Eternal Return @elenif - Tumblr Blog

Sheila Hicks

“There’s too much negative energy out there. Slouched shoulders. Puppy eyes. Excessive exhales. Too many people with fixable problems that they don’t want to fix. For some reason people love to identify themselves by their problems. They just don’t know who they are without some major issue. They love to say ‘I cant.’ Or: ‘If I was this, then I could be that.’ Or ‘I’ll always be this way because of xyz.’ But that kind of thinking never ends. You’ll always have another box you can check. You can always qualify for victimhood. There’s always a reason to opt out of self-responsibility. Because God forbid the problem is you. It’s toxic thinking. I can’t be around it. It’s too draining. I’m trying to grow. I’m trying to be great. I’m trying to be thankful for all that I have. So when I feel negative energy, I’m looking for an exit strategy. I’m not going to give up on you right away. I’m going to speak my truth. But if you have no interest in helping yourself, I’m out.”

humansofnewyork

“Sometimes my brain processes things difficult. I just need more time. And in school everything needs to be fast. You always have to know what’s going to happen next and it can be hard to make friends. My dad was always my biggest supporter. He’d come into my room at night and we would talk for hours. He’d tell me: ‘Your stories will make you famous one day.’ He’d show my writing to friends and family and I would get compliments. I didn’t know what to do after he died. I stayed in my room for six years. I wrote thirty-one stories. All I did was write. I only came out to eat. I wouldn’t speak to anyone. Last year my sister convinced me to visit an art studio for people with special needs. She asked me every single day, until one day she finally said: ‘I’m going to the studio and you’re coming with me.’ At first I stood in the corner. After so many years of doing nothing, it was hard for me to see people having fun. It was like a burning anger and then it came out in tears. I decided to join the group. The studio slowly opened me up to the world again. I began to make friends. I realized that so many things had happened while I was locked away. And while some things die, other things are being created. I understand now how beautiful that is. And I’ve started talking again. For the longest time my sister would beg me: ‘Please Asma, say something.’ Now she wishes I’d talk less.” (Special Olympics World Games, Abu Dhabi, UAE

invisibleathens

“Aυτό που χαίρεσαι σε μια πόλη δεν είναι τα εφτά ή εβδομήντα εφτά της θαύματα, αλλά η απάντηση που δίνει σε ένα σου ερώτημα… Ή το ερώτημα που σου βάζει αναγκάζοντάς σε να απαντήσεις”

truenorthshow

True North | S1:E4 The Big Thaw

Chavala digs into how changes in the climate are impacting the town of Longyearbyen.

#WhatWillYouDo to protect our Earth?

Watch on Tumblr.

Episode Guide:

elenif

Protecting our Earth!...

Pop-up books for the grown-ups - LADYLAND (via Vimeo)

#Vimeo

chrisriddellblog

Ursula K. Le Guin

gw-textile-museum

Headbands from the Inca Empire, [insert date]. The Textile Museum 2009.2.1, .16, .13. Gifts of Robert and Maria Duff.

The three headbands shown above are part of a larger group of 43 said to have been found together in a weaver’s basket. They are unusual objects, and there are few similar objects in other collections. The upper band has a bold Inca zigzag and dot design, the lower one has coastal bird designs, and the center band combines coastal fish with an Inca “X-design.” When pieces of disparate style are found together, it normally means that the group was made at about the same time. If the date of one of the styles is known, it can be used to date the remaining items. In this case, the Inca style is well known and helps to date the bands with lesser-known coastal styles.

The pieces are all small, and not all of them are finished. They appear to have belonged to a weaver who was still working on them when she died. These objects are unusual—bands of this size do not seem to have been a normal part of coastal costume. There are related long narrow warp-patterned bands in the Chancay style from the central coast, which may have been headbands, but not short ones like these. There are a number of Spanish descriptions of Inca costume that mention that women wore headbands, but few such headbands survive. Examples found at the central coast site of Pachacamac are narrow, like the center band, and slightly longer than those shown here. It is possible that not all Inca women wore such headbands, but it does appear that these particular bands might have been intended for this purpose. The finished Inca headbands have a tie cord extending from the middle of each end. However, these bands lack such ties, and so even if they are completely woven, they are unfinished in this sense. The bands with the Inca patterns have less complex patterns than those from Pachacamac and are more diverse in size, so it is likely that all the bands were woven by a coastal weaver. While small, they are beautiful examples of more unusual designs from the era of the Inca empire.

Ann Pollard Rowe, Research Associate, Western Hemisphere Textiles. Originally printed in our Fall 2011 Member’s Magazine

gw-textile-museum

Registration Technician Chelsea Hick secures Central Asian bags for The Textile Museum’s upcoming move to GW. These bags are sturdy enough to be transported without individual mounts, so Hick is placing them on a batting and muslin pillow, and securing them by pinning twill tape down with straight pins in between the objects. Now, these objects will not shift and are nicely cushioned.

Bags, Central Asia, Uzbekistan, 19th–20th century. TM 1982.39.3, 8, 9, and 10. Ruth Lincoln Fisher Memorial Fund.

Bag, Central Asia, Uzbekistan, 20th century. TM 1993.36.15. Gift of Gerald and Betty Maizlish.

Comb Purse, Iran or Turkmenistan, 19th–20th century. TM 2000.26.5. Gift of Mrs. Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian in memory of Dr. Abol Bashar Farmanfarmaian.

gw-textile-museum

Visiting conservation scholar Anna Keruzec is creating trays for three-dimensional Pre-Columbian dolls.

She begins by laying the dolls on a tray-sized piece of paper and tracing them. Then, she cuts out tray-sized sheets of thin Ethafoam and a thicker piece of Volara. Anna uses the template she created to carve away the space of the dolls from the Volara, making a void for them to sit in. Next,, she glues the Ethafoam, then the Volara, to the blue board tray, and places the dolls in their niches and secures them with twill tape. Bumpers around the exterior of the trays allow multiple trays to stack in a box.

Now the pieces are stable and ready to travel!

gw-textile-museum

One of the most enjoyable parts about this time of year is witnessing all of the beautiful flowers come to life. The museum houses a number of pieces with floral designs including rugs, shirts, scarves, and even belts. Inspired by Washington, D.C.’s budding blooms, our Collections Management intern, Meghan, has selected some of her favorite flowery pieces from the collection to share. The top picture shows an embroidered bedspread fragment from 17th century Greece. The women holding flowers in their hands are wearing Ottoman style long robes and surrounded by vases, flowers, and parrot-like birds. The middle image shows a contemporary Peruvian woman’s belt. This type of belt is very commonly worn in Chivay, where it was made. The bottom object is an Indian wall hanging with embroidered vases and flowers under a lobed arch. Imagery on the hanging eludes to the fecundity of the nature.

gw-textile-museum

What do these three Textile Museum collections pieces—a nineteenth-century Chinese hanging, late-Incan neckplate, and fifteenth-century Peruvian tabard—have in common? They were all made with feathers! Click the “information” icon at the top-right of each image to learn more about the feathers and techniques used for each.