Nancy Arthur Hoskins, a former college weaving instructor, is the author of The Coptic Tapestry Albums; Universal Stitches; Weft-Faced Pattern Weaves; and has contributed chapters about Egyptian textiles to five other books. Nancy has researched Pharaonic, Coptic, Early Islamic, and ancient textiles in Canada, England, France, Italy, Portugal, Greece, Turkey, Egypt, Peru, China, Australia, and America. She has presented lectures and workshops both nationally and internationally. Hoskins’ art fabrics have been in solo, group, and invitational exhibits. In 2009 and 2010 she led The Textiles of Egypt Tours, in 2013 presented a lecture at Yale University’s Peabody Museum, and in 2015 took a Textile Tour of Peru, taught in England, and exhibited her art fabrics in Oregon. Her current project is researching and publishing articles on Bronze Age Egyptian textiles.
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Tut to Tiraz: Tracing the Textiles of Egypt
Three thousand years of fabulous Pharaonic, Coptic, and Early Islamic Egyptian fabrics from her research in over eighty museums around the world are shared through slides, woven recreations, and actual ancient fragments from her personal collection. This was a time when weaving techniques and technology went from plain tabby to tapestry, taqueté, and tiraz; themes changed from Classical and Christian iconography, to Islamic calligraphy. Wool, silk, and cotton were introduced to the linen weavers of old Egypt along with new types of fabrics and decorative methods. This program provides an overview of the development of textile style, structure, and technology at the time in history when conquest and caravans transferred materials and knowledge from West to East and East to West.
