At the Haus der Seidenkultur (HdS) in Krefeld, Germany, the participation of the museum’s enthusiastic and dedicated volunteers in the Mingei project has led to the installation of a new self-guided tablet application and the improved digital presentation of information about the museum’s ecclesiastical silk crafts heritage. Here Cynthia, the most active museum volunteer in the Mingei project, shares what she has learned about the public response to this digital innovation, now part of the permanent exhibition.

The Mingei applications

HdS is now home to a tablet app that guides visitors through the museum and narrates the socio-historical context of the museum exhibitions. The application uses ten hot spots in the museum, each one connected to relevant narrations and audio-visual presentations that unveil the hidden treasures of the craft of textile manufacturing. In addition, scannable items and artefacts in the museum allow the user to access even more information that is not included in the museum application. The museum tour guide is available in English and German, facilitating greater international reach.

Anecdotes and feedback from the first testers

Some 50 visitors have tested the new Mingei apps and the majority found them pleasing and interesting. “We now view our town from a completely different perspective“, say those who discovered Krefeld on the silk routes.

“Attractive options for fun and entertaining participation in convivial company have also been developed for game enthusiasts at Haus der Seidenkultur“.

That was the assessment of participants in a workshop where the new apps were tried out.   

Particular attention was paid to the tablet app which guides individual visitors through the museum. This is the task of an avatar who tells them where to go. “The path leads into an exciting future with new options for innovative presentation,” is how it was perceived by a 60-year-old visitor. Another guest was pleased that they herself could decide just how much they wanted to learn about the job of, for example, the card puncher.

A person well-versed in the local cultural scene confirmed “that the protagonists at the museum have succeeded once again in combining the past, present and future of the “Town like Silk and Velvet…Obviously a competent team was at work here!”

A representative of a local organisation for disabled persons observed that the audio guide was an opportunity for the museum to be more accessible to the local disabled population:

“It is now possible to recommend that our visually impaired members visit the museum as individual visitors because all the impressions are audibly well-communicated…Deaf persons as individual visitors also profit from the new technology because they can access the guide text themselves.”

The opportunities and challenges of digital vs personal guided tours

The digital guided tour is an opportunity for HdS because it presents a way for visitors to be able to experience the museum without having to be led around by a volunteer. This means that more visitors at different times can experience the museum, for example, at times when there are only one or two volunteers working. It is also available in German and in English, opening the museum to more international visitors. Yet irrespective of all the advantages of the new apps, those who tested the apps (and the digital tour) unanimously stated: “A digital guided tour is one thing, a guided tour with a weaver, point paper designer and “Schwadroneur”  – as one of the guides calls himself – is quite another”. Such a personal and individual impression is very difficult to replace, whatever technology is used.

Test the Mingei apps at the Haus der SeidenkultuurNow we are interested to hear your opinion. Why not visit the museum and experience our new apps for yourself! For those further afield, you can explore more about the Mingei protocol used in the digitisation and representation of the craft of silk making in Krefeld and the objects and processes digitised on the Mingei Open Platform.

Scroll below local press excerpts about the new apps.

Knitting might be one of the most common crafts today, practised around the world, with many countries and regions having their own traditions and patterns. How did Shetland manage to garner attention and enthusiasm for its local traditions, how are these traditions changing, and what does it mean for local knitters that practitioners from as far as the USA or Japan knit their patterns and want to learn their technique? And what is the connection between crofting and knitting in Shetland’s wool heritage today?

Heritage and commercialism

For hundreds of years, Shetland had been known for its textile industry. ‘Industry’ might not be the right term here, because although weaving and knitting have been mechanised and modernised, they were never industrialised. These days, most items are made using knitting machines, but finished by hand, resulting in top quality garments. Knitting has always been a commercial craft, mostly carried out by women. With little access to transportation and often living remotely, scattered across the islands, many women would stay at home and knit. They would travel into town once a week to sell their goods. 

Although they would knit for the people around them as well, as soon as young girls were taught to spin and knit they were also taught this was a way to make money. Traditional patterns are designed in such a way that they can be knitted fast, to optimise production. When Fair Isle knitting, in particular, became popular in the 1920s, demand for woollen items grew. Where commercialism and heritage craft are often seen as two opposing forces, in Shetland they have always been two sides of the same coin. 

When the offshore oil industry came to Shetland in the mid-1970s, this resulted in major changes in both women’s career prospects and their mobility. With other jobs offering better pay, knitting became a hobby at best. These days, the population of ‘commercial knitters’ is ageing: many are in their 70s and 80s. Some still take on commercial work finishing garments mostly. Their working relationships are intertwined with social relationships, a network designers or producers from the outside cannot easily tap into. Now the commercial side of knitting is less relevant, women tend to knit patterns they like, rather than commissions. When a well-known haute-couture brand came to the island, with the desire to honour local traditions and to commission more than 100 lace-knit dresses, they could not find any knitters who would take on that job. Although the craft is still popular, the commercial tradition, if you like, has changed. 

An additional consequence of knitting turning from a job to a hobby is that highly skilled knitters who would have traditionally made a living out of knitting, now knit for charity events or church sales, which operate at a very different price point. This has made it harder for those who do still knit commercially to ask a fair price for their products. 

