Category: Project Weekly

As the final week of this quarter comes to a close, I have had the opportunity to look over the product of 400 hours of research and feel genuinely proud and inspired by the work I have completed.

To start the week, I compiled and presented 10 slides that covered the materials I studied over the quarter. While, I don’t feel that I was nearly able to cover everything I learned, I think that the presentation went well and it was really rewarding to be able to take a step back to look at everything I’ve done this winter.

Aside from the final presentation, I wrote a conclusion for this segment of study that I feel encapsulates the ideas that have been present for me for this quarter. I hope to continue to expand upon these ideas during my continuation into the SOS program next quarter.

I also wrote my self eval that goes as follows:

Week 9 was the final stretch of my project and mainly consisted of organizing all of my thoughts and new knowledge into a few comprehensive posts and a final presentation. It was really beneficial to me to be able to track my learning so easily, and I am really happy with my decision to take notes on my bibliography. As I put my thoughts together and reviewed all of the material I have covered over the quarter, I realized that I am really very satisfied with the extent to which I was able to cover such a large area of focus.

I am most pleased with the work I did to complete my notable concepts posts – particularly the elements traditional dress posts and the spinning history overview. I hadn’t really realized how just how much research I had done until I noticed the ease with which I was able to explain these areas of study. So, to me, that shows that I was able to accomplish what I set out to do while drafting my ILC.

I also made sure to continue closing the gap in my knowledge of India textile culture by really narrowing in on the state of Rajasthan. I was able to get the geography of the region down as well as the basic history timeline and textile traditions, so I feel like I am one step closer to having a full understanding on how that region’s particular history and diverse cultures has had an impact on the global fashion industry. I made the choice to approach that particular area of study with the intent to learn what the culture has to contribute to sustainability rather than drawing any big conclusions as to what they are doing right and wrong. This is mainly because I still believe that I need a much wider understanding of India and its history and culture as a whole before really formulating any strong opinions on their current practices – all I can really feel confident doing is looking at my own culture and see how it impacts the industry in their world.

I finished the week by condensing as much information as I could into a 10 slide powerpoint presentation. This actually turned out to be much more challenging than I anticipated. As I mentioned before, I ended up covering a lot more material than I realized as the weeks passed, so suddenly having to describe all of that in 10 minutes was a challenge. But, I was able to successfully put together the most important aspects of my project and am really happy with how I put it together. That presentation can be found here.

Week 10 is going to be mostly tying up loose ends and making my ePortfolio as concise and comprehensible as possible. I’m a bit sad to see this part of my study end, but I’m excited about the new prospects of next quarter.

My main goal this week was to begin the long process of summarizing my research in a way that can be easily presented while also continuing to add facts that I had missed along the way. To start this, I began writing a notable concept post for spinning. I spent a good 4 hours trying to sift through all the information I had to create a post that was both concise and informative and I am still only about half way through writing the post. When I am finished, I would like to have  thoroughly covered spinning traditions in the regions that I have spent the most time researching and would like to be able to compare and contrast how they have evolved either separately or with influence from one another.

I also decided to put together two informative posts on certain aspects of traditional dress in order to better illustrate how tradition has made its way into fast fashion – for better or for worse. I decided to cover dress native to the Aran Islands of Ireland and to Rajasthan, India. I felt that throughout my research in traditionally spun wool, I kept being taken back to the Aran Islands – especially with the connection between native tongue and traditional art. Similarly, Rajasthan is one of the top Indian states in khadi cotton production and is now home to a good deal of Western garment factories, so I thought that it would be relevant to narrow in on just that state’s traditions. While I continue to formulate what I know about both of these textile traditions, I am going to expand on what they have become in the present day, how Western industrialization has affected/commodified those traditions, and how that has impacted the sustainability of said traditions.

