The Introductory House tour will be unavailable from November 12-22 as we prepare for Yuletide at Winterthur. Take one of our speciality house tours and enjoy seldom seen rooms in the mansion! Explore Tours »
Kathryn is a woodworker focused on restoration and conservation. Informed as a cultural and legal anthropologist, Kathryn treats the trade with a blend of artistic academia and practical woodworking. Their creative focus is to challenge tradition in both word and practice, and they bring intersectional approaches to the study and creation of wooden decorative art. Kathryn is a guest instructor at the American School of French Marquetry, a contributing writer for Fine Woodworking, and an enthusiastic member of the Furniture History Society.
To challenge the consumption of fashion, colonization, and material culture in general, these chairs were built of scrap lumber. They re-articulate regularly tossed out “waste” from custom home construction and counter reproductions that further a muddy global supply chain of imported trees and devalued labor.
Kelly Harris is a woodworker, furniture maker, designer, and educator. She designs and builds both collections and custom pieces in her shop located in Brooklyn, New York. When she is not busy in the shop, you can find her teaching woodworking classes and leading workshops to share her love of the craft with others. Kelly’s work is primarily in wood with a focus on solid joinery, simple yet playful design, shape exploration, and hidden splashes of color.
Kelly Harris’s motivation in her personal practice changes over time, and she appreciates how woodworking keeps her moving, both intellectually and creatively, while allowing her to feel connected to herself, the earth, and other people. “I want to make things that are needed and wanted. My first woodworking project was making muddlers for a restaurant where I was a bartender for almost a decade. Now I am a toolmaker. I love tools of the trade.” Kelly is currently working on the production of a tapering plane of her own design in partnership with The Chairmakers Toolbox.
Aspen Golann is a furniture maker, artist and educator whose work explores gender and power through the manipulation of iconic American furniture forms. Trained as seventeenth- to nineteenth-century woodworker, she mines the intersections of sexuality, identity, decorative arts and contemporary craft in a range of works including fine furniture and sculpture.
In 2020 Aspen founded The Chairmakers Toolbox—a project intending to increase access and equity in the field of chairmaking. She is published in The New York Times,Architectural Digest,Fine Woodworking, and American Craft, and exhibits internationally. She teaches at Rhode Island School of Design and holds a degree from The North Bennet Street School.
Aspen co-built In the Garden Settee with Greg Pennington at his shop in Hendersonville, Tennessee. Her bench references a style of furniture associated with nineteenth-century Connecticut maker Lambert Hitchcock, who often used interchangeable parts and stenciled gold designs on painted backgrounds. Aspen’s fresh take on this style incorporates personal elements like images of her own hands.
Rebecca Gilbert is a Philadelphia-based artist whose work exemplifies a dedication to traditional printmaking processes. Influenced by her years of experience in book arts and rare book conservation, her innovation in executing these processes in combination with cut paper and assemblage, push the boundaries of what a print can be.
Rebecca’s prints can be found in numerous public collections, including the Victoria & Albert Museum, Ashmolean Museum, Zuckerman Museum of Art, St. Bride Foundation, and Princeton University Library’s Graphic Arts Collection. She maintains an active exhibition record, and has extensively exhibited her work regionally, nationally, and internationally, including in galleries and museums in New York, California, Spain, Canada, Korea, Estonia, and England.
Among Rebecca’s most recent awards are a Victor Hammer Fellowship from Wells College in Aurora, New York; an Illuminate the Arts Grant to support her current project, A Dance of Death in Two Parts; a Creative Research and Innovation Grant; an Independence Foundation Fellowship; and a Winterthur Artist/Maker Fellowship.
Rebecca holds a master of fine arts degree in printmaking and book arts, has extensive experience teaching fine art at numerous institutions, is an active member of The Wood Engravers’ Network, and is represented by The Print Center in Philadelphia.
Representations of portals, longing, mystery, and communication between the realms of the living and the dead are embedded throughout much of Rebecca Gilbert’s work. She interprets these ideas in woodcut, wood engraving, etching, and letterpress as those processes allow the integration of a high level of detail and meticulously refined craftsmanship.