Bringing outsiders in

The unique qualities of Shetland wool and woollen products have drawn outsiders to the islands for decades. They come to do research, often with the intention to share the outcomes, be it knowledge or patterns, with a wider audience. The local community did not necessarily support these outside researchers and would be reluctant to share their information. Still today, some are very protective of their patterns and techniques. There is a sense of wanting to protect the craft, not wanting outsiders to ‘steal’ a local tradition. 

Shetland Wool Week was set up in 2009 with the specific intention to draw outsiders to Shetland and create awareness of Shetland wool and woollen products outside of the islands. Initially, locals did not engage much with Shetland Wool Week: they considered it something for tourists. What made and continues to make Shetland Wool Week a success is a combination of two approaches. First, a good marketing strategy and secondly, a continuing commitment to engage locals who are involved in the wool industry in some way, from farmers to knitters. Let us focus on the latter first. 

When Shetland Wool Week began, it was part of a national (now international) event called Wool Week, organised by The Campaign for Wool, “in order to raise awareness amongst consumers about the unique, natural, renewable and biodegradable benefits offered by the fibre.” Wool Week was introduced to Shetland by Jamieson & Smith, a wool broker who buys wool from many Shetland farmers and who were involved with The Campaign for Wool. Jamieson & Smith teamed up with the Amenity Trust, which aims to safeguard Shetland’s heritage. A small event at first, Shetland Wool Week was seen by locals as an event for tourists. The Week’s organising committee has worked hard to involve the local community in a variety of ways. Part of the programme is provided by the organisation itself, but local organisations, designers and shop owners are encouraged to add to the programme. Their offer is vetted by the organisation and added to all communications and programme overview in exchange for a modest fee, while they get to keep the money made through ticket sales. 

The organisation aims to provide a programme that is as diverse as possible, from farm visits to knitting classes, from lectures to social events. Although some teachers are invited to the event from elsewhere and some events are not wool-related, the vast majority of the scheduled events should both have a link with local Shetland traditions and wool, from production to finished product. The organisation makes sure to emphasise the connection between the landscape, location and climate of the islands, the quality of the wool and local knitting traditions. Shetland textiles are part of Shetland culture and visitors to Shetland Wool Week are known to want to engage in all aspects of the islands and their traditions. The relatively small scale of the event and the connection with the local community are part of the success of Shetland Wool Week. To make this possible, locals had to be willing to participate. 

The organising committee first invested in relationships with experienced knitters, who were hired to teach several classes at the event. This meant these knitters could both make money from their finished product and also by teaching others how to knit in the Shetland tradition. Younger knitters are trained to become teachers themselves, to make sure this skill does not disappear either. As well as teachers, the organisation works with farmers and crofters, asking them to give tours of their farms and talk about their work. The organising committee advises farmers on creating an event that will match the expectations of participants. These farm visits provide an opportunity for farmers to explain their role in the production process. How do they work? What do the sheep need? What does the year cycle at the farm look like? Farmers also have an opportunity to shine a light on their position in a larger context and talk about the way EU laws affect their work. Shetland exists within Scotland, the UK, Europe, and local traditions and international laws do not exist independent of each other. On the one hand, Shetland Wool Week provides a wealth of opportunities to show and safeguard the complex web of traditions, skills and ways of life that all feed into the ‘wool identity’ of Shetland. On the other, it allows knitters from around the world to learn more about the background of the yarns they knit with or the patterns they love.

Managing expectations

After the first few years, Promote Shetland became involved in promoting Shetland Wool Week. Promote Shetland is tasked with raising awareness and informing tourists and prospective new inhabitants about Shetland. As such, they were perfectly placed to focus on the unique qualities of the location and local traditions, while also having a lot of experience marketing the local to an international audience. In late March, Edinburgh Yarn Festival is a highlight in many a knitter’s diary. It is here where Shetland Wool Week’s annual free hat pattern is released each year, creating a buzz around the festival which will take place in September. Once a team from Shetland Wool Week started attending the Edinburgh Yarn Festival, the number of national and European visitors grew considerably. The same happened with American knitters after a stall was booked at Vogue Knitting Live in Manhattan. 

To sum up, the first two steps of this successful campaign are: Be where our audience is and meet them there; Give something to our audience that is meaningful to them, in this case, a free pattern. The last, but certainly not least, important step in the campaign is to manage expectations. More than other destinations, Shetland Wool Week has to invest time and energy in creating a clear picture of what can be expected. Not only do knitters receive information about getting to and staying on Shetland, but they also need to understand the lay of the land, need to know that they will have to rent a car and wear walking shoes and weather-appropriate clothes. Take-out coffees are not readily available on every corner and American guests, in particular, are sometimes surprised to find the local supermarket does not, in fact, have a salad bar. What makes Shetland Wool Week, and Shetland wool, so unique: the location, the rugged terrain, the remoteness, the absence of a convention centre, needs to be communicated clearly to enthuse and to help people prepare.

