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.

International webinar Waag: Technology as a means of preservation

Online, four heritage experts along with moderator Nicole McNeilly conducted an international webinar focused on how technology can be utilised to preserve heritage crafts. During the presentation, the audience learned more about the three Mingei pilot projects, on glassblowing, silk weaving, and mastic growing, which will create tools for heritage craft presentation and guide future research.

The Mingei project platform and different technologies like 3D reconstructions, used to preserve and represent heritage craft, were also demonstrated. Following the presentation was a panel on various topics like the inclusion of AI in craft preservation, how the Mingei project can serve to pass on informal heritage craft knowledge to a broad audience, and how this knowledge of the past can serve to inform our future.

rewatch the webinar

Local session Waag: Fashion as a thread between past and present

At Waag, creative Director Dick van Dijk provided an overview of the Mingei project and introduced the attendees to keynote speaker and renowned fashion designer Antoine Peters’ work, saying that it ‘looks into the past and provides new context’ for the future. During the keynote, Peters discussed several of his projects including his collaboration with the Zeeuws Museum. For the museum, he reimagined a traditional nineteenth-century garment from Zeeland, the yak, as a modern garment: the Jaktrui. In creating the Jaktrui, Peters ‘wanted to communicate something from the past to the now and translate it in my own way’. The zero-waste folding technique was then used for economic reasons, but now is very relevant from a sustainability perspective.

Following his presentation was a workshop on the craft of repairing clothing. This workshop was designed based on the Reflow project aiming to share knowledge on how to rethink, repair, and revalue your wardrobe. During this workshop, attendees were encouraged to rethink items of their own clothing focusing on both aesthetic and technique in clothing repair.

• Rewatch the workshop
• Watch the instruction
• View the photos of the workshop (photo credit: Jimena Gauna)
• An impression of the local sessions from the European partners will be published on the Mingei website.
   

How heritage can shape the future

So how does the Mingei project serve to connect the past, present, and future? Inspired by the Mingei movement in Japan, which originally served as a response to Western mechanisation in the mid 1920s, the Mingei project today focuses on the digitalisation and accessibility of heritage craft, both tangible and intangible.

Through use of modern technologies like interactive Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality, Mingei seeks to tell stories not only about the craft objects themselves, but about the rituals, practice, and knowledge that accompany these objects. The application of modern technology to heritage craft can then serve to build a bridge between the past and present.

In regard to the connection between past and present, Antoine Peters notes that ‘a design or a translation now always has this reference captured in it. So you have these little bridges – in storytelling or in the visual part’. When Peters was researching the yak, he found that no documentation existed detailing its construction proces – namely, how to take one piece of fabric and fold it to create the jak. Instead, he learned the folding technique from 91-year-old craftswoman Mrs. Vos.

This mirrors a challenge that was discovered during the Mingei project: during a glassblowing pilot in Paris, there was no documentation that outlined the movements and rituals of past glassblowers. Similar to the work Peters did to understand the historical process of crafting the yak, those working on the glass pilot had to find alternate methods to learn craft heritage techniques and movements and were able to reverse-engineer steps required for glassblowing. Both Peters and the glass pilot help to further an understanding of the past while contributing valuable knowledge to the future.

Through work like the Mingei project and Peters’ collaboration with the Zeeuws Museum, modern concepts and technologies can be applied to the past in a way that creates bridges between the past and present. When talking about heritage, Peters noted that the past and present cannot be separated; that ‘it’s all connected’. Examining these connections allows us to see the thread that connects the present day with the past and tells us stories that can be leveraged to imagine the future.

Exhibition CNAM Paris

CNAM organised an exhibiton where the worlds of academics and professional activity come together. It is the only higher education establishment dedicated to life-long professional training. A dedicated space at the cathedral which is part of the museum invites you to experience the craft of glassblowing and use actual glassblowing tools.

