Send message to Author

Paper short abstract

Slovenian proverbs on textiles reveal the close bond between nature and craft: from flax sowing and sheep shearing to the symbolism of thread and weaving. They preserve ecological knowledge, seasonal rhythms, and cultural values intertwining environment, economy, and memory.

Paper long abstract

Textile production has always been dependent on nature – on the availability of plants and animals such as flax, hemp, and sheep, on the rhythm of seasons, and on the weather that determined both harvest and processing. In Slovenian culture, this close relationship between textiles and nature is preserved in proverbs, idioms, and other short folklore forms. These expressions encode ecological knowledge about cultivation and processing – for example, guidance on when to sow flax or warnings about timely harvesting – as well as the vulnerability of work to weather and environmental change. They reveal how natural cycles structured economic life and how observation of the environment was essential for survival.

At the same time, textile-related proverbs reflect the symbolic and cultural dimensions of this bond with nature. Threads, yarn, and weaving appear as metaphors for order, continuity, and fate, linking human life to natural and cosmic cycles. The material properties of flax or wool become images through which communities articulated values such as patience, diligence, and thrift.

By analysing a corpus of Slovenian proverbs and idioms, this paper explores how short folklore forms intertwine natural resources, agricultural knowledge, and cultural imagination. It argues that textiles served not only as economic goods but also as cultural mediators, encoding ecological practices, social values, and symbolic meanings. In this way, folklore reflects how societies perceived, utilised, and symbolised nature, leaving behind a linguistic archive of the interdependence between environment, economy, and culture.