Each Little World

Fiber Friday: Hmong textiles

There's a beautiful and moving display of Hmong textiles including a number of large story quilts on exhibit at Blue Bar Quilts on Madison's west side. Some works are for sale as a fund-raiser for Kajsiab House and the local Cambodian Temple. Journey Mental Health Center announced in August it was closing Kajsiab House after 18 years of operation. Currently Madison City Council has covered the funding for the rest of the year. In the meantime, members of the Hmong and larger Madison community are looking for solutions to the funding cut.

Kajsiab House serves over 150 members of the Madison Hmong community, including refugees and veterans who fought for the U.S. in the Vietnam War. Through Kajsiab House, community members can access wrap-around services like English classes, meals and community discussions in addition to culturally sensitive mental health counselling and therapy.

These are a few of the pieces I saw when I was shopping at Blue Bar earlier this week.

Story quilts are among the most well-known of Hmong textile arts. Sometimes they include text like this one.

They are usually brightly embroidered awash with figures, domestic and agricultural landscapes as well as glimpses of the larger, historical context of this group's experiences during war in Southeast Asia. 

The Mekong River wends its way through this quilt.

The information for this story was taken from Madison Newspapers website.

Fiber Friday

Felted art, ranging from Christmas ornaments and mittens to rugs, historically has been the provenance of artisans in central Europe and central Asia. Among the more well known objects in this genre are wool felt Shyrdak rugs from Kyrgyztan. That ancient tradition is turned on its head in “Reliquary,” the work of Chicago-based artist William J. O'Brien currently on exhibit at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art.

 What look at first glance like large paintings or prints, turn out to be felted creations on closer examination. Red and black or blue and black felt motifs are stitched onto white grounds in an exuberant style reminiscent of outsider artists. One of the main objects is a tent big enough to walk through that is riotously painted in grays and black. Standing guard at the entrance are a pair of ceramic figures whose “crawling” glaze mimics beadwork.  “Reliquary” is installed throughout the first floor of MMoCA and will be on display until Nov. 11.

Both images: MMoCA

IVOM: Home and away

I see so many floral arrangements in print and online where the designer notes that many of the flowers or pods or branches used in the bouquet were "foraged." Living in a state with a lot of agriculture, "forage" is most commonly used here as a noun meaning food for livestock. If someone is "foraging" then they are typically looking for food. But all these hip young bloggers and floristas mean they found the material for their creations in the wild. I am always curious about where they actually go looking since it is illegal to remove natural material from public parks or gardens and the same goes for private property.

On the other hand, I did a little urban foraging over the weekend when I was at a bookstore in a mini-mall that's lost its main tenant. As a result the parking lot is almost entirely empty and the plantings are a mass of weeds and wildlings. Things were suffering from reflected heat and lack of attention. Since it was a public parking lot but unattended and barely used, I decided it was ripe for the kind of foraging I keep reading about. So I cut a bunch of goldenrod and asters, brought them home and put them in my largest wood fired stoneware pitcher. 

From my garden I cut flowering stems of an assertive pond plant — Penthorum seloides aka star fruit — that currently needs some stern attention before it takes over. Though commonly known as "star fruit," I've seen its branches described as "upside down turkey's feet" which seems pretty accurate to me. 

The third member of this trio has foliage from Aralia cordata 'Sun King' which is begin to turn yellow with a stem of pods from the same plant, along with a stem of Goldenrod that is past its prime.

All three pitchers are by local potter Mark Skudlarek of Cambridge Woodfired Pottery. The two smaller ones were bought as a pair that we thought would complement the big pitcher. The next three images are closeups of the patterns on each pitcher. 

When I pulled out these three pitchers from our basement pottery stash, I decided to change the entire table top. The fabric is African mud cloth, if I remember correctly. And the lamp is Japanese. American art and craft paired with African and Asian items is pretty much the design motif everywhere in our house. 

To see what other gardeners have put in a vase this Monday, visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden. She is the host of the long-running meme that has become the favorite way to start the week for many of us gardeners around the world. 

Fiber Friday: A treat for the seamstress

As part of my process of turning our former guest room into a studio, I've been making space on the bookshelves in there for art and fiber supplies. This week I dropped off three grocery bags stuffed with gardening books to Olbrich Botanical Gardens. They'll determine which of them to add to their collection and which to put out at their plant sale in May. I gained three empty shelves that I quickly filled with supplies stashed hither and you around the house.

