OMG - Textile Enthusiasts are Here!!

Yesterday was a very good day for making connections.  At 1:00 I went to my 4th AWA book club meeting.  I have enjoyed all of the discussions so I was looking forward to a good meeting.  The meetings are held in a members home, this one was centrally located in a high rise condo.  There are 3 units per floor but each has its own elevator, so when the door opens to the elevator you are looking at the entry way to the condo you are going to.  When the doors opened  I was greeted by beautiful Asian textiles hanging outside the door!  I swear my heart started beating faster!  The meeting was at the home of Connie who is an art history professor at Penn State and guess what she specializes in, Asian textiles!  She is currently teaching an on-line class while they are stationed in Singapore.  Her home is chock full  of books and textiles, imagine textile on every surface.  Literally there were textiles hanging, laying, sitting everywhere.  Of course I did not have my camera.... bummer.  I did talk to Connie about her collection and she is a fascinating woman.  She is a docent at the ACM (Asian Civilization Museum), I am going to do a tour with Connie at the ACM, she leads the tour in one of the costumes in her collection.

We had a huge storm in the afternoon, all week we have had really BIG storms.  Usually it rains but these have been torrential downpours accompanied by load bursts of thunder, really loud thunder.  Jack (dog) has spent most of the week hiding in the bathroom or huddled by my legs.  I had signed up for a lecture in the evening with the TE/Textile Enthusiasts.  The TE are a study group of the FOM (Friends of the Museums). The FOM supports the major museums here in Singapore, training docents and educating its members.  They have weekly lectures, local museum and city tours and tours of other countries.  All of their activities focus on Asian studies.  I joined FOM specifically to be part of the TE. Anyway, I considered aborting my plan to go to the meeting due to the storm, getting a taxi is easy unless it is raining.  I am so glad I decided to make the effort and go....

I arrived about 5 minutes late, fortunately I was not alone in my tardiness. TE enthusiasts usually meet at the ACM but they were booked for the evening.  This was a special lecture with Dr. Linda McIntosh.  The meeting was held in another high rise condo and once again when the elevator doors opened I was greeted by more than just a door, interesting Asian artwork greeted me.  The hostess for the evening was Digna, a tiny Filipino woman who along with her Australian husband collect Asian artwork.  Honestly, I wondered if I was in a home or museum.  I had hoped Dr. McIntosh might have some textiles with her so I did bring my camera this time.  The lecture was all by powerpoint so no real textiles to see and touch from the lecture. I got permission from Digna to take pictures of her home to post on my blog.  She was flattered by my enthusiasm for her home.  Apparently many of her Filipino friends are a little freaked out by the statues. Apparently they don't like non-Christian religious icons.

The pictures in the blog are all from Digna's home, the  work is lite by spotlights which is effective in her home but made it hard to photograph.  I felt a little awkward taking pictures in someone's home, like some crazy American tourist!  One of the curators for the ACM was there, he explained that 80% of the work in their home is from Burma/ Myanmar, the rest is from surrounding countries - primarily Laos and Thailand.  The first photo is a large Burmese textile, showing the full piece and a close up. The last photo is a gift that was give to Dr. McIntosh for doing the lecture for the TE.  It is a woven piece that is warp Ikat made from abaca (similiar to the banana plant) from the Philippines.

A little about the speaker and the lecture; Dr. Linda McIntosh has a Masters in Thai Textile Studies and a Doctorate in Laotian Textile Studies. She lives in Bangkok and curates shows for the Jim Thompson House.  She has written a book on Laotian Textiles which is due out in 2011, the lecture was based on her doctorate study and her book.  Her mother is Laotian and a weaver, thus Linda's interest in textiles. She focused on Tai (not Thai) ceremonial pieces from mainland SE Asia. The pieces shown were antiques and from a large law firms collection in Bangkok. She went over the technical aspects of how they were made and she knew what she was talking about. The pieces were all supplementary weft, with discontinuous weft, so there were many color changes.  They were sett at 48 epi with a fine silk warp and a heavier cotton weft. She discussed the motifs used and their significance to the ceremonies. The weaver makes the piece without a specific ceremony in mind and the Shaman determines what it is used for.  Although not as prevelant today these pieces are still in use and weavers making them.  Now some are made specifically for commercial use (to sell to tourists), Linda said they are not as intricate as the pieces a weaver would make for their own families use.  One intricate piece can take up to one year! Wish I had a picture to show you.

