Ottoman fiber arts, Freecycle and granola

 Yesterday the Textile Museum and others presented a really intriguing program on the movement of textiles and artisans around the Ottoman Empire and beyond, largely because of  political forces. The map gives an idea of the general region discussed.

Dr Phillips wrote the book and is the sort of seemingly effortless presenter who has terrific knowledge of the  techniques, history and languages involved in her subject.

The slides are dated and labeled and sourced well enough to tell anyone interested quite a bit about this aspect of textile history, also some etymology, bringing two great interests together for me.

The weaving structures range from tabby to twill to samite, which I had thought was a cloth, but it's a weave structure.

This weaving uses angora goat hair, and I believe the word is related to Ankara. The item name, velense, derives from Valencia, and indicates the journey of the Jewish weavers expelled in the 1492 expulsion of the Jews. They took their skills and materials east and you see an example here. A lot of things happened out of Spain, that year, as our indigenous people know all too well.

Indian makers influenced the use of silk and precious metals in their very expensive cloth,  which, when artisans had to economize in hard times, were replaced by cheaper metals and threads.

Dr Phillips gave a special shout out to the photographers doing the setups to get these images for her book.

here, in India, modern weaving still uses traditional band designs, on a more modern loom.

Here are some researchers' deconstructions of the weaving

This one is interesting, because the original calligraphy, st the top,  was squashed up, even omitting syllables, to fit into a preexisting design size, lower image. There's surmise that it was a rush order, to celebrate possibly a  victory or an accession to power, maybe both, with a short  deadline. Even then this happened!

This was a real adventure with an expert, into a textile era I knew little about, but now would like to know more. I messaged a thank you note to the speaker.

Meanwhile, back to the present, yesterday I had a great urge for granola and next thing I knew, I'd made a batch. Almonds, cranberries, avocado oil, honey, cinnamon, lemon zest, whoa!

As I was picking out clothes yesterday, I noticed yet again a few items I like and never wear, so I took them out, posted them on Freecycle, and within a few minutes was reminded that there are odd ducks everywhere.

The three items on the right make a nice outfit, and the crop tops go with the rayon pants very well. I have another pair of these pants, no need for both, in fact I've been thinking of converting them to a skirt, lovely deep pockets,  but wide legs that can make me trip, but that means plenty of fabric..The tunic is a linen mix, the shirt cotton and the pants rayon, the crop tops  knitted cotton. Mainly  Indian and Indonesian, the rayon pants fair trade. The blue top has applique I painted and stitched on.

The odd duck messaged me very quickly saying she was interested in picking up. No indication of day and time as requested. 

I looked her up, found she was a brand new account, so instead of ignoring her, I figured she hadn't quite got the hang, and messaged that she needed to note my request and give estimated day and time. I'd noted the town name twice in the post, to help estimate if the distance was worth it.. 

Whereupon she got back and said she'd done that. Which she hadn't. Then she messaged twice more, once to say she lives in a town about an hour north of here, and hoped that was okay by me. I wondered what it had to do with me and the price of bananas, when her third message arrived, and explained she couldn't drive this far.

Yes, you see where this was going! Looked like she hoped I'd not only give her the things, but do a two hour round trip in the process. Evidently she confused free cycle with a free delivery service. So I  didn't continue with the pen pal exchange. 

Meanwhile a very stable and businesslike, different,  lady messaged with day, today, time, whatever I wanted, and the parcel of things was gone in an hour to a happy free cycler.

Happy day, everyone, look out for people who are not quite with the rules, and crafty, too, they're everywhere, everywhere, I tell you!