A Review of 1998 Activities:
A Mideast Trip and Two Conferences

1. Settled Beduin woman of the Abu Taweel Workshop plying yarn. Rafah, North Sinai.

2. Man of the Al Shabab tribe near Aswan showing a woman's bag, mukhlaya.

Ms Hilden took a month-long trip to the Mideast which included visits to see weavers at work in Egypt and Jordan, and to note the types of items made and techniques, styles and colors used.

3. Joy with a settled nomadic weaver in Gheita, north of Cairo.

4. Settled nomad near Gheita weaving a saddlebag on a ground loom.

Places visited in Egypt:

• North Sinai

• Cairo

• Aswan

• Gheita, north of Cairo

Weavers visited:

• A settled Beduin family active in the Abu Taweel Workshop in Rafah, North Sinai

• a Beduin family of the Al Shabab tribe near Aswan

• a group of weavers, settled nomads, in Gheita north of Cairo

5. Some women of Gheita weaving a saddlebag.

Besides visiting weavers, Joy went to a museum, shops, private collections and the Marketing Link, an organization assisting craftspeople in finding markets.

6. Detail of #5, showing women making weft twining.

Place visited in Jordan:

• The Bani Hamida Weavers, a project assisting a tribe of settled Beduin in making and marketing woven products that appeal to modern tastes. The tribe lives in the hills near Madaba and has an office in Amman.

7. A woman in Gheita weaves a narrow band inside a palm leaf shelter, using a Coke bottle to separate the uppper and lower groups of yarns.

September

Joy May Hilden gave a paper at a symposium in New York put on by the Textile Society of America. The title of the paper is "Fiber and Leather Products of the Juhena Tribe of Saudi Arabia and How They Are Made". It will be published in the Proceedings, which will be distributed early in 1999. It will appear here in due time.

8. Joy (2nd from left) with colleagues at opening ceremonies of Crafts Council Conference in Amman, Jordan. October.

The paper deals with the use of spun cloth strips in weaving, in traditional wool spinning and weaving, and in the finger weaving of narrow strips of leather into decorative items.

9. With fellow delegates at the hotel, Taybet Zaman, Jordan.

10. Joy at Taybet Zaman with delegates from Sri Lanka and Fiji.

October/November

Joy was a guest at the 22nd World Crafts Council Asia Assembly, Al Bsatt Festival, in Amman, Jordan and Taybet Zaman, a site near Petra, Jordan. She gave a paper titled, "My Experiences in the Field; Beduin Weaving in Saudi Arabia". The emphasis of the conference was weaving.

11. In the grand Treasury building at Petra.

12. A Bani Hamida weaver works on a rug in weft twining technique.

Delegates included men and women from Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Iran, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Japan, Fiji, and two guests from the United States. The opening ceremonies took place in Amman, and the workshops were held in Taybet Zaman, a beautiful hotel housed in a re-designed abandoned village near Petra.

13. A weaver with her ground loom discussing the work with a Bani Hamida supervisor, as a fellow weaver and two conference delegates look on. The hills overlook the Dead Sea.

14. Bani Hamida weavers near a large pot for dyeing sheepswool. A ground loom is stretched nearby.

The many trips and entertainment included a walk through the amazing ancient Nabatean city of Petra, a visit to the Bani Hamida Weavers, and delicious dinners catered in exotic places.