The Survey Says....

We recently began collecting data from our clients because they know best!  We're seeking insight regarding ideas for expanding our product line. New products would be created out of fabrics and symbols similar to our stoles but wouldn't be stoles. These might be purchased by clergy for their own use or be purchased by or for non-clergy as gifts. 

The current Carrot Top Studio survey only has one question and if you'd like to participle it will be open until August 12th. Complete the survey here. Thanks for your input!

detail of a table runner with the theme of 'dayenu'

This Is Where We Create

If you've been reading along, you know that seven weeks ago my family relocated from Pittsburgh to the Detroit area. There have been many blessings surrounding our move. One of them is the new space that has become Carrot Top Studio. Here's a glimpse of the new studio and how we will use it--

This is where I sit to answer your emails, receive orders and blog. The morning sun shines in this window and by mid afternoon a wild, grey cat usually slinks by outside.

Sketching new designs will happen at this table.
The cutting and painting table is next to this. It is conveniently at standing height.

Small bits of fabric and yarn are gathered from these shelves. I love a bargain just like the next person and this shelving unit was a steal at the local thrift store!

Thread is stored where I can easily reach it on the wall shelves left of the sewing machine. To the right of the sewing machine is the ironing station that can be used while sitting at the machine or while standing on the opposite side. Larger pieces of fabric are stored on the bolt below the ironing table or folded in bins in the cube case. The art to the left of the window are pieces from my children's early explorations into creating.

Job tickets, inspiring images, words of good cheer and
our pattern pieces all hang out together.

Keeping order helps keep us productive!

On the left, our mannequin (Stella) kindly models works in progress. And on the right, photography for the website happens with the use of the design wall. Interesting to note that I made the fabric plant on the coffee table many years ago in a three dimensional design class in college. Even though I didn't recognize it at the time the fiber artist was obviously percolating within me!

The in stock inventory is stored in this armoire.

As the work day draws to an end you might find me here in one of these seats contemplating what is currently pinned on the white design wall, with a favorite book, or chatting about the day with a family member or friend. The art above the chair was created by one of my first students who was four years old and spoke only Japanese. We bonded over creating. Young Masumi was one of the first people to teach me that you don't need words to communicate. I like to think that the stoles we create for pastors, ministers, clergy, chaplains, and wedding officiants work like that also....they are a visual connection to the Word or the ministry that can be interpreted, appreciated and applied without the spoken word. Thanks for your patience while we've been in transition during this move.

Signing off to go draw, paint, sew, and more and more...

Going Green

I recently moved into a new house and fiber arts studio. This has led me to be doing an unusual amount of surfing through decorating, organizing, and house maintenance websites. Today one thing led to another and I was reading about the color green being the new neutral in home decor. Even though I felt this came across as a bit of a marketing ploy to buy new paint for the walls I do agree with the article's claims that this hue has life, vitality and even joy and there are simply no rules to mixing the great variety of yellow greens, blue greens, light greens, olive greens, etc. etc.

Waterlilies and Japanese Bridge, Claude Monet, 1897

Historically green dates back at least to the Egyptians who obtained the pigment from Malachite. The Greeks introduced the first artificial version of green called verdigris.Thanks to strides in chemistry in the 18th century artists had a more complete range of green pigments to work with. This led to the Impressionists being able to paint all of those works outdoors while they were studying how atmospheric conditions touched their natural world.

A selection of our Ordinary Time ministry stoles

Given that professionally my art is centered on the church year calendar I think of the variety of greens we appreciate being able to explore while creating clergy stoles for Ordinary Time at Carrot Top Studio. I'd like to think that we don't do it for decorating reasons but that in the church we use this great variety of green as a symbol and visual connection to growth in our Christian lives and faith during these days between Pentecost and Advent. Along this line of thinking it is interesting to note that in Hebrew in the Old Testament, the same word for the color green also means young. I have many days I feel very young in trying to comprehend the mysteries of faith. Maybe I'm not the only one? So bring on the many greens! Make a visual connection to the Word. Honor Ordinary Time by making it extra-ordinary with a plethora of green.

