TCD Loose Threads Archive - February 2009

• Prof. Weiss gains momentum during Fulbright in India
• TCD joins other CEHS departments at Big Red Road Show
• Praha Fashion: Two Czech Designers and their Work in TCD
• Professor Wendy Weiss begins Fulbright Fellowship in India

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Prof. Weiss gains momentum during Fulbright in India

Now into the seventh week of her Fulbright Fellowship in Vadodara, Gujarat, India, Wendy Weiss updated us again on what she’s been up to:

Nidhi Chauhan (center) of the National Institute of Fashion Technology Craft Cluster in Surendranagar, translates for Wendy Weiss while she interviews Lavagibhai Dhanabhai Dulera, a weft ikat weaver in Kataria.

 

“The research is starting to heat up. Thanks to Dr, Anjali Karolia, I have developed a relationship with the NIFT craft development project in Gujarat. One of Maharaja Sayajirao University of Boroda’s former students is on the faculty at the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) in Gandhinagar. They have federal funds to work with a group of artisans to help promote and market their work as well as provide product development support. I spent several days working in this district interviewing weavers and planning future trips.

View of Hindu and Jain temples and surrounding landscape, part way up the mountain.

“On our first excursion to meet the weavers, we added a few days of travel to see some of Gujarat. We went to Gir Nar and hiked up most of the mountain, before the heat became too much and the hard stone steps took a toll on our calves. The next day we went to Gir Forest and got to see two lions!

“The first week of March we will travel to Kolkata for a Fulbright conference. All of the scholars and student researchers currently in India and nearby countries will have 10 minutes to provide an overview of their experiences so far. Later in March we will travel to Hyderabad to visit this historic city and visit some other ikat weaving villages. Bina Rao of Creative Bee is generously providing guidance on this journey. The work is exciting and the people are happy to help me with this project. I feel very fortunate.”

Weft bound resist in the village of Kataria, Surendranagar District, Gujarat.

 

Wendy is working on documenting Patola ikat techniques at the University of Baroda. The process is practiced today by only a handful of master artisans and is in danger of disappearing.

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TCD joins other CEHS departments at Big Red Road Show

 

 

TCD undergraduate Kathryn Alms answers a Big Red Road Show visitor's question photo: David Kostelnk, Star City Photo

Big Red (and ‘Lil Red) descended on Omaha’s Qwest Center February 8^th to inform the public about UNL’s academic programs and to recruit future students. Five TCD students joined Senior Lecturer Carol Easley to visit with high school students, parents, and teachers from the Omaha metro area. Graduate students Tacia Booton and Karlin Warner, and undergraduates Kathryn Alms, Michelle Higgins, and Madison Simmons did a stellar job promoting the caliber and quality of TCD, and brought a bit of the department to the BRRS crowd. The students demonstrated draping techniques, exhibited portfolios and sketchbooks, encouraged participation in “crime scene” fiber identification, and helped participants distinguish between “real vs. fake” merchandise. Events such as this help us to broaden our audience and to bring to the Nebraska population-at-large insights into some of what goes on here in the College of Education and Human Sciences.

TCD design majors Kathryn Alms and Madison Simmons demonstrate draping techniques at the kickoff of the 2009 Big Red Road Show at the Qwest Center in Omaha photo: David Kostelnik, Star City Photo

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Praha Fashion: Two Czech Designers and their Work in TCD

Two of the Czech Republic's most prominent fashion designers, Tatiana Kovarikova and Jaroslava Prochaskova, are currently guests of the Department of Textiles Clothing and Design on the occasion of their joint exhibition in the Robert Hillestad Textiles Gallery.

The exhibition, running through March 6, presents examples of their high fashion garment lines. The designers have been meeting with various TCD studios and classes to discuss their contributions in helping to establish Prague as an emerging European fashion center. Professor Barbara Trout organized the designers’ visit to TCD, one that, in addition to interactions with students in the classroom, includes a full schedule of receptions and meetings with community organizations. Their visit culminates with a free public lecture at 2 p.m. on Sunday Feb. 15, at which the two designers will describe the development of their businesses in Eastern Europe since the Velvet Revolution in 1989.

Two designs by Tatiana Kovarikova

Kovarikova and Prochaskova have shown their apparel designs at market in fashion centers such as Paris, Rotterdam, London and New York. Their designs have appeared in the pages of French Vogue, European editions of Elle magazine and Prague's Luxury Shopping Guide.

 

 

Coat designs by Jaroslava Prochaskova

A highlight of the Hillestad gallery exhibit is a grouping of eveningwear decorated with oversized crystals, one of the country's domestic products. Beautifully tailored suits in the exhibit are crafted of novelty weaves, while one dazzling coat is created of faux fur with a black-on-white leather alphabet motif. Imaginative and body conscious, their designs are accurately described as fashion forward with an urban edge.

Tatiana Kovarikova (l.), Jaroslava Prochaskova (r.) and Dr. Barbara Trout (center), organizer of their visit and exhibition, at the Hillestad Gallery reception in their honor

Another aspect of this project will take place from May 18-June 5, when 26 textiles clothing and design students travel to the Czech Republic to study the design treasures of Prague and to visit and interact with Kovarikova and Prochaskova at their design studios and showrooms.

The current exhibit and accompanying events are supported in part by the Nebraska Arts Council, The University of Nebraska Research Council, the Friends of the Hillestad Gallery and the Department of Textiles, Clothing & Design.

The designers meeting with students in TXCD 216 Flat Pattern, with Assistant Prof. Xia Gao

 

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Professor Wendy Weiss begins Fulbright Fellowship in India

Professor Wendy Weiss arrived in Vadodara, Gujarat, India on January 15 and until May 11 will be a Fulbright scholar doing research on Patola ikat techniques at the University of Baroda. Wendy sent this update recently, with some photos taken in the Textiles and Clothing department there:

" Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda's classes run Monday through Saturday. Faculty are present 9 - 5 each of those days. in the morning I walk to the main library to study Alfred Bühler and Eberhard Fischer's 1979 two-volume set Patola of Gujarat for two to three hours, gleaning what I can of the tremendously complicated process I am here to study. This thorough text represents years of work, and even it laments the difficulty of fully documenting this laborious and painstaking process of double ikat, in which warp and weft threads are resist-dyed to produce the distinctive Patola style. In part this challenge is a result of the tendency toward secrecy seen in many of the traditional crafts practices. Sadly, the number of master artisans of this particular craft has diminished in number to only three or four."

Apparel Design classroom in the Department of Textiles & Clothing, University of Baroda

Wendy continues: "In the afternoon I spend time in the textiles and clothing department, which is housed in the college known as the Faculty of Family and Community Sciences. Both the college and department are set up very much like our own, with a similar curriculum. Last Wednesday I gave a talk introducing our department programs and faculty, after which several colleagues here requested that I share curriculum ideas with them in more detail. On Saturday, January 31 I began a seminar on repeat design in digital form. The computer lab here is equipped for the students to work.

Next week I will travel to Ahmedabad with my colleague, Dr. Anajali Karolia, and one of her graduate students to visit the Calico Museum of Textiles and the town of Gandhinagar, where a graduate program facilitates a training program for warp ikat."

Students of the College of Family and Community Sciences organized an ambitious weekend event called Crescendo, with seminars and informational booths for the general public of Baroda, to raise awareness and promote the programs of the College.

Two of Wendy Weiss's colleagues at the University of Baroda, Ph.D. student Rajni (left), who has served as Wendy's guide for her initial introduction to the city and the campus, and Dr. Anajali Karolia, Wendy's faculty mentor for her program of work, admiring student displays at the Crescendo event.

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