Maiwa Podcasts

Like all great arts, textiles recreate our visiton of the world. We hold them up as exemplars of skill, ingenuity, creativity, and ambition. Textiles are poetic metaphors woven from ideas just as much as they are physical items woven from fibres.

Joy Boutrup is a textile engineer, chemist, and historian from Denmark. Catharine Ellis is a textile artist from North Carolina who specializes in combining weaving and dyeing. They first met at Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina. They have worked and taught collaboratively for many years.

In this lecture Amy Putansu will discuss how notions of spirituality have influenced her own hand-woven artwork. Inspired by Buddhism, Zen design precepts, and the minimalist art movement, Amy presents a powerful way to reimagine textiles as an invitation to the divine.

Recorded at the Maiwa School of Textiles September 14th 2017.

Aya Matsunaga is a Japanese textile artist who tempered her formal studies by moving to Nottingham, England and embracing the UK fibre art scene of the 1990s.

When leading natural dye expert Michel Garcia goes into a garden, what does he see? He sees botanical strategies for survival that often give new insights into dye procedures and methods.

When leading natural dye expert Michel Garcia goes into a garden, what does he see? He sees botanical strategies for survival that often give new insights into dye procedures and methods.

For over thirty years Susan Shie has been producing art on cloth that mixes the personal and the political. Her distinct method of working combines narrative, drawing, and writing into large-format, highly graphic art quilts.

On October 5, 2015, Barbara Todd delivered her lecture, "Stone Drawings and Quilted Lines" or "One Day Tells Its Tale To Another." to a full house at the Maiwa School of Textiles.

Recorded at the Maiwa School of Textiles Lecture series on September 19, 2016.

Each member of our panel has carved a road in the wilderness. It is not easy to walk off the map, but they have all done it, struck out alone to follow a path as unknown to themselves as it was to others. And then something happens ... 

Each member of our panel has carved a road in the wilderness. It is not easy to walk off the map, but they have all done it, struck out alone to follow a path as unknown to themselves as it was to others. And then something happens ... 

Each member of our panel has carved a road in the wilderness. It is not easy to walk off the map, but they have all done it, struck out alone to follow a path as unknown to themselves as it was to others. And then something happens ... 

The Artisan's Alliance of Jawaja make their presentation to a Vancouver audience at the Maiwa Textile Symposium via Skype.

Inspired by both the colour and the plant, the Lamberts created Bleu de Lectoure in 1994. Soon their lives were given up to woad. It took more than two years working with chemists from the University of Toulouse to uncover the original fermentation, extraction, and dyeing processes. In an antiques store one day, fate helped them out. They stumbled upon a notebook that belonged to Napoleon’s chemist.

Join Michel Garcia as he leads us on a walk through the garden of natural dye plants, explaining the motivation and origins of this project, how it has evolved, new challenges faced, and what the future holds. 

Join Michel Garcia as he leads us on a walk through the garden of natural dye plants, explaining the motivation and origins of this project, how it has evolved, new challenges faced, and what the future holds. 

In part two, Ashoke Chatterjee presents the remainder of his lecture and answers questions from the audience. Part one contained the visiual and the first part of Mr. Chatterjee's presentation. Part two is audio only. Mr. Chatterjee presented his lecture via satallite from Ahmedabad, India

In part one Charllotte Kwon introduces Ashoke Chatterjee and explains the application process for a Canadian visa (Mr. Chatterjee, an Indian dignitary with flawless credentials was denied a visa to visit Canada). Ashoke presents the first part of his lecture with visuals via an internet connection to our Vancouver audience. 

In part three Rosemary Crill explores India's trade with the west as the focus shifted from printed cottons to muslins and Kashmir shawls. She concludes her lecture by answering some questions from the audience. 

In part two Rosemary Crill explores India's cotton trade with the west. Printed cotton known as "chintz" changed the very fabric of life itself - especially in the British Commonwealth. 

In part one Rosemary Crill describes the scope and range of India's trade, its historic beginnings and describes in detail the commerce with the countries in the east. 

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.

In this lecture master craftsman Gasali Adeyemo will open the evening with a description of his early life in Nigeria and tell 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 has a range of experience with traditional crafts. He will give a history of the famous adire techniques and illustrate how they relate to Yoruba culture with a compelling collection of slides. 

Razzaque and Ismail are Khatris – a hereditary community of dyers and printers who live and work in the desert district of Kutch in Gujarat, India. They are joined by researcher Eiluned Edwards, who has lived, worked, and collaborated with them for many years. 

Razzaque and Ismail are Khatris – a hereditary community of dyers and printers who live and work in the desert district of Kutch in Gujarat, India. They are joined by researcher Eiluned Edwards, who has lived, worked, and collaborated with them for many years. 

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. 

Working to commission involves forming a special working relationship with a client. Large works for public spaces require working 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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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 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, 2007Posted March 2008 

Recorded at the Maiwa School of Textiles Lecture series 2007.

In this, the final episode, John Gillow, Noorjehan Bilgrami and Charllotte Kwon address specific questions from the audience.

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.

Noorjehan is an artist, textile designer, and researcher. Her interest in traditional crafts led to the establishment of Koel, a workshop that pioneered the revival of hand blockprinted fabrics in Pakistan. She was one of the founders of the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture and its first Executive Director.

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.

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.

Recorded at the Maiwa Textile Symposium 2007