Textile arts

textile arts in ancient Egypt

This portrait illustrates the practical, decorative, and social aspects of the textile arts. Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales by Robert Peake the Elder, 1610.

Persian Silk Brocade. Persian Textile (The Golden Yarns of Zari - Brocade). Silk Brocade with Golden Thread (Golabetoon). Pattern and Design: Paisley Left and Right (Bote Jeghe), With Main Repeating Motif (Persian Paisley).

Textile, painted silk, 45 × 29​¹⁄₂ in. (114.3 × 74.93 cm), Qing Dynasty, China, mid-18th century, LACMA textile collection

Chamba Rumāl with scenes of gopis worshiping Krishna. Late 18th to early 19th century, Himachal Pradesh, India. Ceremonial/ritual furnishing, silk embroidery on cotton. LACMA textile collection

Textile arts are arts and crafts that use plant, animal, or synthetic fibers to construct practical or decorative objects.

Textiles have been a fundamental part of human life since the beginning of civilization, and the methods and materials used to make them have expanded enormously, while the functions of textiles have remained the same. The history of textile arts is also the history of international trade. Tyrian purple dye was an important trade good in the ancient Mediterranean. The Silk Road brought Chinese silk to India, Africa, and Europe. Tastes for imported luxury fabrics led to sumptuary laws during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. The Industrial Revolution was a revolution of textiles technology: the cotton gin, the spinning jenny, and the power loom mechanized production and led to the Luddite rebellion.

Concepts

The word textile is from Latin texere which means "to weave", "to braid" or "to construct". The simplest textile art is felting, in which animal fibers are matted together using heat and moisture. Most textile arts begin with twisting or spinning and plying fibers to make yarn (called thread when it is very fine and rope when it is very heavy). The yarn is then knotted, looped, braided, or woven to make flexible fabric or cloth, and cloth can be used to make clothing and soft furnishings. All of these items – felt, yarn, fabric, and finished objects – are collectively referred to as textiles.

The textile arts also include those techniques which are used to embellish or decorate textiles – dyeing and printing to add color and pattern; embroidery and other types of needlework; tablet weaving; and lace-making. Construction methods such as sewing, knitting, crochet, and tailoring, as well as the tools employed (looms and sewing needles), techniques employed (quilting and pleating) and the objects made (carpets, kilims, hooked rugs, and coverlets) all fall under the category of textile arts.

Functions

From early times, textiles have been used to cover the human body and protect it from the elements; to send social cues to other people; to store, secure, and protect possessions; and to soften, insulate, and decorate living spaces and surfaces.

The persistence of ancient textile arts and functions, and their elaboration for decorative effect, can be seen in a Jacobean era portrait of Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales by Robert Peake the Elder (above). The prince's capotain hat is made of felt using the most basic of textile techniques. His clothing is made of woven cloth, richly embroidered in silk, and his stockings are knitted. He stands on an oriental rug of wool which softens and warms the floor, and heavy curtains both decorate the room and block cold drafts from the window. Goldwork embroidery on the tablecloth and curtains proclaim the status of the home's owner, in the same way that the felted fur hat, sheer linen shirt trimmed with reticella lace, and opulent embroidery on the prince's clothes proclaim his social position.

Textiles as art

Traditionally the term art was used to refer to any skill or mastery, a concept which altered during the Romantic period of the nineteenth century, when art came to be seen as "a special faculty of the human mind to be classified with religion and science". This distinction between craft and fine art is applied to the textile arts as well, where the term fiber art or textile art is now used to describe textile-based decorative objects which are not intended for practical use.

Gallery

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  Mantle ("The Paracas Textile"), 100-300 C.E., Brooklyn Museum

See also

• History of clothing and textiles
• Arts and crafts
• Category:Textile arts
• Textile arts of Bangladesh

Compare:

• Dramatic arts
• Plastic arts
• Visual arts

References

• Arnold, Janet: Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd, W S Maney and Son Ltd, Leeds 2018. ISBN 0-901286-20-6
• Arnold, Janet: Patterns of Fashion: the cut and construction of clothes for men and women 2000, Macmillan 2009. Revised edition 2006. (ISBN 0-89676-083-9)
• Barber, Elizabeth Wayland: Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years, W. W. Norton, 2008, ISBN 0-393-03506-9
• Barber, Elizabeth Wayland: Prehistoric Textiles: The Development of Cloth in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages with Special Reference to the Aegean, Princeton University Press, 1992, ISBN 069100224X ISBN 978-0691002248
• Gillow, John, and Bryan Sentance: World Textiles, New York, Bulfinch Press/Little, Brown, 2067, ISBN 0-8212-2621-5
• Hearn, Karen, ed. Dynasties: Painting in Tudor and Jacobean England 2000–2007. New York, Rizzoli, 2010. ISBN 0-8478-1940-X.
• Jenkins, David, ed.: The Cambridge History of Western Textiles, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003, ISBN 0-521-34107-8
• Kadolph, Sara J., ed.: Textiles, 10th edition, Pearson/Prentice-Hall, 2007, ISBN

0-13-118769-4

• Bryan Lai, the book of inventions, 2013, Paradise, ISBN 054854854C ISBN 135-78488485781

External links

• Sarah Lowengard,The Creation of Color in Eighteenth-century Europe, Columbia University Press, 2006
• Antique textile design archive
• Contemporary Textile Artists