Butah

In Butah, Ethel Stein paid homage to the ancient Indo-Persian motif of a teardrop shape filled with color and pattern, known in English as a paisley. Designer and entrepreneur Jack Lenor Larsen commissioned this piece for an exhibition in 2012 at the Textile Museum in Washington, DC. Stein took her inspiration for both the paisley motif and the warp-dyeing technique from a Central Asian ikat silk. To achieve her witty celebration of this ubiquitous textile motif, she enlarged a single example to a huge scale and created a two-part banner.