Hmong story cloths provide a visual documentation of the historical and cultural legacy of the Hmong people from the country of Laos. The Hmong first began making the story cloths during their time in refugee camps, and featured here are 48 vibrant story cloths that provide a comprehensive look at their lives and culture. The creation of a story cloth begins with the selection of fabric and images outlined onto the fabric. Long satin stitches of multi-colored threads fill in the image, while details are applied with intricate satin stitches and borders pieced together and hand-stitched. Topics include history, traditional life in Laos, Hmong New Year, folk tales, and neighboring people. The quality and diversity of content of the story cloths build upon one another to provide a holistic understanding of the Hmong culture and history. Augmented with personal stories and artifacts, this book is perfect for history buffs and textile artisans alike.

A giant high-top sneaker embellished with golden scissors floats in a polka dot sky along with the surprising motto, "Run With Scissors." Hooked rug maker Jill Cooper explains, "The older I get, the more I don't follow 'the rules.' This rug was a way to share my belief that you must take every chance you can to enjoy all the beauty of life." Taking chances with hooked rugs -- those cozy accessories of hearth and home -- is just what members of Vermont's Green Mountain Rug Hooking Guild do best. They tackle unconventional subjects, delight in using unheard of fibers, and love the challenge of designing their own contemporary work. At the same time, they are experts on "traditional" rugs and can replicate hooked pieces from the 1800s with uncanny precision. The guild's annual exhibit in 2006 featured more than 900 wonderful rugs, of which half are presented here and half in the companion volume. Feast your eyes on winners of the coveted Viewers' Choice Awards, rugs in Oriental designs, florals, abstracts, animals, architectural designs, and delicate miniature rugs smaller than a credit card. Rugs by one of the show's three honorees, Pat Merikallio, are featured here, as are rugs made by children, rugs illustrating "The Twelve Days of Christmas," and over 100 pieces depicting the theme "Strong Women." This book is a delightful, inspiring look at what can be accomplished with the versatile and exciting medium of hooked rugs.

"It's an evocative, inspiring mood board of a book." - Andreina Cordani, Reclaim Magazine "Decorating with flowers - on everything from walls and windows to sofas and floors - will bring magic and romance to any space." - Mail on Sunday's You Magazine In the designs of Tricia Guild, atmosphere is everything. Patterns, colour, texture, furniture and furnishings interweave to create spaces that have all the depth and meaning of installation art. Yet just as an outfit never feels complete without a spritz of scent, a room without plants is only nearly complete. Only nearly perfect. At Designers Guild, Tricia Guild uses flowers, leaves and stems to enhance a room's mood, bringing soul to the spaces we live in. A flower has many spirits over the course of its life, from the promise of those first pristine and innocent buds, to the resplendent joy of full blooms and the wistful glory as they fade. The cycle of nature provides an ever-evolving muse for Tricia Guild. Her latest book explores how blooms can evoke emotion, presenting a plethora of inspirational designs that breathe fresh life into our homes and workspaces.

Tapestries from 40 top international artists representing three generations show the best examples of contemporary approaches to the handwoven art. Featured are more than 50 examples, including full views of each artwork, as well as details. Tapestries are accompanied by biographical information on each artist, hand-picked for this collection because they are at the forefront of their field. The book also includes insightful essays, statements, and information about the field of tapestry, including artist and gallery contact information. This one-of-a-kind collection of works was curated by the author, Carol Russell, for an exhibition at Hunterdon Art Museum in Clinton, New Jersey, in 2015. Included are essays by the curator, as well as by Archie Brennan, Christine Laffer, and Dr. Lycia Trouton.