A Ministry Stole: A Glimpse of the Creative Process

Carrot Top Studio was honored to create the moderator's stole for the PCUSA 220st General Assembly. that was held in our hometown of Pittsburgh in 2012. Almost two years later, the day after my husband accepted a new job in Detroit, MI, the office of the G.A. called to offer us the commission for the next moderator's stole. The PCUSA G.A. of 2014 was interestingly to be convened in Detroit! The G.A. staff of course had no clue about the coincidence of my upcoming relocation so I was amazed but thrilled at this offer. The charge was to create a stole that reflected the host city in combination with a visual message of the assembly's theme scripture which was to be: May the God of hope fill you with all the joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13) It was with great pleasure that we researched what was to be our new home town to create this stole. What follows is a little bit of how the stole came to be and what the symbolism means...

The first component on the stole was to reflect the streets of downtown Detroit which, many years ago, were designed in a radial fashion. From the back tip to the front top third of the stole these lines were embroidered on the stole. It is subtle but it also represents the sun which in art history can be a symbol for "the son." To represent the theme scripture of Romans 15:13 on the back tip of the stole an anchor cross was used as a symbolize hope.

Swirls were hand painted on the front of the stole to represent joy and a white dove with a green laurel branch to symbolize peace was appliqued to the front.

The amazing architecture of Detroit is a symbol of rebirth, so the skyline is predominate on the border of the stole. The buildings are created out of fabrics that are imprinted with designs that echo the many Art Deco buildings in the city. We love subtle details like this!

Top: auditioning the pattern and fabrics. Bottom: the finished skyline.

The Detroit skyline is edged with the light blue Ambassador Bridge. This structure was built to bridge two countries but in this situation the bridge can also remind us of 2 Corinthians 5:20, "We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.  We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God."

Lastly the stole border is capped off with a river. It can be seen as the Detroit River but it also evokes the many Biblical references of rivers such as entering promised land, transition from slavery to freedom, or of cleansing. The rivers were created with fabric from Kenya because the Presbytery of Detroit has a partnership with the church there in Thika.

We pray that this stole will be a worthy visual connection to the ministry of the moderator for the next two years.

A Visual Connection to the Word: Creative Exercises

Visual connections like the ones that worship leaders make when they wear an overlay or

deacon's stole aren't the only way one can connect to the Word of the Lord. On this blog for Carrot Top Studio we try to examine as many visual connections as we can. Today we're thinking about creative exercises that could be incorporated into a group Bible study, sermon notes, or a personal time of meditation and reflection. Here's an exercise, for example:

1. Read Luke 15:11-32 slowly three times.
2. Which character in the story do you identify with? Imagine yourself in that person's place. What do you see, hear, smell, and feel?
3. How does this story touch your heart? Draw something to represent what you have experienced.

For some teens and adults a drawing exercise can be scary if they haven't taken pencil to paper in this manner in many years. A good leader though can be a great model and source of reassurance that nobody is judging the drawing and that the exercise is worthy. So, as popular culture might say today....Stay calm AND Draw on!

Red Stoles: Working In a Series

Artists often work in series. They tackle one version of a particular item or theme over and over. This might bring artists like Monet to mind. For example, Monet's many paintings of the Rouen Cathedral were studies of how light were affecting the appearance of the cathedral. Interestingly the twenty paintings of the cathedral were meant to be exhibited together so that the viewer could also observe and learn from the twilight to dusk changes. 

Rouen Cathedral paintings by Claude Monet

At Carrot Top Studio we often work in a series as we are preparing for a change in the liturgical season. Thus our last ten days have been quite the combination of red fabrics, threads and yarns as we have been preparing for Pentecost and Ordinations by visually interpreting the scriptures surrounding these times in our church year. It is very stimulating to work this way as knowledge and experience amasses from contemplating one theme of the Word. For our clients we hope this means that the results of our stoles more clearly communicate telling, significant and important visual connections to those that you minister to. 

Here is a peek at what the last week or so have produced. 