I think, for the most part, I have finalized my area of research for this quarter, so I will not be looking into any new topics while finishing of the last two weeks of the quarter and am instead going to limit myself to expanding upon and summarizing what I already know in order to make my ePortfolio and conclusions as concise as possible. For week 9, my goal is to finish writing the spinning history post as well as both textile tradition posts and to at least begin writing a final conclusion that ties together all of my experience and findings.

This week I was pretty swamped with work for both of the textile classes I was taking, so field study was the main focus while research took a bit of a back seat. I was right in the middle of my wool spinning work for my class at Arbutus (reflection here), and also half way through the beginning weaving course I was taking at the Nifty Knitter (reflection here).

So, crafting took over my life for a bit. It was actually a very relevant experience to have the opportunity to understand just how much time and discipline it requires to complete a piece of work by a specific deadline. As a beginner, my work was definitely completed much slower than someone who has been at it for ages. However, even with that in mind, it gave me a hands on understanding of why cottage industries like khadi cotton and Donegal yarn worked hard to mechanize their products.

I was originally meant to be focusing on dyes this week, but I made the decision to instead focus on crafting. As I’ve continued to study sustainability in the design world, I’ve started to feel as if any dyes at all are a bit unnecessary. Even with plant dyes, the use of fixatives creates waste with undesirable properties. It seems to me a study of dyes and color with a focus on sustainability would take much longer than a week to even begin to have an understanding and I felt that my particular area of study was not heavily dependent on whether or not I explored dyes. So, I decided to focus on things that I had already begun exploring.

One thing I am really excited to have come across is a documentary series called Snáithe (meaning ‘thread’ in the Irish language). The documentary is created and hosted by Ciara O’Doherty, an Irish fashion blogger who is trying to trace the history of Irish textiles and its influence on modern day fashion. What was really striking to me, was that the entire series is narrated in the Irish language – even most of the interviews are conducted in Irish. This is a super incredible connection, because as I have noted earlier, the endurance of the craft traditions of colonized lands seems to be almost inherent with indigenous speech. What is even more interesting, is that the documentary focuses heavily on the story telling ability that Ireland has had throughout history and how weaving and fabric play a role in telling the story of the land. There is something quite chilling to me about the fact that these aspects of Irish textile are being explained in the native tongue; one that dates back to Ireland’s entirely oral, story-telling culture. It is currently being released as a six-part series, so I have only had the opportunity so far to watch the first two that have been released.

With all the excitement about the connections I had been making, I did notice a bit of unbalance in my knowledge of Celtic tradition and Indian tradition – two subjects that I am supposed to be dedicating an equal amount of time to. I think the reasoning behind this is that there is a lot more of a learning curve for me when it comes to Indian culture. There are many different states and languages and cultures within the country, so I am a bit wary of drawing any conclusions in the way that I feel comfortable doing so for Ireland and Scotland. I do, however, wish to broaden my horizons when it comes to an understanding of the culture behind the textiles I am studying. So, I am hoping to dedicate a good portion of Week 8’s research to understand Indian textile culture a bit more.

This past week, I narrowed in my studies on textile crafts to focus specifically on spinning. This was heavily centered around the wool-spinning class at Arbutus Folk School that I attended beginning Monday evening. I covered my learning experience in a separate field study reflection post that can be found here.

Because I was able to put all of the theoretical knowledge that I have gained over the past few weeks into practice, I suddenly found myself very quickly able to grasp more complex concepts in regards to wool spinning and the processes associated with it. Most importantly, I came across a section in Cotton Khadi in Indian Economy by Yovesh Chandra Sharma that detailed the advancement in mechanization of the spinning wheel traditionally used for spinning khadi. What I found interesting was how the focus of its advancement was both focused on creating both a method of spinning that could spin as much as possible as quickly as possible, while also maintaining its ability to be powered by one person and be worked from home. This focus on both productivity as well as the welfare of craftspeople is a very unique situation that I believe would not have been so successful if the spinning of khadi was not so tied up in the Swadeshi movement. This is quite a contrast to the immediate jump from the simple one-spindle spinning wheel to the mills that popped up in the British Isles.