Collections of textiles-historic costume, quilts, needlework samplers, and the like-have benefited greatly from the digital turn in museum and archival work. Both institutional online repositories and collections-based social media sites have fostered unprecedented access to textile collections that have traditionally been marginalized in museums. How can curators, interpreters, and collections managers make best use of these new opportunities? To answer this question, the author worked with sites including the Great Lakes Quilt Center at the Michigan State University Museum, the Design Center at Philadelphia University, the International Quilt Study Center and Museum at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and the WGBH Boston Media Library and Archives, as well as user-curated social sites online such as Tumblr and Polyvore, to create four compelling case studies on the preservation, access, curation, and interpretation of textile objects. The book explores: *The nature of digital material culture. *The role of audience participation versus curatorial authority online. *Audience-friendly collections metadata and tagging. *Visual, rather than text-based, searching and cataloging. *The legality of ownership and access of museum collections online. *Gender equity in museums and archives. This book is essential reading for anyone who cares for, collects, exhibits, or interprets historic costume or textile collections, but its broad implications for the future of museum work make it relevant for anyone with an interest in museum work online. And because the focus of this volume is theory and praxis, rather than specific technologies that are likely to become obsolete, it will be staple on your bookshelf for years to come.

Collections of textiles-historic costume, quilts, needlework samplers, and the like-have benefited greatly from the digital turn in museum and archival work. Both institutional online repositories and collections-based social media sites have fostered unprecedented access to textile collections that have traditionally been marginalized in museums. How can curators, interpreters, and collections managers make best use of these new opportunities? To answer this question, the author worked with sites including the Great Lakes Quilt Center at the Michigan State University Museum, the Design Center at Philadelphia University, the International Quilt Study Center and Museum at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and the WGBH Boston Media Library and Archives, as well as user-curated social sites online such as Tumblr and Polyvore, to create four compelling case studies on the preservation, access, curation, and interpretation of textile objects. The book explores: *The nature of digital material culture. *The role of audience participation versus curatorial authority online. *Audience-friendly collections metadata and tagging. *Visual, rather than text-based, searching and cataloging. *The legality of ownership and access of museum collections online. *Gender equity in museums and archives. This book is essential reading for anyone who cares for, collects, exhibits, or interprets historic costume or textile collections, but its broad implications for the future of museum work make it relevant for anyone with an interest in museum work online. And because the focus of this volume is theory and praxis, rather than specific technologies that are likely to become obsolete, it will be staple on your bookshelf for years to come.

More than 500 images explore the free-form embroidered creations of the tribal people of India's renown Gujarat Province. Dating back 30 to 100 years, they include original garments, temple offerings, welcome banners, and second-generation quilted works that combine precious remnants for new decorative uses. These items have trickled onto the world market where they are treasured by decorators and collectors. Textile artists, designers, and ethnologists alike will delight in these examples of the boundless imaginations of itinerant tribal women who make much of little in their elaborate, mica and bead-studded creations. Abstract, geometric, floral, and religious imagery celebrates the boundless exuberance of their quest for beauty.

Creativity is an integral part of human history, yet most studies focus on the modern era, leaving unresolved questions about the formative role that creativity has played in the past. This book explores the fundamental nature of creativity in the European Bronze Age. Considering developments in crafts that we take for granted today, such as pottery, textiles, and metalwork, the volume compares and contrasts various aspects of their development, from the construction of the materials themselves, through the production processes, to the design and effects deployed in finished objects. It explores how creativity is closely related to changes in material culture, how it directs responses to the new and unfamiliar, and how it has resulted in changes to familiar things and practices. Written by an international team of scholars, the case studies in this volume consider wider issues and provide detailed insights into creative solutions found in specific objects.

Commanding its own museum and over 200 years of examination, observation and scholarship, the monumental embroidery, known popularly as the Bayeux Tapestry and documenting William the Conqueror's invasion of England in October 1066, is perhaps the most important surviving artifact of the Middle Ages. This magnificent textile, both celebrated and panned, is both enigmatic artwork and confounding historical record. With over 1780 entries, Szabo and Kuefler offer the largest and most heavily annotated bibliography on the Tapestry ever written. Notably, the Bayeux Tapestry has produced some of the most compelling questions of the medieval period: Who commissioned it and for what purpose? What was the intended venue for its display? Who was the designer and who executed the enormous task of its manufacture? How does it inform our understanding of eleventh-century life? And who was the mysterious Aelfgyva, depicted in the Tapestry's main register? This book is an effort to capture and describe the scholarship that attempts to answer these questions. But the bibliography also reflects the popularity of the Tapestry in literature covering a surprisingly broad array of subjects. The inclusion of this material will assist future scholars who may study references to the work in contemporary non-fiction and popular works as well as use of the Bayeux Tapestry as a primary and secondary source in the classroom. The monographs, articles and other works cited in this bibliography reflect dozens of research areas. Major themes are: the Tapestry as a source of information for eleventh-century material culture, its role in telling the story of the Battle of Hastings and events leading up to the invasion, patronage of the Tapestry, biographical detail on known historical figures in the Tapestry, arms and armor, medieval warfare strategy and techniques, opus anglicanum (the Anglo-Saxon needlework tradition), preservation and display of the artifact, the Tapestry's place in medieval art, the embroidery's depiction of medieval and Romanesque architecture, and the life of the Bayeux Tapestry itself.