To examine individual stoles please refer to this page on our website.

Visual Connections in Worship: Easter Sunday and the Season of Easter

How do you make a visual connection in worship beyond vestments, paraments and worship

This Easter joy stole
may be seen in full here.

banners during the Easter season? One way is to show that the message of Lent and Easter are interconnected. For example, if you have displayed a crown of thorns don't remove it from your worship space but simply add blossoms of white lilies as a symbol of the Resurrection. Additionally instead of removing Lent banners and cloths just add draping of white fabrics over them. Allowing some of the purple to show will remind us that Easter is the continuation of the story.

If you've used prayer stations or stations of the cross during Holy Week how can you include some of that imagery on Easter Sunday? Maybe you make the connection just by simply keeping the worship space darkened as services begin on Easter morning. A slow transition of adding light to the space will heighten the celebration of the Resurrection. This sort of "adding to" could occur with the musicians also. A musical worship team might begin with just one person in leadership and as worship is entered into the different musicians would become incorporated into their roles. The use of images on the big screen, so ever present today in many worship spaces, can also go from simple to complex, or black and white to full color to emphasize our entering into a season of joy, light and hope. 

Moreover, the expanse of lilies and other fresh flowers on Easter Sunday are often quite extraordinary and uplifting symbols of new life. But what carries the joy for the remaining fifty days until Pentecost? Maybe the choir sings from a different location than normal or there is drama incorporated into the worship because these are visual in addition to auditory components. The trick is to keep it simple so that new and different elements don't become entertainment to the point of the worshipers loosing site of why we are all gathered. Lastly, it is always wise to educate either verbally, through a children's moment or in print in the worship bulletin as to why something is new or different. Anything we can do to help the alleluias of Easter proclaim Christ's victory over sin and death will only deepen our great hope.

Visual Connections in Worship: Lent and Holy Week

As you know, last Sunday we crossed the halfway line for the season for Lent. This historically is known as Laetare Sunday. The word laetare has its roots in Latin and means "rejoice". I visited a church in Detroit, Michigan on Sunday. They were obviously observing Lent as noted by the liturgy, the music, and the pastors purple stoles. But when I looked at the flowers in the chancel I was at first unsettled because the bouquet was so bountiful and pink. This didn't seem right for a season that is supposed to be stripped down and bare. But then it dawned on me what Sunday it was and I realized the pink flowers represented the foretaste of Easter joy. It is the joy that can be found in the midst of trial. In this congregation, on this past Sunday, the message preached was based on the 23rd Psalm. The opening stanza is so familiar to us, "The Lord Is my Shepherd, I shall not want....." This passage became my mantra last month when my husband very unexpectedly lost his job. We had been feeling that God had been preparing us for change for the past year or so. But oh, my, this wasn't what we were expecting! We tried hard not to make this a "trial" but instead just a crossing of the valley. The valley that is spoken of in Psalm 23. So why were we worshiping in Detroit? Well it seems as if God has been preparing a place for us there. We are excited to see not only how God will use my husband professionally but also how we will serve in this new place and season of our life. Carrot Top Studio will hopefully not miss a beat as the studio will easily relocate. We will certainly share more about that is the days ahead.

Enough about my personal life! We now all carry on through the remainder of Lent. If you haven't done so already it is probably time to think about how you will make a visual connection in worship during Holy Week. Palms on the ground on Palm Sunday, inviting people to actually nail a prayer, confession or thought to a wood cross, or covering the Communion Table or altar with burlap cloth and a crown of thorns are a few items to consider beyond stoles and paraments. Good Friday lends itself to its own visual connections. Art work, sculpture and crosses are traditionally draped in black cloth on this somber day. Candles can be extinguished, flowers removed, and the traditional sanctuary cross might be removed and replaced with a rough tree trunk/branch cross. 

If you still need a stole for Lent the one pictured here reflecting the Palm parade would be a lovely choice going into Holy Week. It is on the website here. And if you're looking ahead to Easter and need a stole, the current in stock collection may be seen here. Next week's blog post will explore a few ideas fur the season of Easter that will make visual connections to the Word in worship.

