From the Collection: Children's Hats from SW China - The Best is Last?

I mentioned that the Roommate & I often try to buy things in sets of three. Not sure why we do that, but it's a habit we've tried to keep up. Of course sometimes we cannot resist & we buy some other odd number of items (7 Ethiopian pillows, for example). Anyway, the best of these three amazing items, another child's cap from SW China, which we bought in Dali in 1994.

The front of this has an overlapping leaf design, and YES, that is real hair, braided & woven with some wire to make super-scary horns.  Wouldn't any child feel protected wearing this cap?  

I'm guessing it's also from the Bai people, but I need to do some more research.  We got them all in Dali at the same time.  

BTW, they were made for wearing--all three have chin-straps.  

Enjoy the details below...

Note: Clicking on the photo will bring up a much larger version for your perusal.

From the Collection: Children's Hats from SW China - 2nd Entry

Another child's cap from the Bai people in SW China.  The first in this little series is here. Gorgeous embroidery & details on this scary face.  Not sure what's in the nose--it's quite hard, and feels like it might be wood?  I am especially partial to the teeth! I also love the mouth & eye details, including super eyebrows, which reminds me...

You'll be glad to know the Roommate & I try to shop in threes...so another one is coming (and I've saved the best for last)!

From the Collection: Children's Hats from SW China!

The Roommate & I will be on a big trip thru Finland & Iceland to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary (yes we are proud!), so the next few weeks I'll be sharing a few items From the Collection. I hope you enjoy these lovely examples of folk art.

Think about this: you're a parent in pre-science culture.  You see the high death rate of children, especially babies.  Even if you have a clue about clean water or immunizations, you have no way to put that knowledge into daily use.  So you might try other methods to ensure the health & success of your baby.  These children's hats, richly embroidered & decorated, are an attempt to ward off evil spirits, while also ensuring luck, wealth, happiness & longevity. 

The scary face would definitely give an evil spirit a fright, don't you think? 

This hat is from the Bai people, an ethnic minority in
SW China (we purchased this cap in Dali in 1994). 

The exquisite embroidery, along with the fake fur, and a little trapunto (for the nose), give this cap a distinct personality.  I imagine a little boy or girl would be thrilled to wear such a scary cap, the equivalent of the superhero capes Western children wear.  The row of Buddhas will bring luck and wealth.  

Lotus embroidered on corduroy
used for the back of the cap. 

The lotus flower (above) endows purity on the wearer while the bird may mean a messenger or a shaman.  I can guess, but really, will never know what the mother or grandmother or aunt or sister was thinking when she made this treasure for a new member of the family. 

I'm a librarian, so compelled to include a bit of reading in case you'd like to find out more:
Symbolism in Chinese Children's Hats & Baby Carriers (2007)
and even more reading (on the Bai & Miao, but other ethnic minorities, too)!

It's Always a Quetzal Kind of Day...

Bella & I both like birds.  So when we're traveling (me & the Roommate, not me & Bella), I'm on the lookout for any natural history included on artwork. Especially birds!  This beautiful huipil from (probably) San Miguel Chicaj, has lots of quetzales.  All overlapping in what is quite an intricate geometric pattern.  Did she embroider by rows, swapping colors?  Or by color?  In knitting I know it would be by row, but I'm not sure about embroidery.  

Here's what I love about handmade art: Take some basic elements such as simple repetition, color change, concentric shapes, parallel lines, etc., none of which are difficult to embroider, or to imagine.  But in the right hands, WOWZA!  

Border detail; love the zig-zag & suns!

Overlapping quetzales

(Note: The photos are small on this page, but click on them to see the full-sized versions & admire the detailed handwork.)

It's a Quetzal Kind of Day!

Unless you're an avid birder, or into punk-rock hairstyles, you may not know what a quetzal is. Well, for one thing, quetzales are the national bird of Guatemala.  The money is also called Quetzales--I love that!  

Source

I haven't ever seen one in the wild...not for lack of trying.  The Roommate & I have spent lots of times traipsing in rainforests, following a guide, trying to see through dripping leaves & damp binoculars.  

Source

They are well & truly amazing, and are a common icon for all types of artwork, whether it's for a Mayan ruin, or a huipil, a woman's tunic.  

I've mentioned before that styles of huipiles are fairly useful to determine the wearer's hometown.  

Here another from our collection of 7 (never enough!), both with quetzales as the extremely amazing subtle, repetitive, interlocking embroidered icon.  I cannot think of enough adjectives to describe my feeling of wonder when I look at these works of art!  

