TAFA, The Textile and Fiber Art List is a rousing success by any measure. TAFA is the promotional  and networking site for member working artists and textile businesses who represent fiber in all forms. The site was conceived and created by Rachel Biel and launched in early 2010, and now boasts 145 members plus to date.

And how do we measure “success”? There are many websites for artists, seeking members, some glitzy, some selling and more. But really, artists want a site that helps them get broader exposure and recognition. TAFA’s members each have space on the site and provide terrific content, good visuals too of their work that brings readers and potential clients back to see what is new on the site. Members also promote the site  through their own social networking and on their own sites.

"Moments" by Christine Predd

Since the launch of TAFA in  February 2010, its presence on the web has grown. Here’s a few stats…

• Half of the members are active on Facebook.
• Almost half are Etsy sellers
• Our biggest following is on our TAFA fan page on Facebook.  We now have over 850 fans there.
• 97 blogger followers
• 69 subscribers via Feedburner
• 1463 unique visitors in just the last month  (55% new)
• Our three largest mediums are art quilts, surface design (dyers) and weaving so far.

A good start!  Members are quite pleased with the boost that TAFA has given them. Members also tell us that they read new member bios as they are posted, network with each other and are definitely inspired. TAFA will continue to expand its web presence and to capture good publicity.  In fact, the fabulous international magazine, “Hand/Eye” is doing a feature story on TAFA in its September 2nd edition. The TAFA community will benefit greatly from such publicity.

Linda Marcille in her studio.

So what is the membership criteria? The general criteria for membership is having a well developed web presence which showcases a mature body of work or product line. Working artists and textile businesses need to present themselves professionally, showing their intent of making a living with their art or product, unless they have a purely educational focus.  Good photography of work is essential – again a professional look. Cost of membership is $25 per year…..but will be increasing in September to $48.00.  Now is a good time to make application for membership!

Visit the TAFA Membership page for more guidelines on the membership.

TAFA seeks to grow as an international organization representing all media within the fiber art/textile mediums.  One of the most exciting angles that TAFA brings to this community is having contemporary, traditional and cultural textiles/mediums share the same platform.  Normally, these categories have strict boundaries and exclude each other, yet many of us are passionately influenced by all three and inform our choices and designs by the other.  On TAFA a Moroccan rug shares the same importance as an art quilt, a knitted sock or an embroidered doily.  The common denominators of excellence of technique, originality and excellence bring them together.  TAFA does not distinguish between “craft” and “art”, however, it does distinguish between mature and novice.  TAFA members love what they do and are in it for the long run.  As innovators, shakers, teachers, writers, and vessels of the muse, they are deeply committed to their work.  Visit TAFA.  Join us in promoting our members and in helping them make a living at what they do best: keeping traditional textile traditions alive while pushing them into new directions!

There are some great online courses available to fiber artisans. Good instructors, well presented, and lots of these for beginners. But demand speaks and we are seeing online courses for the intermediate and experienced fiber artisans emerge. One that stands out for excellent instructors, skill enhancing courses that are well presented is LQuilt.com.

Miky Aviel, Co-CEO, is known worldwide for her expertise in e-Learning and as quilt artist. Miky has 20 years of experience in R&D of e-Learning methods and products and computer/web based training. “The new way of learning via LQuilt is based on a unique method of small learning segments called learning objects.Those small segments- in order to create a quick and easy way to learn are based on three elements: written instructions (short and simple), detailed photos (as many as they are, as quick as the learning is) and the video clips – that give us the exact way of doing the technique. In addition there is a forum. Our forum is conducted by the teachers,” says Miky.

The instructors come from the ranks of the best in our industry and worldwide too–Rayna Gillman, Valerie Hearder, Cherilyn Martin, Jan Mullen to list just a few. Instructors personally answer students questions in the forums for each course. And here’s a bonus–the courses are quite inexpensive, and you can take them at your convenience too.

