On our last FEEDBACK FRIDAY we welcomed Tenzin Tsomo, a textile artist and designer based in Seattle, Washington. Her presentation looked at key moments in the history of Tibetan rug weaving in Nepal, from a coveted skill kept within families in Tibet to the dissemination of that indigenous craft knowledge to Tibetan refugees and local Nepali artisans of recent. While weaving has transformed the lives and economy of many communities, the technique itself has been diluted down in the last couple of decades to cater to the ruthless demands of capitalism.
Watch the video recording below.
About Tenzin Tsomo:
Tenzin launched @studio.tenjung in 2019 to revive indigenous knotting and natural dyeing techniques to produce very high quality Tibetan contemporary rugs. The rugs are Tibetan hand-knotted and Made in Nepal and Seattle Washington. Check out the article Tenzin wrote for Feral Fabric that explores Tibetan rug weaving in exile and highlights a few concerns about the current carpet industry.
Read this great article that Tenzin wrote for the Feral Fabric Journal called “Knotting and Unknotting: A Critical Examination of Tibetan Carpets in Exile here.
Here’s an excerpt from the story: “I consider weaving as akin to a native language. It is one of the few traditions that we’ve inherited in exile. It is a language of survival. A language that is woven with our stories and the histories we lived through. The first generation of Tibetan weavers and entrepreneurs in exile embraced innovations and changes because their livelihood depended on it. They worked within the framework of a manufacturer and catered to the rapidly changing markets they served. It is the task of the next generation of artists, creatives and entrepreneurs to claim ownership of our craft, revive lost skills and invest in building more decentralized business practices that also prioritize creative collaboration within our own communities. To create more possibilities for our future, our artisans must be trained not just in skill, but also offered agency to exercise their creativity and voices. We need to reclaim carpet weaving as a culture and acknowledge the richness of this artistic lineage. It is critical that we challenge the values of both the past and the present repeatedly so our creativity for rug- weaving can emerge back from the shadows and evolve on its own path.”
FEEDBACK FRIDAY
If you are not familiar with FEEDBACK FRIDAY, every other week, we speak with dyers, artists, scientists and scholars about our favorite topic, natural dyeing and color. Curated by Amy DuFault, Botanical Colors’ Sustainability Director and presented by Botanical Colors’ Founder Kathy Hattori.