Excerpts from
African Textiles: The Heart of the Yoruba
Part 2 - Question and Answer
Gasali Adeyemo

In this lecture master craftsman Gasali Adeyemo fields questions from the audience about traditional techniques and about working in Africa and Santa Fe. Gasali concludes with a story about the role of clothing and cloth in life.

Recorded at the 2007 Maiwa Textile Symposium on October 25, 2007
Posted June 2009

Excerpts from
African Textiles: The Heart of the Yoruba
Part 1 - Presentation
Gasali Adeyemo

In this lecture master craftsman Gasali Adeyemo opens the evening with a description of his early life in Nigeria and tells how fibre art came into his life. As a participant of the Nike Centre for Arts and Culture, both as a student and later as a teacher, Gasali encountered a range of traditional crafts. He gives a description of the famous adire techniques and illustrates how they relate to Yoruba culture.

Recorded at the 2007 Maiwa Textile Symposium on October 25, 2007
Posted May 2009

Excerpts from
Masters of the Art
The Khatri Blockprinters of Dhamadka and Ajrakhpur
Part 2 - Questions from the Audience with
Razzaque Mohammed Khatri and Ismail Mohammed Khatri
and Eiluned Edwards

After the formal presentation the evening was opened up for questions from the audience. The questions explored trade patterns, the technique and culture of blockcutting, how the excavated textiles from Fustat, Egypt have found their way back into contemporary Ajrakh designs, tradition and the future of the art.

Recorded at the 2007 Maiwa Textile Symposium on October 19, 2007
Posted April 2009

Excerpts from
Masters of the Art
The Khatri Blockprinters of Dhamadka and Ajrakhpur
Part 1 - Presentation
Razzaque Mohammed Khatri and Ismail Mohammed Khatri
with Eiluned Edwards

Ajrakh has become the signature cloth of the Khatris. It is a cotton textile traditionally dyed with indigo and madder, and printed on both sides with complex geometric and floral patterns using hand-carved wooden blocks. There are between 14 and 16 individual stages of preparation, printing, and dyeing. The process can take 15–21 days to complete.

Recorded at the 2007 Maiwa Textile Symposium on October 19, 2007
Posted March 2009

North by Northwest Sheryl MacKay interviews Charllotte Kwon
from CBC radio one.

In March of 2008 CBC radio's Sheryl MacKay came to the Maiwa Loft and interviewed Charllotte Kwon, Owner of Maiwa Handprints and director of the Maiwa Foundation. The interview aired on March 22 on Sheryl's program North by Northwest. We asked Sheryl if we could post the interview on our website and she agreed. So in this episode we present the original interview as it aired in March of 2008.

First Aired in March 2008
Posted February 2009

Excerpts from
The Independent Artist: Working to Commission
Lucy Goffin

Working to commission involves forming a special relationship with a client. Large works for public spaces require the artist to deal with architects, planners, and engineers. It involves navigating through time frames, budgets, and fire regulations. The challenge is not to compromise the creative process due to the added constraints. In fact the reverse can often be true: exciting creative ideas come out of problem solving within a working brief.

Lucy Goffin has exhibited nationally and internationally. Notable collections containing her work include the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Crafts Council, London. She received an Arts Council Millennium Award which led to a "Year of the Artist" residency at Great Dixter House and Gardens (home of gardener/writer Christopher Lloyd). Her most recent work was the completion of a major commission for the Glyndebourne Opera House.

Recorded at the 2007 Maiwa Textile Symposium on October 22, 2007
Posted February 2009

Excerpts from
Reel and Weave: The Silkspinner's Story
Part 3 - Karen Selk

In part three Karen explores India and visits both the giant tusser moth and the Salvi community, makers of a famous double silk ikat known as Patan Patola.

Karen Selk has been a textile designer and artist since 1972. Her primary focus has been weaving and fusing felt with silk. In addition to writing, photography, research and textile arts, Karen runs Treenway Silks from her Salt Spring Island Home.

Recorded at the 2007 Maiwa Textile Symposium on October 23, 2007
Posted October 2008

Excerpts from
Reel and Weave: The Silkspinner's Story
Part 2 - Karen Selk

In part two Karen describes her experience in Laos and explains how weaving traditions are an essential part of Laotian culture.

Karen Selk has been a textile designer and artist since 1972. Her primary focus has been weaving and fusing felt with silk. In addition to writing, photography, research and textile arts, Karen runs Treenway Silks from her Salt Spring Island Home.

Recorded at the 2007 Maiwa Textile Symposium on October 23, 2007
Posted October 2008

Excerpts from
Reel and Weave: The Silkspinner's Story
Part 1 - Karen Selk

Karen Selk describes her journeys to China and explains how silk is raised and harvested.

Karen Selk has been a textile designer and artist since 1972. Her primary focus has been weaving and fusing felt with silk. In addition to writing, photography, research and textile arts, Karen runs Treenway Silks from her Salt Spring Island Home.

Recorded at the 2007 Maiwa Textile Symposium on October 23, 2007
Posted September 2008

Excerpts from
From the Heart: A Weaver's Journey
Part 2 - Bhakti Ziek

The conclusion of Bhakti Ziek's ride ranging and intimate talk on the art and life of weaving.

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

Excerpts from
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 Kwon 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