White textile: A symbol of purity and holiness

White textiles, for the majority of cultures and religions are a strong symbol of spiritual and physical purity. In the spiritual world, white color represents clear, honest, and transparent minds and souls. In the material world white cloths are related with clearness and lack of dirt. Indeed, white surfaces highlight even the smallest stains. A white fabric can be washed many times without fading and the sun not only discolors the fabric but it makes it even more white.

• The Strachitsa of the Holy Table in the Eastern Orthodox Church.

In the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches of Byzantine Rite, the altar is called Holy table. Although there are variations, normally the Holy Table is covered with three cloths on all four sides. The first cloth that covers the Holy Table is called Strachítsa (katasarkion in Greek Orthodox Church) and it is a plain linen cloth. It is bound to the altar with cords at the time of its consecration and it is never removed. However, after many years it can be removed for restoration and cleaning and bound again to the altar. The white linen covering symbolizes the winding sheet in which the dead body of Christ was wrapped in the tomb.

The beginnings of contemporary Textile Art: Pioneering artist in USA

Textiles are a field that developed in parallel with mankind and human language. It is also indicative that the words "textiles" and "text" seem to share the shame etymology. However, it was until the Arts & Crafts movement and Art Nouveau period that textiles begun to get noticed by art critics and artists. Until then, textiles were either a feminine craft or in the case of tapestries and wall hangings, textiles were a flexible surface for transferring designs of established painters. Later, the Russian revolution and the Bauhaus movement by turning the focus into functional objects, influenced many artists to design textiles, costumes and tapestries and explore traditional techniques such as knitting, knotting, weaving and stitching. 

"Architects, sculptors, painters, we must all get back to craft! ... The artist is a heightened manifestation of the craftsman. ... Let us form ... a new guild of craftsmen without the class divisions that set out to raise an arrogant barrier between craftsmen and artists!"

Walter Gropius

The role of Lausanne International Tapestry Biennals (1962-1995) in the revival of contemporary Textile Arts.

The Lausanne international Tapestry Biennal was a series of well-known exhibition, organized in Lausanne during the period between 1962 and 1995. The success and popularity of the exhibitions were rather unexpected, since Lausanne was nothing more than a small city in Switzerland with no textile tradition of its own. The show initially included only tapestries although gradually started to embrace much more forms of experimental Textile Art. The organization of the event was an idea of Pierre Pauli (1916-1979), an art lover and Jean Lurçat, an established French painter and tapestry designer. Jean Lurçat was also a leading European figure noted for his role in the revival of contemporary tapestry after World War II and for his contribution in calling major painters such as Picasso and Manessier to design tapestry projects.

Mola Collections and resources

Molas are handmade items that represent the culture of Kuna Indians and are highly collective. Several museum own great collections of authentic molas. Before, trying to make your own mola, it is worth to take a look at original pieces. 

Online mola collections

• The collection of the british museum
• The collection of the Ethnographic museum of gothenburg in Sweden
• The collection of the Smithsonian institution in Washington
• The Mola Museum

Articles
1. The Kuna Indians 
2. The History of the Kuna Indians 
3. Panama Kuna tribe and ecotourism
4. Panama, Cuna 
5. Background information: What is a mola
6. Learning to look: Molas 

Thesis: 
1. Ahora todos somos Panamenos: Kuna identity and Panamanian nationalism under the torrijos regime, 1968-1981 (By Sarah Fos)

Links
1. The Art of Being Kuna: Layers of Meaning Among the Kuna of Panama

 

Series of short videos about Kuna society and Mola art

Tribal wives BBC: Some British women swap their lives for life as tribal wives in some of the most remote communities on earth.

Episode A: Crabs in the shower. At 2:08 you'll see local women sewing their molas

Kuna culture and mola art

The Kuna Indians (or Guna or Cuna) are an indigenous tribe living mainly in Panama and Colombia. Actually, they are one of Panama's three major indigenous groups. Nowadays, most of the Kuna Indians live on the San Blas territory of Panama while a few Kuna Indians live in other communities and villages in Panama and Colombia. The San Blas territory includes a long narrow strip of jungle along the mainland and about 360 small islands in the Caribbean Sea. The Kunas live on about 55 of these islands and on 10 communities along the Caribbean coast. The region is also called Kuna Yala (Kuna land). The main form of transportation are canoes and other types of boats. Eack canoe is made up from a sinlge tree trunk. There is no fresh water supply on the San Blas islands leaving the Indians with the daily task of traveling up the rivers of the mainland to collect water.