Local webinar FORTH – Greece

FORTH organised two webinars for Mingei Day (videos are in Greek).

Mingei Day Geneva – Reenacting 3D craft people

But Mingei Day is not over yet. On 9 and 10 July MIRAlab is organising a local session for Mingei Day in Geneva during The Night of Science. The partners main goal is to assure the perennity of certain gestures and attitudes when former people were doing crafts. Through digital simulation, we can preserve the intangible heritage.

Miralab intend to present videos of the “making of” of the digital craft people who are reproducing the gestures of our 3 activities: Glass, Mastic and Silk. As well as the setup of the three pilots.

In the last four years, Waag and nine European partners and craftsmen have experimented in Mingei project by documenting and digitalising crafts, storytelling, interactive Augmented Reality (AR), Mixed Reality (MR) and motion capture.

During this webinar on Mingei Day we would like to share and discuss the results and knowledge we gained. In four online panel discussions, experts from all over Europe will discuss and share their views on how to preserve crafts and how we can keep improving this in the future. During the webinar, participants will also have the opportunity to ask questions online.

Join the conversation! The link to the meeting will be provided to you by email. This event will be recorded.

Programme

16.00 hrs – Welcome Mingei Day – host Nicole McNeilly (Impact Evaluation Advisor Waag)
16.05 hrs – Introduction to Mingei Project (Xenophon Zabulis – Project Coordinator Mingei)
16.15 hrs – Expert panel discussion will cover the following questions:

1. What is the urgency of preserving and documenting crafts?
2. What is the impact for the craft and heritage community, education and future generations?
3. What tech advances are helping us make steps in the preservation and documentation of crafts?
4. How could the Mingei platform be useful for future users to make the impact sustainable?

17.35 hrs – Q&A from participants and recap lessons learned
17.45 hrs – Closing

Panelists

• Xenophon Zabulis – Research Director FORTH, project coordinator Mingei
• Carlo Meghini – Research Director at CNR-ISTI and developer Mingei platform
• Arnaud Dubois – Research Associate at CNAM, social anthropologist Mingei
• Eirini Kaldeli – Researcher and AI expert involved in the Crafted Europeana project
• Marinos Ioannides – UNESCO chair Digital Cultural Heritage at Cyprus University of Technology

Have a look at this episode of Euronews (Europe’s leading international news channel) dedicated to one of the many innovative ideas of Mingei that engage today’s youth with past traditions.  

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 822336.

Programme

19:15 – 19:30 hrs: Walk in
19:30 – 19:45 hrs: Introduction by Dick van Dijk (Creative Director at Waag)
19:45 – 20:15 hrs: Interview/presentation Antoine Peters
20:15 – 21:45 hrs: Workshop Reflow: Don’t let your textiles go to waste

Mingei Day

During the Mingei Day on March 10 we will provide insight into the research and applications of the Mingei project in an accessible manner. In the Mingei project, Waag works with European partners and craftsmen on ways to document traditional craft techniques. How can we use technology to preserve these crafts for the future? We do this, for example, by storytelling, interactive Augmented Reality (AR), Mixed Reality (MR) and motion capture. This way, the knowledge about the actions of traditional and industrial crafts can be preserved. During Mingei Day, passionate craftsmen show you what their craft is, and Waag shows you how you could document them.

Do you also want our crafts and clothing not to get lost? Come to Mingei Day on 10 March. Register if you want to be physically present in Waag’s Makers Guild (limited places available) and don’t forget your broken piece of clothing! You can also join the event from home. The link for the online live stream will be shared in the run-up to the event if you sign up.

Antoine Peters

The keynote of the evening is the worldwide famous fashion designer Antoine Peters. He has worked at Viktor & Rolf and worked with iconic brands such as Marcel Wanders, Moooi, United Nude, Quinze & Milan, Effio, Eastpak, Gsus Sindustries, EYE and Kidscase. Just like in Mingei, Antoine’s working method is characterised by his interest in traditional crafts.