The Color of Lent

From the book Proclamation by Design, by Karmen Krahn and Leslie James:

Purple, the color of Lent, serves as a foundation for symbols of barrenness and brokenness. The worship space may be stripped of all other color and signs of life. Plants and flowers are not used during the season. Purple is the traditional color for Lent, but in some faith traditions the use of natural fabrics of brown, beige, or gray are used instead. Congregations that use purple at Advent should take care to use different hues at Lent.

Today on Ash Wednesday we will start setting the tone for the season: humility, simplicity, sobriety, and even sorrow. Why do so many churches use purple for Lent? Purple has been associated with royalty for centuries. Nature does not provide an easy means of dying fabric for purple. At the time of Christ's time on earth only the rich, mainly royalty, could afford it. So of course we further come to understand why the words of Mark 15:17 tell us, "They put a purple rode on Jesus, made a crown out of thorny branches and put it on his head." Lent is a  journey. And as we begin it, as we make the first step, we see--far, far away--the destination. It is the joy of Easter, it is the entrance into the glory of the Kingdom. The reign of Christ the King.

If you still need a stole for Lent we offer a variety of appropriate purple vestments here. Shipping is via Priority mail within 24 hrs. of receiving your order.

Meet Our Shipping Assistant

I've ducked out of the studio this week to work with my brothers and sisters in Christ in Haiti. I'm assisting with the painting of a mural in the new library we are helping the Haitians build. Actually we're renovating and retrofitting a classroom that will be the first of two library rooms. And we're gathering the books and delivering them to these 2800 students that have a gusto for learning like I have seen no where else. The books are in Creole (the native language), in Spanish (because many speak it because the Dominican Republic is so close), in French (because the high school students learn this in school) and in English (because there is an initiative and interest in the students learning English to help further their education and job potential). 

I'm excited to introduce you to Sarah who will be handling shipping while we are gone for the week. Sarah is a friend that I have gotten to know first through my children (that means she passed the cool test), secondly by time spent walking our township nature trails together, and lastly because she is a specialist in library and information science. She has been instrumental in developing the collection on our Amazon book wish list for the library in Haiti. Sarah has also served in Haiti and that has allowed her to be sensitive to choosing books that are best suited to the children's cultural heritage and their conservative Christian upbringing. So roll out the red carpet for Sarah as she's now also on board to handling the Carrot Top Studio shipping while we are out of town. 

I'm the blog master of this mission team's trip so if you want to know more you may follow along here.

And p.s...you'll love knowing that even Sarah's dog Marley gets in on the act....here's the clever canine checking out our architect's plans for the library in Haiti while Sarah catalogs books one recent snowy afternoon!

Gratitude for What You Do!

If we had a larger staff this is what we'd be doing when we think of you....

Really. We're just jumping for joy and wanted to thank you for choosing to purchase stoles that give back! In 2013 you helped us support:

• research, support and programs for those battling Alzheimer's via the Alzheimer's Association
• education of the La Femme de laCroix (women of the cross), Haiti via the New Testament Mission
• making life better for children who battle cancer via MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
• programs for homeless veterans and other men in need via Helping Up Mission, Baltimore, MD
• encouragement and relationship building with women in the Democratic Republic of Congo via Congo Cloth Connection
• fighting breast cancer via the American Cancer Society
• creation care by purchasing stoles created with eco-friendly fabrics

Really!

Inside Carrot Top Studio

Never a dull moment in the studio and this past week has been especially full to the brim! We've made plans for and started work on new designs for Lenten stoles. Here's a sneak peak....

This one should be on the website on Monday or Tuesday. You can follow us on Facebook to see when it's ready to go.

I'm also preparing for my next trip to Haiti and the studio has become the collecting point for the 500+ books we'll take with us as we work on building the mission school a library. The titles are in English, French, Spanish and Haitian Creole. This is so exciting!