The Kuna Indians inhabit the comarca de San Blas or Kuna Yala, located along Panama's northeast coast. The region comprises the archipelago de San Blas (the islands in the Caribbean sea) and a thin strip on the coast. 

Mola Art: an introduction

What is a mola?
Kuna is an indigenous tribe of Panama, and in their language mola means blouse. However, apart from blouse, the word "mola" is used to denote these colorful textile panels stitched by the women of the tribe. 

Mola art is a functional art and although it was recently developed, it is fully integrated into the Kuna culture. The technique is still practiced by Kuna women and the knowledge is transmitted from generation to generation, starting when girls are very young. 

A mola blouse 

Mola (blouse); made of cotton; yoke made of red cotton, yellow cotton sewn around neck; mola body backing of white cotton printed with blue hexagons, design appliqued in red and blue showing four animals in circles. 
Image source: © The Trustees of the British Museum.

The extraordinary embroidered figures of Paracas culture (600 BCE to 200 CE)

The ancient societies of South America (present day Peru and Bolivia) developed a rich and varied artistic tradition. Andean people, apart from fishermen and farmers were also high skilled craftspeople, able to produce artifacts from stone, gourd, obsidian, bone, shells, mud, feathers, fibers, gold etc. However and in contrast to other cultures of the world, Andean societies created monumental architecture and textiles long before the development of ceramics and intensive agriculture. Especially the processes of textile making and decoration were high developed crafts requiring skilled weavers, sewers, embroiderers, etc and an organized system with high technological and aesthetic standards. Even today, these colorful and richly embroidered textiles provoke much admiration among experts and artists.

Chavin de Huantar was one of the first cultures that flourished in the highlands and influenced deeply the surrounding areas. Despite, the central role of the Chavin culture, in different valleys they were developed distinctive art styles and cultures. For example, Paracas culture, flourished from about 600 BCE to 200 CE, overlapping the Chavin period. Until the first archaeological excavations in 1925 by Dr. Julio C. Tello, nothing had been known about this society. At first, the many archaeological findings were associated with Nazca culture, due to their similarity to the polychrome weaving and ceramics founded in the Nazca region. 

Paracas was one of the earliest known complex societies in South America. Paracas and other contemporary communities laid the foundations for the later societies of the Andes, including the Inca. Paracas people depended mostly on fish although they knew how to cultivate beans, maize, red peppers, yuca and peanuts. They were also skilled craftspeople. 

Supernatural, flying figure perhaps representing shamanic flight. 
Image source: Illustration from an original photo published in the book "Textiles of Ancient Peru" by Roberto Gheller Doig.

French tapestry factories of the 17th and 18th centuries

Tapestry is composed of two sets of interlaced threads, the warp and the weft threads. Each area of colour is built up separately, following a paper or canvas design known as a cartoon. The weft, coloured threads are wound on to bobbins. The popularity of decorative tapestry can be explained by its portability. King and noblemen could roll up and transport tapestries from one residence to another. In churches, they were displaced on special occasions depicting religious scenes. Tapestries were also draped on the walls of castles offering extra insulation during cold months, as well as for decorative display.

Tapestry from the suite of :Berain Grotesques” (detail) made under the Behagles, c.1700 Image source: "Kronborg - Gobelin 1" by Wolfgang Sauber - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons 

Andean textiles/ Chavin culture: The extraordinary figures of a God

Pre-Columbian textiles in central Andean region have been much admired since the time of the Spanish conquest, for the great variety of materials, techniques, designs and decorative elements. As in many other cultures and periods, textiles reflected the economic, social, political and religious development in every culture of the ancient Peru. They also defined the rank and status of the individual for whom the cloths and textiles were made. In relation to the iconography, they often feature strange creatures, which combine animal and human characteristics in one figure, offering a mythical and sacred meaning to the artifact. 

Chavin Culture 1000-200 B.C

The Chavín was a civilization that developed in the northern Andean highlands of Peru. The Chavin culture represents today the first widespread, recognizable artistic style in the Andes. The artistic expressions of this culture were closely associated with religious concepts. The priest caste was trying to establish the iconography of ferocious and solemn images, in almost all media, like textiles, ceramics and stonework. Of course, textiles, because of their portability, were used, in order to transmit the Chavin religion throughout much of the Andes. In relation to the color pallete, the Chavin artists prefered sober tones, like ochre, white and sienna.

