colour. The works’ colour scheme is based
on sonorous local colours, similar to stained glass, but of
warmer and livelier tints. These images, as if borrowed
from Ravenna mosaics or the Russian cathedral walls,
suggest utmost vitality. Decorativeness, ability to work
Christian symbolism and the method of the early
medieval form of simplification are also present in the
work of Olga Bogdanova ‘The Pisces’. As fish is a symbol
of Christ, his disciples Paul and Andrew are the ‘fishers of
men’. In Olga’s work of hand-woven tapestry art the
viewer witnesses a metamorphosis – the realistic
depiction of fish dissolves, as in this segment the artist
uses only warp yarn, almost not employing weft, thus
only the symbolic stylized images of fish remain at the
tightly woven binding places.
Russian uzorochie (patternwork), so very popular in the
Middle Ages, appears in the works of Dina Lukianova
‘The Russian Flag. My Homeland’. Floral ornaments as
variations of a major mythological image – the Cosmic
Tree, are embroidered by the artist with pearls, semiprecious stones and an imitation of gold work and are
placed on the stripes of the modern Russian flag. Thus a
symbolic unity of the past and present of our country is
born.
The doll ‘Love Potion’, attired by Liudmila Sanaeva as a
medieval European citizen, was another fairytale
character who welcomed and bad farewell to all the
guests of the exhibition. Indeed, each artist who took part
in the exhibition and each visitor who came here tasted it
and fell in love with the unique magic of the Middle Ages,
interpreted in such diverse ways by the contemporary
Russian textile artists.
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Texere Newsletter summer 2014
Re-opening of the Fashion Museum of
Gorizia, Italy
by Carmen Romeo, Italy
Bigger and richer, the Fashion Museum of Applied Arts in
Gorizia, Friuli Venezia, in the north east of Italy, was reopened in April 2014, full of renewal and innovation. The
visitor is catapulted into a theatre, where the atmosphere
is fully recreated thanks to the presence of musical
instruments, posters, photographs, and stages (amongst
the latter there is also an authentic copy, donated by the
ancient Theatre Company of Gorizia).
Contact
MUSEO DELLA MODA E DELLE ARTI APPLICATE
address
Borgo Castello 13
34170 Gorizia (Italy)
tel + 39 0481 533926 + 39 0481 530382
e-mail [email protected]
Opening h 9 a. m. – 7 p. m., from Tuesday to Sunday
Monday, close
The items on display date back to a period between the
late eighteenth century and the 1920s, tracing the
evolution of elegance through a large range of evening
dresses. The common thread, the fil rouge, the sparkle of
metallic threads, sequins, glass beads and rhinestones
make the exhibition rooms shine. The crown jewels of the
collection are a neoclassical dress, silk tulle embroidered
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with sequins and chenille silver, and two suits of the '20 ,
coming from Vienna and Wittgenstein Stonborough,
which belonged to Margaret, sister of the famous
philosopher and leader of the salons of the early
twentieth century. Also in the renovated spaces there are
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19 and 20 century women’s hats and children's
fashion.
As well as the theatrical atmosphere and the glitter of the
clothes, multimedia plays a central role which makes the
museum contemporary and fully in step with the times. In
one of the rooms the technology has made it possible, to
reconstruct an ordinary citizen, with images of the belle
époque of Gorizia, Trieste, Vienna and Paris. The aim
therefore is the desire to recreate the atmosphere of
central Europe, which, after all, also characterizes the city
that is home to the Museum.
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Texere Newsletter summer 2014
9th Edition of Feltrosa in Brixen
2-4 May 2014
by Eva Basile, Italy
The ninth edition of Feltrosa, the Italian Felt-makers
meeting, took place in Brixen, South Tyrol during the first
week-end of May. The Italian organisation had been
invited by Südtiroler Filz und Wollvereinigung, the local
association of felt and wool specialists. South Tyrol is a
region that is mostly inhabited by the German speaking
population, but in Brixen everyone speaks both
languages. Despite all the weather forecasts it did not
rain and the sun shone over the magnificent ancient
town.
