From the Heart: A Weaver's Journey - Part 1
Bhakti Ziek

Bhakti Ziek has the ability to talk to a group about her life as a weaver while making it seem as if she is sitting talking directly to each person about their own lives and intimate experiences. In this talk, she updates her journey, sharing how a tenuous, fine thread grew into her life line and the sometimes unpredictable path it has taken. Sharing both the triumphs and knots, periods of intense curiosity and spells of disillusionment, she will talk about ways of staying connected that she has found helpful in her struggle to remain involved, creative, and hopeful as an aging weaver, artist, and human being.

Recorded at the 2007 Maiwa Textile Symposium on October 16, 2007
Posted April 2008

Choreographed Cloth
Angelina DeAntonis
VIDEO PODCAST - This podcast is a m4a file. It has pictures and sound.

In this episode we present the work of Angelina DeAntoins and her clothing line Ocelot. Angelina presented a lecture titled Coreographed Cloth at the 2007 Maiwa Textile Symposium in which she explained her life in textiles. She also staged the Ocelot Trunk Show Event to introduce the symposium audience to her unique clothing.

Images presented by Angelina DeAntonis at the 2007 Maiwa Textile Symposium on October 15, 2007. Voiceover recorded in April 2008
Posted April 2008

Excerpts from
Kismet, Ajrakh, and the Fish of Knowledge:
Collaborating with Craftspeople in India
Eiluned Edwards

In his episode Edwards tells the story of the events leading up to her first trip to India, how it felt to arrive, and how her life was changed by a meeting with the blockprinters of Dhamadka. The trip was profound and its effects were long lasting, Edwards shifted her focus from textile design to cultural anthropology. She spent the next 16 years researching the textiles of the Kutch Desert, collaborating with artisans, aranging exhibitions and studying traditional Ajrakh blockprints.

Recorded at the 2007 Maiwa Textile Symposium on October 17, 2007
Posted March 2008

Excerpts from
The Intimate Stitch: Blueleaf Shibori
Jane Callender
VIDEO PODCAST - This podcast is a m4a file. It has pictures and sound.

In this episode master shibori artist Jane Callender describes her development and artistic influences: from her parent's Egyptian and Malayan garments to the exhibiions which inspired her present work. Now steeped in her own successful artistic practice, she reflects on the roads that have brought her to the present day.

Recorded at the 2007 Maiwa Textile Symposium on October 14, 2007
Posted February 2008

Excerpts from
The Working Traveller
Part 4: Participant Questions

The Working Traveller was a workshop held at the Maiwa Textile Symposium on October 17, 2007. The panel consisted of John Gillow, Noorjehan Bilgrammi, and Charllotte Kwon. Each member of the panel spoke about their personal experience as a working travller, how they got started, the reason for their journeys and how travel and the interaction with other cultures has changed their lives.

In this, the final episode, John Gillow, Noorjehan Bilgrami and Charllotte Kwan address specific questions from the audience.

Recorded at the 2007 Maiwa Textile Symposium on October 17, 2007
Posted February 2008

Excerpts from
The Working Traveller
Part 3: Charllotte Kwon

The Working Traveller was a workshop held at the Maiwa Textile Symposium on October 17, 2007. The panel consisted of John Gillow, Noorjehan Bilgrammi, and Charllotte Kwon. Each member of the panel spoke about their personal experience as a working travller, how they got started, the reason for their journeys and how travel and the interaction with other cultures has changed their lives.

In this, the third of four episodes, Charllotte Kwon speaks about how she started Maiwa Handprints and how this business led her to start working with craftspeople in India. Charllotte speaks about the Maiwa approach to craft and how it is designed to promote high quality work while at the same time protecting the artisan's livelihood. She also speaks about the the goals of her travel and how she has managaed the many challenges of working successfully in two countries oceans apart.

Recorded at the 2007 Maiwa Textile Symposium on October 17, 2007
Posted February 2008

Excerpts from
The Working Traveller
Part 2: Noorjehan Bilgrami

The Working Traveller was a workshop held at the Maiwa Textile Symposium on October 17, 2007. The panel consisted of John Gillow, Noorjehan Bilgrammi, and Charllotte Kwon. Each member of the panel spoke about their personal experience as a working travller, how they got started, the reason for their journeys and how travel and the interaction with other cultures has changed their lives.

In this, the second of four episodes, Noorjehan Bilgrami speaks about how she first found out about the traditional art of ajrakh blockprinting and how attempts to sustain and revive this elaborate and skilled craft led to her own studio, Koel. Noorjehan is an artist, textile designer, and researcher. She was one of the founders of the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture and its first Executive Director. Years of research into ajrak, led to the publication Sindh jo Ajrak and later to the making of the documentary Sun, Fire, River, Ajrak Cloth from the Soil of Sindh.

Recorded at the 2007 Maiwa Textile Symposium on October 17, 2007
Posted January 2008

Excerpts from
The Working Traveller
Part 1: John Gillow

The Working Traveller was a workshop held at the Maiwa Textile Symposium on October 17, 2007. The panel consisted of John Gillow, Noorjehan Bilgrammi, and Charllotte Kwon. Each member of the panel spoke about their personal experience as a working travller, how they got started, the reason for their journeys and how travel and the interaction with other cultures has changed their lives.

In this, the first of four episodes, John Gillow introduces his life and speaks about his passion for textiles. John is a well established author who has produced a wide range of title for the publisher Thames and Hudson. He is currently completeing a new title, Textiles of the Islamic World. Johnw is also a collector who has witnessed the changes in the Kutch Desert of India for Over 30 years.

Recorded at the 2007 Maiwa Textile Symposium on October 17, 2007
Posted January 2008

Excerpts from
The Mummies of Ürümchi: Textiles in Time
Elizabeth Barber

Local archaeologists working in Chinese Turkestan have uncovered numerous naturally mummified and spectacularly clothed bodies of Caucasians dating to the Bronze Age, 3000 - 4000 years ago. Since little besides clothing was put into the graves, Dr. Elizabeth Barber (one of the few experts on prehistoric textiles) was invited to accompany an expedition from the University of Pennsylvania to Western China to help determine facts about these displaced westerners.

Recorded at the 2007 Maiwa Textile Symposium on October 12, 2007
Posted December 2007

Excerpts from
Waiting for the Monsoon: Slow Clothes in India
Charllotte Kwon & Mahesh Dosaya

The slow movement first appeared as a reaction against fast food culture. It has since expanded to challenge thinking on everything from tourism to clothing. Slow clothes are made with an eye to the human impact of production rather than the need to race to meet a fashion trend.

Recorded at the 2007 Maiwa Textile Symposium on October 11, 2007
Posted November 2007