Figure from a Chavin, cotton cloth, The figure has feline features and hold scepters in both hands. He is probably a depiction of the staff-God.

(The illustration is based on a Chavin cloth picture, published in the book "Textiles of Ancient Peru, 2011, page 41)

The Overlold embroidery

The Overlord embroidery, a 83-metre-long textile, is one of the longesth works of its kind in the world. It was commissioned by Lord Dulverton of Bastford in 1968 as a tribute to the sacrifice and heroism to those who took part in the battle of Normandy. Of course the idea of an embroidered tapestry that tells a story, it was not new. The Overlord embroidery was inspired by the well-known Bayeux tapestry, an embroidered linen nearly 70 meters long, which was made to commemorate the Norman conquest of England. 

The typical ancient greek loom depicted on a small lekythos

Textile is a material that deteriorates easily over time. For this, ancient textile artifacts are rather rare. Fortunately, many evidences about ancient textile arts can be found in other, more long-lasting forms of art, like pottery and painting. For example, information about pre-historic textiles can be found in several ceramic impressions. Another source of information is pottery painting.

One of the most interesting examples of pottery painting is a black-figure lekythos (530-550 B.C), made for oil storing and attributed to the Amasis painter. The painter has depicted around the vessel, female figures engaging in various stages of wool working. 

Lekythos, 530-550 B.C, Archaic, black-figure
Attributed to the Amasis painted
Image copyrights and source: The metropolitan museum of Arts

Bayeux tapestry: The oldest surviving medieval example of narrative needlework.

The Bayeux tapestry (c. 1066 1082 CE) is an embroidered linen nearly 70 meters long and 50 cm wide. Although, it is conventionally referred to as tapestry, this work is actually an embroidery. The Bayeux Tapestry was not unique at the time it was created, since they have been found tapestry fragments from that period and written evidence about other narrative wall-hangings. Wall hangings, including embroideries and tapestries, were necessary features in castles and palaces. These elaborate textiles could be rolled up and transported from residence to residence and from town to town. However, the Bayeux tapestry is the only surviving example of Middle Age's narrative needlework. 

Duke Harold returned to Engslish land/ "BayeuxTapestryScene24" by Image on web site of Ulrich Harsh - Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

Woman spinning / a relief from Susa / 8th-7th century BCE

The production of textiles has always been complex. Fibers, gathered from plants or animals, should be cleaned, combed and sorted. Only then, the fibers could be twisted and drawn out under tension- that is spun- into the long, strong, flexible thread needed for textiles. Weaving was done on a loom.

In a relief fragment from Susa, known as "The spinner", a woman is shown spinning yarn with a large spindle. This figure is one of the rare images of a woman in her personal domestic environment in the ancient orient. She is wearing an impressive hairstyle while her hands are full of bracelets. Her garment is a sleeveless tunic with patterned border.

Fragment of a relief known as "The spinner". Bitumen mastic (9.2 x 13cm), Neo-Elamite period (8th century B.C.–middle of the 6th century B.C.). Found in Susa (present day Shush, Iran). image source: Wikimedia

The japanese pattern Asa-no-ha

Asa-no-ha is a composite word, constructed from the words Asa=hemp, No=of and Ha=leaf. So literally, the word Asa-No-Ha means hemp leave. In Japan it is said that the overlapping six-pointed stars, represent in an abstract way the leaves of the hemp plant. In ancient Japan hemp was used for making clothing and paper. 

Sashiko: A form of decorative reinforcement stitching

Sashiko, literally means "little stabs" or "small stitches" and it is one of the most significant and noteworthy embroidery techniques using mostly the running stitch. Until the mid 20th century Sashiko was the traditional method of making garments for fishermen and farmers throughout Japan. So, Sashiko was primarily a form of functional embroidery or reinforcement stitching. Today, it is a form of decorative embroidery. 

Many Sashiko patterns were derived from Chinese designs, but just as many were developed by the Japanese themselves. The well-known artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) published the book New forms for design in 1825, and these designs have inspired many Sashiko patterns. 

Blackwork embroidery

What is Blackwork embroidery

Blackwork, sometimes historically termed Spanish blackwork, is a form of embroidery generally using black thread on white or off-white fabric.

Chessboard.  Image source: Blackwork