What brings people to Shetland, even though they could stay at home and knit, is its ‘localness’: the place, the sheep, the people and the traditions. This results in new revenue streams for locals and a growing awareness of the quality of Shetland wool. The latter provides a commercial incentive to maintain the tradition, but also, interestingly, growing awareness of and appreciation for local traditions amongst locals. Shetland’s wool heritage is not something of the past but rather something of the present, and therefore it has a better chance of being something of the future as well. Local knitters have started recording their own traditions and writing their own pattern books, reaping the benefits and maintaining ownership, while sharing their culture with the rest of the world. And as for the question whether a non-native can ever become a Fair Isle knitter, there might be two different answers, depending on whether you solely focus on the technique and end-product, or whether the entirety of the craft and its traditions are included.

Crofting

Crofting is a form of small-scale farming, specific to the Scottish Highlands and Islands. Traditionally, a crofter would rent a house and some land from a landlord, although these days some crofters on the mainland own their own. On Fair Isle, there is only one landlord: The National Trust for Scotland. All crofters rent from this organisation. Rachel Challoner is not native to Shetland, but found herself running a croft after coming to the island for a temporary job. Traditionally, Fair Isle is a fishing community. Women would run the croft and knit, while the men were out at sea. For several decades now, the islanders know they are dependent on outsiders coming to the islands to keep up the population. A single female crofter with no direct ties to the island, Rachel has found herself becoming part of the island community. 

Going back a generation, the island had a stronger community, fuelled by social events. Crofting, however, still brings people together. For example, while the crofters tend to their own sheep and land on the south of the island, the roughly 300 sheep that roam the island’s northern part are a shared responsibility. Everyone comes together four times a year to bring down these wild sheep, to clip and shear them and provide medical care if needed. Crofters also take turns to check on the sheep and, during lambing season, their young. Mowing and baling the grass to prepare for winter, similarly gets the whole population involved. However, the population on the island is aging. Young families are encouraged to come to the island. Many do, but they might be more interested in living in the old house than taking on the croft itself. Of the eighteen crofts on the island, ten are now run by one family, who step in whenever a crofter becomes too old or when outsiders who are assigned the croft don’t want to run it. The change from an island of small crofts to one big farm threatens tradition. Because crofting is not very profitable, many traditional crofters had other jobs on the side, jobs that were crucial for keeping the island going: manning the fire station, crewing the boat, and air strip duties for example. Young families from outside might have other, sufficient types of income and are often not interested in these additional jobs. This too, can endanger traditional island life. Traditions involving religion, music and social gatherings, as well as the local museum, risk being lost if newcomers to the island are not interested in investing time and energy in becoming part of the community. 

Crofting and knitting

“In my brain I was a crofter on one side and a knitter on the other side. I don’t think of the two as intertwined. But because you contacted me, you got me thinking about the relationship between the two. The women doing both in itself was a tradition.” Even only thirty years ago, most knitters would also have been crofters. That is not the case anymore and Rachel sees great benefit in using Shetland Wool Week to engage knitters in the entire process, from crofting and raising the sheep to spinning the yarn and knitting local patterns. Changes to the wool industry have had a direct effect on Fair Isle crofters. Raising sheep for meat is now much more profitable than raising them for wool. As a consequence, all crofters on the island breed crosses that ensure a better meat production. Wool has become a by-product. All wool is sold to Jamieson’s of Shetland and everyone on the island knits with Jamieson’s yarn. Because Jamieson’s offers fairer prices than other wool buyers, it is still viable for crofters on the islands to sell their fleeces. Most sheep farmers on the UK mainland no longer sell their fleece at all, sometimes even resorting to burning them, as the sheep have to be clipped anyway. The price mainland farmers receive for their wool these days does not even cover the shipping costs.

Taking responsibility at a financial risk

Rachel has noticed a growing interest amongst hand knitters for small flock and single farm yarns. Through Instagram and Shetland Wool Week she has built up a network of knitters and after three years of research she has decided to return to raising Shetland sheep specifically for the quality of their wool. She can sell her yarn for a much fairer price to hand knitters specifically interested in her croft and flock. She has had to save up her fleeces for two years in order to have a large enough amount for a small spinning mill to be interested in taking her on as a customer. Jamieson’s cannot facilitate her request to keep her yarn separate from all the other yarn they process. Rachel decided to work with Uist Wool, a community mill, run as a social cooperative where yarn is not bleached or dyed and where they are happy to take on smaller batches of yarn. What’s more is that this mill, although not a Shetland business, is also located on a small island in the Outer Hebrides. This change required an upfront investment, but Rachel is hopeful it will pay off. Already, the income from selling her wool and knitwear means she no longer has to sell lambs for meat at the sales. 

“Living on Fair Isle comes with a bit of a responsibility. You don’t want to be part of the generation that lost fair isle knitting.” Most knitters and knitwear designers on the island still feel deeply connected with the island traditions, although many also modernise. They might use new colour combinations, for example, and the arrival of the Internet on the island a few years ago has made it possible for them to reach a global audience. Fair Isle knitwear is not protected: a lot of it is produced in a factory on the mainland, but ‘made on Fair Isle’ still holds meaning for some buyers. Fair Isle knitting and knitwear are still popular around the globe, but one does wonder what we lose when the traditional model of crofting is lost on the island.