The pieces in this exhibition are part of a recent body of work titled Visions of Plenty: Observation, Perception, Illusion, and Reverie. Inspired by historic moveable book structures and optical devices, the work invites viewers to explore optics, perception, and the act of seeing by transforming intricately detailed prints into dimensional works on paper. The dimensional elements of the imagery and the constructions allude to different planes of existence.
I am a textile artist and independent scholar based in Central Texas. The textile traditions of the Black Diaspora are the heart of my practice. I explore the complexity of Black geographies through quilt making, botanical dyeing, archival photographs and texts.
My studio is named after my grandmothers, Barbara Jean and Geneva. I draw inspiration from my family’s legacy of being nomads and from the skills, materials and plants that they carried with them throughout their journeys.
I teach group workshops that are focused on the meditative process of creation. These workshops are suitable for both beginner and experienced makers.
From 2021–2022, I was Virtual Artist and Scholar Resident with the Black Botany Studio at University of California Santa Cruz. I was a Winterthur Maker-Creator Fellow in 2022.
Mojo for Climate Change is inspired by the design of antique seed bags from Pennsylvania. The small cloth seed bags remind me of mojo bags, protective, spiritually charged talismans that are a Black Southern spiritual practice. Mojo is medicine that is imbued with power to help the recipient. My mojo bags are an offering to the ancestors who were forced to labor in the racist and colonial economies that created the current climate catastrophe. The materials were chosen carefully to create medicine for a just, abundant world where power and resources are shared equitably. The project materials were grown and processed in ways that nourish the earth and justly compensate artisans.
This sample shows the cloth at one of the earliest stages of chintz making. The cloth underwent preparations involving scouring, myrobalan soak and boil, as well as a myrobalan and milk soak. Designs were then outlined on the cloth with a charcoal pencil. All conch 1 shapes (top five and bottom one) are outlined in a liquor made of alum and sappanwood, where red or its variations are required. All conch 2 shapes are outlined in a mixture of iron water and acid congee (fermented rice water) where a black outline is required.
Left: Conch 1; Right: Conch 2
Sample 2: First Maddering
After the outlining of the designs with the alum and iron mordants, the cloth underwent its first madder bath. It was immersed in a bath made of powdered madder root and water, and brought up to heat in the bath, with temperature maintained under 60°C, for 2 hours. This cloth shows the vivid outlines in red and black after the process of the first “maddering.”
Sample 3: First Dunging and Bleaching
This sample shows the cloth after its first dunging-plus-bleaching. The cloth will undergo four dungings and bleachings in all during the process of chintz making. In the absence of kid-dung, which was recommended by the Beaulieu manuscript for dunging, a modern version of soaking cloth in a mixture of wheat bran and chalk (calcium carbonate) mixed with warm water, was adopted. For bleaching, the cloth was dried under full spectrum sun lamps to imitate sunlight.
Sample 4: Wax as Resist
Following the first round of dunging-bleaching, rice starch was applied to the cloth. Once the starched cloth was dry, it was ready for wax as a resist, to prevent indigo from going into parts of the cloth where it was not required. This sample shows wax applied to the outlines of specific designs where blue was required within the shape, as well as to parts where inside the shape certain areas needed to remain free of the blue.
Sample 5: Vatting-Direct Indigo Application
The Beaulieu manuscript refers to both vatting as well as direct application of indigo to the cloth at this stage. This sample illustrates only direct application of indigo, to demonstrate that not only is it possible, but it also remains an effective and efficient method of indigo application. This sample shows the indigo directly applied with the aid of soy wax as resist, the cloth scraped in hot water to remove the wax, and the cloth having gone through its second dunging-bleaching following the removal of the wax.
At this stage, Beaulieu witnessed the Indian artisan applying colors in a series of steps to achieve variations of white, red, blue, green, yellow, brown, and violet on the cloth. Blue and yellow are clearly visible on the cloth at this stage, violet and brown less so, though they are yet to go through the next round of maddering to solidify the colors.
