Next Steps in Weaving by Pattie Graver

Weaving has got to be one of the oldest of human occupations, countless generations have been honing and perfecting their skills across millennia, and continue to do so to this day.

Although industrial weaving now dominates the textile industry, hand weaving is still an important element within the textile world, it has an enviable status and position, and is often considered one of the senior skills within the many that make up the varied textile world.

That hand weaving is still very much with us, still a learnt skill, has much to do with the individuals that have been involved in the hand-weaving world, those who work within hand-production, and just as importantly, those who teach and in teaching, pass on the accumulated skills gathered from seemingly countless generations.

Teaching hand skills in order to bring enjoyment to one generation, and to pass on learnt skills to the next, is an important part of the story of hand craft in any discipline. Without teachers, generational skills would soon shrivel up and die, which is why individuals such as Pattie Graver are so important.

Pattie is a weaver who lives her passion. She sees weaving as being part of the essence of who we are, an integral part of our history, as well as our present-day culture, and therefore in many ways a birth-right to us all, and one that she can share with us if we wish to follow her into the world of weaving.

As a former Managing Editor of Handwoven magazine, Pattie was always well-placed to understand the passionate interest so many in our contemporary world have shown for learning basic, as well as more complex skills involved in hand-production. it is one of the main reasons for the publication of her brand new book Next Steps in Weaving.

This is a book that makes the fundamental practical understanding of weaving, its main drive. It is definitely a technical book, and one that makes the assumption that you have at least some prior knowledge of weaving. As the main title suggests, the book covers the next steps beyond the initial ones of warping up, and answers the often-used question of new weavers, where do I go next?

Pattie has added a useful subheading to her book What you Never Knew you Needed to Know, which very much sums up the emphasis of Next Steps in Weaving. There are main chapters that deal with weave structures and ideas such as twill, color-and-weave, overshot, summer and winter, lace. It also contains a seemingly infinite supply of sub-headings that cover everything that you could possibly want to know about moving forward with weaving projects. Diagrams, color photos, tips, and troubleshooting suggestions also abound, so it would be hard for anyone to lose their way when attempting any of the different sections within Patties book.

Each topic within the book is explained, and then supplemented with instructions for both a woven sample, as well as a more complex project. this is definitely not a book just giving a list of weaving patterns, it is a book that is meant to give you more experience, and with that, more confidence, which inevitably leads to being the springboard for personal projects.

Overall, this is a book for the enthusiastic learner, for the beginner who has passed through the very first initial steps of weaving, and who wants to move fully into the discipline, but it is also a book for those that want to make a connection with the past, as well as to make connections with the future. Pattie has produced an invaluable book that promotes, encourages, and projects her obvious love and affinity towards hand weaving.

This is an invaluable addition to nay hand weaver's reference library, and anyone buying the book will know that with Pattie they are in safe hands.

Coming in at 183 pages, Pattie's book is available from major outlets such as Amazon, as well as Interweave, who have generously published Pattie's book.

The Woven Work of Stanley Bulbach

Illustration: Stanley Bulbach. 'Agate Stream'.

It is always interesting to see how different creative individuals approach their work and their medium, but it is often just as interesting to see where these individuals originated, where they gained their core influences, and what sent them along their unique creative path. Many are not always walking along the clear-cut path you would imagine.

The artist Stanley Bulbach has a BA in History of Religion and an MA and PhD in Near Eastern Studies. Although these qualifications do not automatically suggest that a career in the creative arts is imminent, it also doesn't necessarily disallow it. There are so many avenues and pathways towards a truly creative life, how you get onto that path can be just as interesting as the path that you follow as an individual. 

Illustration: Stanley Bulbach. 'Agate Stream' detail.

It is often assumed that the creative arts are reserved for academic underachievers, those who couldn't make it in the academic world. However, nothing could be further from the truth. Since starting The Textile Blog, I have come across a range of individuals who have taken up creative arts careers from a diverse background of degrees, diplomas, and lifetime work that have seemingly little in common with the creative art world, but then of course all paths are linked, often on a much subtler level than many can see.

Whatever you do in life is part of your ultimate path. If you decide to be a car mechanic, and then thirty years later shift focus into 3D sculpture, then that is your path. If you work in admin for forty years and then decide to take up quilting, then that too is your path. If, like Stanley you take the road from seeming academia, research, and then the development of a fascination with North African carpet weaving through a trip through the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, then that is another path towards the creative arts.