The LQuilt.com website features some interesting and most helpful articles, again written by experienced, award winning artisans. There’s a news section too and starting in January, forums available on a variety of subjects relative to quilting and fiber art. (I’ve been asked to conduct one of the forums and am quite pleased to do so). New, innovative offerings are continually added to LQuilt. Right now, for example, you can take advantage of some great “Package Deals” for classes that will inspire and bring your art to a new level.

January seems to be the time to start “anew” and set goals. For many of us, continuing education ranks high so take a look at the offerings at LQuilt.

An article in the NY Times tells of a textile company in California, that is using a new technology to dye fabric. This method used air, not water, thus saving millions of gallons of water usage as well as the dumping of waste water with dyes.

Outdoor clothing company, Patagonia, is currently utilizing this process which at this time is only applicable to synthetic fabrics, but the industry is working on systems for natural fibers too. Gap is also exploring options to green up their clothing manufacturer processes.

The textile industry is responding to public opinion about being green, but also knows the inevitable regulations will force such measures. It’s a good thing all around. Read more….

Early American Fiber Skills, Part 2,  was written by professional genealogist, Patricia Law Hatcher, FASG. 

Gender Roles

In Europe, weaving was a male occupation. It was learned by apprenticeship, and although a man could be described simply as a weaver or cloth-maker, often the type of material was described in the occupation. I have seen records in England, France, Germany, and Holland referring to linen weavers, woolen weavers, and say makers.

Both women and men were spinners, but weaving was exclusively male. It took several spinners to supply one weaver and his loom. So why do we envision the early American housewife seated at her loom?

With the collapse of the cloth-making industry in Europe, many weavers came to Americafor what they hoped would be economic opportunity. (I don't pretend to be familiar with the specifics of the changes, but one factor was increased cotton production, which caused a decline in the linen industry because cotton could be prepared and woven much more quickly.)

When emigrants arrived, if they were in a rural area and had been lucky enough obtain a farm, the focus had to be on survival, with the priority on accumulating food to make it through the winter. Although self-sufficiency was an ideal in New England, it was less so elsewhere, and New Englanders realized that it was wiser to buy cloth than to invest the time in creating it. Thus, much cloth was purchased. Some was imported from Europe. In American towns and cities, a weaver might still be able to support himself as farms became established and it became practical to raise flax and sheep for linen and wool yarn that could be taken to the weaver to turn into cloth.

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich studied this shift in the gender of weavers in a 1998 article (see below). She concluded that weaving as a female occupation developed most fully on the margins of settlement, away from cities, after women were able to shift their attention from helping with tasks related to establishing the farm, crops, and livestock to household activities. Once a loom was properly set up, weaving was an activity that could be started and stopped without interference with other household activities–and a good way to keep teenage girls productively occupied.

I had the opportunity to ask Ulrich if the mechanical improvements such as the fly shuttle were a factor in this gender shift, but she told me that she thought it was entirely the result of economic and social-environment factors.

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Resources
Edwin Tunis's Colonial Living (New York: The World Publishing Company, 1957), 45-52 is illustrated with pen-and-ink drawings of the tools involved in cloth production, beginning to end.

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 (New York: Vintage Books, 1990), winner of the Pulitzer Prize in History. The Web site "Do History" provides examples from Martha's diary specifically related to weaving.

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, "Wheels, Looms, and the Gender Division of Labor in Eighteenth-Century New England," William and Mary Quarterly, Third Series, 55(1998): 3-38.

Patricia Law Hatcher, FASG, is an instructor, and professional genealogist. Her oft-migrating ancestors lived in all of the original colonies prior to 1800 and in seventeen other states, presenting her with highly varied research problems and forcing her to acquire techniques and tools that help solve tough problems. She is the author of Producing a Quality Family History.   Copyright 2006, MyFamily.com

Coming next: Part 3: Other Weaving Tasks