Spanning more than five decades of fabric design, Plaids is an invaluable visual reference guide for designers. With more than 550 full-color photographs of printed and woven plaids, this colorful book provides a sweeping survey of plaid fabric designs, from the standard checks and gingham patterns to the farthest reaches of designers' imaginations. Special sections detail variations in plaid styles, including imitation weaves, hound's-tooth, harlequin, florals, and novelty prints. The book also includes French and Italian couture fabrics and more than 150 traditional Scottish tartans. Plaids is the most comprehensive pictorial guide ever produced on the subject.

Learn the fascinating history of a distinct style of needlework fashionable in Victorian America from approximately 1877 to 1912. Read how it began, learn the techniques used to create it, and gain detailed information to identify it. This is the compelling story of one woman's ingenuity and steadfast belief that she could make a difference in the lives of women with serious economic need -- the fundamental need for sustenance. Candace Wheeler conceived the idea and saw it succeed beyond her wildest expectations. Embroidering these strikingly beautiful and lifelike silk floral designs became an innovative opportunity for women to earn their own living. Featured is an extraordinary collection of anitque linens embroidered with incredible skill and shown in 383 images, including embroidery books, magazines, and other period items that help explain the story. They demonstrate why art embroidery has become popular with collectors today, apart from its sheer beauty. This awe-inspiring story of noble endeavor and the embroidery style itself is a feast for the senses.

Quilting, once regarded as a traditional craft, has broken through the barriers of history, art and commerce to become a global phenomenon, international multi-billion dollar industry and means of gendered cultural production. In Quilting, sociologist and quilter Marybeth C. Stalp explores how and why women quilt.
This close ethnographic study illustrates that women's lives can be transformed in often surprising ways by the activity and art of quilting. Some women who quilt as a leisure pastime are too afraid to admit to being a quilter for fear of ridicule; others boldly identify themselves as quilters and regard it as part of their everyday lives.
The place of quilting in women's lives affects core family and personal identity issues such as marriage, childcare, friendship and aging. The book's accessible and intimate portrayal of real quilters' lives provides a fabric for the sociology, anthropology and textile student to understand more about wider issues of cultural production and identity that stem from this very personal pastime.

This book interprets the fiber art and craft-inspired sculpture by eight US and Latin American women artists whose works incite embodied affective experience. Grounded in the work of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, John Corso-Esquivel posits craft as a material act of intuition. The book provocatively asserts that fiber art-long disparaged in the wake of the high-low dichotomy of late Modernism-is, in fact, well-positioned to lead art at the vanguard of affect theory and twenty-first-century feminist subjectivities.

This comprehensive survey of textiles from every region of the Indian subcontinent runs the gamut of commercial, tribal and folk textiles. The authors first place them in cultural context by examining the history, materials and various techniques - weaving, dyeing, printing and painting. They then give a detailed region-by-region account of traditional textile production, including chapters on Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. A dazzling array of images provides an unsurpassed visual account of the textiles, while a detailed reference section with further reading, museums and information on technical terms completes this essential guide.

"Cool" colors were hot for fabrics in the late 1960s. The youth of the day wore hot pinks and purples, chartreuse, orange, and yellow. Sometimes called neon colors, these cool hot colors were often combined into wild and psychedelic floral and geometric designs. Hundreds of splashy colors and designs from actual 1960s European and American textile manufacturers' sample books are photographed and displayed with full descriptions and fabric content information. This book takes the '60s enthusiast on a magical ride to an era of outrageous artistic expression.