Illustration: Stanley Bulbach. 'Bridges'.

Stanley has a deep knowledge, understanding, and sympathy for the history and traditions of carpet weaving across the Islamic world, particularly those traditions that are found in North Africa. He has an exhaustive knowledge of traditional weaving found across North Africa. However, with Stanley it isn't a matter of imbuing his carpets just with a flavour of North Africa. These are not carpets that focus on reproducing the traditions of a cultural heritage half a world away from his New York City base. These are not therefore merely extensions of the magic and passion of North Africa, though they are inevitably imbued with it, they also importantly contain part of the personality and perspective of the artist.

Stanley may well call his woven pieces 'carpets' and they are definitely within the general genre of that medium, but they are much more than the name 'carpet' could suggest, and shouldn't necessarily be treated as practical domestic accessories. These are pieces of personal artwork, artwork that could and should equally be expected to have a place reserved for them on a wall, rather than a floor. It would probably be best to describe them as somewhere between a woven tapestry and a woven fine art carpet. The description doesn't really do Stanley's work full justice, but it does give some indication of where his artwork should be.

Illustration: Stanley Bulbach. 'Gotham'.

However, perhaps more important than artistic freedom and the focus on individual perspective that automatically comes with the creative arts, Stanley is also aware of the unique symbolism that is encased in the history and continuity of woven carpet-making as well as the usage of the carpet. To many in the world it is still a vital ingredient of domesticity, and through that, is intimately connected to human life. Woven carpets have been used for all of the major celebrations of human life from birth, through marriage, to death. Carpets can be seating, bedding, used for birthing or for shrouds for the dead. They can be given as gifts, or kept as heirlooms within families as remembrances of generations past and those yet to come. Carpets are also significant partners in prayer; many of Stanley's woven pieces derive at least an element of their origin from the widespread use of prayer rugs that are seen across the Islamic world. 

Weaving itself has always been used as a wide-ranging symbol, particularly when used in the context of the ideals symbolised through the singular weakness of isolated threads compared to the strength achieved by those isolated threads when woven into a fabric. When expanded into weaving as an art form, an artistic statement even, it can be seen that weaving could easily be used as a metaphor for the contemporary world we live in today. 

Illustration: Stanley Bulbach, the artist.

Through our expression of endless and unique diversity as individuals, we can with effort, weave ourselves into the fabric that is humanity. By weaving together the diverse strengths of each of us, we create a fabric that cannot easily be ripped apart. In this respect, Stanley sees his work as a weaver, and with his local community work looking for solutions to the problems of such a large and diverse population as New York City, the two very much become the same thing. Whether you are weaving with yarn or you are weaving with people, a harmonious and interestingly diverse outcome is always hoped for.

Stanley himself weaves a complex subject of research, practical knowledge, and theory that is far too complex to touch on much in this short article, more can be seen and read at Stanley's website, a link to which is given below. However, I hope this has been a good introduction to the work of Stanley Bulbach, and if you are in the New York City area, Stanley's work can presently be seen at the Jason McCoy Gallery.

Stanley Bulbach website

Please be aware that all photos of artwork illustrating this article were kindly supplied by the artist and are therefore copyrighted to him.

The Textile Artwork of Altoon Sultan

Illustration: Altoon Sultan. Turquoise Circles.

Textile art can take many forms and use many mediums. In recent years a number of craft processes not usually associated with textile art have been incorporated by some of the more enterprising and non-judgemental artists. Some of the skills that have been incorporated into textile art include many that were considered to be the lesser craft skills, most of which were on a strictly amateur basis and have rarely if ever seen any professional aspect to their medium. These include such staples of the amateur world as crochet, macrame, hooked and rag rugging, to name only a few.

Illustration: Altoon Sultan. Boxed Circles.

Hooked rugs have always been seen as belonging to a world of instant necessity and practical need. The skill of hooked rugging was never considered part of any Arts & Crafts revival or even part of a middle class accomplishment package that was expected from every woman before and after marriage. These art and craft packages would usually include such skills as drawing, needlework and weaving, but could include some of the more unusual craft skills such as metalwork and ceramics. Rug making itself has a very high standard of achievement and status. When it was strictly in the field of weave, embroidery or even print it could and was often considered to be an art form in itself. However, rag and hooked rugs were another matter entirely and were rarely if ever mentioned in the same format and were not seen as a skill or part of any other medium. These rugs were strictly the property of some of the lowest and most poorly paid members of society. The skill has therefore been tarnished with an image of low social status and inapproachability.

