29th Annual Weaving History Conference October 21-23, 2024

2023 was another year of fascinating presentations, engaging conversation, and a shared love of all things weaving and fiber! The Weaving History Conference, now celebrating its 29th year, was held three days over Zoom last October. We had a stellar turnout and can’t wait for this year!

NOW SEEKING PROPOSALS

Topics on the history of weaving and related fiber arts highly encouraged! For a look at past presentations, take a look at last year’s agenda below.

DEADLINE: AUGUST 5, 2024

Do you have a topic you’d like to present or research you’d like to share? Submit a proposal to next year’s conference!

Please complete the proposal form below:

"*" indicates required fields

Name*

First Last

Address*

Street Address Address Line 2 City State / Province / Region ZIP / Postal Code Country

Email*

Phone*

Session Title:*

Proposed length (45 minute maximum):

Format:

Individual

Group

Note: If there will be more than one presenter in the group, please be sure to include their name(s) and contact information in the 'Other' field below.

Please provide a brief description of your proposed presentation.

Please submit a two or three sentence bio (for each presenter, if in a group) that may be used in conference materials.

Other

Feel free to upload any files or photos to supplement your proposal.

Max. file size: 2 GB.

2023 AGENDA

Click on presentation titles for descriptions and presenter bios.

Monday, October 23

8:45am

Opening Remarks

9:00-10:00am

Estonia's Weaving Traditions Today-- Mathilde Lind

DESCRIPTION

In the small Baltic country of Estonia, local weaving traditions are alive and well, and Estonian weavers regularly produce items for wear associated with 19th-century national costume, along with some Iron Age textiles. This presentation will give an overview of Estonian weaving traditions, including woolen, half-woolen, and linen fabrics and pick-up weaving used to make complex patterned belts. In-person and online resources for studying and researching historical Estonian weaving will be introduced. Particular attention will be paid to Kihnu Island, a Cultural Space recognized by UNESCO where traditional handwoven skirts are everyday attire and are still produced at home on old, two-shaft floor looms. Whether they are used as national costume, festive attire, or everyday dress, handwoven fabrics are an essential component of how Estonians visibly represent their identity and culture.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

Mathilde Frances Lind is a textile artist and folklorist who just completed a four-year study of traditional wool crafts and sheep husbandry in Estonia. In 2018, she completed an eight-week work-study at the Marshfield School of Weaving in Marshfield, Vermont, where she learned how to weave on 19th-century looms and created a digital catalogue for a collection of equipment from the defunct American Textile History Museum, formerly in Lowell, Massachusetts. Her focus is on heritage sheep breeds and antique textile equipment, and she loves to process raw wool and restore old spinning wheels to a new lifetime of use. Mathilde is currently the Director of Programs and Research at Traditional Arts in Upstate New York (TAUNY).

10:00-11:00am

Diversifying Our Future Bringing History Forward at the Little Loomhouse -- Michelle Amos

DESCRIPTION

Michelle Amos, Executive Director for the Little Loomhouse, will discuss the programs that have helped diversify their community while sparking interest in the process, history, and preservation of weaving. Presentation will include discussion of on-site and off-site programs, including internships, college partnerships, residencies, local off-site partners, and statewide programs.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

Michelle Amos grew up in section 8 housing in Louisville, Kentucky; worked on fishing vessels out of Sitka, Alaska; briefly owned an apple orchard in Everson, Washington; and is now the Executive Director for the Little Loomhouse. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Fiber Construction from the University of Louisville. Her work includes artistic practice, research, publishing, curatorial projects, and teaching. Her visual art work has been exhibited throughout the Kentucky and Southern Indiana region. To Learn more about the Little Loomhouse visit https://www.littleloomhouse.org/ To learn more about Michelle Amos visit https://www.mkamos.com/