In his work, Peters is concerned with the stories, historical development and conservation of these types of crafts. For example, he conducted intensive research into a nineteenth century yak for the Zeeuws Museum. He learned the craft of folding such a jacket, a technique that is more than two hundred years old, from a 92-year-old woman from Middelburg. She was one of the last wearers of the Walcheren regional dress. The uncomfortable fit of the yak gave the fashion designer the idea to use the traditional technique to make a sweater from soft recycled jersey.

Workshop

The necessity of preserving crafts, and the pleasure that these crafts can offer, are made clear in the workshop ‘Don’t let your textiles go to waste’. Did you know that in Amsterdam millions of kilos of textile end up in the wrong bin and are burned? And that people have an average of 170 pieces of clothing in their closet, 50 of which have not been used in the past year?

These workshops are designed to transfer knowledge on how to reuse, repair, reduce, rethink, recycle and revalue your wardrobe. During the workshops, developed within the Reflow project, you will learn how to repair holes in your clothing by rethinking the craft of clothing repair, and re-evaluating old garments.

Online streamers can already collect the following supplies:

An item of clothing you want to repair (socks, jumpers)
Wooden Embroidery Hoop
Wooden Darning Mushroom
Mixed colours of 100% Cotton Threads
Mixed colours of 100% wool Yarn
Chalk Pencil
A set of mixed needles and metal pins Darning needles
ruler and scissors

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DigiTraining is specifically targeted to benefit small or midsize museums, as well as other tangible or intangible cultural heritage organisations, which include structures and facilities accessible to the general public.

Mingei Online Platform 

Mingei Online Platform (MOP) is an online authoring platform developed in the Mingei H2020 IA, maintained and used in additional projects by FORTH, The Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas in Greece. The Mingei Online Platform facilitates the representation of the socio-historic context through narratives.

The purpose is to:

• Document, represent, and preserve intangible dimensions along with objects and sites
• Contextualise presentation of tangible heritage
• Systematise and facilitate the presentation of socio-historical context
• Explore and promote world heritage, stimulate interest through educational and fascinating content.

Nowadays, not only the treasures of culture but also the stories, the values, and the collective memories of European citizens can be preserved and enhanced through digitalisation. This platform is a useful tool for preserving both tangible and intangible Cultural Heritage, as users are able to add  information in such an easy way, by registering both texts (historical events, dates) and multimedia material, such as images, videos, 360^ο videos, 3d reconstructions, which are interconnected, creating relevant stories and narratives. In addition, the digitalisation of Cultural Heritage in combination with the creation of stories by using Mingei Online Platform (MOP) will stimulate visitors’ interest in tangible and intangible Cultural Heritage, making museums and cultural organisations more attractive.

Pilot

After its pilot evaluation, the Mingei Online Platform was utilised by more than 80 cultural Heritage Institutes in the DigiTraining Creative Europe project, to create representations for and on their own. This activity provided immensely valuable feedback in the optimisation of its User Interface. The Mingei Online Platform (MOP) implements a protocol for the advanced digitisation of Institutes Cultural Heritage and socio-historical context, through narratives and process schemas. 

Structure of capacity building programme

The programme is structured in 3 different levels; the General Programme will provide many organisations with a combined training on digital and audiovisual technology, as well as on digital-related management. The Specific Programme will provide up to 6 organisations with mentoring through a specific training programme resulting in a strongly increased capacity in digital skills as well as in strategy and management tools to deal with them. Finally, through the Qualified Programme a maximum of 3 selected organisations will benefit at no cost from the production of a virtual or augmented reality audiovisual project specifically adapted to their mission and narrative, together with the strategic and managerial advice to best integrate it in their activities.

