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Rare textiles at Needles and Pins: Textiles & Tools exhibition

05 May '07
4 min read

All textiles are made, embellished, and constructed with tools which started out as simple extensions of the human hand. The same processes done by the hand-operated loom, spinning wheel, and needle are carried out today in computerized factories. The scale has changed but the basic process and tool has not.

Needles and Pins: Textiles and Tools introduces many variations of the basic tools developed over time and by different people. Textiles and garments showing the techniques made with these tools also illustrate the dazzling variation made possible by combining human creativity and skill with these often simple tools.

Embellished textiles often express cultural identity as well as personal creativity. Certain embroidery stitches and color patterns are used by one group but not their next door neighbors. Woven motifs are given names and meanings that differ from one ethnic group to another. Cloth is used in ways that signify cultural belonging or separateness. In many places, a women's ability with loom or needle still demonstrates her worth as a wife and provider for her family.

The creation of textiles has inspired human thought and communication throughout time. In ancient Greece the Three Fates spun, wove, and cut the thread of life, determining mortals' destiny with spindle, loom and blade. All languages are rich in metaphor and expressions of textiles and their making. We talk of the “fabric of life” and “the thread” of a narrative story; of someone “cut from whole cloth” and the act of “weaving together a community.” To speak of something or someone “dyed in the wool” is to acknowledge a true believer. Many European fairy tales incorporate spinning and weaving to comment on woman's role in society.

Textiles are all around us – we live our lives surrounded by clothing, bedding, and household furnishings, as well as in many unfamiliar settings. Airplanes and boats were once covered in fabric, hi-tech textiles are used in many medical applications, and some building materials are textile based. Even the cars we spend so much time in are filled with textile products. Making and using cloth permeates our lives even though few of us these days are directly involved in the process.

The Women's Board of the Museum of New Mexico will be hosting a reception during the opening on May 6, 2007 from 2:00 to 4:00 P.M. During the opening there will be spinners demonstrating and a person instructing interested members of the public on how to spin using a drop spindle.

The Museum of International Folk Art

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