11:00-12:00-pm

Southern Handwoven Counterpanes: What’s in a name? -- Pat Donald

DESCRIPTION

Southern Handwoven Counterpane drafts have been found from 1803 throughout that century and since 1935 there have been 27 articles in handweaving literature on this topic. Images of these textiles can frequently be found in print, in archives and online collections listed as counterpanes or coverlets. Handwritten weaving drafts found with coverlet threadings can contain weaves known to be in Southern Handwoven Counterpanes such as dimity, honeycomb, huck, spot Bronson, M’s & O’s with or without the counterpane designation. Sometimes these weaving drafts also have handwritten text with them suggesting the weave of the fabric. Drafts from different locations include the weave structure name ‘satin’, a 5 shaft weave structure, that is not woven on a four shaft loom typical of the counterpanes of the 1800s. Explanations for use of this term have been found for both the textile name and the draft name. There is documentation that some coverlet weavers also wove counterpanes. Perhaps this explains white on white (counterpanes) woven in what are generally considered coverlet patterns (overshot) in various geographical areas. Three different weaving sources have drafts with the name ‘mock dimity’ from different geographical areas. Two of these sources are linked to a fabric as the starting point and one is a handwritten draft with no fabric found.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

Pat Donald has been researching counterpanes and their weaves for 20 years. Her research has included museum and archive visits across southern states in addition to communication with archivists throughout the South and northern states with counterpane holdings.

12:00-12:45pm

LUNCH

12:45-1:45pm

Exploring the Woven Fabrics of Bonnie Cashin—By Hand-- Susan Torntore

DESCRIPTION

Three years ago, I embarked upon a textile journey to learn about the beautiful handwoven tweed fabrics used by American fashion designer Bonnie Cashin. It was inspired by a guild challenge to make a Noh coat, a kimono-style garment that is Cashin’s most iconic style. As both a weaver and textile scholar with a long-standing love for Cashin’s work, I established three project goals. First, my academic goal—to discover who designed and made Cashin’s fabrics. I presented preliminary research results last year (2022) at this conference; many of her signature fabrics were designed by mid-century innovative textile designers Dorothy Liebes and Bernat Klein, and many woven in the British tweed industries. Second, my technical goal focused on the fabrics themselves—to identify structures and patterns and, as I return to multi-shaft weaving after 30 years, to weave them gamp by gamp. Third, my personal goal—accepting and successfully meeting the challenge to make a Noh coat. This talk reflects upon my research, learning, and design process exploring favorite Cashin tweed fabrics by hand, and finally weaving and sewing my very own tweed Noh coat.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

Susan J. Torntore, PhD, is a textile and dress historian and collection curator, exhibition designer, educator, and author. After retiring in Bellingham WA, she returned to weaving after many years, is teaching weaving, presenting textile-related programs, and active in several local guilds. In 2019, previous academic work with Cashin designs led to an invitation for a Cashin talk to kick-off a Challenge for the Association of Northwest Weavers’ Guilds (ANWG) 2023 Conference—weaving cloth and making Cashin’s Noh coat. In June 2023, she wore her coat in the Noh Coat Parade at the conference fashion show.

1:45-2:45pm

Weaving at Black Mountain College: Anni Albers, Trude Guermonprez, and Their Students -- Julie Thomson

DESCRIPTION

Weaving at Black Mountain College: Anni Albers, Trude Guermonprez, and Their Students will be the first exhibition devoted to textile practices at Black Mountain College (BMC). Celebrating 90 years since the college’s founding, the exhibition will reveal how weaving was a more significant part of BMC’s legendary art and design curriculum than previously assumed. BMC’s weaving program was started in 1934 by Anni Albers and lasted until the College closed in 1956. Despite Albers’s elevated reputation, the persistent treatment of textile practices as women’s work or handicraft has often led to the discipline being ignored or underrepresented in previous scholarship and exhibitions about the College; this exhibition brings that work into the spotlight at last. In addition to Albers, Trude Guermonprez taught her first classes in the U.S. at BMC, and Marli Ehrman and Tony Landreau brought their own perspectives on the discipline through their work and teaching. Among their students, some went on to find work as weavers, teachers, and textile designers, including Else Regensteiner, Lore Kadden Lindenfeld, Marilyn Bauer, Don Wight, and Joan Potter Loveless. Other students did not pursue future work in weaving but became successful artists and designers in their own right, including Ray Johnson, Don Page, Claude Stoller, Jane Slater Marquis, and Robert Rauschenberg. Through informal interactions, lectures, and exhibitions, weaving practices, and ideas spread beyond the weaving program into other areas of the College, a transfer of knowledge termed “weaving literacy.” Repositioning the textile work of students and faculty in conversation with the rest of BMC offers a new, rich, and detailed understanding of the weaving program’s relationship to other disciplines. My presentation will give an overview of our exhibition and book, while also focusing on my research about Trude Guermonprez’s teaching and development of her own personal forms of textile expression after weaving for industry. I will also discuss the formation of the Harriett Engelhardt Memorial Collection of Textiles, a collection curated by Anni Albers in memory of a BMC student killed during World War II. Today the Engelhardt Collection is in the collection of the Yale University Art Gallery.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

