From the very first, the weaving workshop was the domain of women. Already since Jugendstil, craft weaving rated as a profession particularly well-adapted to women; the connection between women and weaving, however, goes much further back. Many of the women who came to the Bauhaus chose the weaving section purposefully for a later profession. In addition, the council of masters preferred sending women to the weaving workshop in order to "avoid unnecessary experiments" and be able to reserve the few other workshop places allegedly more suited to men. In the Weimar years of the Bauhaus, only particularly talented or persistent women made the grade to another workshop.
At the beginning, Helene Börner, the crafts director of the workshop, worked with all of the techniques of arts and crafts. Soon, however, the emphasis was concentrated on weaving, the technique offering the best conditions for a coupling with the Bauhaus program. Here, "experimental work" could be performed for industrial manufacture. The products ranged from cushions, blankets, and clothes fabrics, to knotted carpets, Gobelins, and wall hangings. The workshop in Weimar was equipped with a jacquard loom.
The female pupils learned the basic impulses for pattern and color design in the classes of Johannes Itten, Georg Muche, and later, Paul Klee. Although "function" in weaving was one of the magic words, for a long time a strong aesthetic orientation could still be felt. This stood in the way of the required functionality: contrasts between thick and thin or mat and glossy thread were often primarily of aesthetic relevance and posed more of a hindrance in usage than anything else.
In 1927, the workshop was taken over by the "young master", Gunta Stölzl, with less rights, however, than her male colleagues. Stölzl not only entirely re-equipped the workshop in Dessau, she also created an educational course over eight semesters, starting with an apprenticeship and ending with a journeyman's examination, re-rated after 1929 as a Diploma.
The workshop now experimented with synthetic fibers such as cellophane and also rayon, a new thread which at that time revolutionized the entire textile market. Robust steel yarn was developed for the use on tubular steel chairs.
After Stölzl's departure in 1931, Lilly Reich and Otti Berger set new accents. The two last years of the Bauhaus saw the production of three textile albums (in the dimensions of the wallpaper books). Due to the interruption of their product licensing in 1933, however, they never succeeded in reaching the popularity of the Bauhaus wallpaper. The simplicity and unassuming modesty of these textiles stand in strong contrast to the earlier fabrics.
Source From :-www.bauhaus.de/english/bauhaus1919/werkstaetten
At the beginning, Helene Börner, the crafts director of the workshop, worked with all of the techniques of arts and crafts. Soon, however, the emphasis was concentrated on weaving, the technique offering the best conditions for a coupling with the Bauhaus program. Here, "experimental work" could be performed for industrial manufacture. The products ranged from cushions, blankets, and clothes fabrics, to knotted carpets, Gobelins, and wall hangings. The workshop in Weimar was equipped with a jacquard loom.
The female pupils learned the basic impulses for pattern and color design in the classes of Johannes Itten, Georg Muche, and later, Paul Klee. Although "function" in weaving was one of the magic words, for a long time a strong aesthetic orientation could still be felt. This stood in the way of the required functionality: contrasts between thick and thin or mat and glossy thread were often primarily of aesthetic relevance and posed more of a hindrance in usage than anything else.
In 1927, the workshop was taken over by the "young master", Gunta Stölzl, with less rights, however, than her male colleagues. Stölzl not only entirely re-equipped the workshop in Dessau, she also created an educational course over eight semesters, starting with an apprenticeship and ending with a journeyman's examination, re-rated after 1929 as a Diploma.
The workshop now experimented with synthetic fibers such as cellophane and also rayon, a new thread which at that time revolutionized the entire textile market. Robust steel yarn was developed for the use on tubular steel chairs.
After Stölzl's departure in 1931, Lilly Reich and Otti Berger set new accents. The two last years of the Bauhaus saw the production of three textile albums (in the dimensions of the wallpaper books). Due to the interruption of their product licensing in 1933, however, they never succeeded in reaching the popularity of the Bauhaus wallpaper. The simplicity and unassuming modesty of these textiles stand in strong contrast to the earlier fabrics.
Source From :-www.bauhaus.de/english/bauhaus1919/werkstaetten
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