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.
History of Plant Use in Textile Arts
Natural fibers have been an important
aspect of human society since 7000 B.C., and it is suspected that they were
first used in ornamental cloths since 400 B.C. in India where cotton was first
grown. Natural fibers have been used for the past 4000 to 5000 years to make
cloth, and plant and animal fibers were the only way that clothing and fabrics
could be created up until 1885 when the first synthetic fiber was made. Cotton
and flax are two of the most common natural fibers that are used today, but
historically natural fibers were made of most parts of the plant, including
bark, stem, leaf, fruit, seed hairs, and sap.
Flax
Flax is believed to be the oldest fiber
that was used to create textiles, as it was found in the tombs of mummies from
as early as 6500 B.C. The fibers from the flax are taken from the filaments in
the stem of the plant, spun together to create long strands, and then woven
into long pieces of linen that were used from anything from bandages to
clothing and tapestries. Each fiber’s length depends on the height of the leaf
that it is serving, with 10 filaments in a bundle serving each leaf on the
plant. Each filament is the same thickness, giving it a consistency that is
ideal for spinning yarn. The yarn was best used on warping boards or warping
reels to create large pieces of cloth that could be dyed and woven into
different patterns to create elaborate tapestries and embroideries. One example
of how linen was used is in the picture of a bandage that a mummy was wrapped
in, dated between 305 and 30 B.C. Some of the bandages were painted with
hieroglyphs if the person being buried was of importance to the community.
Cotton
Cotton was first used in 5000 B.C. in India and the Middle East, and spread to Europe
after they invaded India
Plant Fiber Identification in Ancient
Textiles
Light microscopy, normal transmission
electron microscopy, and most recently scanning electron microscopy (SEM) are
used to study ancient textile remains to determine what natural fibers were
used to create them. Once textiles are found, the fibers are teased out using a
light microscope and an SEM is used to look for characteristics in the textile
that show what plant it is made of. In flax, for example, scientists look for
longitudinal striations that show the cells of the plant stem and cross
striations and nodes that are specific to flax fibers. Cotton is identified by
the twist that occurs in the seed hairs when the fibers are dried to be woven.
This knowledge helps us to learn where and when the cultivation of plants that
are used in textiles first occurred, confirming the previous knowledge that was
gained from studying the era in which different textile arts aligned with from
a perspective of design.
Future of Plants in Textile Art
While plant use in textile art is still
common today, there are new innovations being developed, such as Suzanne Lee’s
art installation “BioCouture.” Lee uses fermentation to create a plant-based
paper sheet that can be cut and sewn just like cloth- ranging in thickness from
thin plastic-like materials up to thick leather-like sheets. The garments are
“disposable” because they are made entirely of plant based products and are
completely biodegradable. Within her project, Lee places a large emphasis on
making the clothing look fashionable by using avant-garde style and natural
dyes made from fruits because compostable clothing is not appealing to most
shoppers. In addition, there is a possibility to create designs with the plants
by tearing or cutting the growing sheet and allowing it to heal to create a
pattern made of scars on the textile. The possibilities to use this textile in
art installations is incredible because artists would have the ability to
create a living art piece, such as Lee does with her clothing.
Source From Wikipedia
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