Julie J. Thomson is co-curator and co-author of Weaving at Black Mountain College: Anni Albers, Trude Guermonprez, and Their Students. She is an educator, artist, independent scholar, and curator who has been researching and writing about artists at Black Mountain College since 2006 and served as co-editor of the Journal of Black Mountain College Studies from 2018–20. She is the author of Begin to See: The Photographers of Black Mountain College (Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center, 2017) and the editor of That Was the Answer: Interviews with Ray Johnson (Soberscove Press, 2018). As part of her research for Weaving at Black Mountain College she started weaving in 2019. http://juliejthomson.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, October 24

9:00-10:00am

History of Mohair-- Mickey Stam

DESCRIPTION

From its first historical reference in 15th Century Turkey, the hair of the Angora goat has been treasured for its luster and durability. After its introduction to the United States in the mid-1800s, Texas became the major exporter of mohair in the world. The rise and fall of this industry is a story that includes the vagaries of fashion, national politics, environmental sustainability, and the humane treatment of animals. New technology is now used to spin very fine smooth mohair yarns for high-end, wrinkle-free suiting, yet handweavers are left with mostly fuzzy knitting yarns. This presentation will survey this history from Ankara to today.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

Mickey Stam recently received her Master in Weaving: Level II Certificate from the Handweavers Guild of America, with a focus on Weaving with Mohair. She is also the author of ” Innovative Weaving: A Guide for Study Groups.” Mickey has a master’s degree from Parsons School of Design/Smithsonian Institution in the History of Decorative Arts in America and is an active member of the Weavers and Spinners Society of Austin.

10:00-11:00am

Pin Loom and Waistcoats-- SJ Mintz

DESCRIPTION

Seldom discussed but enormously satisfying: decision making and creating on a 2″x4″ Weavette. It is portable, fun and a perpetual conversation starter between all ages and languages. Colors and materials are flexible: cotton, wool, linen or silk; single or combined colors for warp and weft; same or contrasting for cross stitched joins and borders.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

Her four dozen waistcoats, created on a pin loom, have traveled across the US and three continents. She’s currently writing the Enzo Octet novels: global textiles reaching a modern Ariadne.

11:00-12:00am

A Brief Look at the Life and Legacy of Marguerite Porter Davison-- Norma Smayda

DESCRIPTION

In my memory there has never been a presentation at the Weaving History Conference about Marguerite Porter Davison, who is unquestionably one of the most important people in US weaving history. Her ’green book’, A Handweaver’s Pattern Book has been reprinted at least 18 times in hard cover, and now there is an edited paperback version. Sara A. Jatko’s 2007 Masters Thesis at the University of Delaware describes the life and weaving contributions of Davison. Pertinent parts of this thesis, a brief comparison of the many revised and reprinted editions of the ‘green book’, and, most interestingly, two letters written to Davison and her reply to one will be shared.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

Norma Smayda learned to weave in Norway, and occasionally returned there to teach. In 1974 she established and continues to run the Saunderstown Weaving School. In addition she lectures and gives workshops, especially on her favorite topics – Scandinavian weaving techniques, weave structures, and the work of Weaver Rose and Bertha Gray Hayes. She has written two books: Weaving Designs by Bertha Gray Hayes and Ondulé Textiles: Weaving Contours with a Fan Reed.

