Congratulations! Arpita Kohli won ITMA cover competition

On the behalf of the International Textile Market Association's Educational Foundation, ITMA organizes The Showtime Magazine " Cover Competition" twice a year.

The winning design appears on the cover of the Showtime Magazine, Directory and Guide as well as other marketing materials produced and distributed for the ITMA show each year.

The design has to be made keeping in mind the current trends in color and design.

Ribbon Cutting Ceremony for ‘Lace Futures’ Collaborative Installations

Thursday, Oct. 22 11:30 a.m.
In front of the Paul J. Gutman LibraryInterdisciplinary teams of students have created site-specific, lace-themed installations as a result of the spring 2009 campus-wide Lace Futures exhibition that will be displayed on campus. A ribbon cutting ceremony will take place in front of the Paul J. Gutman Library to celebrate these collaborative works by students. The event is free and open to the University community and the public. Installations will be located in the Kanbar Campus Center Living Room, The Tuttleman Center, Ravenhill Dining Hall and at the Paul J. Gutman Library. These projects are funded by a generous grant from Cotton, Inc.

Serizawa: Master of Japanese Textile Design

Friday, October 9 — Sunday, January 17

Living National Treasure Serizawa Keisuke (1895–1984) used stencil-dyeing techniques to create irresistible works of art that range from screens and kimonos to book covers and magazine designs. The combination of Serizawa’s originality and vitality with the natural beauty of his materials—cotton, silk, hemp, and other fibers decorated with the brilliant yet warm hues of natural dyes—will make this show an unmissable visual feast.

For more information: http://www.japansociety.org/event_detail?eid=41b9f5c

Submitted by Hyunsoo Kim

FXI launches design competition for Philadelphia University students

Home Textiles Today, 10/14/2009 11:01:00 AM

Media, Pa. – Bedding foam products company FXI Foamex Innovations together with Philadelphia University is launching a design competition for students to create a new memory foam sleep product for the retail market.

The semester-long competition, open to both undergraduate and graduate students, was created to enhance their educations, provide hands-on industry experience, help prepare them for future employment, and, “quite possibly,” FIX noted, “uncover the next great sleep product innovation.”

“Engaging with outside partners and academia is a key element of our innovation process,” said Alvaro Vaselli, svp of Foam Products Business Management for Philadelphia-based FXI. “Our foam innovations reach far and wide – they make medical products safer, make vehicles quieter, electronics more reliable, household cleaning products more efficient and, yes, furnishings and bedding more comfortable and durable. Our job is to uncover new foam solutions every day. By partnering with Philadelphia University, we can foster that creative approach to the industry among its next generation of designers and leaders.”

The competition targets students from Philadelphia University’s School of Engineering and Textiles as well as its Industrial Design Program. Student entries will be judged on: innovation, features and benefits, and commercial viability. The competition will be featured on the FXI website. 

The winning team will be announced in February and will receive $1,000 plus an all-expenses paid trip to launch the product design at the International Sleep Products Association conference next March in Charlotte, N.C. In addition, the top five student teams will see their designs will be manufactured into products by FXI and its industry partners.

“This design competition is an innovative way for [our students] to learn about the changing face of textile manufacturing in Philadelphia and elsewhere and bring their studies to life with hands-on industry experience,” said Janet Brady, associate professor of textiles, School of Engineering and Textiles at Philadelphia University.

http://www.hometextilestoday.com/article/CA6701994.html?nid=2063&rid=7299770>
 
http://hfnmag.com/news-trends/news-landing/article/fxi-launches-design-competition/ 

Sorona® renewably sourced polymer*

DuPont has been defining the fiber industry for more than 50 years with the discovery and commercialization of well-known fibers such as nylon, rayon and spandex. With the introduction of Sorona® DuPont has commercialized the most advanced polymer platform in over six decades. Sorona® is made partially with agricultural feedstocks instead of petrochemicals, reducing our dependency on oil. In addition to fibers and fabrics, Sorona® can be used in films, filaments, engineering resins and other applications.
*Sorona® contains 37% renewably sourced ingredients by weight.