Sample 7: Second Maddering
This is what the sample looks like after the second round of concentrated maddering for four hours. The cloth has taken on a very dark red color over the background, indicating that the quantities of madder were likely too high in the bath. Equally, the overwhelming red within the designs where yellow, orange, brown, and orange were to be visible indicates issues with the measurements of the liquors used to achieve these colors on the cloth. Given the unclear measurements within the Beaulieu manuscript, it would have been a long process of empirical trial and error to arrive at the right measurements resulting in the right colors on cloth.
Sample 8: Stain Removal, Dunging, and Washing
This sample has undergone a special natural stain removal as suggested in the manuscript—scrubbing with pieces of lime. Where the scrubbing has been efficient, there the background of the cloth is clearer. Following the stain removal, the cloth was washed in a solution of soap berries. While some of the madder attached to the background has come off, the cloth remains overwhelmingly red, indicating too much madder in the second bath.
Sample 9: Final Yellow/Green
This sample has only one motif (conch 2b) covered in a mixture of cadouca-myrobalan-madder applied on blue to allow for the development of green. The motif shows negligible traces of yellow on blue, indicating another instance of trouble with measurements. This sample has also undergone the final dunging-sanding-soaping, which removed any residues of loosely attached cadouca-myrobalan-madder to the motif.
Sample 10: The Final Cloth
Following the instructions in the Beaulieu manuscript as closely as possible and making reasonable adjustments, as far as possible, without using insights available through modern techniques of natural dyeing, the final sample shows red, black, blue, brown/violet and techniques that would have illustrated white, green, yellow, and orange in the hands of a more experienced and skilled artisan.
Conclusions
The transfer of cotton printing-painting knowledge from India to Europe exhibits a case of partially useful knowledge requiring adjustments and adaptations in line with local European conditions. Certain variable elements, like deciphering the exact measurements of materials to obtain required results, would have been achievable through prolonged trial and error, as well as empirical investigations. However, certain fixed elements required by the process, like ample sunlight as part of the process of bleaching, or the use of chay root, which was unavailable in Europe, acted as fixed and largely unsurmountable constraints in Europe. Two of the earliest innovations in textile printing in Europe were aimed at overcoming these fixed constraints via the development of chemical bleaching and the isolation of alizarin for the color red.
Glossary
Myrobalan: A fruit-bearing plant that produces a buff to brown color dye or a teal color if overdyed with indigo Madder: A plant used to create a red dye Alum: A binder used to fix dyes Sappanwood: A flowering tree used to create red dye Congee: Rice porridge Mordant: Dye fixatives used to set dyes in fabric Dunging: traditional process using cow dung to fix or remove mordants
Note on the Process
Charting Chintz attempts to be as close to the chintz-making process described in the Beaulieu manuscript as possible, only using technique or product substitutions where either products were unavailable or technique not possible in its described form, or both. Key substitutions made are as follows:
Initial scouring (recipe unknown) substituted with synthrapol and soda ash
Chay root substituted with madder root
Dunging using kid dung substituted with dunging with wheat bran and chalk
Beeswax for resisting (recipe unknown) substituted with soy wax
Alka Raman is a historian with a Ph.D. from the Department of Economic History at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She studies technological change in global economic history. Her research has assessed the impact of Indian cotton textiles on industrialization in the British cotton industry between 1700 and 1860. She uses historic textiles and a scientific experiments-based methodology to source quantitative evidence from textile objects. She applies this approach of scientific and empirical product analysis to understand the materiality of technological change with a view to expanding our knowledge of how technologies alter, persist or become obsolete, and why.
What did the transfer of written knowledge about chintz-making in India look like in Europe in the seventeenth century? How much knowledge did this written word contain? What would a replication of the process set out on paper look like on the cotton cloth? What would the insights of such a historical reconstruction tell us about the ways in which knowledge transferred from one region to another in the pre-modern world?