12:00-12:45pm

LUNCH

12:45-1:30pm

Medieval Resonances in Contemporary Materiality: An Examination of Ebony G Patterson's "Tapestry" Work -- Frances Millar

DESCRIPTION

This presentation will offer an examination of the resurgence of weaving in the fine arts exhibition space through the lens of one contemporary artist in particular, Ebony G Patterson. The position of tapestry has changed greatly through centuries of shifting perspectives surrounding material and process, leading to inconsistent representation in the art historical canon. I provide visual and material connections between seemingly disparate works, that of the Medieval era and of Patterson’s contemporary oeuvre, to argue the textile medium’s unique ability to convey emotion. Specific attention is paid to the differences in identity and production between these makers, as well as aesthetic phenomena, and spatial elements of tapestry’s hanging.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

Frances Millar is a native Kentuckian now living in Philadelphia. After graduating magna cum laude from Bryn Mawr College with a bachelor’s degree in History of Art, she now works in Visitor Services at the Fabric Workshop and Museum, a contemporary art museum and working silkscreen studio established in 1977. Frances has maintained a personal, professional, and academic interest in weaving and fiber arts since adolescence with notable service in the archives of the Little Loomhouse in Louisville KY during her undergraduate years.

1:30-2:00pm

Tales of Nakshi Kantha: An Upcycling Fashion History of Bangladesh -- Sabrina Nourin

DESCRIPTION

The art of Nakshi Kantha, a traditional form of upcycling in Bangladesh, is deeply rooted in the country’s rich cultural history. Nakshi Kantha is a quilt-making technique where old and worn-out textiles are transformed into intricate and colorful pieces of artwork. This paper explores the history, evolution, significance, and contemporary relevance of Nakshi Kantha, shedding light on its sustainable and artistic aspects. The study aims to highlight how Nakshi Kantha plays a vital role in preserving cultural heritage, promoting sustainability, and empowering local communities in Bangladesh.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

Sabrina Nourin is a Research Associate at the Center for Entrepreneurship Development at BRAC University, Bangladesh and at the School of Business, Monash University Malaysia. Sabrina has more than 11 years’ work experience in managing supply chains in Bangladesh. She started her career at Avery Dennison Bangladesh and subsequently worked in Sanofi Bangladesh, Banglalink Digital Telecommunication Ltd and Berger Paints Bangladesh Ltd. In 2017, she completed her postgraduate research at Monash University Malaysia, where she researched women entrepreneurship in Bangladesh under the supervision of Dr Wee Chan Au and Professor Pervaiz K. Ahmed. Her research focuses on the experiences and challenges faced by women entrepreneurs in their entrepreneurial journeys. Prior to her research experience, she completed her Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in Business Administration from BRAC University Bangladesh. 2. Muntaqa N. B. Hakim is a Research Assistant at the Center for Entrepreneurship Development (CED) at BRAC University, Bangladesh. Being an Economics graduate, and holding a minor in Sociology, Muntaqa is passionate about topics revolving around poverty, inequality, social justice, and socio-political economic issues. During her time as an undergraduate student at BRAC University, she was part of an OSUN-affiliated course where she made and co-produced a documentary about the rights of adivasis (indigenous groups in Bangladesh) for which her team also won multiple awards. Muntaqa has previously worked at the Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh as an intern under Dr. Khondker, Professor at the Department of Economics, University of Dhaka where she worked on projects like Housing Finance, the state of DFS Consumer Protection in Bangladesh, and Climate Change and Institutions in Bangladesh.

2:00-3:00pm

Shalimar -- Peter Harris

DESCRIPTION

There is a set of manuscript pages that has been the lodestone of my Kashmir shawl studies. In the mid-1990’s I was asked to vet – by way of drafting the designs on graph-paper with coloured markers – a group of talim pages and corresponding swatches of shawl fabric being offered for sale to a museum. The result was less and more than expected, in what I learned about the samples and what they taught me.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

Peter Harris is a tapestry weaver, better known for his study of Kashmir shawl weaving.