Based on an interview with Dr Carol Christiansen, Curator and Community Museums Officer at the Shetland Museum and Archives and member of the Shetland Wool Week board, conducted on 7 October 2020, and an interview with Rachel Challoner, crofter on Fair Isle, conducted on 19 April 2021.

First the pattern was transferred to cartridge paper which is similar to millimetre paper but much coarser, the vertical lines representing the warp and the horizontal lines the weft. The size, shape and number of boxes on the paper were calculated according to the relationship of weft threads per centimetre to warp threads per centimetre. One box on the cartridge paper corresponded to one warp or weft point in the fabric either as part of the design or of the background weave. The craft practitioner transformed the design into a graphic representation using brush and paint, a task which required both graphic and creative skills and technical understanding. At the outset the point paper designer needed to be familiar with the end product – the material it would be made of, what treatment this material had already been subjected to and how it is to be tailored. 

The point paper designer needed to have a very wide basic knowledge from the technical details of the looms and machines, to the theory of fibres, theory of finishing and design, stylistics, topography, theory of weaves, theory of pattern repeat (i.e. the smallest unit of repeat of a pattern). The choice of weave determines the character of the design and it can improve it and accentuate the quality of the finished product. It is up to the point paper designer to make this choice based on past experience.

There are three basic weaves – basket weave, twill weave and satin weave – but over time point paper designers have developed numerous others which they keep in a sort of catalogue. And last but not least the quality and price requirements of the customer need to be considered. Each fabric requires a different point paper design. A delicate necktie fabric has completely different requirements to high quality damask bedding. At the same time it is important for the point paper designer to know whether both sides of the fabric will be visible at any one time. In the case of a lady’s scarf they would- i.e. both sides need to be attractive – in the case of a necktie the reverse side is concealed with lining material.

The point paper design also controls the insertion of the weft thread into the loom and the craft practitioner decides at which point in the fabric one or several colours appear. Once this has been completed, the finished point paper design is passed on to the card puncher, a male vocation in the textile sector as it required a certain amount of strength.  The card puncher then punched the design and the processing information into cards which when laced together to form continuous pattern sets controlled the Jacquard looms. 

To transfer the information he needed to read the data contained in the point paper design. This was a complicated task and it was a source of errors. Optically legible colours were therefore introduced for point paper designing.  The design was then mounted on a drum-shaped reading device which could scan the point paper design dot for dot and line for line, the scanned data being transferred to cards using a type of keyboard.  Each punched card produced in this way contained the information for one weft thread shed. A hole in the card signified “warp raised”, i.e. the warp thread is visible in the fabric. 

The vocation was officially recognised until 1978 as was the vocation of point paper designer. Since then everything has been done by computer and the craft practitioners have new designations: the point paper designer is “Product Designer Textile” and he uses a scanner, digitalising tablet, plotter pen and point paper design software for his work. The card puncher is now a “Pattern Programmer Weaving”. Initially of course computer technology also used punched cards to transfer data in a similar way but the connections between the two…. That is another story!

Author: Andreas Deling, Point Paper Designer and last apprentice trained by Günter Göbels (English translation: Cynthia Beißwenger). Conversations with Günter Göbels. Sources: Archive Berufnet/Arbeitsagentur(Employment Agency)

The team of Mingei Project visited the local industry and interviewed the owner Mrs. Karli Irene. In the beginning, the industry started to create fine hand-woven textiles always on woven looms. Concurrently, they constructed wooden looms, which they sold. Thus, all the cottage industries were started by them. Nowadays, the owner still maintains this craftsmanship, putting warps and selling threads to few weavers that still exist.

Since then, times have changed over the years, the development has made them study the market requirements and needs, and namely what is in high demand and what is more commercial in order to survive and to be competitive in the market. Consequently, they have started to create a variety of products that can be used by modern people, adjusting to their everyday needs. Specifically, at the moment they are producing wallets, purses, mats, aprons, and so on. All the products are made of 100 percent cotton and hand woven on the loom in a traditional way, contributing both to the preservation of this traditional job and to the strengthening of the local economy. Furthermore, at the instigation of the development association of women entrepreneurs of Crete, which often organizes exhibitions,the art of handicrafts is promoted. The industry also undertakes the equipment of hotels, weaving carpets, pillows, framed patterns and various other things in different patterns and colors, since they collaborate with interior designers.

To recapitulate, Mrs Irene Karli has succeeded in preserving a traditional job, which mainly flourished in the past, while at the same time she has tried to adjust it to the needs and requirements of modern societies, intertwining tradition with fashion.

Written by Argyro Petraki (FORTH), photography and video by Nikitas Michalakis (FORTH)

India has a long weaving tradition. Although the bulk of the country’s textile industry has been industrialised and moved to cities, the knowledge and skill of handweaving still exists in rural areas. Safeguarding this Heritage Craft takes a different form in India than it might in some European countries, for example, as a result of different heritage traditions, and unique challenges and opportunities that exist here. We spoke with Sumit Dang, director of Meraki Signature Private Limited, and Suket Dhir, fashion designer. Dang has been involved in various projects that safeguard weaving heritage through commercial practice. Dhir creates high-end menswear and womenswear designs, using primarily handwoven fabrics, sourced from and created in collaboration with expert weavers living in rural communities.