About seventy five enthusiastic felt makers converged
from all over Italy, Slovenia, Russia, Austria and
Switzerland. Maggie from Australia also came to the
conference this year, Feltrosa is really becoming
international.
A small weaving workshop opened the conference on
Friday: twelve felt makers were introduced to the basics
of tapestry weaving in a very colourful and animated
morning. Patrizia Polese is a well-known artist who has
an interesting approach with her students. All of them
bought the weaving frame at the end of the six hours. In
recent years many weavers became felt makers, looking
for new inspiration and perhaps a faster media: now it’s
the opposite. Those who have approached the textile arts
via felt are looking for new techniques to be combined
with felting. So we hosted a dyeing workshop using
cochineal with Argentinian specialist Luciana Marrone
and two very popular millinery classes, with Federica
Prezioso, a felt maker who specialises in the classic
techniques.
Feltrosa has established very interesting contacts with
the Russian felt scene: fifteen makers travelled from St
Petersburg, Moscow and other cities, Elena Smirnova, a
well-known costume designer and felt maker whose
name was suggested by partners, led two very interesting
workshops where she taught how to make shawls
finished with perfect ruffled edges and roses and how to
make a jacket with sleeves and openwork decorations in
only six hours. It seemed impossible at the beginning but,
at the end of a very intensive day all ten participants
could wear their colourful and personal version of the
teachers’ project.
On Friday we all visited the Loden Museum in Vandoies
where we set up an exhibition titled ‘As green as…’
featuring work of about forty artists inspired by the colour
green and all its possible interpretations. Many interesting
works were submitted by Russian and Ukrainian artists.
An online catalogue will soon be available on the Feltrosa
website.
The exhibition ‘Wearables’, showing decorative
household objects and art pieces will travel to Jämsä in
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Texere Newsletter summer 2014
Finland after the end of the first exhibition in Italy, thanks
to an agreement with the Finnish felt organisation Fillti.
On Sunday all participants and the local public were
invited to work at a community art project under the
expert guidance of Ruth Baumer, supported by Cristiana
Di Nardo and Diana Biscaioli. Local musicians played folk
music during the whole morning.
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Next year the 10 edition of Feltrosa will be organised in
central Italy. You are all invited with your ideas, shared
projects and of course to join in the event. We plan to be
in the small charming town of Abruzzo, the land of sheep
in Italy!
Artist Textiles, Picasso to Warhol
Fashion and Textile Museum, London
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31 January-17 May 2014
by Patricia Christy, England
‘Artist Textiles, Picasso to Warhol’ is the latest exhibition
to have taken place at the Fashion and Textile Museum
in Bermondsey, London, which was originally founded by
Zandra Rhodes, the textiles and fashion designer. It
explores the development of textile design by well-known
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artists from the early 20 century through to the 1960’s
showing a wide variety of clothing and furnishing fabrics,
artefacts and fashions.
hardship in an age of austerity. Central to the national
recovery was the vital export drive of which the textile
trade was an important part. The government sponsored
Cotton Board had established its Centre for Colour,
Design and Style in Manchester under the directorship of
James Cleveland Belle who continued to promote British
textiles at a series of exhibitions aimed at the American
market.
Between 1910 and 1939 many artists, especially
members from the Fauvist, Futurist and Constructivist
movements became involved with textile design which
had a correlation with print making and quickly came to
be seen, particularly in Britain and USA as a legitimate
and important part of an artist’s work.
Among those involved were many Modernist artists such
as Raoul Dufy and Sonia Delaunay in France and
Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell in Britain, two of the
Bloomsbury painters connected with the Omega
Workshops, and later with Ben Nicholson the English
Constructivist. In America the pioneering work of the
artist and textile designer Ruth Reeves helped set the
pace and leading manufacturers even recruited
photographers such as Edward Steichen as designers. In
Russia the women Constructivists, Liubov Popova and
Vavara Stepanova, revolutionised the design of textiles
and mass produced clothing, which continues to
reverberate today. In the first section of the exhibition
there are examples of textiles and clothing by these
artists from this early period.
