Irish Aran Knit

The Aran Islands are a group of small windswept islands situated off the west coast of Ireland, which has given us a unique and often copied knit genre.

It is important not to confuse Aran with the Scottish island of Arran, which has nothing to do with Aran knit and is in no way related or linked in anyway with the Irish Aran even though both share a west coast vista.

Knit on the Aran Islands was traditionally made using wool that had not had the lanolin, the natural oils of the wool, removed making it more or less waterproof, a must for any wind swept and damp coastal areas, particularly those areas of northern Europe that face the Atlantic ocean with its constant and unending weather fronts. Wool was also traditionally not dyed on the island limiting the number of processes involved from start to finish, but also giving the knitwear a more natural look with the use of only white or black sheep.

It would be tempting to see Aran knit as an age-old craft whose traditions and origin are lost in the mists of Western Ireland. However, the craft of knit itself only reached the islands in the seventeenth century and the particular genre of Aran knit was only developed in the early twentieth century as an expansion of the domestic wear produced by the island women, but perhaps more importantly, as a potential tourist export for a particularly deprived area of Ireland. All the garments were knitted by women, who were also in control of the spinning of the indigenous wool supply, making the island women responsible for most of the processes involved in the enterprise.

During the 1940s and 1950s, Aran patterns were first standardised and published commercially, but exports from the island itself were still increasing in number.

Today Aran knitwear is still produced on the islands, both as hand and machine knit, but is also now produced in other parts of Ireland as it is around the world through a whole host of various pattern books that are now available.

Aran knit may not be a particularly old craft skill, but it does have a pedigree. The various designs that make up the pattern work that has become associated with Aran, was produced largely by the group of women who took a pro-active stance in the early twentieth century in order to try to change the outlook and circumstances of their community. They were able to set that community onto the world stage where it has now become both a worldwide trademark and a household name.

An interesting site to visit with a good overall history of Aran knit with examples of a number of the traditional patterns is the Irish Culture and Customs site, which can be found here. The Further reading links also give a short list of Aran pattern books that are available on Amazon.

Further reading links:
Aran Knitting
Harmony Guide to Aran Knitting: Diamond; Cables; Twists; Honeycombs; Textures; Panels; Backgrounds; Bobbles; Plaits; Ribs: Charts and Written Instructions for Each Stitch.
Traditional Aran Knitting
The Great American Aran Afghan
The Harmony Guide to Aran and Fair Isle Knitting: Patterns, Techniques, and Stitches (The Harmony Guides)
Patterns for Guernseys, Jerseys, and Arans: Fishermen's Sweaters from the British Isles 
220 Aran Stitches and Patterns: Volume 5 (The Harmony Guides)
The Harmony Guides: Cables & Arans: 250 Stitches to Knit
Traditional Island Knitting: Including Aran, Channel Isles, Fair Isle, Falkland Isles, Iceland and Shetland
Traditional Aran Island Knitting

Harriet Powers Bible Quilt

Illustration: Harriet Powers. Bible quilt, 1886.

The quilting work of Harriet Powers is a symbolists dream. The two quilts shown here, detail some of the important stories and legends of the Bible set within a panelled quilt. However, these are by no means pieces that can be judged as either 'naive' or 'folk' art as they were produced by a woman with an instinctive understanding of some of the complex messages underlying the stories. Her use of symbolism is extraordinary and even though it would be jumping to conclusions that may well not be true, it is tempting to believe that Powers, who started life as an American slave, still had at least some tenuous connections to the complex symbolism of Africa. The two pieces seem to share some of creative power of African artwork and the use of symbols, colours and textures make it all the more believable. It is part of the great human tradition of storytelling through pictures and symbols, and although Powers herself was not illiterate as some sources in the past have believed, her work resembles the power imbued by the simplicity of the symbol, much as in the later work of Matisse, though Powers produced these pieces over half a century before Matisse.

Illustration: Harriet Powers. Pictorial quilt, 1898.

I must admit that I first discovered the work of Harriet Powers through the research of Kyra Hicks, so this is not so much an article about the quilting work of Powers, which needs an article in its own right, but more about the extraordinary detective work of Hicks.

Hicks book: This I accomplish: Harriet Powers' Bible Quilt and Other Pieces, is a detailed and comprehensive investigation of Harriet Powers two remaining documented quilts, from their inception to their movement over time from one caring owner to another.

Hicks extensive and meticulous research has left no stone unturned, and as she unfolds the story of the quilts history through a series of careful and loving owners, each with their own often complex and engaging life story, the quilts themselves are imbued with these owners lives as well, giving the works even more symbolic power and resonance.