Same challenges, different contexts

Both Europe and India face the same biggest challenge in terms of Heritage Crafts. The numbers of Heritage Craft practitioners are dwindling, and the population is aging, as young people move to cities or find employment elsewhere. The big difference between Europe and India, however, is the context within which this challenge takes place. In India, this context consists of more significant rural isolation, greater socio-economic differences and cultural differences between rural communities and city dwellers. Where in Europe often local communities can maintain a craft as a hobby, or for example develop a heritage site that can facilitate the safeguarding of a Heritage Craft, this is not an option in most rural communities in India due to poverty, a lack of infrastructure and other socio-political structures. 

The solution surfacing in India is also different from that in most of Europe; it is commercial. For the case study at hand, ensuring weavers receive fair and regular pay for their heritage products is the best way to safeguard this particular Heritage Craft. A good example of a company working in this model is Jaipur Rugs, a company specialising in producing heritage rugs for a global market. This family business works closely with weaving communities and international designers. The needs and traditions of rural communities have shaped the company’s business model. 

Traditionally, rural weavers learn the craft within their community, often from a very young age. Weaving is generally one of various means of income, with agricultural work often being another important source of food and income for a family. Men and women weave at home alongside their other duties and children learn in this family context. However, contemporary child labour laws and the country’s experiences regarding this issue hinder this traditional way of learning how to weave. Children are not allowed to help out in the family business. As a result, the way families hand down knowledge and skills is interrupted. 

A cottage industry for a global market

Dang identifies two main requirements with regards to safeguarding hand weaving. First, hand weaving needs to provide attractive job prospects. Secondly, there needs to be a robust market for the products that are being produced. Needless to say, these two requirements influence each other. Of course, many Heritage Crafts have developed as a means of creating an income, but in the European heritage field this commercial side of Heritage Craft is sometimes problematised or even ignored. Taking a commercial approach, while respecting the heritage of a craft, can lead to different choices and solutions. 

For example, Dang emphasises the importance of focusing on those opportunities that are likely to yield commercial success. For a Heritage Craft to be monetised, it will need to be able to find a solid (international) market, as well as have a unique heritage quality. If there’s a good likelihood both can be achieved, it will be possible to gather the financial investment that is necessary to connect the producer(s) with the market. Therefore, it is important to understand the traditions and potential of the different Heritage Craft Communities. In addition, it is important to analyse the challenges they face when it comes to developing a market for their product. 

As many weavers live remotely, attention must be paid to creating infrastructures for knowledge exchange, source materials and finished products, and distributing finances. Jaipur Rugs has set up a small number of weaving hubs, where weavers can come together to weave, creating one physical space where information, materials and money can be exchanged. However, most weavers did not want to give up their traditional way of working, which traditionally is at home and planned around other activities and care responsibilities. This obviously greatly influences the infrastructure that is needed. Some weavers create their own designs, others work together with (international) designers. Designers need to understand the traditions, possibilities and boundaries of an individual weaver to create a suitable design. Weavers who work with designers can often earn more money, because they create a product that is in higher demand. When an end product is of higher quality, it often requires more time to produce, but it will also fetch a higher price.

Raising awareness

Handmade products cost more than those produced by machine and in India, where mass-produced woven products are readily available and where craft is often associated with charity, marketing Heritage Craft products can be challenging. Cutting out the ‘middleman’ or working with experienced distributors can help bring the cost down while maintaining fair wages for the weavers at the same time. However, most important, according to Dang, is to raise awareness amongst customers. Explaining the unique qualities of Heritage Craft products is key. The argument that handwoven materials are more expensive will not convince customers to pay the extra price. What are they getting ‘extra’ when they buy Heritage Craft textiles? 

In marketing Heritage Crafts, Dang suggests focusing on tradition, the human touch, the physical quality, the story behind the product and the fact it cannot be made by machine. Neither producers nor designers are necessarily good at building a brand. Therefore, it is important to invest in gaining this skill. A successful brand is not carried by one or two people, but exists within an ecosystem of people with different practical and commercial skills. It is crucial that the Heritage Craft Community is part of this ecosystem. Jaipur Rugs invests in training local community members and grassroots leaders to achieve this. Finally, creating a strong online presence, including background stories, images and videos can help people to familiarise potential customers with a brand.

Designing with handwoven fabrics

Suket Dhir sources all his textiles from India and 70% of the textiles he uses are woven on handlooms. This has a direct impact on the price of his products. His designs are high-end, but also designed to be worn for a lifetime, to be heirlooms and handed down. Or, as his grandmother used to say: “Buy little, buy good.” For this reason, Dhir focuses on creating designs that have personality, but can be worn to various occasions and are made to last. A certain romanticism can come with working with handwoven materials, but in order to build a successful business, pragmatism is also important. Therefore, Dhir focuses particularly on using handwoven materials when they can only be made using a handloom. Fabrics that can be produced by machines should continue to be made by machines. Handlooms would not be able to meet global demands and focusing on the techniques that are unique to handlooms helps preserve them.

