October 23rd was the rehearsal. The stylists were styling, the band was rehearsing, the dancers were dancing, the choreographer was guiding, the garments were adjusted ... it was a very busy place. During all this we did a quick set-up and took some photos of the dancers in...
On Thursday October 22nd, Bappaditya (Bappa) Biswas presented On the Banks of the Ichhamati. The woven textiles told the story of the famous blue mutiny - an uprising caused by British planters forcing the peasant population to grow indigo rather than food. Bappa spoke eloquently on Bengal, its...
Last night was our live video conference with the Jawaja artisans - it was a pivotal event but before we get to that post we need to catch up on a couple of lecture reviews.Wild FibresLinda CortrightOn Thursday October 22, Linda Cortright gave her lecture Wild Fibers. Linda...
The denial of a visa by the Canadian High Commission to Indian dignitary Ashoke Chatterjee is making waves in India. On Sunday October 25 India's paper DNA ran a quarter page article on the situation. In addition we have received a number of letters expressing support for both...
Sheila Paine, who presented her talk on October 20th. Handed us a letter the other day. She has kindly granted us permission to reprint it here.October 22, 2009Dear CharllotteI was very moved by Ashoke Chatterjee's talk last night, both by what he told us of the plight of...
[Update Dec 4, 2009. The visa issue resurfaces in The Vancouver Globe and Mail - full text here ]We run here Charllotte Kwon's introduction to Ashoke Chatterjee's presentation From Gandhi to Globalization: Craft and Human Development. Those of you who were at the lecture will understand why. Those...
It is late at night and we have just come back from the lecture hall. Last night (Oct 18) Mr. Morimoto gave his lecture describing the origins, development and purpose of the Center for Khemer Traditional Textiles. It was a compelling talk from a man who has dedicated...
On Friday evening Michel Garcia delivered his lecture Creating a Garden of Natural Dye Plants. Michel brought his deep knowledge of botany and natural dye chemistry, combined it with a subtle humour and wonderful storytelling style to relate how the Lauris Garden of Natural Dye plants was founded...
[Update: Here is a link to The Center for Traditional Textiles of Cusco.]The day began early when we picked up Nilda Callañaupa Alvarez and her sister Antonia, drove through the Vancouver rain and arrived at Granville Island. Nilda is very organized and soon we were putting the finishing...
... tonight with Charllotte Kwon's talk "The True Miracle Fibres: Natural Threads of the World." We are all very excited. Tonight launches the core of the Textile Symposium and we have been planning for this event over a year now. Recently we welcomed Michel Garcia and Bappaditya Biswas...
This is an art quilt show featuring cloth dyed by master dyer, Elin Noble (who some of you may remember as an instructor in our 2007 Textile Symposium). Five of Elin's latest works will be shown along with fouteen by Other Strong Women, a group of Canadian and...
We received an e-mail from Indigo specialist Jenny Balfour-Paul updating us on Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Connect project the other day.Here is Jenny’s update:We did the Silk Road Connect teacher training workshop in New York last week. This included having a row of indigo dye vats in a...
[Update: We've added the names of the looms in the photos to give a bit more information.]Yesterday instructor Jane Stafford arrived from Salt Spring Island with a van full of looms. We carried them up the stairs to the Maiwa loft for the Weaving in the Maiwa Tradition...
