Report by Junco Sato Pollack and Barbara Sherman November 2012
Since the closing
weeks of 2012 a group of Atlantans have been working with some weavers in the
Clarkston Karen community to establish a kudzu weaving workshop. These
Atlantans have included Junco Pollack, retired professor of Textiles at GSU. Barbara
Sherman, retired public school librarian in Decatur, [Junco and Barbara are
members of TASA, Textile Appreciation Society of Atlanta], Sage
Woodroof who speaks Karen and lives in the Karen community in Clarkston,
and Liz Bock, a weaver from Atlanta. Mu Mu, a daughter of one of the weavers,
served as translator for the group.
In the recent
unsettling period of Myanmar's history, the Karen people have been an oppressed
minority who have suffered injustices and human rights violations. Many
Karen have fled Myanmar and have been relocated in refugee camps along the
Thai/Myanmar border. Some of those refugees who have been able to leave
Thailand were settled in Clarkston, Georgia, a small city about ten miles east
of Atlanta.
The Karen weavers’ homeland Myanmer, at this time is beginning to throw off military rule and emerge from
decades of isolation under the new civilian administration under President Thein
Shein. The popular stateswoman, Daw Aung
San Suu Kyi, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, is the daughter of a national
hero who worked for the independence of then Burma from British rule. This leader of a democratic, political
opposition party, who was confined to 15 years of house arrest by the military government,
continues to build her political vision and influence over the Myanmar’s population
toward the next election in 2014.
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/myanmar/index.html
We began with weekly meetings with a small group of Karen
weavers at the Clarkston Community Center and at one of the Karen
weaver's apartment. We worked through the entire process required
to produce hand-woven cloth on a traditional back-strap loom the Karen people
use in cotton weaving in their homeland. The Karen weavers had not
previously used kudzu which is not available in the Karen region of Myanmar. The loom format signifies that those
people’s culture is as old as the kudzu fibers first woven during the Neolith
era, earlier than the flax, silk, and cotton cultivation.
As we began working together, we marveled at the way the Karen weavers
made simple improvisations to their looms and with great skill made tools out
of locally grown bamboo and other available materials. For example, they
converted their Thai jasmine rice sacks into back straps and carrying bags with
handles for transporting their loom parts.
We were impressed by how quickly they turned fibers into weft yarns, and
how swiftly they made use of knots and ties to accommodate loom parts and weaving
processes.
After having worked with large yarn count cotton for warp on the sample
projects, our next goal is to provide much finer silk, linen and cotton yarns
to weave kudzu fibers into a blend. A kudzu blend creates beautiful table
runners and place mats. We hope kudzu weaving will become a
continuing community activity to support the refugee women weavers using
their remarkable skills to create marketable products. It will also
provide a community of weaving for the Karen people otherwise closed off
because they are living in apartment complex isolated from each other.
We appreciate the generous support extended by the Clarkston Community
Center and its director, McKenzie Wren in providing us with the initial
financial support, the works pace, suggestions and encouragement.
We would like to ask for your support in monetary (and material)
contribution to provide tools, such as a water spray hose, tubs for processing
kudzu, and to purchase better yarns, small looms, and some basic weaving tools.
Your contribution will go into the Karen Kudzu Weaving Fund managed by
the Clarkston Community Center. Please make out your checks to the
“Clarkston Community Center Karen Kudzu Weaving Fund (CCCKWF).”
Please mail your checks to:
Clarkston Community Center
3701 College Avenue
Clarkston, GA 30021
USA.
Processing Vine to
Fibers:
Wild Kudzu Vine
Harvest
Only fresh kudzu vines of certain size produce flexible
enough fibers suitable for weaving cloths. Old cane-like vines are not suitable
for weaving, but they can be used for basket making.
Cooking and Retting
Kudzu Vines
Fresh harvest vines are cooked and retted (fermented) and
washed in water to remove the plant matter.
Thai style charcoal burner was used to cook the harvested kudzu vines.
Washing and Splitting
Kudzu Fibers
The remaining fibers are split into two sections: core fiber
and outer skin filament fiber. Each fiber
has use depending on the softness or stiffness desired. Kudzu Fibers are hand-split to the desired
size and hand-knotted to make long yarns to weave into cloths
Warping and Weaving
Kudzu Fibers into Cloths
Warping for back-strap loom is done using minimum equipment.
Weaving on a back-strap loom.
History of
Kudzu Vine Fiber and Fabric
The recent discoveries of archaeological ancient
textiles
in China shed
light on fabrics outside the mainstream of textile history. The foundation of expertise in the processing
of silk, wool and certain plants
fibers was laid during the Neolith time in China. Scholars report that the earliest-known
Chinese woven textiles are three pieces of kudzu vine fabric [Nanjing Museum, 1980, p.4]. The rib-woven fabrics, with lozenge-patterned pseudo
morphs (the organic fibrous material were replaced by metal corrosion) were found at Chaoxieshan, Jiangsu
province, in 1972, and were carbon-dated to 3,400 (±100 years) BCE [Nanjing
Museum, 1980, p.4]. Silk
fragments have been found, together with some ramie cords, at the archeological site
of Qianshangyang in Wuxing, Zhejiang province.
A carbon-14 dating, equivalent to 2,750(± 100 years) BCE, based on rice
husks excavated with the fragments, has been published [Wang and Mou, 1980;
Rawson, 1992, p.170]. Many evidence of
kudzu weaving in the Neolith period are reported in Japan as well.
Archeological findings
confirmed that the cordage and weaving of plant fibers, silk, and wool were
concurrent around 3,000 BCE. Ancient
historic documents point out that the bleachable and clear natural white colors
of kudzu vine fibers were desirable compared to the grey color of flax or hemp,
then. Kudzu fabrics were popular earlier
in Neolithic period [Weiji 1992, p12] Later, however, during the Bronze Age, as
horticulture became standard practice establishing cultivation of plants for
fiber, rather than the wild harvest of tree barks, vines, stems, etc. that characterizes
the older course plant fabrics. While
kudzu fiber declined in China replaced by hemp and flax by the Hang dynasty (206 BC –
220 AD), an indication of the development of horticultural practice, the
wild-harvest of kudzu vines continued and were treasured for clothing use in
Japan through the Heian period. There is
a theft report claim among the Historic Sosho-in documents listing a kudzu loincloth
in it made by the nobleman’s family.
Kudzu fabrics were use by the upper class as rustic hunting trousers for
men, and costume for ritual kickball (kemari) performed in ancient shrines. Today, Shimogamo Shrine in Kyoto still
performs this ritual game for New Year celebration. Later in Edo period, kudzu fabrics became valued
cloth for court vestment (kamishimo) worn together over small dotted (komon)
stencil resist dyed silk kimono worn by the samurai worrier class. Increased use of grass cloths wallpapers imported
from Japan and Korea in the 1950-60 verifies that American homes also enjoyed
the natural kudzu fabric furnishing in modern times. Kudzu fabrics today are still produced entirely
by hand in the same manner as the Neolith time.
They are considered desirable fabric, again, for the rustic beauty of
the wild-harvest and sun bleaching without the use of chemicals and dyes,
embracing the post-modern eco-friendly green identity.
Following photographs are Junco
Sato Pollack’s kudzu table setting. We
are looking forward to weave kudzu on backstrap looms.