The risk of guilt

When working with comparatively poor rural communities, it is often easy to act on a feeling of guilt. Dhir describes how the first time he worked with weavers from West Bengal, he was so focused on giving people a fair wage, he offered double the price they were used to getting. He was advised not to do it, but felt it was the right thing to do. He was surprised to find his first shipment was late and when he went to visit the weavers to see what was causing the delay, he was met by an angry wife. Now her husband earned twice as much for the same work, he only worked for half the time, meaning his production was falling behind and he had more spare time in which he could spend his money. For the family, this was not a positive change at all. This experience was an eye opener for Dhir and since that time he has noticed that guilt is often also used in sales further down the line. Paying a fair price for a product is often framed as ‘charity’. Many campaigns for fair fashion focus on the people making the clothes, and play into a feeling of guilt with the buyer: The poor weaver deserves a fair wage. But, as Dhir puts it: “There’s no improvement to the livelihood of the person who makes your clothes just because you see a picture of them.” What’s more, this approach ignores the mastery and skill a weaver has developed. This is why Dhir believes in focusing on the quality of the craft and creating high-end made-to-last pieces with high quality fabrics.

Many rural communities create their own distinctive weaves that can only be created on a handloom. Dhir sees potential to elevate these weaves and give them a cult-like status. Just like, for example, Japanese samurai swords have gained a recognisable status, resulting in people being willing to spend the money for an original, handmade sword. This is, as Dhir sees it, another way of building a ‘brand’. How can one present their traditional craft in a way that translates its traditional value into monetary value? 

At the same time, it is important to contemporise fabrics. Traditional weaving methods can be maintained while using more contemporary colours, for example. Dhir advocates celebrating the craft, the making, which he sees as distinctly different from the often-used trope of empathy, especially in the context of charity. The people making the products will come and go, but the craft, the art, will remain as long as it is passed down. Dhir believes focusing on the inherent quality of the craft can provide better chances of gaining a fair price for a product. If the craft itself is elevated to a cult-like status, there will always be people interested in learning it. The craft would not have to rely on children following in their parents’ footsteps, something that will inevitably become rarer over time. 

His biggest challenge now is to reach a global audience that might be interested in his designs. Where cheaper brands can rely more on online sales, handwoven materials need to be touched to convey their quality and value. There is an untapped potential in the longstanding heritage of handweaving in India which could fuel the birth of true luxury brands.

Based on an interview with Sumit Dang, director of Meraki Signature Private Limited, conducted on 30 September 2020, and Suket Dhir, fashion designer and winner of the   International Woolmark Prize 2015-16 on 12 April 2021.

In the modern technologically dominated world, traditional arts and professions gradually tend to become extinct, as the vast majority of people prefer to purchase standardized goods offered at low prices rather than handmade ones. In contrast to this tendency, fortunately there are people and organizations that try to preserve the Cultural Heritage artifacts and the way in which they are created, making them accessible to the next generation. One such typical example is the weaving workshop “Aretousa” situated near Archanes Village on the island of Crete, Greece.

History of the workshop

The weaving workshop “Aretousa” was founded on the occasion of some women’s participation in a weaving seminar provided by the Municipality. After the seminar had been completed, some women, who wanted to move forward and utilize the acquired knowledge, came up with the idea to set up a Social Cooperative Enterprise and create hand woven textiles using traditional looms. The start of the workshop was difficult enough for them, since they had to look for traditional, old looms in many storage rooms, an effort that required a huge amount of time because most of them had been burnt or thrown away over the course of time. At last, having found enough looms, they decided to set them up again, giving them life and making use of them in order for the traditional weaving to be revived.

Products

At the instigation of the Development Association of Women Entrepreneurs of Crete and having studied the market requirements and needs, namely what is in high demand and is more commercial, they tried to produce weaving textiles in more modern designs so that they can be used in today’s modern societies. Using recycled clothes as the main raw material and preserving the tradition and the way our grandmothers used to weave, they construct more modern artifacts, such as laptop bags, mats, tablecloths, place mats, purses and various others that can be held by a modern woman or can be laid in modern homes. Some innovations in the field of weaving are also applied in the workshop; women are able to weave both double-sided carpets, which have different colours on the top and at the bottom, and double-width carpets, which means that a carpet of 80 cm can become 1.60 cm.

Mrs Andie, the cooperator of “Aretousa” Workshop

“Aretousa” Workshop collaborates with the craft instructor Mrs. Andie from the Netherlands, who teaches the women in various techniques of her homeland. As Mrs. Andie says: “What I admire is the way women here use the old looms and make textiles of such quality that does not exist in the Netherlands. The only thing that makes me sad is that the original, old wool we have at our disposal decreases. Thus, I would like to make wool from Cretan sheep and prepare it for the loom. Therefore, I try to wrap wool and I discovered that the Cretan one is very useful. Furthermore, it is crucial people be capable of distinguishing the good from the bad one. Unfortunately, the technical knowledge has died off over the years and now I am trying to discover it again.”

To recapitulate, the Social Cooperative Enterprise founded by women aware of the traditional way of weaving succeeded in preserving a traditional job, which mainly flourished in the past, by adjusting it to the needs and requirements of modern societies, intertwining tradition with fashion.