Illustration: Altoon Sultan. Tiles.

Altoon Sultan is a Vermont based fine artist who sees no stigma or prejudice in the skill of hooked rug making and has incorporated it effortlessly into her fine art work as a process of that art rather than as a minor support skill. She has a subtle eye for both texture and colour variation, as can be seen in the images shown in this article, all of which are the work of Sultan. For the artist it is not just a matter of producing a pattern out of the hooking technique, there is also the much subtler use of the direction that the loops take within the composition. Some compositions switch the direction with a change of colour or texture, while others use the change of loop direction in order to add a subtle pattern for the eye to follow.

Illustration: Altoon Sultan. Ovals.

Whereas the traditional hooked rug technique used scraps of fabric that could not be utilised for any other domestic use, and therefore were limited as to the range of the creative process, Sultan does not have this problem. Her fabrics can be individually and subtly dyed to produce a close range of colour shades and tones making the work appear both coordinated and connected. Each piece or ruglet, is an individual and unique process, from initial sketch and composition, through to the dyeing and hand picking of fabric strips, to the actual making.

These pieces are not rugs and cannot be placed on the floor. They are art pieces for the wall only. This is not to say that Sultan finds that there is something embarrassing about the medium or the skill involved in hooked rug making. It says much more about her being able to see the medium outside its narrow confines, often narrowed by outside elements rather than within the medium.

By highlighting the work of Altoon Sultan, it shows that no process within the textile world should be considered lower and less significant than another. All are processes that were learnt and handed down across generations and all have value. If we start to rationalise and grade the differing skills and techniques that are part of the large and varied world of art and craft textiles then we are also guilty of rationalising and grading the generations of people who, usually through necessity produced and honed those skills in the first place.

Illustration: Altoon Sultan. Blue Circle, Red Triangle.

Altoon Sultan has an interesting and comprehensive blog where her thought processes and methods of work can be seen in much greater detail than I have shown here. Her blog Studio and Garden can be found here.

The images were used with the kind permission of the artist.

Reference links:
Altoon Sultan blog

Terrol Dew Johnson and Contemporary Basketry

Illustration: Terrol Dew Johnson. Form Over Function #1.

Terrol Dew Johnson started basketry weaving at the age of ten. He soon learned that he was a born natural and found that it was one of the few things in life that he found intrinsically effortless.

Johnson is a member of the Tohono O'odham nation of southern Arizona. The Tohono O'odham have a long history of basket weaving using a whole variety of techniques using natural materials and dyes. These are all used in order to tie the basketry in with the local landscape colours and flora, making the baskets part of the community and of the larger landscape.

Illustration: Terrol Dew Johnson.

The traditional basketry weaving techniques that Johnson learnt at such an early age, have allowed him to expand into the world of contemporary fine art basketry, while still keeping hold of his traditions, which he uses as a foundation or anchor point for his subsequent career as an artist.

Johnson has definitely turned the craft skill of basketry into an art form. His basket weaving techniques now see him producing work that is sculptural in form, with the pieces quietly but confidently filling their internal and external space. His basketry creations have extended one of the earliest human learned skills, much beyond its original practical remit, and although his creations do still maintain some of the traits of a traditional basket, as much of his work still has the appearance of the functional containers that were woven by early humans, he has been able to play with that notion and that traditional form, producing pieces that although serving no practical purpose, are still able to pay homage to the rich local and wider planetary history of basket weaving.

Illustration: Terrol Dew Johnson. Basket.

Terrol Johnson is now one of the most popular basketry weavers in the United States. His work has won major awards and has been seen in various exhibitions across the country. A number of prestigious museums and galleries are now eagerly procuring examples of his work for their collections.

Johnson is now a respected artist who has been able to expand his interests into other creative areas including architecture and photography, but it is his commitment to basketry weaving and more particularly how that can be used to help his Tohon O'dham community, that will perhaps be his greatest legacy.

Illustration: Terrol Dew Johnson. Basket.

Terrol Johnson has his own website, which can be found here. There is also an interesting article by Loretts Gallery of Tulsa, Oklahoma, which can be found here.

Johnson is involved in a number of pressing issues and enterprises concerning his Tohono O'odham community, all of which can be found at the TOCA (Tohona O'odham Community Action) website, which can be found here.

Reference links:
Terrol Dew Johnson
Lovetts Gallery
TOCA (Tohono O'odham Community Action)