Combining digital technology research, execution and training

DigiTraining’s consortium is composed by an experienced team from five different countries with complementary skills and competencies to respond to the urgent need for providing specific support to the cultural and creative heritage sector. This team merges tested expertise in digital technology research, execution and training; in direct support on management and innovation for start-ups and midsize organisations; in media, communication and audience development in the cultural sector; and in audio-visual & virtual reality production for the arts and cultural heritage.

Mingei Day

During the Mingei Day webinar on 10 March the the team of FORTH will give a demo of the Mingei Online Platform. Sign up for the webinar and join the discussion! For more contact about the Digitraining Project, please leave your contact details here.

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 this third part of the series about a year in a mastic village, we’ll follow the journey of little Dimitris and his family. Together with Dimitris, we are observing and learning about the craft of mastic cultivation. Stay tuned for more!

‘Grandma, were you only singing at the fields while embroidering?’, Irini asked her the other day. ‘No, honey. Collecting the mastic was a joyful period too, which took place from September until mid-October, when hunting season began. You know, children, we were spreading white sheets near the mastic trees that we were working on. This way the hunters would notice that people were there, so they would not shoot’, Grandma said while smiling. ‘What were they hunting?’, Dimitris asked. ‘Rabbits and grouses, which were all around us!’, Grandma said enthusiastically.

Irini started wondering about their safety in the fields, and asked Grandma, ‘So, you women were alone in the fields with hunters strolling around? Wasn’t it dangerous?’ Irini didn’t realise that Grandma grew up in a different period of time when people usually felt safer. ‘Dangerous? No, dear’, grandma replied. ‘Quite the opposite. Imagine, the collecting season was also a courting season for the villagers. The unmarried women went into the fields, accompanied by their mothers and sisters, so the men had the opportunity to see them outside of the village and court them. Young men were leaving small pieces of paper under the rocks so that the young girls would find them while collecting mastic.’ ‘And what if the mother collected the love note instead of the daughter?’, Irini wondered. ‘If the mother did not approve the sender, she would go to his mother and complain. Good old times, my child’, Grandma said and moved her arm in a circular pattern*.

‘And what songs did you sing while collecting the mastic?’, Irini continued. Grandma paused for a moment and then said, ‘Well, this is one that a few older women of my age might remember. The younger women do not know it.’

Στο μάζεμα του μαστιχιού (While collecting the mastic)

Σκοπώνε τραγουδούσαν (They sang a song)

Τον άρεσε κι αρέσει τον (Τhey liked it and it was liked)

Όσοι κι αν τον εκούσαν (By any who heard it.)

Ο κάτω κόσμος μάτια μου (The underworld, my eyes)

Νάτος σαν τον απάνω (Here it is like the above)

Μον’ήθελα να παρακαλώ (But I only wanted to beg)

Γρήγορι να πεθάνω (To die soon.)

Όταν σε πρωτοείδανε (When you were first seen)

Τα μάτια τα δικά μου (By my own eyes)

Ήταν το στήθος μου ανοιχτό (My chest was open)

Και μπήκες στην καρδιά μου (And you entered my heart.)

‘Isn’t it a bit dark, Grandma? Why did she want to die? And what does death have to do with collecting mastic?’ Irini asked upset. ‘My child, don’t ask for interpretations. A song has different meanings for each person. It speaks about death, but also about love’, Grandma said to soothe her, and continued with a rather sad and tired tone in her voice, ‘Working with mastic is a very hard job, children. All year long you are either in the field working with the tree, and believe me, manipulating another living being is not an easy job, or at the house working with its product. After collecting the mastic, you know that the process of cleaning will start soon; another meticulous hand work. That’s why it is very difficult to automate mastic cultivation tasks. At the Association they have built machines to do some of the tasks, like a machine for separating mastic pieces according to their size. Nevertheless, pinching still needs to be done by hand. No machine can perform that task’.

