A kaleidoscope of fabrics from across the globe.

In many parts of the world, textiles are a vital element of culture. Sometimes they have ancient stories woven into their patterns. Sometimes they incorporate rare natural fibers. Sometimes they’re produced using millennia-old methods passed down along generations. And other times, they’re just really pretty.

But as cheap mass-produced fabrics flood local markets around the world, there is a growing devaluation of textile arts. And because it’s becoming more and more difficult to make a living from textile work, artists are passing away without passing down their knowledge while younger generations pursue more lucrative industries.

This collection of photos showcases a sampling of the most beautiful traditional textiles from around the globe. This is an art in desperate need of preservation.

(above) Saris, New Delhi, India

Woven Blankets, Urubamba, Peru

Kente Weaving, Ghana

Indonesian Handwoven Textiles, Bali, Indonesia

Woven Cloth, Mexico

Tartan Plaid Wool Fabric, Nova Scotia, Canada

Inca Patterns, San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

Vintage Angelo Testa fabric, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California

Meghwal Veil, Bhirandiara, India

Textiles, Otavalo, Ecuador

Knit Jacket, Oakland, California

Hand Embroidery, Germany

Traditional Textiles, West Timor, Indonesia

Kimono Fabric, Kyoto, Japan

Handmade Textiles, Lakiya, South Israel

Woven Textiles at De Ploeg, Netherlands

Kazakh Rug, Mongolia

Wool Throw, Liverpool, England

Wet-Felted Merino Wool, Norway

Handwoven Silk Ikat, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Silk Scarves, Bursa, Turkey

Handmade Textiles by Narda Capuyan, Philippines

Cath Kidston Retro Fabrics, London, England

Hand-Stamped Silk Batik, Java, Indonesia

Handwoven Wool Termeh, Yazd Province, Iran

Silk Kimono, Japan

Traditional Fabric Patterns, Ghana

Handwoven Scarf, New Jersey

Tie Dyed Fabrics, Baishah, China

Woven Sock, Wales

Tela tipica, Guatemala

SEE ALSO:

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40 Gorgeous Photos of Latin America

40 Gorgeous Photos of Asia

40 Gorgeous Photos of Africa

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25 Images of Female Adrenaline Seekers

40 Photos from Flea Markets Around the World

30 Gorgeous Photos of Winter Snowscapes

30 Gorgeous Photos of Farming and Agriculture

15 Hilarious Photos of Interspecies Mingling

30 Photos of the World’s Most Uniquely Designed Buildings

20 Photos of Female Activists Throughout History

30 Gorgeous Photos of Spring

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Green is a complex issue as illustrated in this new textile exhibition in Washington, D.C.

There is no doubt that new directions in fiber and textile art are influencing the recent crafting and handwork surge in contemporary fashion. Makers are always swapping ideas between the realms of art and design, so it is inevitable that a collective unconscious of sorts permeates shifting style and color trends. The Textile Museum in Washington, D.C. is on to this creative phenomenon with their latest exhibition, Green: The Color and the Cause, on view through September 11, 2011. This call-to-artists showcase features a diverse spectrum of wall pieces, sculpture, and site-specific projects — all celebrating the role of green as an influencer of rising eco-consciousness as well as a hue that is evocative of change.

Green: The Color and the Cause has unified artists from diverse backgrounds and disciplines in conjunction with thirteen textile examples of historical precedents from the museum’s own extensive collection. To assemble the group of artists represented, The Textile Museum issued a call for entry to contemporary fiber artists across the country and around the globe. Exhibition co-curators Rebecca A.T. Stevens and Lee Talbot reviewed more than 1,000 works of art submitted by nearly 300 artists. From this group, the co- curators selected 32 contemporary artists—representing 18 U.S. states and 6 countries—to participate in the exhibition.