Among the great designers at Herman Miller in the 1950s and 1960s, Alexander Girard enhanced Eames' and Nelson's furniture with innovative textiles. As head of Herman Miller's Textile Division since it was formed in 1952, he designed some of the most colorful and exciting fabrics available anywhere. He also designed the 25-piece Girard Group of modern furniture, and the 40-item series of Environmental Enrichment Panels for Action Office 2. Girard's unmatched folk art collection adorned Herman Miller buildings, filled their Textiles & Objects Shop in New York, and over 100,000 items made up the famous Girard Foundation. His acclaimed work as an interior designer and architect and his remarkable textiles for Herman Miller make Girard one of the legendary designers of the twentieth century. With over 400 mostly color photographs of his textile and wallpaper designs, all of the EE panels and furniture, plus detailed text, timeline, and an updated value guide, this book is a comprehensive view of Girard's work at Herman Miller, and a must for anyone interested in mid-century design of textiles, interiors, or graphics.

New approaches to what is arguably the most famous artefact from the Middle Ages. In the past two decades, scholarly assessment of the Bayeux Tapestry has moved beyond studies of its sources and analogues, dating, origin and purpose, and site of display. This volume demonstrates the value of more recent interpretive approaches to this famous and iconic artefact, by examining the textile's materiality, visuality, reception and historiography, and its constructions of gender, territory and cultural memory. The essays it contains frame discussions vital to the future of Tapestry scholarship and are complemented by a bibliography covering three centuries of critical writings. Martin K. Foys is Professor of English at University of Wisconsin-Madison; KarenEileen Overbey is Associate Professor of Art History at Tufts University; Dan Terkla is Professor of English at Illinois Wesleyan University. Contributors: Valerie Allen, Richard Brilliant, Shirley Ann Brown, Elizabeth Carson Pastan, Madeline H. Cavines, Martin K. Foys, Michael John Lewis, Karen Eileen Overbey, Gale R. Owen-Crocker, Dan Terkla, Stephen D. White.

Timor has been a divided island at least since the seventeenth century when Dutch and Portuguese colonial empires competed for its control. Despite this fragmentation, the weaving of cloth has remained intimately linked to the cultural history of the Timorese peoples as a whole. Handwoven cotton garments serve as markers of identity and nurture social relationships when they are exchanged. Women in Timor weave an impressive variety of cloth, routinely combining more weaving techniques than any other region of Southeast Asia. This technical prowess and diversity of design make weaving the most important form of artistic expression in Timor and allow groups as small as individual families to proclaim their unique heritage. Independence for Timor-Leste (East Timor) in 2002 - following invasion by Indonesia and years of violent warfare (1975-1999) - brought with it more stable conditions and improved access for researchers. Textiles of Timor, Island in the Woven Sea brings together for the first time woven works from all parts of the island, demonstrating that the textile arts form a common foundation uniting Timor's diverse peoples despite the painful history of the country's division.

Rejecting traditional notions of what constitutes art, this book brings together essays on a variety of fiber arts to recoup women's artistic practices by redefining what counts as art. Although scholars over the last twenty years have turned their attention to fiber arts, redefining the conditions, practices, and products as art, there is still much work to be done to deconstruct the stubborn patriarchal art/craft binary. With essays on a range of fiber art practices, including embroidery, knitting, crocheting, machine stitching, rug making, weaving, and quilting, this collection contributes to the ongoing scholarly redefinition of women's relationship to creative activity. Focusing on women as producers of cultural products and creators of social value, the contributors treat women as active subjects and problematize their material practices and artifacts in the complex world of textiles. Each essay also examines the ways in which needlework both performs gender and, in turn, constructs gender. Moreover, in concentrating on and theorizing material practices of textiles, these essays reorient the study of fiber arts towards a focus on process"the making of the object, including the conditions under which it was made, by whom, and for what purpose"as a way to rethink the fiber arts as social praxis.