While learning about the role of spinning in small economies and in the lives of craftspeople, I began to notice the term ‘cottage industry’ being used over and over again. It all started to click with me that the cottage industry that has suffered possibly the most by industrialized textile mills is definitely those whose role was to process and spin fiber. I thought that what I had picked up on cottage industries needed to be compiled into one cohesive post, so I went ahead and wrote an overview of cottage industries and of those that I have learned about over the past few weeks which can be found here.

This past week, I tried as much as possible to focus on the wool industry and I believe I was able to stay focused on that topic pretty successfully given just how much there is to study.

I began the week by visiting Olympic Yarn and Fiber (a detailed post about that visit can be found here). This was the perfect way to begin a week of intensive wool studying as I was able to witness the wool processing procedure in person and was incredibly helpful during the rest of the week while I was trying to piece together an understanding of an incredibly vast and diverse subject. From a business perspective, it was interesting to see a modern day “cottage industry” that still utilizes modern day technology.

To me, it is absolutely mind blowing how much work is required to process fleece into a modern day garment and even more staggering still how much work was poured into processing and crafting wool textiles without the use of machinery. As I continue to gain a more in depth understanding of the various different stages in the lifecycle of a garment, it has become more than obvious that industrialization was the key to fashion for the sake of aesthetics rather than functionality and durability. Without machines to see out the processes for us, there is no conceivable way that we could have the surplus that we do now.

It has also struck me that in many ways, mechanization symbolizes a loss of consciousness when it comes to textiles. Before textile mills began to pop up across the globe, textiles were localized in a way that I think many of us cannot quite understand. In many cultures, sheep were from local pastures, having gradually adapted to the environment and climate of a given place, the fleece spun and knitted by mothers who knew the sheep well, looking to keep their children, husbands, and loved ones warm and protected from the elements (I could write a whole new post about the gender roles associated with wool crafts, which I will likely do before this study is over). Don’t get me wrong, I am in no way glorifying the need to engage in hours of tedious spinning and knitting as a way of survival. However, I do believe there is something to be said for a crafter knowing where their materials are from and having a connection to where the finished product is going – Olympic Yarn and Fiber is an example of a modern day model of a similar structure.

I continue to have a love/hate relationship with what I know to be true about the industrialization of textiles and this past week of study has done nothing to polarize either of those feelings. It has incredible to read about how survival crafts have evolved into lucrative businesses for peoples who have had little options in the past, but at the same time the impact of other forms of industrialized crafts continue to leave me with pause before celebration the various different ‘advancements’ of humankind.

 

During this past week, I tried to focus on researching the origin of certain well-known folk crafts. I made some very interesting connections between the arts and crafts movement throughout different societies as well as discovered a few stark contrasts.

I am most excited about discovering the origins of Harris Tweed and how it affected the people of the Hebrides and the textile economy of Scotland as a whole. Interestingly enough, I was pointed towards this history while reading a section on the Gandhian Khadi movement in India. Gandhi cited the Duchess of Sutherlands generosity in giving people of the Hebrides spinning wheels in order to provide them with some form of economic stability.

I found some writings by Angus MacLeod, a native of the island of Lewis in the Hebrides, where he detailed the early history of tweed, it’s evolution into Harris Tweed, and the growth of demand and production. It seems that tweed was a textile common among the West of both Ireland and Scotland; it was simply the fabric that people made out of what they had. It wasn’t until around the famine of 1846 that tweed was promoted as a good for exportation. As demand for tweed grew, the landowners of the parish continued to push for mills, trademarks, and an overall wider range of production for the good. Upon reading further on the subject and having a bit of background knowledge on the landlord/tenant relationship of Scotland, I have a slight hunch that the ‘generosity’ of the good Duchess as well as the rest of the promoters of the craft may have been a bit more self-serving.