And sewing and designing is such a passion I actually do it in my leisure time too. Here's the current project...it will be a quilt for my son. The batik fabric is part of what he brought home after his semester in Uganda last year. This has been a nice creative challenge for me and it's been a joy to work with him on the design.

What have you been up to?

Different Studio Activities

The days following the Christmas celebration allowed me to use some of my usual studio time to focus on a few projects that weren't "liturgical stole" related. For instance, a baby quilt was made. I baked and ate my way through the 12 Days of Cookies recipes sponsored by the Food Network. The family agrees that the rosemary chocolate chip shortbread was the favorite of the season. But what was most fun was preparing for my next trip to Haiti. In February I will travel for the 5th time to work alongside my brothers and sisters in Christ in their beautiful country. Several years ago my daughter started a small library for the school students at the main location of the mission our faith community supports. There are 2800 students there and they do not have the advantage of books that could be borrowed and shared to inform, educate and enrich the students’ lives as members of society and God’s kingdom. The Haitian pastor now has determined that the children will all benefit from learning English and is starting this process slowly and methodically with the preschoolers. One grade level of English learners will be added each year. To support all of this we have decided to expand that original collection of 300 books. Space has been designated for this endeavor in the school. The renovation will begin in February. But back to the books....did you know that the American standard for books in a library is 5-10 per student in the school? Based on this we're setting our goal at 14,000 books! We've been blessed with the ease of using Amazon's wish list feature as it has allowed friends, our church family and community to start contributing to this book collection. The wish list can be viewed here. 

Painting a mural together to tell the story of Jesus' life on earth.

On my first trip to Haiti I had the pleasure of helping to paint a mural in the mission children's chapel.  This was a great way to make artist friends in this community while we worked side by side. The library will have a mural also and I'll share pictures of this task on our Carrot Top Studio Facebook page while I'm gone in February. 

P.S.-good news for you....while I'm gone, shipping will not cease due to the trusty hands of an assistant that will take on this roll. 

Worship Banners-You Can Do It!

A client recently inquired to see if we had resources Carrot Top Studio could share for her congregation to make their own worship banners. We love to share, so here you go:

Simple yet meaningful.

• Worship banners don't need to have complicated imagery to be effective. Bold color can make for great impact. One of my favorite sets of Lent banners are simply a solid purple fabric with a gold cross on one and a gold rooster on the other. These are just little tidbits of the Lenten journey story but they are enough to draw the congregation into the season in worship.
• 
  
• Unless the sewer is going to quilt the banner it should be kept narrow. Wide banners tend to sag. Therefore sometimes creative solutions need to be thought of. For example, if you are filling a large wide space in your sanctuary you would be better served with several narrow banners.
• 
  
• Turn to books for inspiration. Here are a few that I have found useful.

• Banners Without Words by Jill Knuth
• Spaces For Spirit by Nancy Chinn...this has a great section of guidance for worship arts committees
• Banners For Worship, Carol Jean Harms
• Textile Art in the Church, Marion Ireland
• Banners for All Seasons, Joyce Pike and Anne Robinson
• The Patchwork Pilgrimage, Jill Liddell
• Raise the Banners High, Pamela Hardiman 

These torn fabric stripped banners were used during
a processional and then "planted" into holders by the
church windows so the fabric moved with
the breeze. The armature was PVC pipe.

• It's best not to invest millions (ha, ha--who has that!) into the supplies for banners. If congregations spend a lot they tend to be reluctant to invest in new banners. The danger in this, besides not being good stewards of our resources, is that the visuals become stale. If we look at something for too long then our brain takes it for granted and the message is no longer effective. 

• Banners don't have to be made out of fabric. Think outside the box....paper, ribbons, or maybe a unique gem found in the recycling bin.
• 
  
• We get calls saying that churches no longer have sewers and artists so they are thankful they can work with us. Honestly, despite being thankful for the business, I always have a hard time believing this! The church should reach out to quilt guilds, art guilds, 4-H clubs and home economics classes (or family consumer science as they call it  in my neck of the woods today).

If you take on your own worship banner projects within your congregation we'd love to hear your stories and see pictures. Now, go forth and conquer!