A Woman of Substance basket coiled from discarded silk blouses by Jackie Abrams (photo: Liz LaVorgna)

Materials and methods featured include the innovative recycling of household textiles and threads, sewing and embroidery, cast papermaking, green typography, as well as a lace vegetation arbor. Several of the show’s pieces reference craft and women’s work as an indicator that the resourceful use of fabric and cloth bits has always been a natural expression of green as an eco-friendly studio methodology. As an environmental fiber artist, I would never make the claim that women are crafters first and environmentalists second just because they opt to pick up a needle to get the job done. What I do know, is that crafting a green vision is a total process and something that flows between the head and the hands with some serious input from the heart.

Hand-sewn and hand-embroidered ‘Swing Coat’ by Alabama Chanin

Some of my favorite artists and crafters are featured in this exhibit, and one of the most intriguing observations made by designer Natalie Chanin is the irony that true green dye is not any easy thing to produce naturally. “Despite the prevalence of green in nature, no single plant produces a color-fast, deep green dye. Until the invention of synthetic dyes in the nineteenth century, people around the world typically combined indigo blue with various yellow dyes to create green textiles.”

Chanin’s contribution to the show is a show stopping cotton jersey ‘Swing Coat’ hand-sewn and hand-embroidered by her team at Alabama Chanin. As the exhibition’s curators highlighted: “Incorporating organic and repurposed materials, Alabama Chanin garments are hand-sewn using traditional quilting and stitching techniques by women who live and work near Florence, Alabama. These women, ranging in age from their 20’s to their 70’s, work together in circles reminiscent of quilting bees to create socially and environmentally responsible fashions.”

Treatment?, 2009, hand-painted silk quilt by Linda Gass

The subversive quilting spirit is alive and well in Green: The Color and the Cause, as illustrated by the work of Linda Gass. Her quilted reproduction of an aerial photograph of a water treatment plant on the San Francisco Bay, calls our attention to “the engineering wonders that have made contemporary lifestyles possible, but also questions the wisdom of our long-term strategies for sustainable development.”

Estuary: Moods and Modes, 2007, Nancy Cohen (photo: Ed Fausty)

Nancy Cohen’s handmade abaca paper sculpture of the ecosystem of coastal New Jersey emulates the ebb and flow of the artist’s study of the New Jersey Pine Barrens ecosystem—a million-acre tract of largely undeveloped land in the nation’s most densely populated state. Her wild topographical melding of marsh grasses and cast paper is perhaps a more revealing way of conducting an environmental impact study while also creating allure with undulating folds.

Arbor Lace, 2002-2011, live vegetation installation by Michele Brody

One of my personal favorites is artist friend Michele Brody’s Arbor Lace (2002-2011) project, an outdoor installation assembled out of synthetic lace, grass seeds, copper pipe and water. Brody has been working with live vegetation in sculpture before green design or eco art became trendy, and her site-specific projects create structures, which she calls “passageways,” for both rural and urban dwellers. The grass seed planted in the arbor will sprout, grow, and die in approximately six weeks time. New seed will then be planted and the cycle will begin anew. You can watch the seeds grow over time at the following link. Brody’s work is the perfect metaphor for understanding the life cycle of textiles and the precious resources required to sustain life and beauty as we desire it.

Gyöngy Laky’s ALTERATIONS,  featured on the cover of the New York Times magazine in spring 2008

There is so much visual fodder in Green: The Color and the Cause that the exhibition is obviously something to be experienced more than described. As a participant, celebrated artist Gyöngy Laky humbly shared, “I am interested in making a small dent in changing attitudes about the environment and our relationship to it.”

Detail of Gyöngy Laky’s sculptural typography work

Green as a color and marketing phenomenon is increasingly a part of our daily lives, but for me, the transformative aspect of this hue is the fact that it’s deep range urges us to see green in those things that also lie at the other end of the spectrum. Craft, innovation, and renewal is often about taking something seemingly mundane and transforming it into something life supporting and wildly complex. No formula exists and no pattern need be duplicated.

Green: the Color and the Cause is co-curated by Lee Talbot, Associate Curator, Eastern Hemisphere Collections, and Rebecca A.T. Stevens, Consulting Curator, Contemporary Textiles. The exhibition will be on view at The Textile Museum April 16 through September 11, 2011.

image: “Hothouse Flowers” by Maggy Rozycki Hiltner via The Textile Museum

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Women have innately basked their brains in feel good juices since time immemorial to get through tight economic and emotional times. Though dovetailed as woman’s work and not really discussed, for centuries women have enjoyed the calming properties of knitting, sewing, embroidering or even just rhythmically folding or ironing clothes.

