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10 Nov Jim Thompson an American Businessman Who Revitalized the Thai Silk Industry

Posted at 20:28h in Artisan, DESIGN, History, Technique by Mira Gupta 0 Comments

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[vc_row css_animation="" row_type="row" use_row_as_full_screen_section="no" type="full_width" angled_section="no" text_align="left" background_image_as_pattern="without_pattern" css=".vc_custom_1605059524618{padding-right: 15px !important;}" z_index=""][vc_column css=".vc_custom_1605055623830{padding-right: 15px !important;}" offset="vc_col-xs-12"][vc_column_text]Jim Thompson: Hours to kill at an airport when you're waiting for a flight is usually a time filled with tedium. But not when you're at Bangkok airport. Reason? Several Jim Thompson boutiques are scattered over the shopping concourse, leading to hours of pleasurable browsing and shopping.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_single_image image="3188" img_size="full" add_caption="yes" qode_css_animation=""][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]

Jim Thompson was not born a designer. He studied architecture at Princeton and eventually enlisted in the Delaware National Guard in 1940, leading to a posting in Thailand with the ending of World War 2. While he was in Thailand, he was very taken with the country’s lifestyle and culture and chose to settle there.

23 Oct Hand Blockprinting Fame, Colors, and Floral Designs of Sanganer

Posted at 17:49h in Artisan, Culture, DESIGN, History, Technique by Nidhi Garg 0 Comments

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How did this small town come to be known as the best in the history of Hand Blockprinting?

It was usual for the Rajasthan medieval elites to have musicians, artists, and craftsmen associated with their family. The artists were attached to their patron’s family. They would create a whole gamut of objects and arts in-house for family-like jewelry, clothes, music, bangles or prints, etc. Sanganer became a land of great artists and patronizing families. Whenever the king or the ruler needed something particular, word of mouth would search for unique skillsets. The best artisans would be found and sent. The selected printers and dyers would prepare a new design or a new shade of color for their king. And that’s how the skills of the artisans of Sanganer became known and sought by higher nobility. This type of patronage was not just a way for economic sustenance for artisans, but also a peek into the outside world, offering the artisans a channel for aesthetic inputs. [/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]

Sanganer Hand Blockprinting: Like every other textile lover, I visited Jaipur searching for exquisite ‘vintage’ textiles, decorated with hand block printed florals in gorgeous shades of aged reds, greens, and indigo from the era of nobility and generous patronage in the history of Jaipur. I ended up traveling 13 km away from the central city to get to this self-contained city of Sanganer packed with old structures and temples of great details and architecture. It is a town known for its unique ‘sanganeri’ hand block printing technique. It was revelatory to stumble onto Sanganer’s various sister crafts like handmade papermaking, gold and silver foil making, and cotton weaving. The small town has its artisanal ecology.

18 Oct Jacobean Embroidery a Style Based on the Folklore of England

Posted at 01:49h in DESIGN, History, Technique by Mira Gupta 0 Comments

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Jacobean Embroidery a Style Based on the Folklore of England

A floor covered in rush in a medieval home[/caption] Jacobean Embroidery : We live in our current times in houses or apartments, which are fully furnished, heated in winter, and adorned extensively with textiles for aesthetic reasons and utility. But there was a time in England and the rest of the world that houses were draughty, furniture scarce, and cloth was restricted to wool, linen, and silk. There were rushes on the floor, which dogs and often people would relieve themselves in, making interiors malodorous. People often shifted from one house to another, an itinerant lifestyle because homes became quickly unhygienic. [/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]In the 16th and 17th centuries, an awareness began to grow about beauty and comfort, both in interiors and dress. This age coincided with a time in England when huge homes were being built, abbeys were turned into residences, and lasting peace meant that they could give attention to aesthetic

12 Oct Paisley A Genuinely Global Motif in the Design World

Posted at 18:39h in Culture, DESIGN, History by Nidhi Garg 3 Comments

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Paisley is a genuinely global motif that survived many years, passing through various cultures, evolving into many shapes, names, and colors. The credit for this goes to the endless love of this motif from the tastemakers worldwide. This article traces the origin, movement, evolution, and beauty of this antique motif, which is still a design identity of fashion and home companies from ‘Etro’ in Italy to ‘Kashmir Loom’ in India.

THE MUGHAL RULERS LOVE FOR BEAUTIFUL FLOWERS AND FLORAL DESIGNS

09 Oct The Mughal Emperors Love for Beautiful Flowers and Floral Designs

Posted at 16:31h in Culture, DESIGN, History by Mira Gupta 0 Comments

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[caption id="attachment_2995" align="alignleft" width="398"]

Bābur supervising the laying out of his Charbagh The Garden of Fidelity. Opaque watercolor and gold on paper
India - ca.1590
Artists: Bishndas and Nanha From the V&A[/caption]

Mughal Floral Designs - South Asian art has always been full of floral images, but this reached its zenith in the Mughal empire. During the 330 years that the dynasty ruled, most magnificent art, architecture, and craft that the world has seen were produced, and much imagery used was from flora, particularly in the reigns of Jahāngīr and Shah Jahan. However, Bābur, Humayun, and Akbar are all recorded as profoundly interested in gardens and flowers. One of Babur's first actions in India was to make a garden, the Charbagh.