(Note: The photos are small on this page, but click on them to see the full-sized versions & admire the detailed handwork.)

From Quetzaltenango (place of the quetzales), here's a masterpiece.  BTW, I'm not 100% sure of the origin of this item.  If you know better, please leave a comment for me!  If you want a glimpse into the complicated world of Guatemalan geography & huipile art, check out Huipils, for their list of towns, each with distinctive embroidery & weaving styles.  

Embroidered quetzales--perfectly kerned!  

 The mini zipper at the neck is so charming.

Each shoulder has a band of velvet.

What's fascinating to me about this particular huipil is that it looks to be made of a basic cotton rice or potato sack, then heavily embroidered with the kerned quetzales in multiple colors. THEN, a completely different design & type of embroidery was applied with finer thread.  At first I was sure that this was machine embroidery, but after some thought, I don't think it's very likely on a huipil that is a at least 25-30 years old.  

From reading about these vertical bands, they were apparently first used to disguise seams when narrow bands of fabric had to be pieced together.  Because they were so beautiful, when wider base fabric became available the decoration was retained, though it was no longer needed.  

Stay tuned.  I'll have another huipil up next week.  Comments/Questions?  Let me know.

Palestinian Embroidery

 Quick post about a pillow we have covered with extremely distinctive & wonderful Palestinian embroidery (a.k.a. tatreez fallahi/cross-stitch embroidery/عبر غرزة التطريز).  Often it's used as decoration on bodices, cuffs, hems, headdresses.  There's a great picture on that second link of 2 women pulling up their white sheilas to show off their amazing bodice embroidery, which they probably did themselves.  Amazing detail and wonderful graphic designs.  We have another pillow (which I can't find!), but really, I should have bought 10 or 20 of these.  I was always kind of waiting to find an actual dress somewhere at the souq, but that never happened, and I ended up with very little instead.  Big mistake!  ;-)

However, who cares if I have enough samples of this amazing work?  What matters is that Bella loves it, finds it a cozy place to hang out, and it flatters her lovely coat.

Kuchis Wedding Dress

I'm having a hard time figuring out exactly what this is.  I suspect it's a wedding dress worn by women of the Kuchis people of Afghanistan.  

The Kuchis are Pashtun-speaking nomads, who heavily embroider their wedding dresses.  And we've got one.  The Roommate gave it to me for xmas a few years back.  It was easy to get Afghan goods when we lived in Abu Dhabi.  Unfortunately we never got to Afghanistan, so the souq in Abu Dhabi was the best we could do.

I have been scouring the web for information about this type of garment, and would love to show you a photo of a bride wearing one.  Though I have found plenty of dresses, modern & vintage that look similar, I'm finding very little about who would have worn these dresses, why and where.  That they're worn by Kuchis women is about the closest I've gotten, and because weddings are a big deal the world over, I'm making an educated guess about the purpose of this garment.  I feel sure that though this is a longer dress, it would probably be worn over a pair of loose pants.  

Waistband detail + 3 medallions

The top is heavily embroidered with glass beads and metallic thread.  Round medallions of varying diameter are at the waist, the shoulders and on the sleeves.  The sleeves have the finger loop (also beaded) that would go over the middle finger to keep the sleeves down.  Although the dress itself doesn't seem that big (for an average sized woman), the sleeves are very long (and we had to fold them a bit to get them to fit on this 5' wide rod).  

Sleeve detail: mirrorwork &
metallic thread embroidery

This dress is heavy...the bodice is so thoroughly embroidered that it is stiff and the glass beads, mirror-work (shisha), and metallic thread bring it in at just over 9 lbs!  These are all common textile-decoration techniques from the NW of India, Pakistan & Afghanistan. Remember by common I don't mean simple!  Just that they're from a time period where most women had amazing hand-work skills and plenty of hours to learn these skills & to show them off. 

Skirt embroidery detail

If you're interested in a great book about textile techniques around the world (including many "how-to" instructions, such as adorning your latest creation with some mirrorwork), check out A Visual Guide to World Textiles by John Gillow & Bryan Sentance from Thames & Hudson.  And one online store, Tribal Bazaar, has all sorts of amazing photos; I've never purchased from them, so don't know if they are reputable; but it's fun to look at their photos!  

The Roommate & I took many photos trying to get all the details showing to share with you.  Enjoy!  (Remember, clicking on a photo will take you to the full-size version of that photo.)  Thanks for visiting & I'd love some comments if you know a bit more about this type of dress!  