We're Celebrating!

Thanks to you we've earned our "Purple Star" for positive customer feedback on eBay. It might seem silly but we take this seriously....we appreciate: 

• the ease of selling on eBay,
• the energy of a auction format, 
• the feedback that you leave after your shipment arrives so that others can gain confidence in Carrot Top Studio.

Thank you for getting us to this place! Woot! We're celebrating by offering a few extra stoles on eBay this week. Happy bidding!

Behind the Scenes

I am....

JENNY ....who was thrilled to start out teaching art to children and adults but now happily spends her days in her studio creating fiber art.

My colors....I tend to draw upon the natural seasons for my favorite color combinations. As I write it is autumn outside my studio so if asked the question today I'd say my colors are pumpkin accented with a deep blue the color of the sky. 

Where I create....in a very non glamorous but cozy basement studio that has a lot of order to it. I find being surrounded by organization allows my creativity to flow freely.

I am inspired by...reading scripture, absorbing books of many different genre (and libraries and book stores), visiting art museums, being in nature, experiencing different types of architecture and environments, and by people that lead in quiet ways.

I stay inspired by...God's word (lately and surprisingly from the Old Testament), viewing work by artists that have gone before me, studying other small business owners, walking for physical exercise and to keep my mind clear.

A favorite quote....

I remember....my grandmother telling me during my teenage years that I was 'cagey' to accessorize with the color red. With my orange hair, as bright as a circus clowns, this was just a little 'outside her box' yet her words were a source of encouragement to me to do my own thing.

my grandmother and I circa 1963

Preparing to Make Advent Stoles

I thought I'd give you  a sneak peek at the fabric dying process we're using in preparing, designing and sewing for Advent. We don't often dye our own fabric but we really enjoy the process. I think it takes me back to the many years that I painted with watercolors. 

The white cotton fabric is first soaked in a bath of soda ash. If you're a chemistry type this is actually sodium carbonate. It actually activates the fiber molecules so that they can chemically attack the dye so it's more reactive. Is that too much information? 

The wet fabric is set on a rack on top of a tray and is then covered with ice cubes.

Powdered dye is sprinkled over the ice. As the ice melts the colors will mix. The fun part with this step was when the construction worker who was doing his thing in front of my studio saw the wet purple-y fabric and asked if I was making elderberry wine! We had a good chuckle. Then when I explained that I was a fiber artist and I did work for clergy and this was part of my preparation for Advent another of the guys asked what Advent was. That was an unexpected little moment of evangelism!

24 hrs. later the fabric looks like this. It gets rinsed and then washed.

And we then end up with THIS! It looks so pretty in the garden I might have to wait to bring it inside to cut (tee hee!)

Inspiration

Dear husband says to me over the weekend: "lets go for a hike Sunday afternoon."

I respond: "There's a great space in the city I've wanted to check out for ages."

Dear husband: "Great! Send me the address and I'll GPS it."

Fast forward to being in the midst of the hike through the 400 acre, 200+ year old, hilly, wooded, intriguing, city cemetery...

Dear husband remarks: "If I were one to post things on Facebook I'd probably get some laughs out of the fact that I asked my wife on a date for the afternoon and she said 'let me show you a cemetery.'"  Laughter is a good thing, right? Anyway....the property provided for a good hike/walk, the history was intriguing and of course there was much inspiration for Carrot Top Studio! Here are a few of our favorite images--

Art Promotes Community

I have been thinking a lot about community lately. This is probably partly because I am a new empty-nester. Yikes!....part of my community isn't living with me anymore. I have been contemplating and self examining my neighborhood community, the community friends provide outside of where I live, and community we're able to have via the internet. Lastly I have been examining the community that happens because of The Church like the author of 1 Thessalonians 5:11 tells us, "therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing."