Next we go to the 1940’s “Brave New World” during
which the British were struggling to survive during the war
and afterwards, suffering considerable deprivation and
Horrockses dresses
In 1946 the long established Horrockses cotton
manufacturer set up a fashion subsidiary for printed
cotton dresses engaging James Cleveland Belle in an
advisory capacity and commissioned Alastair Morton and
Graham Sutherland to supply textile designs and the
couturier John Tullis to design dresses. These clothes
epitomised the traditional English cotton summer frock,
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Texere Newsletter summer 2014
which were affordable by many throughout the 1950’s
including the Royal family and other celebrities.
Textile design by artists was an important part of this
strategy and many British and French painters were
persuaded to design for various textile manufacturers,
including Ascher Ltd who commissioned people such as
Henry Moore, Matisse, Alistair Morton and Graham
Sutherland to design scarves and fabrics for the couture
industry. These were included in the exhibition “Britain
can Make It” at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1946.
Surrealism was the most fashionable and popular art
movement and Salvador Dali was considered superior to
most other artists. As a result the New York textile
converter, Wesley Simpson, quickly realised the
commercial advantage of associating well-known artists
with the company’s textiles, most prominently Dali and
Marcel Vertes. Dali also designed for other companies
such as Schiffer Prints in Paris. On the wall above the
exhibits was a fascinating animated film by Walt Disney
showing Dali’s works of art morphing from one to
another.
and Pablo Picasso, who had previously never agreed to
design textiles for any other firms. Subsequently artists
such as Joan Miro, Fernand Leger and Marc Chagall
joined the design team to produce fashion textiles on a
vast scale, selling at $1.50 to $2 a metre for the mass
public.
In the 1960’s Picasso collaborated with the New York
textile manufacturer, Bloomcraft Fabrics, and in 1963
they launched a collection of 11 furnishing fabrics
designed by Picasso, taken from a wide range of his work
and screen printed onto a variety of fabrics in various
colour ways. The most unexpected collaboration was
between Picasso and an American ski wear manufacturer
for a collection of après skiwear in a variety of fabrics
including corduroy ponchos, cotton sweat tops and PVC
coated rainwear.
Throughout the 1950’s many British manufacturers, the
most important being the Edinburgh Weavers, employed
talented artists such as Victor Vasarely and Marino Marini
to design exclusive textiles for them. At the other end of
the market were the inexpensive printed textiles of David
Whitehead Ltd. who had a populist approach to good
design and commissioned designs for easily affordable
textiles by artists such as Henry Moore, Eduardo
Paolozzi and John Piper for clothing and furnishings.
Ice cream sundae
Dress and fabrics by Joan Miro
The American ‘Modern Masters’ project set up in the mid
1950’s was a remarkable collaboration between the New
York based Fuller fabrics and some of the most
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internationally renowned artists of the 20 century.
Central to this was the relationship between Dan Fuller
From the late 1940’s to the early 1960’s Andy Warhol, the
epitome of Pop Art, was an extremely successful graphic
designer, including designs for adverts for textile
companies. In the late 50’s to early 60’s he started to
design textiles inspired by food for Stephen Bruce, who
used two of them, Ice Cream Sundaes and Melons for a
collection of dresses in the early 1960’s. His career
effortlessly blurred the borders of fine and applied art and
other companies also used his designs, including Bright
Butterflies and Buttons.
Similarly the English designer Zandra Rhodes defied
these artificial boundaries. Originally having trained as a
textile designer at the Royal College of Art, her highly
idiosyncratic work draws on a wide range of sources from
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Texere Newsletter summer 2014
Sutherland and Eduardo Paolozzi and the leading textile
manufacturers David Whitehead Ltd., Edinburgh
Weavers and Horrockses Fashions bought their paintings
and designs. The exhibition proved a great success with
manufacturers and the public, bringing about a wider
appreciation of textile design as a medium of artistic
expression, which added considerably to the reputation
of the British Textile Industry.
