Textile Society of America
Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings
Date of this Version
2024
Document Type
Presentation
Citation
Textile Society of America 2024 Symposium
Shifts & Strands: Rethinking the Possibilities and Potentials of Textiles, November 12-17, 2024, a virtual event
Abstract
This paper will look at and document colors and patterns and motifs of woven and felted blankets from the Korçë region of southeastern Albania. Very little is published on these textiles. This paper will document the disappearing and under appreciated textile, and why are they no longer understood or valued. In Albania and in Albanian diaspora communities this textile has had different names in prewar, prewar Korçare dialect and now.
I will be drawing from information gathered interviewing parishioners who volunteered to share their heirlooms and information gathered from examining the textile(s). These heirlooms belong to members of multiple generations and different waves of immigration of the Albanian diaspora in Massachusetts in the USA. Specifically, I worked with St. Mary’s Assumption Albanian Orthodox church parish in Worcester, Massachusetts and St. George’s Albanian Orthodox Cathedral parish in Boston, Massachusetts, as well as, the collection of kilims and blankets belonging to the St. George’s Albanian Orthodox Cathedral. What remains unanswered is why do orthodox people have ‘mosque’ symbols on their domestic textiles. I will also discuss how these pieces are similar and not similar to the national Albanian collection housed in Tirana at the Akademia e Studimeve Albanologjike [the Academy of Albanological Studies].
Included in
American Material Culture Commons, Art and Materials Conservation Commons, Art Practice Commons, European History Commons, Fashion Design Commons, Fiber, Textile, and Weaving Arts Commons, Fine Arts Commons, Migration Studies Commons, Museum Studies Commons
Comments
Published by the Textiles Society of America
Copyright 2024, the author. Used by permission