Wednesday, October 25

9:00-10:00am

The Nooks & Crannies of Huckaback Counterpanes -- Gay McGeary

DESCRIPTION

Huckaback and satin striped counterpanes are woven with a combination of three weave structures: huck, M’s & O’s and plain weave. The combination creates a three-dimension pattern with delightful nooks and crannies, which can only be seen once the cloth has been wet finished. Gay will share with you the 19th century counterpanes and related drafts which she has been researching over the past six years. She has also explored several related interpretations of the huckaback counterpanes. This is an ongoing project. 19th century southern handwoven counterpanes are a type of woven bedcovering for which little has been documented.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

Gay has been weaving, collecting, and researching early coverlet and counterpane patterns and weave structures for over thirty years. While her weaving is inspired by her research, her research is enhanced by her weaving explorations of the early craftsmen.

10:00-10:45am

Whole cloth is not the whole story -- Carl Stewart

DESCRIPTION

Every culture has its own tradition of recycling textiles. These traditions are often born out of necessity and demonstrate the frugality, ingenuity and creativity of the people who practice them. Whole cloth is not the whole story examines some of the textile recycling traditions from Prince Edward Island and Japan, that have informed my project wholecloth, a series of handwoven cloths that utilize recycled and upcycled materials. Whole cloth is not the whole story begins with a brief overview of the surprising connections between my home province Prince Edward Island on Canada’s east coast and Japan. The presentation then looks at the various types of historic textiles – catalogne and cloutie from Prince Edward Island and sakiori and zanshiori from Japan – and the social and economic conditions under which these textiles would have been made. This section of the presentation will be illustrated with examples of these textiles from various museum collections from Prince Edward Island and from across Canada and the United States. Whole cloth is not the whole story concludes with how these textile traditions have influenced and informed my project wholecloth, a series of handwoven cloths that incorporate recycled and upcycled materials as diverse as gym towels, bed sheets, tea string, fishing nets and cassette tape. This final section of the presentation will be illustrated with images and video of the work in-progress as well as images of the finished work.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

Carl Stewart is a weaver living and working in Ottawa, Ontario CANADA. For more than 30 years his socially and politically engaged, and enraged, textiles have celebrated, memorialized, documented and commemorated the intimate, the fabulous, the egregious and the tragic. His work has been presented in solo and group exhibitions across Canada and in the United States and hangs in the collections of the Canada Council Art Bank, The Ottawa Art Gallery, the City of Ottawa and Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art in New York.

10:45-11:30am

Painted Wovens - A Lost Aspect of Woven Textile Design in the Apparel Industry-- Ellen Hess

DESCRIPTION

Before Computer Aided Design entered the design world, sample swatches of yarn-dyed woven fabrics were often handwoven from technical layouts by skilled sample weavers in design studios. A few companies trained and hired artist-painters to render life sized facsimiles of yarn-dyed textile designs in gouache. While early Jacquard designers painted their designs in color on point paper, more geometric ‘Painted Wovens’ of striped, plaid and checked yarn-dyed fabrics were utilized in the apparel market for their quicker turnaround time. A unique set of tools and equipment enabled artist to create remarkably life-life reproductions of woven textiles, working from layouts and color swatches. See how the ‘Painted Wovens’ were created and edited to look like actual fabrics for garments.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

Ellen Hess is a long time Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Textile/Surface Design Department of the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. She maintains a weaving studio, and, for many years, was a designer in both the apparel and contract industries in the New York City area.

11:30-12:15pm

LUNCH

12:15-1:15pm

Pattern Names: Can We Learn Anything from Them? -- Patricia Hilts

DESCRIPTION

The names of weaving patterns often seem puzzling and mysterious, and it is easy to simply dismiss them. This is especially the case since a number of different patterns can have the same name; likewise, a particular pattern can have several different names. Despite these contradictions, it is possible to learn something from pattern names. In order to begin, it is necessary to ask and attempt to answer questions such as the following: How far back can pattern names be traced? Who used pattern names? Do any of the names imply a technical meaning? Do any of the names refer to historic events and thus give a clue to a possible date? Who used pattern names? How have the known pattern names been transmitted to the present? Attempting to answer these questions can aid in the understanding of some of the names, but many names will always remain a mystery.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

Pat Hilts is a long-time presenter at the Weaving History Conference and a co-founder of the conference. Pat has edited and published five German weaving books from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. She had also published several articles in weaving magazines. She and her husband, Victor are currently preparing the manuscript of Christian King for publication.

