Weaved or Wove?
There is a very interesting explanation about the origin of the words weaved and wove on Michael Quinion's excellent WorldWideWords web site
Weaved or Wove? — WorldWideWords
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May 2009 Archive
13 May 2009
April Guest Speaker: Gillian Green
Gillian Green visited Cambodia (after studying as a beginner weaver at the Guild in the 80s) and fell in love with the country and its weaving tradition. Apart from the textiles themselves, she collected the components of antique looms which are highly decorated with animal motifs and are nowadays very sought after as collectibles.
Women are the traditional weavers of Cambodia. A lot of them live on farms. Weaving is typically the way they earn enough money to educate their children (in a country which still has a high proportion of widows.) These days more men are learning to weave because of the income potential it represents. A large proportion of foreign aid to Cambodia is directed towards supporting the hand-weaving industry. Gillian visited a national silk centre in northern Cambodia which covers the whole gamut of silk production, from growing the worms to weaving the finished product.
Weft Ikat predominates in Cambodia, with 2/1 twill being the norm. This results in one side of the fabric being darker than the other as they tend to use black, prewound warps. Sometimes a border of supplementary weave is added. Most of the warp threads are purchased from places like China. It typically takes 3 months to create a 3m length of silk from cocoon to fabric with the weaving being the shortest part.
The silk cocoons are spun in nest-like structures made of sticks. Worms are very temperamental and die easily. Japanese mulberry leaves are one of the preferred foods. The cocoons need to be whole without the hole left by the moth chewing its way out so that they can be "unwound" - each cocoon is made of one continuous thread. To circumvent the Buddhist ethic of not killing any living thing, the cocoons are left out in the hot sun, where the moths die by themselves.
Dyeing the threads for Ikat is very laborious and involves wrapping groups of threads in plastic tape to protect them from the dye, then unwrapping and re-wrapping for each subsequent colour. Most of the dye materials are grown locally and include:
- Jackfruit (produces a yellow)
- Morning Glory (pale blue)
- Lac - insect secretions (red)
- Banana leaf
Most of the cloth woven is for clothes, which are rectangles (usually about 90-100cm wide and 2m long) sewn into a tube and worn wrapped, sarong-style, around the body. Men wear checked plain weaves. Older women often wear a type of trousers which are made by knotting the short end around the waist and passing the free end through the legs - these are considered more modest than the wrap-around skirts.
Cloth for celebrations, Pidan usually bears Buddhist motifs of heaven, auspicious animals like white elephants and traditional dancers. Most weaving has traditional patterns but some outlets are encouraging more modern designs for western tastes.
Gillian has written a beautiful book Traditional Textiles of Cambodia: Cultural Threads and Material Heritage
Weavolution
Eight short months ago, in August 2008, an idea began with three weavers who wanted to launch a website to offer hand weavers an inclusive environment where they could catalogue projects, share drafts, discuss ideas and share resources. Claudia Segal, Tien Chiu and Alison Giachetti, along with a host of dedicated volunteers have worked tirelessly to bring this idea alive, and in late May or early June we are launching the first version of Weavolution.com! You will be able to join and participate in the user-created, moderated groups and forums, and post your current projects (drafts and pictures), looms, yarns, books, accessories, and whatnot to share with others. If you prefer, you will be able to peruse the entire site without joining or logging in.
Weavolution.com is the up-coming online gathering place for hand weavers. We welcome all weavers, from basket to production, using any type of loom. Weavolution will provide a place for weavers to meet, discuss and participate in moderated user groups and forums. We will offer weavers a "one-stop shopping" experience with notebooks to catalogue projects, looms, accessories and books, and searchable databases to view the same catalogued by others. Weavolution will be a global community for weavers to discover trends in weaving, find local, national and international resources and peruse ads for businesses catering to weavers.
Our goal is to create an online community for hand weavers that is useful, fun and helpful that will be a resource for shops, products and ideas from around the corner to around the world. At this time, we are accepting advertisers and have four options including ads above and below the fold on every page, a banner ad at the bottom of every page, and "The Marketplace" which is a mall-type ad area for posting a business card sized ads. We have six month commitments from five large companies including Just Our Yarn (JOY), an online yarn retailer based in Arlington, VA. Please contact Claudia Segal at claudiajane@weavoution.com if you have any questions, would like to purchase an ad or are interested in participating in the beta test which will take place in May.
Traceability Technology in Carpets
Elders Primary Wool have introduced technology that will identify the source of wool in their carpets. New Zealand claims to grow the best strong wool in the world. Most of this wool is used in carpets. They want to be able to certify that their carpets contain NZ wool so have knitted
a tracer fibre, invisible to the eye, into the wool fibre. This tracer can be doused with a signature marker and detected with a hand held scanner. The technology has been developed by AgRearch in New Zealand in conjunction with scientists from CSIRO.
If people, world wide, need certainty that what they buy is what retailers claim there may well be more of these tracer fibres in our food and fibres in the future.
Traceability technology in carpets — Otago Daily Times
Biofibres
A report on a biofibre with potential for artificial skin, heart valves, bone repair and blood vessels derived from a family of amino acid-based polymeric biomaterials called polyester amides (PEA) that have been engineered and fabricated into fibres, 3-D microporous gels, micro- and nanospheres or electrospun fabric membranes.
And a very tiny spinning wheel?
Intercampus research team develops artificial skin, heart valves and blood vessels — Cornell Chronicle
Certificate of Competence in Hand Spinning Information Day Report
We had a very successful day, with all present participating and communicating well. The advisory panel answered questions from the students as we went through the course booklet. The panel was also able to give helpful information about the course and what is expected of the students, eg deadlines for submission of work, that no names should appear on submitted work, fees, checks on spinning throughout the course (if requested).
Asked their reasons for doing the course, students cited a means to improve their spinning and also to gain the maximum knowledge about what was a new field of endeavour. One of the students who has made more progress than the others suggested that because the course booklet is so well set out and easy to follow, it was useful to start at the beginning and try to do a little work on the course each day.
Students were informed about services provided by the Guild - library, equipment hire, Spinning Study Group and targeted workshops (one in August.) Library books were on display together with sets of completed Part A and Part B binders for the students to look through. The students asked questions about the workbooks and studied the set out. Some were surprised at the amount of work to be done.
Overall, the students seem well prepared to do the course, with spinning lessons and mentors, and are very optimistic about following through to completion.
Everyone agreed that the day was very beneficial and worthwhile.