3.5" medallion detail; one at each cuff

Guatemala's Greatest Hits; well, a start anyway...

Textile Heavens!  Guatemala definitely makes the top 5.  Here's why... 

I think I mentioned that we stuck a bed/bath/closet onto our house after we bought it.  We've been slowly decorating it, and a few weekends ago the Roommate put up a curtain rod (about the only way we've come up w/ that gently displays our textile collection) above our bed.  And the first thing on it is two of our many treasures from Guatemala.

It's a huipile (tunic) from Aguas Calientes.  The weaving & embroidery styles for each area of the country are quite distinctive, and it's generally easy to tell where women are from by the lovely tops & skirts they are wearing.  The Anthropology Museum in Columbia, Missouri has a nice online exhibit, if you'd like to see more.  And here's a photo of a woman from Aguas Calientes, wearing her lovely huipile, and weaving another.

The detail is amazing, as you can see from this second photo.  It has many of the typical elements of huipile design (zig zags, bluebirds, flowers, other trimmings), but of course rearranged in a pattern pleasing to the weaver (who most likely is also the wearer).


We've had weavers look at it & they say they cannot tell if it was woven or embroidered, the work is so fine.


We also got a 6-foot long headdress from Nebaj out of storage.  Nebaj is way in the north of Guatemala.  Here's a photo of a woman from that area wearing such a sash braided into her hair.  I couldn't afford one of the really long ones (12'), we were living on about $30/day between the 2 of us, and had to be careful what we bought.  However, you will be glad to know we budgeted (and spent) about 15% on textiles on our 14 week trip through Central America.  Cheap buses & hotel rooms quickly fade from memory, but the richness of the traditional textiles we've bought will be with us always!  (Our mantra?  Should have bought more!)


Here are a few other woven bands we got there, also worn braided into the hair by the women of the various regions.

Thank you for looking at more of our treasures!  You can always ask questions in the comments section, and I will try to answer, if I am able.

From the Collection: Afghanistan - Uzbek Lakai Ilgitsh (Tent Hanging)

We have been moving furniture around due to the big remodel & one benefit is that we have another place to display bits of our textile collection.

This amazing piece of embroidery is a tent hanging from Northern Afghanistan, and as far as I can tell it's an ilgitsh, which is just a general term for a tent hanging.  The Lakai are an Uzbek tribe.  It's a bit unusual because though it is square, like many others I've seen online, the embroidery stops right where we've clipped it at the top for display (clipped it with clips, not with scissors!).  So it's folded & you cannot see the non-embroidered part, making it triangular shaped.

I like to include references (librarians just can't help it), so here's another example, much older, that I found online.  I've included a bunch of detail photos so you can see how wonderful it is and so you can see the artist's talented embroidery up close.  Of course this would be part of a bride's trousseau.

No, we haven't been to Afghanistan, unfortunately.  Not for lack of trying.  Mostly it was just a $$ thing; way too expensive--more bang for our buck going to West Africa & ride buses for 5 weeks, rather than 2 weeks on a tour in Afghanistan.  I don't have many regrets, but not getting to Peshawar when we were overseas makes me go, "Ouch!"  We have another amazing Afghan item--a wedding dress, I think it's Turcoman/Turkoman.  More on that later.

Anyway, enjoy these photos of Central Asian artwork.  Comments are always welcome & if you know more than I do, please write & correct me, or provide additional info.

Boy's caftan from Turkey

This is a small caftan which we've had hanging on the wall in our hallway.  We have hangers up all over the place with clothing on them.  Possibly a weird way to decorate, but how else will we enjoy our treasures? It's woven silk, with this amazing printed cotton lining, and lots of embroidery on the edges.  A friend borrowed it once for a Hallowe'en party; she was quite small, so it fit her beautifully.

We bought it in Nevşehir, in the Cappadocia region of Turkey.  We also bought 3 boys' hats there...but those are in storage somewhere.  I promise, after we move next week I'll get them all out for show. This page is quite a good reference if you'd like to learn more about Turkey...

One thing that's interesting about the design is that the pieces of silk are all rectangles, but to make gussets & darts, (the places where humans bend & change size), they've created those with pieces of velvet & silk, in contrasting colors.  The two top pictures show this design element pretty well, I think.

I hope you like seeing these items.  If you have any questions, let me know; we've learned a lot about textiles, weaving, embroidery, etc. as part of this hobby, and if I don't know the answer, I'm a librarian, so I can point you in the right direction...

Thanks for your interest!