Ninxia Rug at Sandra Whitman –

I find decorative arts of all kinds can have amazing power to re-shape, dislodge, and entirely shock my sense of time as an historical progression of the “old” leading to the “new”. The carpet above (shown in close-up) is a case in point. According to dealer Sandra Whitman it was made in China between 1723 and 1735. That means this very “new” looking carpet (replete with a simplified color palette, abstracted open field and streamlined border) was sitting in China decades before the U.S. Declaration of Independence or the French Revolution. That unwires my brain a bit.

The Ann Dunham Collection –

The Textile Museum in Washington D.C. briefly served as the final stop for a national tour of the exhibition titled A Lady Found a Culture in its Cloth: Barack Obama’s Mother and Indonesian Batiks. Although the show is no longer on display you can still get a small taste of it here with NPR’s write-up, audio story and slide show on the exhibition.

The Loaded Trunk –

A virtual trunk show awaits at The Loaded Trunk – !

via a helpful comment at The Style Files.

Tribal Trappings –

Holy smokes, tribal trappings is a good website! It has lots and lots – and lots – of textiles (keep looking for the “more” button at the bottom of each page, I missed that the first time around). There’s also  interesting / informative detail given about many of the different categories of textiles shown. I’m enamored with several of the Chinese pieces, in part because they’re really expanding my idea of what a “Chinese” textile might be.  The image above is a Chinese bridal blanket made by the Maonan ethnic group.

Marla Mallett –

I mentioned the website Marla Mallett back in March but it’s a site worth revisiting – so many beautiful textiles! The one above is a baby blanket from Guangxi China, 25″ x 26″. If I had an extra $385 to spend I’d frame it as a piece of art. Ah, a wall full of textiles, large and small — that’s the kind of art collection I’d love to develop some day (not that a few paintings mixed in would hurt).

Creations Metaphores –

A perfect new fabric from Creations Metaphores for the start of a weekend at/near the beach. The far out wave pattern was inspired by 19th century paintings of Katsushika Hokusai. I’m always interested to see the translation / transformation of something old into something new — especially across cultures and centuries.

Kesi Tapestry –

I came across a new bit of textile vocabulary this afternoon – the word “kesi”. The online Encyclopedia Britannica has this entry for the word: Chinese silk tapestry woven in a pictorial design. The designation kesi, which means “cut silk,” derives from the visual illusion of cut threads that is created by distinct, unblended areas of colour. The example above is from Hong Kong’s Heritage Museum website. For me this fragment reiterates how difficult (or impossible) it is to form any mental grasp on the scope and dynamism of human history. If asked to guess a time period for this piece I would never come up with Han Dynasty (206 BC to 220 AD, as stated by the Heritage Museum site). If asked to guess an origin I would never come up with China.