Between 1726 and 1729, an individual named Beaulieu traveled around the Coromandel Coast of South India to gain access to local techniques of chintz-making. With the help of a local artisan, he noted these techniques and obtained textile samples materially illustrating the crucial steps of the process. Beaulieu’s work is one of the most detailed accounts of pre-modern Indian techniques of painting on cloth with natural materials. It was also one of the most widely circulated accounts of Indian techniques, used liberally by European printers and dyers to inform their methods.
Charting Chintz attempts to extract the replicability of the knowledge contained within the Beaulieu manuscript. This project aimed not to make a beautiful chintz like Indian artisans, but to replicate as closely as possible the process as described in the manuscript to identify knowledge gaps that would have required bridging by European artisans in their quest to match the print quality of Indian chintzes.
This is a historical reconstruction of the chintz making process as set out in the Beaulieu manuscript, with a view to determining whether adequate technical knowledge was transferred via the written medium to make a whole chintz. In the process, it identifies fixed and variable elements that acted as obstacles to the making of a whole chintz, necessitating further empirical investigations and experiments, leading to the emergence of modern scientific techniques of textile dyeing.
Elaine K. Ng is an artist who utilizes material investigation and process-based practices to explore our relationships to place. She exhibits internationally and has lectured and held visiting positions at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University, Tainan National University of the Arts, and China Academy of Art. She has been awarded a Fulbright Fellowship for research in Taiwan and has been in residence at the Djerassi Resident Artist Program in California; Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library; and the Corning Museum of Glass. She holds a bachelor of arts degree from the University of California, Davis, a master in business administration/master of arts degree from Southern Methodist University in Texas, and a master of fine arts degree from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan.
My practice explores our physical and psychological relationships to place and the potential of our material environment to hold meaning. The work in this exhibition began with a proposal to research the cultural significance of plants in the Winterthur Garden and to use foraged dyes, pigments, and fibers to create material signatures of place. Through a serendipitous encounter with economic historian Alka Raman (also a Winterthur Fellow), a 1966 translation of 18th-century French manuscripts from the library, and an 18th-century Indian palampore on exhibit from the museum collection, my fellowship evolved into a collaborative exploration of traditional chintz techniques and the links between material knowledge, culture, and place. This work reflects a journey to seek material knowledge in its various forms, from explicit verbal explanations and visual expression in historic objects to the tacit material understanding embodied in the skilled hands of a maker.
Curtains, slipcovers, and other soft furnishings at Winterthur were often made from antique fabric. The firm of Ernest LoNano—a renowned Italian immigrant upholsterer for many museums and collectors in the mid 1900s—created the flowered silk cover for this settee from dress fabric that would never have been used for furniture in the 1700s. When Winterthur was created, finding the right look was just as important as historical “accuracy.”
Conservation graduate student (now alum) Margaret O’Neil studied stitches and measurements to recreate what the dress likely appeared before it was reimagined as upholstery.
From innovative biophilic designs to authentic native beadwork to stunning sustainable fashion, this year’s Artisan Market grant recipients embody the true essence of artistry and craftsmanship.
Mike and Alysha Borio | MB Woodworking
How did you begin your work, and what is the message behind it?
We began building custom furniture for friends and family and quickly realized it was something we wanted to try to do full-time. We also have a love for nature and thought it would be interesting to combine two natural elements—wood and plants—together to create one-of-a-kind artwork. We started creating beautiful, handmade propagation hangers, shelves, and plant stands with wooden chevron designs. We soon discovered natural, preserved moss, which changed the game for us. We started to create handmade frames from local lumber and filled them with an intricate arrangement of lush, preserved mosses and ferns! These “jungle walls” soon became our favorite thing to create. Now we create custom moss/jungle walls for homes and businesses, as well as teach DIY Moss Frame workshops! Moss absorbs sound, so it also helps with the acoustics in restaurants, venues, conference rooms, etc. Since this moss is preserved, it requires zero maintenance! It is the perfect option for people who would love to own house plants, but can’t seem to keep them alive, travel often, or don’t have enough light in their homes. We understand the importance that plants have in our lives. Research has shown that being around plants lowers stress levels and creates feelings of peace, tranquility, lessened anxiety, and improved focus. We know not everyone has the ability to get outside each day, so with these preserved jungle/moss walls, we hope to bring the peacefulness of plants indoors (without the mess or maintenance) for everyone to enjoy!