Dress and fabric by Zandra Rhodes
commercial advertising to Elizabethan fashion and ethnic
art. After her graduation three of her designs were
produced by Heal and Sons Ltd, but she found it difficult
to sell her extreme Pop textiles to the main fashion
industry. This inspired her to work independently in a
dazzling fusion of textile design and fashion and her
exotic designs are worn by the rich and famous to this
day, as well as being used in stage and film productions.
In the 1950’s a school of satirical illustration evolved in
New York which helped define ‘cool’. Its leading
protagonist was the Romanian born Saul Steinberg who
was commissioned by Mr. Piazza of an upmarket textile
and wallpaper manufacturer, Piazza Prints and its
subsidiaries, to translate a number of his designs into a
series of coordinated wallpapers and textiles for the
quality interior decorator market. It was highly successful
so he capitalised on this, designing on a series of textile
designs for the mass market summer clothing for a chain
store, his designs being used as border prints for dresses
and skirts.
In 1953 the exhibition “Painting into Textiles” was an
important milestone in the developing concept of textile
design by famous artists. The organisers of the
exhibition, Hans and Elspeth Juda felt it essential to show
the original works of art rather than finished textiles,
which manufacturers could then use as inspiration for
textile design. Many major British artists took part, among
them Henry Moore, William Scott, John Piper, Graham
Dress designed by Picasso
Skeleton by Salvador Dali
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Texere Newsletter summer 2014
The Jersey Textile Showcase, March
5-11th 2014
by Patricia Christy, England
The Jersey Textile showcase,
[email protected] is an annual event in
St. Aubin Jersey, during which local textile artists and
others from the rest of the United Kingdom and France
display their latest work in the Harbour Gallery. This is an
excellent arts centre with two floors of exhibiting space, a
shop for creative textile and art materials and local works
of art, spaces for workshops and a cafe.
Workshops by twelve well-known textile artists were
taking place throughout the week in various venues
around the town. There were people from all over the UK
and France taking part, some of whom go every year as it
provides such a great opportunity to take part in a wide
variety of workshops in one place for a week at a
relatively low cost. Examination students and their
teachers from local schools also took part in the
workshops, an amazing opportunity for them.
Thermofax print using discharge paste and dyes
Thermofax printing using discharge paste and dyes
I took part in a Thermofax printing and discharge
workshop with Ineke Berlyn and I also attended a
workshop with Kim Titichai on using heat in various ways
with synthetic textiles and transfer dyes.
As well as the exhibition of work by textile artists in the
Harbour Gallery there was an interesting exhibition of
work by local Primary and Secondary schools in the
Parish Church on the theme of ‘Festivals’ which were
judged by Maggie Grey, a well-known textile artist.
Kim Titichais class
Cutting shapes from a design with soldering iron
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Texere Newsletter summer 2014
nd
Entries from the 2 CAMAC Textile Challenge and the
TEXERE scarves, which are both on the theme of Art
Deco, were exhibited during the event. The CAMAC
exhibition consisted of 30 cm panels of mixed media
textile interpretations inspired by a selection of Art Deco
designs which had been provided by the Warner Textile
Archive in Braintree, Essex. Students from Art Colleges
and textile groups across Britain and the Chanel Islands,
Southern Ireland and Cyprus had taken part and the best
were displayed in the foyer of the Methodist Church.
Judging took place during the week and the selected
prize winners from Jersey were announced during the
Gala Dinner by Mary Schoeser. They are now being
shown at the Warner Textile Archive in Braintree. For
further information on the work of CAMAC CIO please
visit www.camac.org.uk.
Kim Titichais class
Cutting shapes with soldering iron
The TEXERE Art Deco scarves, made by members and
students, were displayed on the stage of the Parish Hall
where many of the workshops were taking place. As the
Parish Hall was filled with people taking part in
workshops all week we had a captive audience and the
scarves were admired by all, even though the display
facilities were not as good as I hoped. You can see the
scarves and read about who made them on the Project
Page of the TEXERE website www.texere-associ.org.
More scarves will be finished in time for an exhibition in
London in September and they will also be exhibited
during the ETN conference in Leiden, Holland, in May
2015.
The CAMAC textile challenge
TEXERE Art Deco scarves by Italian and Austrian students.
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