How many of you have a beloved sweater, jeans, or your mother’s shirt or father’s scarf?
Textiles can be transformative, alive, sharing their stories by context, memory, and touch. A baseball cap might be just a baseball cap until your hero signs it. You now hold what the other person once held. A central principle of preserving textiles is the recognition that they are expressions of life, touchstones of memory, and reminders of our common heritage— This is the work of Caring for Textiles.
Photos Caring for Textiles. Love Jeans collection of the Valentine Museum, Richmond, Va.
My belief in textiles as ANIMATE has always been a pillar of my conservation practice. It is how I move through my work, whether I am preparing a 1910 suffragist banner for display, or creating a mannequin for Mohammad Ali’s boxing coat. This belief underpins the cleaning of the yellowed lace of a christening gown or the repair of an ancestor’s tattered quilt. Each item tells its own story – they are deeply important to people; possessing the power to instantly connect us to a place, time, or person.
- “all life is inter-related”, wrote Martin Luther King Jr, “…we are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.” (Letter from Montgomery Jail, April 1963)
My destiny was tied to Mike Heffner through old family friends, my neighborhood, and as we soon discovered – a love of textiles. The first time I met him, with his exuberant energy and gorgeous traveling computer (where all my photos looked sensational) it was all about our passion for color, texture, pattern, and what each motif meant, how to weave it into a story, into a vibrant happy and accessible website. He was eager to tell my stories, and the stories of so many whom with I work. My vocation to repair, preserve and display textiles entwined with Mike’s skills to interlace our worlds into a single garment of destiny together.
Central image: Textile by MULTICOLORES Cooperative, Guatemala.
Mike loved the colorful batiks of Pekalongan, North Coast of Java
Wherever I was in the world and no matter what time… teaching workshops in Java on the care of batik, or preserving monastic textiles in Bhutan, trying to untangle the path forward for preserving the clothing of the victims of genocide, Mike answered my texts and emails. ‘of course I’d love to craft a blog with you’. His enthusiasm spurred me on, made my own often repetitious work, feel really alive and relevant. He checked sources, added marvelous pithy intros, emojis, and made my blog and website a source of excitement for us at CFT and beyond.
A few nights before Mike passed, he reached out to me….”this may be an odd request”, he said, “so first get a glass of wine”. He asked me to make sure he was shrouded and surrounded with beautiful textiles to journey on with him, and celebrate his life. All my hope that he would live, was sucked from me… and I now had the most important textile project of my life.
At Mike’s memorial service, a selection of my colorful batiks and silks were stretched and festooned all around the alter and large portraits of Mike. It reminded me of funerals in Asia and Africa; a true celebration of life and the living. It was sacred and festive; we posed beside his beautiful image and cried and laughed and danced. The edges of textiles made our world, all the people who had known Mike, free, loving and wild.
Our strongest feelings linger in our tactile surroundings and someone’s beauty and memory is held in a blouse, wrap, or favorite t-shirt. Mike’s family had gathered up many of his favorite clothes and textiles, and torn them into strips. A large frame loom sat beside the alter, and one by one, two by two, we all selected a memory of Mike and wove it into a whole cloth. There were so many people weaving, that the loom was carried to the reception where the very last inch of the warps was filled. I carry a piece of blue and red Lao silk that I had given Mike for his wedding four years prior. It is a touchstone for me.
At the end of Mike’s celebration of life ceremony, I met a young woman wearing one of Mike’s favorite shirts. A small pattern soft to the touch sport shirt…I imagined her selecting this tenderly from Mike’s closet and wearing it in his honor, loving it close to her body, sharing this second skin. I just wanted to touch her shoulder, caress that piece of Mike, the sacred ‘dust’ and memory of him.
I’ve spent my career asking a set of questions about damage and repair, how to care, what to leave alone? How do I do this humanitarian and spiritual work, which is about people?
Caring for textiles at its core is about remembering, comfort, healing and peace. And with Mike it was a journey we took together over 15 years, sharing our stories of love, and falling in love, adventure, children, work, beauty, hand skills, and finally loss.
Mike’s blogs live on like stars, the stories they are. He shined a beautiful light on them so they could shine and inspire others.
Ah Jules. I’m so sorry for your loss! You honored him beautifully in this post, and your contributions to his memorial service. Sending love . – SJM
Julia –
What a loss, but what a great life.
You are right that textiles are full of stories.
I did not know Mike but would have liked to.
Your post here and the remembrance of him are beautiful.
The word “condolences” never captures what we feel.
R. John Howe
Oh, Julia, what a beautiful tribute to someone so special. Bless you in this time of sadness and loss. Love, Jo
OH what a lovely sharing– and beautiful remembrance. I am so sorry that he is no longer here to be your partner in crime in person, but I am sure you will hear and carry his positivity always. Big Hugs.
Julia you have always been such an expressive
writer – what a wonderful tribute to a friend of the world of textiles – Thankyou so much for sharing this tribute
Hi Julia,
What a lovely story and lovely way to cherish the memories of a dear friend. Very touching and I am sure very dear to you.
Thank you for sharing this with everyone..!!
Wow! What an amazing tribute to your Dear Mike! That weaving was such an incredible idea! I’m so sorry that he passed away at such a young age.
Thank you so much for sharing his celebration of Life! ❤
Julia,
Thank you for sending this heart warming and heart rending story of your friendship with Mike to me. How wonderful to have a friend like Mike to share your deep love of textiles and the stories they weave with! I treasure the work you have done to restore my antique samplers so they can be preserved a while longer as I research the makers and share their stories with other sampler lovers.
May the love you shared with Mike comfort you in your grief. I am sure that you surrounded him with textiles he would cherish and his celebration of life sounded perfect!
Dearest Julia,
My condolences for your loss.
For everyone’s loss of an inspiring human! What a lovely read, a memory woven in threads!
Warm thoughts your way..
What a beautiful tribute to such a special friend. A celebration of his life just as he wanted. Thank you for sharing this.
What a moving tribute to a beautiful soul mate. I’m glad to know he gave so much joy to others in his love of textiles.
What a lovely tribute to your friend. Thank you for sharing his story. My condolences.
What a moving and unforgettable tribute to his memory and the world you shared with him