When I came across this blog entry from sustainable designer and writer Natalie Chanin, it not only piqued my perception of the positive effects of “women’s work,” but it brought to light a real aspect of how using our hands to do meaningful tasks can benefit our overall health and well being.

Chanin cites neuroscientist Kelly Lambert, author of Lifting Depression:

“Lambert shows how when you knit a sweater or plant a garden, when you prepare a meal or simply repair a lamp, you are bathing your brain in feel-good chemicals and creating a kind of mental vitamin. Our grandparents and great grandparents, who had to work hard for basic resources, developed more resilience against depression; even those who suffered great hardships had much lower rates of this mood disorder. But with today’s overly-mechanized lifestyle we have forgotten that our brains crave the well-being that comes from meaningful effort.”

I asked Chanin myself, with all the women working for her, has she ever heard a remark about how working with their hands helped get them through hardships or that their disposition changed the moment they picked up needle and thread?

“We have had several stitchers remark that they just don’t ‘feel good’ when they don’t have a project to work on. I remarked in Alabama Stitch Book that I sometimes use sewing when I have a difficult decision to make or when I need to brainstorm and find ideas,” says Chanin.

So does the physical act of using your hands to “make,” increase some sort of chemical reaction that basks your brain in feel good, all-natural cocktails that can enhance your sense of well being?

I caught up with a few reliable sources to see what they thought about it.

Abigail Doan, Ecco Eco Founder and Textile Artist

I have always linked crafting with one’s hands to agricultural activities. Having grown up on a small family farm, I was fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with the soil, build fences, spin wool, and learn a variety of fiber-crafting skills. My mother was a self-taught hand spinner, and there is no doubt that the activities that we performed as a hands-on household curbed depression and day-to-day boredom.

I believe that people are currently drawn to these activities as they allow one to feel environmentally grounded and connected to a place, despite all of the uncertainty that presently surrounds us. Understanding the start-to-finish process of any craft-based activity mirrors life cycles and the rhythms of nature. For urban dwellers specifically, this is a great way to stave off the depression that comes from prolonged anxiety and a lack of centeredness. Keeping one’s hands moving also mimics activities like plowing, raking, weeding, or milking. We can lose ourselves in the patterns and textures created, and this for me is extremely therapeutic and restorative. It creates a one-to-one relationship that makes everything else simply fade away. It’s a healthy sort of addiction that replaces other forms of disease.

Jill Danyelle, Occupational Therapist and Founder of FiftyRX3

We are typically more motivated to engage in an activity that has some meaning, enjoyment, or purpose.

As a therapist, I work with children and tend to accomplish a lot under the guise of play, but I am also responsible for handwriting, which is often a dreaded task for my clients. I find the kids are most motivated to write if they can also draw and color pictures and tell a story. This year, I have had two boys collaborate on writing a story, which has motivated them to practice writing for the last two months, as they were excited to add a new phase to the story every session. We just ended it – although they keep trying to add more and more details – and now they are finishing all of the illustrations. They have a real sense of pride about the work, which I am going to publish in book form so they can share it with friends and family.

On the other end of the age spectrum, years ago I worked in a geriatric rehab facility every other Saturday. The clients were not motivated to do rote exercise, so I had to disguise it in activities. I would take all the neatly folded towels that were delivered from laundry and dump them in a pile on the table. Then I’d get two or three clients around the table and ask them to stand up and help me fold the towels. In the process they would start making small talk, so they were socializing, working on standing balance, bilateral coordination, upper extremity strengthening, etc.

In one of my internships with an Adult Mental Health Day Treatment program, I ran several groups including a kind of “talk therapy” group and a crafts group. Interestingly, nobody said too much in the “talk” group, but when they were busy crafting I think they felt less pressured and all sorts of things would come out.

Image: Mr T in DC

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