Those Phenomenal Phabrics — some beauty and joy and playfulness as well.
The memory of Textiles by SGHolland
SOURCE : http://www.openculture.com/2017/08/artistic-maps-of-pakistan-india-show-the-embroidery-techniques-of-their-different-regions.html
www.openculture.com is an excellent site for those who like cultural input. Check it out.
The maps above attracted me because of the colors, of course.
As I grew up, there were fabrics around the house I lived in, and especially in the area around the sewing machine. And on the floors.
Our family could well be called multinational, although most of us came from Dutch, Swedish, English and other European stock. But the Atlantic Ocean was a well crossed bit of water between us newbies in the USA and the old family on the Other Continent.
As varied as our DNA was, and is, just as varied were the contents of our several hometowns because travel does that. The treasures, past and present, are definitely bits of the larger globe, gifts brought from my fore-runners’ adventures.
So we have treasures from many places, including the lands of the Mid-Eastern countries and India, the maps of which head up this bit of commentary.
I loved the wool embroidered Crewel rug in the entry to our house. And the wonderfully varied choices of batiks and woven fabric bedspreads and tablecloths we used over the years.
There is a certain tapestry with fringes — wool, with the inevitable moth damage and a lot of fading that came from years and years of being a cover for a grand piano that went down through the family — that still exists carefully folded in a plastic bag because it was “Mother’s favorite.” It’s beautiful. People would bid on it if it were auctioned simply because it is meticulously hand-made and historic.
So when I came on these maps I stopped dead in my tracks. What a wonderful source of sources! Here are two countries famous for fabrics and the specific patterns connected with specific corners of India and Pakistan.
They have made a name for themselves worldwide. Just as the silks of China and the wall hangings of Japan — the rugs of Persia and the Delft of Holland and the Waterford of Ireland are seen in residences far and wide.
Will wars cause us to put these things in back closets — secrets for political reasons, I wonder.
When I was a very young girl I was looking at a delicate porcelain bowl with a glass dome in the center, something among treasures on my mother’s “what not shelf”.If one poured water into this little bowl the image of a little Japanese boy would appear in the dome — refracted magically by the water.
“Don’t show that around, Susan,” warned my parents. “Some people will find it offensive and might even damage it on purpose.”
“Why?”
“Well we are at war with Japan, and there are hateful feelings now toward anything Japanese.” That was during WWII.
I still have that little bowl somewhere. It has become badly damaged not by nationalism, but simply because it’s delicate self was not sturdy enough to survive the rigors of several generations since then. But the little boy is still there. Made in Japan is still on the back.
I notice that a phrase has become popular in the mainstream rhetoric these days. It is said that people “hate on” people, places, and ideologies. This is what happens when society becomes divided. Whole populations become targets of hate because of the fervor of war, and the prison of xenophobia.
Such seething hatred divides enormous riches into piles of refuse. Witness burning of books, and banning of foreign made goods, and shunning of human groups because of group-hate.
Something like our oceans, isn’t it? Our glittering oceans full of life and renewed energy and power and glory. We have tossed our used stuff into our oceans with abandon. (Deeper than the deepest sea!) We seem to think it will separate us forever from what we don’t like anymore.
We are wrong.
Beauty and glory last in memory, but sometimes do not last in reality — the spoils of battles that is won by the victors has been itself spoiled. And we are the poorer for it.
SGHolland ©2017