It was a good day, I found out there are truly Textile Enthusiasts in Singapore.  I was assured that there will be many lovely textiles for me to see and these people can help me learn more and teach me where to find them. I had a hard time sleeping with all the images in my mind from the day.  Oh, and I must have had a big S (for sucker) on my forehead.  The TE asked me to be on their planning committe.

Happy Weaving,
Tracy

Sound Challenges

I miss public radio in Houston!  I have always liked to have background noise when I am working.  The last few years I've primarily listened to KUHF and KPFT.  The last year or so I had an HD radio and listened almost exclusively to KUHF HD 2.  Lots of radio talk shows, as long as I wasn't working on something difficult I could listen to talk radio.  Now that my studio is set up I'm ready to get to work, but I have nothing to listen to... I tried bringing my laptop up but the signal was weak and the speakers even weaker.  Peter suggested I get a wireless adaptor for the computer that runs the Megado.  So I made a trip to the mall - 10 minute walk to train, 10 minute train ride, ride the escalator 5 floors, repeat to get home. Stores don't open till 11 am I am there at 10 am - back home.  Make a 2nd trip, got a wireless adaptor and speakers, also picked up an Ipod Nano to replace my Ipod that went missing in our shipment.  Damn those concrete walls I could not get a signal in that room (modem on 2nd floor, looms on 3rd floor).  Yea, I have the Ipod and it is fun to listen to but the headphone wires catch on things, I can't hear the doorbell, the kids etc.  So I think a docking station would be good.  Back to the mall, found a nice little docking station with a clock :)  Back home plug in docking station, hear loud pop.  Wait till Peter gets home and ask nicely for him to take me back to the mall.  Staff at store very nice gave me new plug, go back home.  Bet you guessed the loud pop happens again.  Sigh.... Meanwhile Peter finds out he has to fly back to Houston in 2 days!! I abandon my efforts to get some sound in to the loom room because I have to finish weaving the Color and Weave samples and tax information so Peter can hand deliver both. There is a TV with cable in the room with the baby wolf so I can listen to something while weaving on the baby wolf.  Peter left at 2 am Friday morning so I was get back to putting a warp on the Megado in a quiet room.  Friday evening we went in search of Mexican food (in Asia) with my Texas neighbors.  John is an IT guy and I mentioned my dilemma.  He offered to get me set up with wireless internet on the 3rd floor.  I tried  not to get over excited and let him see my desperation. Saturday I decided I could download episdoes/podcasts of some of my favorite NPR shows on to the Nano as a temporary talk radio fix.  I was able to get 8 episodes of Wait, Wait don't tell me downloaded before the hard drive on my computer was full!  Sunday John arrived with  3 gizmos (home plug device) and in 30 minutes he had me all set.  You can plug one of these devices  in where the modem is connected and another in the room where the computer is and the internet connection passes through the wires, it is a miracle!  Sunday the kids and I went back to the mall and I took back the docking station, this time they gave me a new unit and it works!  By Sunday evening I had a working docking station and an internet connection.  Now I have choices of what I can listen to!

Final cost = wireless adaptor, speakers, Ipod Nano, docking station, 3 homeplug devices, 6 trips to the mall, loads of time and frustration

So, the Color and Weave Samples are done (see last post for information).  The theme of this exchange is "Design Challenge" and elements were assigned.  My elements are:  Black and White only, Shadow Weave and Use Metallic.  The black metallic I used added nothing to the final fabric.  I did not bring a large stash to Singapore so I did not have the ability to subsitute, so I stayed the course and finished with what I had.  I decided I just don't like a whole lot of Color and Weave pattern without something to break it up.  To jarring to the eyes, especially in all black and white.

Here is the finished lenth before cutting, the pattern really looks like diamonds from this angle.

On the end of the warp I used some red, I got tired of Black and White!  In this close up you can see the square within a square and rectangle within a rectangle pattern better.

I have dressed the megado with a beautiful silk warp.  I'll post some pictures once I get farther along.  The first picture is of the warp skeins. I ordered some more silk for the weft, Peter will bring that back with him this weekend.

Happy Weaving, now what shall I listen to?

Tracy