For more information see: http://www2.dupont.com/Sorona/en_US/ or http://vocuspr.vocus.com/VocusPR30/Newsroom/Query.aspx?SiteName=DupontNew&Entity=PRAsset&SF_PRAsset_PRAssetID_EQ=112184&XSL=PressRelease&Cache=False

Submitted by Sarah Sheber

33rd Annual Philadelphia Museum Of Art Craft Show Welcomes Artists From Korea

August 3, 2009 PHILADELPHIA, PA — The Women's Committee of the Philadelphia Museum and the Craft Show Committee are delighted to announce the participation of 26 leading craft artists from Korea to showcase their work at the 33rd Annual Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show to be held November 12 through November 15 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

Continued at: http://pmacraftshow.org/news/news_016.php
Submitted by Hyunsoo Kim

This year marks the tenth annual Philadelphia Open Studio Tours or POST which features Philadelphia visual artists in neighborhoods all over the city opening their studios to the public to show and sell their work.  This weekend, October 10 and 11, is reserved for those artists who studios are west of Broad Street.

 

Included in this weekend’s POST tours is “Sharp Street Studios.”   Located in Manayunk, it houses the workspaces for five fiber artists including two alumni of Philadelphia University’s Textile Design Program.  Pam Pawl, a weaver, received her B.S. in Textile Design and went on to teach weave design from 1995 – 2001.  Wendelyn Anderson is a print and surface designer who received her M.S. in Textile Design in 1999 and continues to work for the University as the technical and administrative assistant for the Textile Print Design program under the direction of Professor Hitoshi Ujiie. 

 

Sharp Street Studios is located at 3745 Sharp Street (Philadelphia, 19127).  The open studio hours are Saturday and Sunday from noon – 6 pm.  For more information log onto: www.philaopenstudios.com

Submitted by Wendy Anderson

The 33rd annual Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show will be held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center November 11th through 15th, 2009; Preview Party, November 11th.

This premier show and sale of contemporary craft, includes 195 of the finest and most dynamic craft artists in the United States, selected from 1,402 applicants. All work is for sale.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show is presented annually by the Museum's Women's Committee and Craft Show Committee for the benefit of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Funds raised are used to purchase works of art and craft for the permanent collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, to fund conservation and publication projects, and to support exhibitions and education programs.

http://pmacraftshow.org/

Submitted by Hyunsoo Kim

ONE MILLION WILD SPIDERS FROM MADAGASCAR SUPPLIED SILK FOR RARE TEXTILE ON DISPLAY AT AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

A spectacular and extremely rare textile, woven from golden-colored silk thread produced by more than one million spiders in Madagascar, goes on display Wednesday, September 23 in the Museum's Grand Gallery. This magnificent contemporary textile, measuring 11 feet by 4 feet, took four years to make using a painstaking technique developed more than 100 years ago.

This unique textile was created drawing on the legacy of a French missionary, Jacob Paul Camboué, who worked with spiders in Madagascar in the 1880s and 1890s. Camboué worked to collect and weave spider silk but with limited success, and no surviving textile is now known to exist. Previously, the only known spider-silk textile of note was exhibited at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900, and it was subsequently lost.

Producing the spider silk—the only example of its kind displayed anywhere in the world—involved the efforts of 70 people who collected spiders daily from webs on telephone wires, using long poles. These spiders were all collected during the rainy season (the only time when they produce silk) from Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar, and the surrounding countryside. These giant spider webs are a well-known feature of the capital, and frequently surprise international visitors. A dozen more people were needed to draw the silk from the spiders with hand-powered machines, with each spider producing about 80 feet of silk filament. This intricately-patterned spider silk features stylized birds and flowers and is based on a weaving tradition known as lamba Akotifahana from the highlands of Madagascar, an art reserved for the royal and upper classes of the Merina people (who are concentrated in the Central highlands). Silkworm silk has been used for a long period in Madagascar, however, there is no tradition of weaving spider silk in Madagascar. In this unique lamba cloth, the individual threads used for weaving are made by twisting 96 to 960 individual spider silk filaments together.

The silk fiber was gathered from the female golden orb spider (Nephila madagascariensis), which is renowned for the lustrous golden hue of its silk fiber. The male spider does not produce silk. The golden orb spider of Madagascar is just one of about 36 members of the Nephila genus. These spiders are found throughout the tropics and are known as golden orb weavers for their big, gold-colored webs. The webs can often be seen between telephone and electrical wires—and are sometimes large enough to span a one-lane road.

