Field Trip!

This week 13 weavers took a field trip to Koxville, to see the textile exhibit at the McClung Museum which is on the Campus of the University of Tennessee. The textile exhibit will be at the musem until early December. Some of us met at a local church to carpool to the museum, others carpooled from their local area. Sally was my navigator as we took my van with 8 people on a short hop from the Church to the museum. Not too long ago Patty, Jenny and Rhonda did a demonstration at the museum with a spinning wheel, a floor loom and an inkle loom. We were then invited to tour the exhibit I think in hopes of more of us becoming involved in up coming demos! I of course didn't manage to take as many pictures as I thought I did, but I think you can get the general idea. I did get a picture of the crew from my van, Left to right here are Alice, Kris, Sally, Jenny, Susan #3 and Susan #2 (who actually met us at the museum).

As we were waiting for the others to arrive I took some pictures of a room that is used for hands on activites, for children of all ages.

It wasn't long before we were all there and entered the textile exhibit. The first section was about how our clothing reflects our status in society.

An ancient Chinese royal robe for example.

Shoes that were made to lift the wearer above the moisture of the bath house or the muddy path.

The next exhibit was clothing that shows where we come from.

A slavic head scarf or a guatamalen blouse.

A freshman beanie from by gone days from the University of Tennessee, headgear from the Phillippines and Bolivia.

The next section was on ceremonial clothing, a Japanese wedding kimono, a christening gown and off to the right there is a ceremonial mask you can just barely see. There was more but I didn't get pictures of the mourning bead necklaces which were so touching! When your loved one died you began with 365 necklaces and each day you took one of the necklaces off, so that little by little the weight of grief would lessen as did the weight of the neclaces, also at any time one could see where you were in the grief process. There was also a black Victorian mourning dress.

The next exhibit was items that we wear for protection. There was a straw hat that is worn in the rice fields, a dress dagger made from a bone, a warriors mouth piece made of bone leather and feathers as well as a pair of baby booties made of silk with embroidered tigers on them to ward off the evil spirits. Of course I only got a picture of the little booties!

There were a couple other exhibits, one on earthquakes and how the continents shifted over time, and other one was on the sacred mounds that can be found all over east Tennessee and even on the UT campus. I got some pictures of the weavers touring these exhibits, left to right here are, Judith, Pat, Susan #3, Sally, Alanna, Susan #2 and Alice.

Here are a few more of us, Sally, Betsy Jenny, Pat, our tour guide, and Susan #3.

That is all I have this week, I'll be back next week with pitures of our 5th Tuesday potluck tradition! Until then this is Tina, for all