Written by Argyro Petraki (FORTH), photography and video by Nikitas Michalakis (FORTH)

Pattern design once was a well-respected vocation within the textile sector. The pattern designer or ‘dessinateur’ was the first craftsman involved in the production of splendid silk fabrics for, amongst other things, liturgical vestments. How did one become a pattern designer? And why has this once established vocation turned into oblivion?

The road towards pattern design

In the mid-19th century, the silk industry in and around Krefeld was made up of around 90 companies which required an increasing number of different skilled craftsmen. Therefore, both industry and small trades called for the establishment of a textile college, where the subjects appropriate to the production and processing of fabric, in particular silk, would be taught. As a result, the “Crefeld Höheren Webschule” (Krefeld Textile College) was set up in 1855. This was the only vocational college focussing on silk production in Germany and it soon gained a very good reputation. It was associated with a valuable textile collection right from the time it was established. Both the historical and the contemporary sample collections provided the basic requirements for design work and were a source of inspiration in particular for pattern designers.

This college, which was re-named “Textilingenieurschule” (Textile Engineering College) after the Second World War, provided the ideal opportunity for young men and women in Krefeld to learn an interesting and respected vocation, particularly if they had artistic talent and dexterity. This was indeed so in the case of Dieter Blatt and Günter Göbels, now active volunteers at Haus der Seidenkultur (HdS). As youngsters, both of them enjoyed drawing, were creative and were encouraged by their families to undertake the appropriate vocational training.[2] Today – over 50 years later – they are still happy to demonstrate their skills to visitors at Haus der Seidenkultur.

For the three important crafts required for Jacquard weaving, the basic curriculum took 3 years to complete and was very varied. The theoretical part alone included weave theory, material science, point paper design as well as life drawing, morphology and chromatics, composition and pattern design. The two HdS volunteers also explained that free-hand drawing, which was essential for design, was taught and practised during evening classes.

Having completed the basic training, the apprentices could choose one of the three specific crafts, namely pattern design, point paper design or Jacquard card punching. At the time in the mid-20th century, there was a clear differentiation between the three crafts. Once the apprentices had completed their training, some of them went on to work in independent technical workshops comprising 3 to 30 experts which served small silk production companies including weaving workshops for ecclesiastical textiles, whilst others were employed in technical workshops at the large textile factories in Krefeld and the surrounding area.

From established crafter to computer expert

The vocation of pattern designer was officially recognised on 4th November 1949. However, as a result of the increasing mechanisation and the re-structuring of vocational training in the textile sector, the vocation designation was abolished again on 1st August 1978. Nowadays the tasks of the pattern designer and point paper designer are all carried out by computer by one single expert, referred to as a “Textile Pattern and Product Designer”.

Pattern design was one of the most respected crafts in this sector. The pattern designer definitely needed to be creative and before starting on the design he had to carefully take into account many different aspects of the fabric to be produced – quality, final use, colour composition, pattern size and repeat.

Not only had he to consider historical patterns, former and modern art trends (e.g. Bauhaus), customer specifications but also to create his own abstract designs. He was responsible for determining the optical appearance of the fabric, had to be aware of the effect the choice of weave would have and take into account the chromaticity of the finished fabric. The number of colours used in the design depended to a large extent on the final product. For a print design, there was virtually no limit to the number of colours which could be used, but for a woven pattern the number of colours was determined by the actual production conditions. In the course of the 20th century, more and more synthetic colours and fabrics were introduced which needed to be handled differently to natural colours and fabrics.

In the case of Jacquard weaving, the pattern repeat is determined by the size of the loom harness. The maximum repeat width which the pattern designer has to take into account depends on the warp thread density per centimetre and the harness repeat.

Having considered all the above, the pattern designer went to work sketching the pattern as a picture which he then coloured according to the requirements of the finished fabric using brushes, paint and coloured crayons. For damask tablecloths which are white-in-white, the pattern design was produced in various tones of grey. The pattern designer also determined the weave to be used, as this gave the design its final character. Then he handed it over to the point paper designer for the next stage in the preparation prior to weaving.

Written by Cynthia Beisswenger and Andreas Deling (HdS)

References

Have you ever wondered how the pattern in splendid silk fabrics is created? Or asked yourself how many steps are involved in the process? The answer is Jacquard weaving. But what does that entail exactly? Haus der Seidenkultur takes us along the journey of Jacquard.

The original draw loom

The story behind Jacquard weaving dates back to China in the second century B.C., when the first draw loom was invented for silk weaving. In order to weave an intricate silk pattern or picture, it is necessary to raise or lower each of the sometimes thousands of warp threads individually to form a shed through which to pass the shuttle.

At that time, this was done by a so-called draw-boy who sat on top of the loom. Every single row of weaving required different warp threads to be raised or lowered and consequently the production process was very slow and required meticulous attention. This was the main reason why over a period of three-quarters of a century several inventors turned their minds to constructing a better system.

Basile Bouchon improved the traditional draw loom in 1725, when he substituted an endless band of perforated paper for the bunches of looped strings previously used. In 1728, Jean-Baptiste Falcon used perforated cards manipulated by a draw boy. Jacques de Vaucanson combined these two inventions in 1745, placing his machine where the pulley box had previously been. Finally, the breakthrough came from Joseph Marie Jacquard who took these inventions one step further to speed up the process and remove the need for a weaver’s assistant.