The book itself  not only tells the factual story of the journey of Powers quilts from maker to treasured museum piece, it also opens up the historical and cultural world of African America, from slavery itself, through to the complex and often difficult relationship with European America. The book made me aware that although African and European America is often seen, particularly by outsiders, as being of separate cultural traditions and with little interaction or familiarity, the opposite is often true. Hicks tells a different story, one of a much more intertwined and interdependent relationship, where although cultures might well have originated from different parts of the world, their interest, fascination and familiar identity with the symbolism and structure of Harriet Powers quilts is most definitely shared.

Kyra Hicks has left one more tantalising fact in her book, Harriet Powers is known to have produced more than two quilts, the others may yet still exist.

Illustration: Harriet Powers, 1897.

Kyra Hicks has produced a number of books within the quilting genre, some of which are listed below. All are linked to Amazon.com. She also has a fascinating and comprehensive blog Black Threads which highlights the African American quilting world.

Further reading links:This I Accomplish: Harriet Powers' Bible Quilt and Other Pieces
Martha Ann's Quilt for Queen Victoria
Black Threads: An African American Quilting Sourcebook
The Liberian Flag Story & Love of Liberty Quilt
Stitching Stars: The Story Quilts of Harriet Powers (African-American Artists and Artisans)
Harriet Powers's Bible Quilts (Rizzoli Art Series)
Signs and Symbols: African Images in African American Quilts (2nd Edition)
Always There: The African-American Presence in American Quilts
Crafted Lives: Stories and Studies of African American Quilters
Stitched from the Soul: Slave Quilts from the Antebellum South
Stitching Memories: African-American Story Quilts
Facts and Fabrications: Unraveling the History of Quilts and Slavery: 8 Projects, 20 Blocks, First-Person Accounts

Archibald Knox and the Celtic Knot

Archibald Knox both used and understood the relevance of Celtic design work to the Scottish, Irish and indeed English decorative arts at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century. Knox was born on the Isle of Man and was of Scottish descent. He had a keen interest in his ancestry and his heritage and saw the intrinsic use of that heritage within his work as a useful and creative spur during much of his career.

The Celtic knot is not particularly Celtic in origin or flavour, as it appears and reappears in a number of indigenous cultures across the planet in various forms and guises. However, it has become associated with the Celtic fringe regions of Western Europe through a mixture of Victorian antiquarian study and the commercial aspects of companies such as Liberty & Co, which made the Celtic knot both a fashionable and desirable decorative format during the later Arts & Crafts and Art Nouveau periods.

Archibald Knox and his interest in Celtic styles of decoration made him a keen favourite of Liberty's, though it must be said that the Celtic format was by no means Knox's only decorative style. The illustrations shown here are all examples of initial design work produced by Knox, and show an interesting blend of both the Arts & Crafts and Art Nouveau styles, which is not always an easy mixture. The Arts & Crafts ideal of a pure and unadulterated source for decorative detail would have tended to have used the idea of the Celtic knot in its strictest and purest format. The movement saw no need to dress the knot in any other decorative detail or pattern work, as the knot itself should be able to maintain itself within its own integrity, in other words, it did not need to be dressed up.

However, the Art Nouveau philosophy was much more of one of producing design and decorative work that had an overall flair and was perhaps much more commercially based, though not always intentionally. This would have made the Celtic knot part of an overall pattern with the Celtic identity only forming part of a larger and less distinct style.

That Knox understood both of these links shows in his Celtic knot design work. The pattern work, while paying due attention and reverence to the original Celtic knotwork design, is equally aware of the new flowing lines and stylised floral representations of the Art Nouveau movement. That Knox could identify and perhaps more impressively, marry the two philosophies together while still maintaining his own original interest and integrity in his heritage, was and still is, a fine balance that appears infrequently in decorative work with cross-culture themes.

Further reading links:
The Archibald Knox Society
Archibald Knox
Designs of Archibald Knox for Liberty & Co
Archibald Knox and Mary Seton Watts - Modern Celtic Art Garden Pottery
The Journal of the Archibald Knox Society: v. 1
Celtic Knotwork
Great Book of Celtic Patterns: The Ultimate Design Sourcebook for Artists and Crafters
Celtic Knotwork Designs
Celtic Art: The Methods of Construction
The Celtic Design Book: A Beginner's Manual, Knotwork, Illuminated Letters
101 Celtic Knotwork Designs
Draw Your Own Celtic Designs
Celtic Knots: Mastering the Traditional Patterns (Celtic Design)
Celtic Knotwork Designs (Design Source Books)
Knotwork And Spirals: A Celtic Art Workbook
The Treasury Of Celtic Knots
Celtic Art: From Its Beginnings to the Book of Kells
Art of the Celts: From 700 BC to the Celtic revival (World of Art)