Irini and Dimitris were skeptical for a moment due to the song and Grandma’s comments but the truth is, little Dimitris was more preoccupied with the custom of leaving love notes under the trees. For a little boy, he really seemed to like old-fashioned ways of living. Two weeks before, at the celebration of the Dormition of Virgin Mary, he was not able to find Eleni, the girl that he likes, but now the collecting period begins and he might see her in the fields. And maybe he’ll also leave her a note?

* This is a common way to express that a lot of time has gone by non-verbally in Greece.

This is a fictional story written by Danae Kaplanidi (PIOP), and is the outcome of archival and ethnographic fieldwork research in the villages of Mesta, Olimpi, Emporios and Pyrgi. The author would like to thank the research participants for their time and willingness to share stories about life in southern Chios.

The essence of an expertly executed craft is too nebulous to define. This is the reason why Mingei uses a variety of methods to record and present traditional crafts to the public. However, the difference between an expert and a novice is not their ability to adhere to strict guidelines and instructions, but rather how well they can decide when to break the conventional rules and create something unique. Even more interestingly, those decisions are made subconsciously. The expert can decide what motion will be the most efficient and perform it precisely, seemingly without any preparation. Since the motion of the body is the most important tool of performing a craft, Mingei uses motion capture to document all the subtle details of an expertly execution.

Motion capture

Motion capture (MoCap) is the recording of the joint angles of the human body during a task. In our previous article, we explained our first steps in digitizing the crafters’ movements. Unlike standard video, the only thing that is recorded with MoCap is the human skeleton and its associated motions. Even though general information about the environment and the appearance of the person is lost, this method gives the motion of each joint in detail for all three dimensions. This is why it has been widely adopted for movies and video games as well as medicine for many years. However, until now, its use for preservation of crafts is relatively limited.

The workshop as recording environment

Very early in the MoCap sessions of Mingei, a few differences became apparent when recording for cultural heritage. The first and most significant difference was the environment. In most MoCap sessions in either entertainment or medicine, the recording environment is heavily controlled. The sessions are most of the times indoors, in a room specifically used for MoCap, and whatever tool is required, is usually a stage prop. In contrast, within the Mingei project, all the recordings had to be done in the actual workshop or field while the expert interacted with the equipment as they normally would. As a result, the MoCap was done to be as unobstructive as possible to allow the expert the freedom to perform.

At the glass-blowing pilot for example, the recording did not stop from the moment the expert picked up the molten glass until he was finished. On the other hand, silk-weaving required the expert to use different equipment during the whole process and therefore the MoCap was segmented based on that. Mastic cultivation tasks are performed throughout the year, with weeks passing between them. Therefore, the most distinct tasks were selected and recorded consecutively.

Eye for detail

Another difference regarding MoCap for cultural heritage crafts is that the expert’s gestures are almost exclusively unique. Even when they perform the same task, they will almost always change their motions to account for small variations in the material they are working on. What is more interesting, is that small changes in motion are important because they highlight the expertise (i.e. a novice won’t do them). This is in stark contrast with motions of an industrial worker that operates machinery, or an actor who will perform the same motions many times, or even a patient who will try to keep their movement consistent. The point here is that in cultural heritage crafts, small variations in motion encapsulate proficiency, while in other cases, they are mostly random.

In conclusion, the experience with Mingei showed that the MoCap recordings have some unique requirements. The environment and the end-product will have a lot more impact on the recording protocol than in other cases. In a different context, it is more important to identify a pattern from accumulated data of multiple individuals with a varying level of expertise. In crafts however, each motion of the expert is “valued” more even if it appears only a few times.

Written by Dimitrios Menychtas (Armines)
Top image by FORTH, other images by Armines

The Mingei team visited Axos, a mountainous Greek village located on the northern slopes of Psiloritis Mountain, known for its history and its rich tradition. There, we had the opportunity to meet and interview Nikos Manias and Niki Koutantou, who are the owners and the inspirers of a family owned workshop of carpentry. Nikos and Niki, driven by their love for authentic products and making use of the twenty-five-year experience of Nikos, took the initiative one year ago to start the construction of wooden products that could be used every day by people. They started making a rich variety of handmade, wooden handbags, and sell them to locals and tourists.