MacLeod writes that oftentimes the islanders were too poor to pay merchants in monetary currency and that they would trade agriculture for rights to inhabit a certain plot of land. To me, it makes sense that the island landlords would do what was in their power to ensure that their tenants were producing profit in any form they could. It also presents a situation were tenants could easily be taken advantage of. I am unsure of how much documentation of the exact economics of the trade there is, but I can see an easy opportunity for the landlords to demand tweed as payment for rent, and then upcharge it due to the trademarking and high demand. This is going to be something I plan to continue looking into until I can hopefully determine exactly who was benefitting the most off of the growth of the industry.

I did notice a theme while looking into this subject – survivors of native cultures living in remote areas, usually the last native language speakers of a certain colonized piece of land, practiced folk crafts as part of their everyday lives. Eventually, a member of the upper class “outside” world would notice the intricacy of the craft and see an opportunity for business. In Scotland, it was British landowners, in Ireland it was protestant academics, and in Ecuador it was Western tourists. Each culture seems to have a different history in the way that they conduct business, however it’s pretty intriguing to see that they have a similar start.

Next week I will be looking at wool and wool crafts specifically, so I hope to look further into how they’ve been used and marketed throughout history.

This week, organizational work took up most of my time and it proved to be very productive work. I was able to connect with multiple different fiber artists in the area and located a wheel spinning and beginning weaving class that I’ve added to my list of “field study” work. I was lucky enough to meet several knowledgable women at the Arbutus Folk School in downtown Olympia who were more than happy to provide me with their emails in case I should have any questions regarding the practice and history of fiber arts. I also reached out to Olympic Yarn and Fiber Mill in Montesano and received a very positive response – I’ll be paying a visit to the mill and the 20 acre alpaca farm that it sits on at the end of the month.

Another focus of mine was to make sure that I had some sense of direction for the following weeks. I was feeling a bit overwhelmed by just how large of an area I am choosing to cover, so I wanted to have a way to ensure that I was following some kind of common thread during any given week. Because of this, I created a week-by-week syllabus for myself detailing the subject that I will be focusing on. I do expect myself to get distracted and to follow different threads when the peak my interest however, I think having a solid plan to keep in the back of my mind and to fall back on will be helpful for me during the course of this quarter.

I also used this week to begin delving into some podcasts that seemed interesting to me. I started by listening to an interview with Robin Balser, the owner and founder of Vinokilo – a pop up shop that sells used clothes by the kilo and serves wine to visitors during the shopping process. Vinokilo’s products are pulled out of trash that is set to be sent to African countries and are then redesigned into one of a kind pieces and sold at their pop-up events. Balser argues that when Western countries dump their used goods into countries like Ghana as “donations,” instead of helping people become clothed, it destroys the economy because small businesses and craftsmen have no market anymore. So, instead of creating more textile products to be dumped overseas, the business just recycles and reuses what is already there. Because the product is made at such a low price, the retail price is accessible to people of all walks of life – another of Vinokilo’s values.

The effect of American and European waste on African economies is not one that I had considered before, but after looking into the costs associated with surviving as an artisan and understanding how much waste is resulting from modern-day disposable fashion, it does seem like a very plausible situation. I’m interested in finding some numbers to back that claim though, so my research in modern day fashion next week with be further dedicated to looking at issues of waste and where it ends up.

Another significant realization that I came to this week is just how separate the world of handicrafts is from every day goods. It’s becoming more and more apparent to me that in today’s society, local crafts are considered a luxury item while what we wear is just something we get from overseas. There isn’t much thought put into the durability and quality of products and how it relates to sustainability and labor practices because we were never aware of how they have been made in the past, much less how they are made now. I’m very excited to visit Olympic Yarn and Fiber because I believe it will help me understand how things can still be made locally in a very “crafty” way while still using machinery that doesn’t require hours of tedious work and pricing that is completely unaffordable.

Overall, this week held some pretty significant discoveries regarding the way textiles come into this world and what happens to them when they leave our sphere of awareness. I’m looking forward to continuing to shed some light on that area and to ask the question of whether or not mass producing any kind of textile at all is necessary when we already have so much floating around.