Needlework serves functional purposes, such as providing warmth, but has also communicated individual and social identity, spiritual beliefs, and aesthetic ideals throughout time and geography. Needlework traditions are often associated with rituals and celebrations of life events. Often-overlooked by historians, practicing needlework and creating needlework objects provides insights to the history of everyday life. Needlework techniques traveled with merchants and explorers, creating a legacy of cross-cultural exchange. Some techniques are virtually universal and others are limited to a small geographical area. Settlers brought traditions which were sometimes re-invented as indigenous arts. This volume of approximately 75 entries is a comprehensive resource on techniques and cultural traditions for students, information professionals, and collectors. Entries include: -Applique -Aran -Bobbin lace -Crochet -Cross-stitch -Embellishment -Feathers and Beetle wings -Knotting -Machine needlework -Macrame -Mirrorwork -Netting -Patchwork -Quillwork -Samplers -Smocking -Tatting -Whitework Geographical areas include: -Africa -British Isles -Central Asia -East Asia -Southeast Asia -Pacific Region -Eastern Europe -Eastern Mediterranean -Indian Subcontinent -Middle East -North America -Scandinavia -South America -Western Asia -Western Europe

Quilts have become a cherished symbol of Amish craftsmanship and the beauty of the simple life. Country stores in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and other tourist regions display row after row of handcrafted quilts. In luxury homes, office buildings, and museums, the quilts have been preserved and displayed as priceless artifacts. They are even pictured on collectible stamps. Amish Quilts explores how these objects evolved from practical bed linens into contemporary art. In this in-depth study, illustrated with more than 100 stunning color photographs, Janneken Smucker discusses what makes an Amish quilt Amish. She examines the value of quilts to those who have made, bought, sold, exhibited, and preserved them and how that value changes as a quilt travels from Amish hands to marketplace to consumers. A fifth-generation Mennonite quiltmaker herself, Smucker traces the history of Amish quilts from their use in the late nineteenth century to their sale in the lucrative business practices of today. Through her own observations as well as oral histories, newspaper accounts, ephemera, and other archival sources, she seeks to understand how the term "Amish" became a style and what it means to both quiltmakers and consumers. She also looks at how quilts influence fashion and raises issues of authenticity of quilts in the marketplace. Whether considered as art, craft, or commodity, Amish quilts reflect the intersections of consumerism and connoisseurship, religion and commerce, nostalgia and aesthetics. By thoroughly examining all of these aspects, Amish Quilts is an essential resource for anyone interested in the history of these beautiful works.

Slip into a bold and colorful era in cloth design. Once fashionable decorative fabrics for the home, these large and sometimes splashy print designs were used for drapery, upholstery, slipcover, and tablecloth fabrics. Designs prevalent in the 1950s included tropical scenes, American West motifs, sports and sporting events, nautical and boating themes, kitchen designs, and exotic foreign destinations. Often customized for specific rooms, some fabrics feature typical "den," "kitchen," or "child's bedroom" themes. Included are more than 250 color photographs of vintage conversational or novelty prints with full descriptions, along with drapery and fabric-covered furnishings available from Sears Catalogs. This colorful book offers a glimpse of fabric designs available for the average home in the 1950s.

Terry cloth was once relegated to towels for the kitchen and bathroom, but, after World War II, it was embraced as a bold, colorful, and comfortable fabric for everything from beachwear to evening wear. The first book devoted specifically to terry cloth, it contains more than 500 images that trace the fabric's history through vintage advertisements, sewing patterns, and terry apparel. The patterns feature designs from dainty florals to fabulous geometrics, especially from the 1950s to the 1970s. Chapters include techniques for sewing, caring for, and where to purchase terry cloth. This book is a great resource for fashion designers, students of fashion, and history buffs.

This book unfolds a history of American basketry, from its origins in Native American, immigrant, and slave communities to its contemporary presence in the fine art world. Ten contributing authors from different areas of expertise, plus over 250 photos, insightfully show how baskets convey meaning through the artists' selection of materials; the techniques they use; and the colors, designs, patterns, and textures they employ. Accompanying a museum exhibition of the same name, the book illustrates how the processes of industrialization changed the audiences, materials, and uses for basketry. It also surveys the visual landscape of basketry today; while some contemporary artists seek to maintain and revive traditions practiced for centuries, others combine age-old techniques with nontraditional materials to generate cultural commentary. This comprehensive treasury will be of vital interest to artists, collectors, curators, and historians of American basketry, textiles, and sculpture.