In this video, Nikos and Niki tell about their carpentry workshop. English subtitles are available in the settings, at the bottom of the screen.

Natural materials

Based on their love for authentic products Nikos and Niki decided to design and create in their workshop handmade wooden handbags. Their main goal is to make good use of natural materials, such as wood and leather in order to construct functional artifacts for both women and men. Wood is a natural material that can be easily found in the wider area of Axos Village and can come from different kind of trees for example, olive trees, cherry trees, beech trees and oak trees. With sensitivity and desire for a controlled exploitation of natural resources, the woodworker collects wood from dried trees and processes them in a suitable way until they take shape. In this way, they do not intervene in the environment by destroying it but on the contrary, for each dry tree a new one is planted aiming to maintain the ecosystem balance. The whole idea is based on giving life to a material that is already considered dead and converting it into a useful object.

Logos

This idea is emphasized by the brand name ‘Logos’. It stems from the Greek word «Λόγος» which includes several meanings, such as thought, speech, insight, and inspiration. Furthermore, the word ‘Logos’ consists of the English word ‘log’ and the suffix –os that is the ending of the word ‘Lagos’, the place name of the area where the workshop is situated. As the owners tell, “Logos is our face in what we do. We want to show people how we can create useful objects for our daily life from a product that exists in nature and is dead.”

Construction

The woodworker collects the trunks of the trees and cuts them by using the band saw. Afterwards, the craftsman places them into a wood fired kiln in order for the humidity to be eliminated and then he cuts the wood again with the band saw to create thin sheets of wood, on which he draws the patterns and then start constructing the handbags.  A large amount of designs can be created, such as handbags, briefcases and bags for portable computers, some of which are made only from wood and others combine wood and colorful real leathers.  Besides the offered variety, every handbag can be custom made to meet your special wishes and an effort of four to five working days is required to create this final wooden unique product of high construction and aesthetics.

The video above shows a 3D reconstruction of one of the handmade handbags of Nikos Manias, made from natural materials, such as olive wood and real leather.

Revival of crafts

The construction of handmade bags gives visitors the opportunity to see up close the process of processing natural materials, such as wood from trees that thrive in the surrounding area. The revival and preservation of old traditional professions contributes to the economy of the place where they flourish, boosting trade and offering new jobs, as well as to the touristic domain.

At the same time, it allows scientists in general – and us from the Mingei project – to study the manners and customs of the area, as manifested through the objects and the process of their construction, making both tangible and intangible aspects of Heritage Culture accessible in this way.

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

How can the latest digital technologies help people to understand, protect and promote old and traditional crafts? To answer that question, Euronews dived into the Mingei project to learn about the innovative ideas that engage today’s youth with past traditions.

“Mingei is aiming to capture the motion and tool usage of heritage crafts practitioners, from living human treasures and archive documentaries, in order to preserve and illustrate skill and tool manipulation,” Euronews explains.[1] In the video, Xenophon Zabulis and Nikolaos Partarakis, computer scientists at FORTH in Greece, show how they create 3D scans of the tools that are used in traditional cheesemaking and weaving.

After digitization, the information will then be available through compelling presentations, using storytelling and educational applications, based on AR and MR and the Internet. In a second video, they showcase some interactive installations in a museum setting, that are engaging people with the crafts.

For example, they show an interactive comicbook that describes and shows people how glassmaking was done in France years ago. Another example is an old dial-up telephone that allows the museum visitors to hear the traditional songs that were sang during the mastic harvest at Chios.

“In order to maintain the traditional crafts, we must draw the interest of people in different ways. We have to modernize the stories,” Xenophon tells. Digital tools can help with that goal.

The videos are also available in French and German.

References