Developing Jacquard weaving

Joseph Marie Jacquard was born into a master weaver’s family in Lyon France in 1752. He spent most of his time helping in his father’s workshop gaining experience in the various facets of weaving rather than going to school. Some say that he actually worked as a draw boy. After the death of his father in 1772, Jacquard half-heartedly took over his business. However, he must have started his late career in silk loom-making around 1799.

Jacquard’s dream was to build a revolutionary new machine for weaving pictures into silk brocade. He had an innate talent as a craftsman and inventor, carving the pulleys and other components himself. Other master craftsmen and businessmen obviously had faith in him because he was offered financial support to keep working on his machine until it was perfected. He finally took out a first patent in December 1800, which is registered in the archives in Lyons for a “machine designed to replace the draw boy in the manufacture of figured fabrics”. The patent for his brocade loom, with which he is most known for, was finally granted in 1804.

The draw-boy is replaced

On Jacquard’s loom, the weaver controlled the pattern with the help of a punched card system. Each punched card was pressed once against the back of an array of small, narrow, circular metal rods. Each rod controls the action of a weighted string that in turn controls one individual warp thread. If the rod encountered solid cardboard, the rod would not move and the warp thread stayed where it was. If the rod went through a hole then the warp thread would be raised to form part of the shed. The pattern or picture was embodied in an endless string of cards which were advanced one at a time by the weaver depressing the treadle of the loom.

Fabulous ornate silk fabrics could now be woven much faster. Napoleon and his wife visited Jacquard’s workshop in 1805, having previously decreed that his ceremonial garments be woven by the silk weavers in Lyon; no doubt on a Jacquard loom. He also declared that Jacquard’s loom should be public property, in return for which Jacquard received a handsome pension. Jacquard looms soon spread around Europe, including to Krefeld in Germany.

Moreover, Jacquard’s invention has influenced industries beyond crafts. The use of replaceable punched cards to control repetitive operations is considered important for the development of computer hardware. Jacquard’s idea of punched cards to control a machine was taken up by Babbage and Ada Lovelace and incorporated in his “Victorian” computer.

At Haus der Seidenkultur in Krefeld, Jacquard looms originally dating from 1868, just 30 years after Jacquard’s death, can still be seen in action in the original workplace. Experts are still demonstrating the preliminary skills required to prepare the harness for a Jacquard loom and transfer an ornate picture to fabric via point paper and punched cards. The Mingei project aims to preserve and represent the knowledge and skill of these crafters.

Written by Cynthia Beisswenger of Haus der Seidenkultur

Sources:

Encyclopaedia Britannica Ltd., London, Copyright 1957
Jacquard’s Web, James Essinger, Published by Oxford University Press, First Paperback edition 2007

As a way to represent and preserve Heritage Crafts in the context of Mingei, Virtual Humans are used to reenact and recreate the crafts in Virtual Environments. The Virtual Humans are created using either face scanning or third-party software. We explained this process in our previous article about the creation of virtual avatars.

Our next step is to utilize these Virtual Humans to reenact the crafts that have been digitised by other partners in Mingei. We have started with the pilot on loom weaving, conducted at Haus der Seidenkultur in Krefeld.

Conceptual decomposition

According to Mingei’s approach, we conduct a conceptual decomposition to get an overview of all elements that make up the craft of loom weaving. This includes both the machine used into its functional parts, and the motion that takes place during the craft execution into its basic steps. This decomposition of the craft in separate steps is made possible by the Mingei ontology and the process schemes of crafts, which is explained in detail in this article by CNR.

The machine and its parts utilized in each craft have been digitized with 3D reconstruction by FORTH, and the movement of the crafters has been captured by Armines. The results of these processes have been combined to create the virtual reenactment. We provide a generic approach and this segmentation can be applied to any craft.

For the case of loom weaving, and according to our approach, the weaving process is decomposed into 3 actions. The first step is shedding, when warp threads are separated to form a shed. The second step is picking. Weft is passed across the shed using the shuttle. The third and final step is beating. Weft is pushed against the fabric using the beater. Thus, the decomposed loom interface components are the shuttle, treadle and beater. The whole process can be visualized as in the diagram below.

From diagram to reenactment

In order to reenact the movements of the practitioners during craft execution, Motion Capture is used. This has been conducted by project partner Armines in Krefeld in March 2019. The Virtual Humans’ motion is driven by these Motion Capture (animation) files. However, we do not have Motion Capture for the movements of the machine parts or tools used; this is rather induced from the human motion.

The movement of the machine parts is thus the result of the motion of the human. First, we defined the body parts that utilize and move each machine part. Then we defined appropriate grip postures, orientations and attachment points. And finally, we created appropriate mathematical formulas that describe the movement of the machine part, according to the motion of the human. The result can be seen below. where a Virtual Human is operating the treadle of the loom machine.

This reenactment aims to contribute to the representation efforts of the craft, and help in its promotion and dissemination. For the time being, we have implemented this methodology successfully for the treadle (pedal) of the loom. Future work will include achieving this for the beater and shuttle.

Written by MIRALab Sarl