Embroidered Collage

  The tent bands on display at the National Textile Museum were fascinating examples of pattern variation.  I loved the color scheme of red, with accents, on ivory, which was inspired by the available natural dyes.  It was interesting to see how the museum was able to display the very long and skinny pieces, folded in "U"s in some places or wrapped around the walls of the room in others.  Many of the motifs were definitely in the same family with the designs on oriental rugs.  One display had a model of a tent so you could see how the embroidered bands, the carpets, and many other textiles would all fit together in a home.

I had a little time to sketch, but not an extensive amount as I was with family members, and did capture some of the typical shapes.  The third page was drawn later, to capture a bit I'd sketched roughly in a larger and clearer format.  I really like the imagery and might pick up some more pattern sources from books to incorporate the aesthetic into my own work.

The second exhibit was "Red" and it was interesting to walk through but didn't capture my imagination in the same way.  One piece that did intrigue me was an intricately patterned scarf.  It was woven in white on white with two different fibers and you couldn't make out the pattern, but then it would be dyed when its owner married, and the dye would only take on one of the fibers, sliding right off the other.  I can imagine how exciting it must have been to pull the cloth from the dye bath and see the pattern emerge.

There was also a nice textile study room with a number of "touch" stations and good information.  I wanted to take home the entire set of books from the gift store, but I didn't get  a chance to look in the actual library.  I look forward to going back by myself some time, hopefully during another intriguing exhibit, when I can have more time to study the materials and maybe even attend a lecture.  But I enjoyed this brief visit very much.