But I left room for a new sewing item that I recently found at a local antiques mall. Despite trying to downsize and not bring in a lot of new items, sometimes one just can't resist an unexpected find. This is a small folk/tramp art sewing box, date unknown. It's not large, only abut 9 inches in all dimensions.

You can see from these first two photos that the maker did not quite get the middle section figured out and put together as neatly as the other parts. But that's the charm of old unusual items like this: They exhibit the hand of the maker. And this maker showed her (or his) clever hand in a design that lets 8 different strands of thread neatly unspool through the white rings. 

The top section is a box whose lid lifts off revealing 8 nails that hold short spools of thread. The middle and bottom sections are drawers that still held old sewing supplies, including a little travel kit from "Grant's Golden West" in Hobbs, N.M. The container also advertises some brand of medicine called Calvert which the print says "tastes better" and suggests you switch. So maybe it originally held pills and someone later added tiny sewing supplies. 

I thought I would add a few of my own quirky sewing supplies like this old package of gold eye needles and black enameled entomology pins "for extra fine fabrics." 

Though the stuffing inside the pincushion on the top of the box has lost its oomph, I decided to leave it alone so that the entire creation is intact. Though the whole box is in usable condition, I have a strong suspicion that I will give it pride of place more like a tiny sculpture than a tool.

Wordless Wednesday

Silk embroidery, 18th C.

Fiber Friday: Whirling Return of the Ancestors

Mark and I went to the opening reception for "The Whirling Return of the Ancestors: Egungun Arts of the Yoruba in Africa and Beyond" last month at the Ruth Davis Design Gallery on campus. Mark took photos while I schmoozed with friends. As always, the people who come to these fabulous textile exhibits wear their own finery. No matter where you look there is something interesting to see.

The exhibit runs through April 8th and there are a number of special programs in conjunction with it which I've listed below the photographs. 

There is more in-depth information about the work in the exhibit and a short video on the gallery's website (click link above).

. . .

Captivated by the gallery's window display

Drop-dead drama inside the gallery

This exhibit was researched, organized, and curated by students in the fall 2017 Art History Curatorial Studies-Exhibition Practice class taught by Evjue-Bascom Professor Henry Drewal (below).

The opening included an evocative Yoruba language call-and-respone performance led by the gentleman below.

Lots of discussion about the items on display

Watching the videos of Egungun dancers on an almost wall-sized screen

Rumi (center) and Jim O'Brien talk with another gallery visitor. Rumi had a show of her own stunning artwork in a variety of media in the gallery at this same time last year.

Professor Drewal stayed in the gallery answering questions . . .

and more question about the exhibit.

Lots of great clothes — especially headgear — was in evidence on gallery-goers

A series of public programs will supplement the exhibition:
Email Will Porter, Events Coordinator of the African Studies Program, at events@africa.wisc.edu for questions about event times, locations, or other details.

· Thursday, March 1, 6-7 pm: Death, Culture & Coffee: Honoring ancestors in Madison
Room 1199 Nancy Nicholas Hall, School of Human Ecology, 1300 Linden Drive
Join the African Studies Program for coffee and conversation on the ways that we honor our own ancestors in Madison. Four local presenters will discuss some of the funerary practices and traditions observed within various communities in the Madison area. Light refreshments provided. Please feel welcome to arrive early and visit the gallery exhibition prior to attending to the presentation.

Presenters:
Karen Reppen, Death Awareness Educator
Elizabeth Humphries, Death Midwife
Bryan Foster, Foster Funeral Services
Shedd Farley, Linda and Gene Farley Center for Peace, Justice and Sustainability

· March 7, 2018: Lecture-demo about African American Second-Line funeral processions in New Orleans
· April 5-8, 2018: Performances by a troupe of Egúngún masqueraders, singers, and drummers from Ọ̀yọ́tunji Village, South Carolina, who will give workshops at UW-Madison, the Madison Children’s Museum, and a Madison public school
· April 6-7, 2018: Two-day Symposium on the theme Honoring Ancestors in Africa: Arts and Actions

On the wall on Monday: Chinese flowers

I bought this embroidered Chinese collar so long ago that I am no longer exactly sure of the circumstances of its purchase, though I believe it was a rummage-sale type of fund-raiser for the old Madison Art Center. Judging by this textile, the items for sale were not your ordinary second-hand goods.

