Geraldine Funk, The San Juan Fiber Textile Shop, and Weaving Wild Fibers

• In Event: Material Culture Caucus Panel: Crafting Empire: Material Culture Perspectives on the Objects of Colonial Relation

Abstract

In 1947, the San Juan Fiber Textile Shop was developed by the Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company to establish a textile industry in the country and promote skills and jobs for youth in the country. Headed by American weaver and artist, Geraldine Funk, the San Juan Fiber Textile Shop set up a handweaving program utilizing the indigenous fibers of Puerto Rico: maguey, banana bark, junco weed, enea, coconut fiber, sabutan, bamboo, sisal, royal palm leaf, and sugar cane. These materials were incorporated into lampshades, placements, rugs, window screens, furniture, and other objects for the home. that were employed by midcentury architects and interior designers. Funk, a Cranbrook of Academy of Art graduate who studied under Marianne Strengell who then began work in Dorothy Liebes’s San Francisco studio, was recommended by Liebes herself for the position of visionary and director of this project knowing Funk’s ability to find creative solutions under a set of constraints and the ingenuity, creativity, and professionalism Funk brought to her work. In setting up this industrial production, Funk played the role of head designer and manager of the program creating a production of handwoven textiles of natural fibers for export. This essay will explore the origination of this work, Funk’s role in implementing pathways for skill development and training and establishing employment opportunities in Puerto Rico, and how the conception of the use of these natural various fibers used in conjunction with metallic threads and other materials to create a set of woven goods for the home that was marketed successfully to an American audience through upscale department stores and in home and decor magazines as well as design fairs and museum exhibitions.

Author

• Erin Dowding, University of Wisconsin-Madison