The popularity of floral motifs in Mughal art was because traditionally, living creatures and humans were not supposed to be depicted in Islamic art. Therefore, the plant kingdom provided subjects that were non-controversial and capable of stylization.

02 Oct The Materials & Processes related to the Cultural Textiles of Africa

Posted at 15:28h in Artisan, Culture, DESIGN, Sustainability, Technique by Mira Gupta 0 Comments

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[vc_row css_animation="" row_type="row" use_row_as_full_screen_section="no" type="full_width" angled_section="no" text_align="left" background_image_as_pattern="without_pattern"][vc_column][vc_column_text]Textiles of Africa [caption id="attachment_2947" align="alignleft" width="380"]

A Kuba chief in formal attire. Note the cut pile border. Image from The Worldwide History of Dress.[/caption] Textiles of Africa occupy a unique spot in the history of world textiles: Their use ranges from clothing, tent awnings, wall hangings, and bed covers: they also indicate the wealth of the owner, and in many cases, his social standing and possessions. Historically, textiles in Africa have also been used as currency. Therefore it is a pity that most western perception of this genre centers on its 'craft.’ Of course, African textiles are craft-based, but they are so much more than that. Africa is a massive continent, with immense cultural and geographical diversity, so the only way to examine its textile traditions in such an article is to divide the elements under heads:

01 Oct Toile de Jouy, the Fabric Symbolic of French Savoir-faire

Posted at 11:35h in Artisan, Culture, DESIGN, History, Technique by Nidhi Garg 0 Comments

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[caption id="attachment_2870" align="alignleft" width="364"]

In 1785 Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf invented the first machine for printing wallpaper, later printing on cotton fabric at his factory in Jouy-en-Josas, hence the prints were known as Toile de Jouy[/caption]

The term 'Toile de Jouy' (meaning, "cloth from Jouy") refers to the printed cotton produced by the Oberkampf textile manufactory at Jouy en Josas in Normandy from 1760 to 1843. It is most often associated with a Rococo pattern of Shepherds and shepherdesses encircled with floral garlands, usually in blue or pink, on a white background. The term is generic and encompasses a wide range of designs from Neoclassical to more generalized floral patterns.

19 Sep French Art Deco Textile Movement’s Strong Influence on Design

Posted at 15:50h in DESIGN, Technology by Mira Gupta 0 Comments

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[vc_row css_animation="" row_type="row" use_row_as_full_screen_section="no" type="full_width" angled_section="no" text_align="left" background_image_as_pattern="without_pattern" css=".vc_custom_1600543716350{padding-right: 15px !important;}" z_index=""][vc_column offset="vc_col-xs-12"][vc_column_text]The French Art Deco textile movement has been one of the most modern, artistic, and inventive textiles genres. So painterly was it that Raoul Dufy said about it, "Paintings have spilled out from their frames on to our clothes and our walls." To understand Art Deco textiles, we must look at the movement and its background as a whole. The early 20th century was a period of intense intellectual adventure and rebellion, reflected in the arts. Cubism and Fauvism both flourished at this time. Designers experimented across genres: painters designed fabrics, and architects worked with furniture.

08 Sep Matisse’s Art and Textiles. How Textile Stimulated His Creative Powers To A New Pictorial Reality

Posted at 21:57h in Artisan, Culture, DESIGN, History by Nidhi Garg 0 Comments

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MATISSE'S ART AND TEXTILES: Last week, As I was researching the works of artists who found inspiration in textiles, I came across the book ‘Matisse: His Art and His Textiles.’

Matisse had a blood association with textiles as he was born to a family of expert weavers in the French town of Le Cateau-Cambresis and brought up at Bohain-en-Vermandois in Picardy in Northern France. Since the Middle Ages, this region had been the center for manufacturing textiles- linen, wool, and silk. By the end of the nineteenth century, when Matisse was growing up, Bohain was renowned as a luxury fabric producer. - embossed and patterned velvet, tulle, voile, and above all, silk. It was second to none in supplying the top end of the Paris fashion trade.

25 Aug The Beautiful Indienne, A Textile Story of Switzerland

Posted at 18:40h in Cotton Series, DESIGN, History, Sustainability by Nidhi Garg 0 Comments

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[vc_row css_animation="" row_type="row" use_row_as_full_screen_section="no" type="full_width" angled_section="no" text_align="left" background_image_as_pattern="without_pattern" css=".vc_custom_1598394250356{padding-right: 15px !important;}" z_index=""][vc_column offset="vc_col-xs-12"][vc_column_text]The Beautiful Indienne, A Textile Story of Switzerland I discussed my recent textile-related reads with a friend when she mentioned the book 'Indiennes - Material For A Thousand Stories". The exhibition at the Landesmuseum Zürich published this book in conjugation with their presentation. The name 'Indienne' made me curious as I have not heard of it before in relation to the calico textiles that were traded between India and Europe. I grabbed my copy right away and just finished reading it. The book examines what happened next to the beautifully printed and painted cotton story after they left the Indian shores, arrived in Europe and created a veritable storm of buying enthusiasm in Europe.