viewers treasured the Modern Quilt Guild of Pittsburgh mini pieces

Fabric and creating has been part of my life probably since I was a child making curtains and rugs out of scraps for my doll house. The work that Carrot Top Studio and our clients provide are a blessing and thoroughly enjoyed but I also appreciate having sewing, design and creating in the "free time" of my days. Therefore the empty nest and examination of community has led me to join a new community of quilters. This weekend I was able to attend an art gallery opening for this group's first ever exhibit. The event promoted community as the members prepared for the event ahead of time and gathered to see each other's works. Additionally because this gallery was in a small space of a large library there was extended community as viewers of the general public stumbled upon or purposefully engaged in the art and with the artists. Experiencing this calls me to encourage you to think about your church buildings. Maybe you have a small space that would be suitable to encourage artists to share their work and the viewer to be challenged by their art? It doesn't need to be fancy. I'd say a clean wall, good lighting, and a simple hanging system would give you a great start. The "gallery" space could have short term or permanent use.

Won't You Be My Neighbor, detail

Getting back to the quilt guild exhibit, here's a detail of my little piece. We were challenged to create a quilt that was no larger than 8 x 10" with the theme of Pittsburgh. Won't You Be My Neighbor? was created because of my love for Pittsburgh’s neighborhoods. Inspiration stemmed from a traditional quilt block called “next door neighbor” that has been pieced to surround a representation of Pittsburgh’s three rivers. This work has been made modern through the use of high contrast coloring and grid work style machine quilting. The arched quilting symbolizes our many bridges and the straight lines recall the downtown skyline. All of this is turned as a reflection below the quilted water’s edge.

I'll sign off today looking forward to knowing some of the creative ways you've helped or participated in connecting community and the visual arts!

Coptic Textiles: A History Containing Vestments

I have been thinking about the Coptic Christians as we are hearing much about them in the news. I think their history is remarkable. My wee bit of knowledge takes me back to my collegiate art history classes. 

It is interesting to note that an unusual number of Coptic textiles survive today, due to the Coptic

contemporary Coptic art

custom of burying them with the dead, and to the aridity of Egyptian graves. The textiles are commonly linen or wool and use the colors red, blue, yellow, green, purple, black and brown. The dyes were re-markedly created from madder, indigo, woad, saffron, the murex shell, and the kermes insect.The basic garment was the tunic, which would become the dalmatic, similar to what deacons wear today. Today I can associate this to our interest and passion for liturgical textiles that has grown into our business at Carrot Top Studio.

Regardless of the time in history we know that artists are influenced by their environment. Case in point, the early Coptic craftsmen had at their disposal a vast storehouse of images, many of which circulated in the form of patterns. They used pictorial motifs from the Greco-Roman tradition, including pastoral scenes related to the Nile River and mythological characters such as dancers who evoke Dionysian celebrations. Of Egyptian lineage are hieroglyphic figures such as the hare, signifying the verb, "to endure." Eastern motifs from Syrian and Persian fabrics were also incorporated which combined oriental hunters on horseback with running lions and leopards, and with Christian crosses. As they integrated the images into their weaving  the artisans created a distinct style, in which the figure and ornamentation are treated equally. 

Young Christ

This "Young Christ" panel is an example of Christian imagery on linen fabric from the 5th century. The youthful orbed Christ, seated on a throne, raises his two fingers in blessing. Christ gazes towards a haloed figure with short hair and a beard, whose Greek inscription names him Simon Peter. The figures are placed within arcades resting on columns; the arched canopies and upholstery are marbled.This hanging may have had a liturgical use. 

The cloth was dyed by the resist printing method. The creator of this linen cloth would have spread a protective layer of wax or clay on the area intended to be left undyed, or reserved. The technique is similar to the making of the batik fabrics that we love to incorporate into our clergy stoles today. When the resist was dry, the cloth was plunged into a vat of indigo dye. 

In the worship service I attended this past Sunday we concluded by singing the hymn "O Day of God, Draw Nigh" and the words do not escape me as I pray for Christian brothers and sisters around the world today...

Bring justice to our land,

That all may dwell secure,

And finely build for days to come

Foundations that endure.

Bring to our world of strife

Your sovereign word of peace,

That war may haunt the earth no more

And desolation cease.