1:15-2:00pm

2:00-2:20pm

Philo Blakeman and The Weaver’s Assistant, Explaining in a Familiar Manner, the First Principals of the Art of Weaving: Connecticut Context -- Sandra Rux

DESCRIPTION

In 1817 Philo Blakeman published his book containing over 80 weaving drafts, with some instructions on how to weave them, noting that he believed this was the first work of its kind published in the United States. While it does seem that this is the first published appearance of “flowered coverlet” (most usually known now as overshot) drafts, the Domestic Manufacturer’s Guide… by J. and R. Bronson was published a few months earlier. This presentation will discuss who Philo Blakeman was—there were at least four men of the name in early 19th century Fairfield County, CT—and the textile making environment in his county. How do his drafts compare to those of such weavers as Silas Burton of Stratford who was a neighbor of various Blakeman families. How do they compare to those published by the Bronson family whose roots were in the Farmington valley of Connecticut. While I suspect the book was not a commercial success in its time, it does provide valuable information for current historians and weavers interested in tracing the roots of these common drafts. The presentation draws on newspaper ads and public records to amplify the notes by Blakeman in his book.

ABOUT THE PRESENTERS

Sandra Rux received a BA in History from the University of Connecticut and an MA in History from Trinity College, Hartford CT and is a graduate of the Museum Studies program of the Munson Institute, Mystic Seaport Museum. Her business career was with AT&T in New York City. She came to Portsmouth in 2005 as the Synergy manager for the Portsmouth Historical Society, Warner House and Wentworth-Gardner and Lear Houses and then served as manager and curator for the Portsmouth Historical Society until December 2014. She served as Curator of the Warner House Association (2014-2019) and chair person of the Portsmouth Athenaeum Exhibits Committee (2014-2021). A hand loom weaver herself, she has written about nineteenth-century carpet weaving for the Dublin Seminar and in Corsets, Clocks and Locks, a book about the industrial development of New Haven, CT. More recent exhibits include Three Centuries of Dining at the Warner House and several exhibits at the Portsmouth Athenaeum. Her most recent exhibitiona at the Portsmouth Athenaeum is The Wentworth Takeover: How One Family Dominated Portsmouth and New Hampshire 1715-1775. It ran from April 2023 through July15, 2023. In 2021 Sandra and her husband Alan Haesche moved back to CT. Current research is focused on makers of weaving reeds in the northeast US (1750-1830), and the story of Lieutenant Gov John Wentworth of Portsmouth NH and his 14 children as a continuation of the Spring 2023 exhibition at the Portsmouth Athenaeum.

Bhutanese Textiles: A Woven Tapestry of Culture, Tradition, and Identity-- MarkO Bartholomew

DESCRIPTION

In a small country nestled in the Himalayas, a rich textile culture has been practiced for generations and continues to be passed down from mothers to daughters. Bhutan has been able to cultivate and preserve unique textile practices that reflect their history and deeply held spiritual beliefs. MarkO will show a textile that belonged to one of the queens of Bhutan and share some of its amazing intricacies that will give you a small glimpse into the Thunder Dragon textiles and the amazing work of women artists.

ABOUT THE PRESENTERS

MarkO Bartholomew is the founder of the GreenHeart Foundation a nonprofit that empowers women weavers in Asia to create sustainable and independent livelihoods through their traditional textile art. Throughout his life he has lived alongside weavers around the world, and has always been deeply connected to Bhutan and their amazing weaving traditions. He is the author of the first definitive book on Bhutan Textile Art and Culture ‘Thunder Dragon Textiles from Bhutan’.

A word about the Weaving History Conference…

In order to celebrate, promote and share academic work on the subject of handweaving, the Historic Manuscripts Conference was founded in 1994. The name was changed to the Weaving History Conference (WHC) later to reflect the expansion of the subject of the conference to contain not just academic weaving presentations, but information on all fiber arts. Today the WHC is entering its impressive 28th consecutive year!