This would have been part of a Chinese robe, though everyday or ceremonial I can't say. I can say however that it is a lovely piece of work.

It's heavy dark blue silk covered in embroidered birds and flowers, along with scallops created out of couched gold thread. 

For years I thought I would add it to a collarless fabric jacket so I could wear it myself. But eventually I decided if it was ever going to live anywhere but in a dark drawer, I should mount it. And so I did. I will say that sewing a heavy silk item to lighter silk fabric using silk thread, silk pins and even a silk needle was a lot harder than I expected.

But now that it's done I'm more than happy with the results. For the time being I decided to just put it on top of one of the bookcases in the studio. The basket is part of my small collection of Ikebana containers, though it is Japanese not Chinese.

My sister-in-law said I needed to put something in with the collar to indicate its size. The stretched silk frame is 22 inches wide (55.88 cm.) x 26 inches high (60.96cm.). I think the dollar bill works nicely to show the scale of the collar. 

Still no flowers from my garden. Snowdrops are the blooms I usually see first as I have some planted close to the house on the south side. But until they appear, my flowers may be pretty but they won't be living. To see what other gardeners could actually pick from their garden, visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden who hosts this addictive Monday meme.

Out with the old, in with the older

Swapping out our guest bed for a work table has me spending hours at a time in my new "studio." It's fairly basic but there is nothing like a big work surface and good lighting to make a person finish projects. To say nothing of starting — and finishing — new endeavors.

In the three weeks since we redid the room, I mounted the Chinese embroidered collar that I never did two years ago when I wrote about it. I've made a garden-themed shadow box. I've downsized my garden library by about two dozen books to make space for storing art supplies. But I've left a few of my favorite decorative objects in place on the bookshelves — more or less. 

These first three photos were taken in 2011, so that means I've been saving natural objects I've found on trips and neighborhood walks at least that long. But I have a feeling I found this big glass display box in 2008, which means this is ten years worth of accumulation as I am always tossing something new into the mix.

I've loved adding treasures to this box over the years: seed pods, leaves, feathers, pine cones, you name it. 

When I took the photo below, the box was full to the top. That was last week. This week I decided it was time for a change. I got rid of my collection of birds' nests years ago and it was time for this detritus to go as well. 

I replaced my collection of items from nature with antique fiber art. I put eight little caps from my collection of Central Asian hats in the box where I can see and enjoy them every day. They're mostly all child-size and decorated using embroidery and other textile techniques.

Each one is a tiny treasure.

Every one is different. Even when a similar decorative pattern is used I've never seen any two that are completely alike. 

The insides are usually as interesting as the outsides, either because they are lined in traditional Russian fabrics or you can see the history of the stitchery.

In case you are wondering, I didn't just toss all those natural items in the garbage willy nilly. I photographed a few favorites and rescued a few non-nature items.

Fiber Friday: A fun find!

I found this embroidered Indian textile not long ago at Passementerie in Middleton during their fall sale. That shop is always full of delicious items including my favorites: jewelry, china and textiles. Though this didn't have much info on the price tag, it appears to be a Toran, a traditional dowry item from Western India. Typically they are embroidered and appliqued and often have small mirrors worked into the design. 

It's the perfect backdrop to a few of our toys that we put on display for the holidays.

Red room holiday decor

I adore my red room but it is impossible to take good photos in there. Too dark and too much intense color. But at least these images will let me remember how I decorated this space this year. I stopped at one of our longtime local florists early in the month and found this big blue and white vase on sale for half price. 

I bought some curly orange willow branches and berried Eucalyptus but with a container this big it needed more. So I foraged three kinds of evergreens — white pine, cedar and spruce — that were tree and shrub trimmings stacked up by the curb waiting for city crews to dispose of them. After driving by them of a couple of days, I stopped with my pruners, garden gloves and garbage bags and brought home a nice assortment of greens. The next morning I drove by and discovered the street crews had done their job and they were all gone!

We moved our Thai Spirit House back into the red room from the library. It's home to Buddha, studio gods and assorted creatures.

I decorated the top of the Spirit House with bags made of cactus fiber and a Japanese one made out of a variety of fabrics.

There's an East Indian basket, Leslee Nelson's fabulous crocheted radish, and contemporary felt veggies and toys.

I added a string of lights too make the whole arrangement a little more visible and playful. Most of these items will stay on display here after the holidays, though I probably will remove the lights.