Almost all silk fabric is made from silkworm moth cocoons, but people have occasionally tried to make cloth from spider silk. One of the biggest challenges is the cannibalistic nature of spiders, which makes it very difficult to raise them in captivity, unlike silkworms. Spiders can be collected in the wild and then placed in a device to keep them still so the silk can be drawn. Afterwards, the spiders are released back into the wild.

For its weight, spider silk is stronger than steel, but—unlike steel—it can stretch up to 40% of its normal length. Scientists are trying to produce this intriguing material artificially on a large scale for possible uses on the battlefield, in surgery, for space exploration, and elsewhere. Since raising spiders has proven difficult, researchers are investigating ways to replicate spider silk to avoid harvesting. However, spider silk is difficult to mimic in a lab because the silk begins as a liquid in the spider's gland, becoming a remarkably strong, water-resistant solid after following a complicated course through the spider's interior.

The curator for the spider silk is Ian Tattersall, Curator, Division of Anthropology, with consulting by Norman Platnick, Curator, Division of Invertebrate Zoology.

The textile is on loan from Simon Peers and Nicholas Godley. Peers founded "lamba," an enterprise specializing in weaving, embroidery, and passementerie in Madagascar, working with architects and designers around the world. Lamba's regular silk textiles have been acquired by museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Art Institute in Chicago, the National Museum of African Art, the Smithsonian, and the British Museum. Godley arrived in Madagascar in 1994 and created a small manufacturing company specializing in raffia products. He launched his first collection of fashion handbags in 1999 at Bergdorf Goodman and Neiman Marcus. In 2005, Godley closed the factory and moved key personnel and resources to Antananarivo, Madagascar to work on the spider silk partnership with Peers.

Visitors interested in learning more about traditional silk-making can also visit the Museum's Traveling the Silk Road: Ancient Pathway to the Modern World, which opens on November 14. This intriguing exhibition brings to life one of the greatest trading routes in human history, showcasing the goods, cultures, and technologies from four representative cities: Xi'an, China's Tang Dynasty capital; Turfan, a verdant oasis and trading outpost; Samarkand, home of prosperous merchants who thrived on the caravan trade; and ancient Baghdad, a fertile hub of commerce and scholarship that became the intellectual center of the era.

http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/spidersilk/?src=e_h

For more information also see:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/23/arts/design/23spiders.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&em

Submitted by Sarah Sheber

Philadelphia University Alum featured in WWD

Scott Free

Womens Wear Daily - Sept 29.

New York’s Lower East Side, while clearly a shopping destination for a certain crowd, isn’t the most obvious retail location for a designer whose collection is sold primarily at Barneys New York, Ikram and Colette. Then again, as Tom Scott, the avant knitwear designer who opened his first store Saturday at 55 Clinton Street, said, “I prefer an off place to something that’s so predictable.” 

The space, formerly occupied by the boutique Dear 55, is Scott’s first stab at shop-owning, as well as his first proper studio. “I’ve always worked out of my home,” he said. “I’ve always wanted to have a small space where I could really show the aesthetic fully.” And at a total of 800 square feet, 300 of which is devoted to retail, the store is a tiny slice of Scott’s vision. 

Still, he made the most of it, hiring Eri Nagasaka, a friend and interior designer, to make over the previously whitewashed box — resulting in an artfully minimal feel. The floors have been hand-burnt and charcoaled for a matte black finish, and the few tables are made from reclaimed wood. “I wanted it to look torched,” said Scott. And while the walls are still white, those that divide the store and atelier are actually giant blank painter’s canvases set on hinges so they can function as a dressing room when needed. 

A self-confessed pack-rat and collector of odds and ends, Scott, a 2007 Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation award winner who worked at Ralph Lauren before going out on his own in 2004, is selling found objects (kitschy retro napkin holders, artsy balls of yarn) alongside his collection, which hangs on a spare rack along the left wall and retails for $100 to $3,000. For fall 2010, Scott will launch Repeat Performance, a collection of 20 archived styles that will be reissued, reworked and rotated on a seasonal basis. While he plans to sell the line internationally, in New York he wants to keep it exclusive to his store. Likewise for all the one-off pieces he has plans for, another perk of owning your own store. “Sometimes it’s nice if you can make just one,” said Scott. “I have a million ideas floating around in my head, and I want to actually start making some of them.”

Jessica Iredale

 

http://www.wwd.com/fashion-news/scott-free-knitwear-designer-opens-shop-on-les-2320322