What does receiving this grant mean to you?
Receiving this grant means so much! We feel that we fit right into the beauty that Winterthur brings. We know this is going to be a wonderful opportunity to connect with like-minded people who also understand the beauty of nature and the importance of being creative. Going out on your own and starting your own business, especially these days, can be a real challenge. So, we truly can’t thank you enough for this opportunity!
How does your work connect to Winterthur?
Our work connects to Winterthur’s mission by exemplifying everything the mission stands for! We know that creativity, openness, integrity, and finding beauty in life are as important to Winterthur as they are to us. We use nature to create artwork, which we feel encompasses Winterthur in full. Taking the beauty and wildness of nature and turning it into something that can be brought inside to enjoy for years is something we feel very honored to be able to do.
How did you begin your work, and what is the message behind it?
I returned home to Nanticoke land nearly twenty years after I had left it. An enlistment in the Navy, two college degrees, and one divorce later, I returned with a longing to connect with my ancestry.
There was no glamorous beginning to this journey. I taught myself two-needle flat stitch in the kitchen of my one-bedroom apartment while my baby was asleep. With a new career and a new child to care for, I quickly learned the value of making small efforts consistently. I learned whatever stitch I could with whatever time I had. Often, I honed those skills while much of the world slept. I’ve been studying and practicing this art form for two years now, and I apply this mindset to every aspect of my life. Small efforts every day bring about great results.
One of my goals is to deliver authentic, elevated, native-beaded items that stand apart from the mass-produced and mundane. To bring visibility to indigenous art and fashion, and ultimately to bring honor and recognition to the Nanticoke Nation of Old Indian River Hundred.
What does receiving this grant mean to you?
Receiving this grant means opportunity to me! It means the chance to represent myself and my tribe and bring attention to the beauty of real native beadwork!
Through my artwork, I have a chance to show Artisan Market attendees who I am and who the Nanticokes are. To have that chance, and to do it with the help of this grant, is such a blessing.
How does your work connect to Winterthur?
My work connects with Winterthur’s aim to preserve and study American history by celebrating what remains. I am a descendant of the Nanticokes who inhabited this land before European colonization. No greater piece of American history deserves to be listened to.
How did you begin your work, and what is the message behind it?
Being an artist has truly been a lifelong journey for me. I’ve been drawing since I could hold a pencil. Sewing was a passion I picked up later on while creating Halloween costumes from scratch with my mom. As I’ve grown older, I’ve picked up many other creative passions—from linocut printing to jewelry making—there isn’t an art form I haven’t connected with! The message behind my work is centrally focused on finding the most ethical and sustainable ways to create and design for a better future. I strive to be the change I want to see in the world by using secondhand materials whenever I can, thinking intentionally about the lifespan and circularity of my creations, and sourcing locally for at least 90 percent of my materials and outsourced labor. Additionally, as a queer artist, I work to create garments and art that exist outside of the binary. I feel a strong sense of responsibility to the community to create art that helps us feel seen, valued, and loved.
What does receiving this grant mean to you?
This grant is truly a gift. Had I not received it, I would have missed out on this incredible opportunity to share my work with the world. This grant will not only aid the exposure of my vision and craft, but it will also inevitably provide me with the funds to continue making and selling art at an affordable price point, giving back to the community, and expanding my knowledge as a creative. I am infinitely grateful to Winterthur for seeing something special in my work, and offering me a spot at Artisan Market!
How does your work connect to Winterthur?
My work ties in strongly with Winterthur’s mission to inspire and educate through art, design, nature, and history. I strive to inspire others to see the value in sustainable, slow, and intentional practices through the viewing and wearing of my art. In my own small way, I hope to shift consumers’ perspectives on the worth of their garments and possessions. To preserve our beautiful natural world and continue to appreciate what it offers, we must learn to value the processes that extend the life cycle of our possessions. I clearly see these values of preservation and education alive at Winterthur, and I feel honored to be a part of it.
