Featuring detailed scenes of court pageantry and life-size portraits of members of the French Valois dynasty woven in wool, silk, and precious metal-wrapped threads, the Valois Tapestries are one of the most extravagant sets of hangings produced in the 16th century. The precise circumstances surrounding the tapestries' commission and their arrival at the Medici court in Florence, as well as the significance of the specific scenes depicted, however, have eluded scholars for years. Presenting new research into the political maneuvering of the Valois and Medici courts and providing extensive physical analysis gathered during a recent cleaning of the tapestries, this volume offers brand new insight into why these magnificent works were made and what they represent. Distributed for the Cleveland Museum of Art Exhibition Schedule: Cleveland Museum of Art (11/18/18-01/21/19)

The story of India's exuberantly colored textiles that made their mark on design, technology, and trade around the world Chintz, a type of multicolored printed or painted cotton cloth, originated in India yet exerted influence far beyond its home shores: it became a driving force of the spice trade in the East Indies, and it attracted European merchants, who by the 17th century were importing millions of pieces. In the 18th century, Indian chintz became so coveted globally that Europeans attempted to imitate its uniquely vibrant dyes and design-a quest that eventually sparked the mechanical and business innovations that ushered in the Industrial Revolution, with its far-reaching societal impacts. This beautifully illustrated book tells the fascinating and multidisciplinary stories of the widespread desire for Indian chintz over 1,000 years to its latest resurgence in modern fashion and home design. Based on the renowned Indian chintz collections held at the Royal Ontario Museum, the book showcases the genius of Indian chintz makers and the dazzling variety of works they have created for specialized markets: religious and court banners for India, monumental gilded wall hangings for elite homes in Europe and Thailand, luxury women's dress for England, sacred hangings for ancestral ceremonies in Indonesia, and today's runways of Lakme Fashion Week in Mumbai. Distributed for the Royal Ontario Museum Exhibition Schedule: Royal Ontario Museum (April 4-September 27, 2020)

From rugged Japanese firemen's ceremonial robes and austere rural work-wear to colorful, delicately-patterned cotton kimonos, this lavishly illustrated volume explores Japan's rich tradition of textiles. Textiles are an eloquent form of cultural expression and of great importance in the daily life of a people, as well as in their rituals and ceremonies. The traditional clothing and fabrics featured in this book were made and used in the islands of the Japanese archipelago between the late 18th and the mid 20th century. The Thomas Murray collection featured in this book includes daily dress, work-wear, and festival garb and follows the Arts and Crafts philosophy of the Mingei Movement, which saw that modernization would leave behind traditional art forms such as the hand-made textiles used by country people, farmers, and fisherman. It presents subtly patterned cotton fabrics, often indigo dyed from the main islands of Honshu and Kyushu, along with garments of the more remote islands: the graphic bark cloth, nettle fiber, and fish skin robes of the aboriginal Ainu in Hokkaido and Sakhalin to the north, and the brilliantly colored cotton kimonos of Okinawa to the far south. Numerous examples of these fabrics, photographed in exquisite detail, offer insight into Japan's complex textile history as well as inspiration for today's designers and artists. This volume explores the range and artistry of the country's tradition of fiber arts and is an essential resource for anyone captivated by the Japanese aesthetic.

Around 1515, Raphael (1483-1520) designed a set of tapestries for Leo X, the first Medici pope. Each was sumptuously woven in gold, silver, and silk, and depicted scenes from classical mythology with inventive grotesques. Now lost, these spectacular, grand-scale textiles are reconstructed in Raphael's Tapestries and set among a series of unprecedented decorative projects that Pope Leo commissioned from the artist. Likely produced by the Brussels weaver Pieter van Aelst, the tapestries pioneered a new all'antica style analogous with contemporary painted and sculpted interior programs. Tapestries played a central role at Leo's court, as spectacle and as propaganda, and the Grotesques of Leo X would inform tapestry design for the next three centuries. Their beauty and complexity rivaled those of contemporary painting, and their luxurious materials made them highly prized. With this new study, the Grotesques take their rightful place as Renaissance masterworks and as documents of the fervent humanist culture of early 16th-century Rome.

A high-energy mix for all who make and appreciate contemporary art quilts. With more than 650 photos, enjoy this journey through the art quilt collections that are held in five different museums across the United States. Each has a different focus, and each has different treasures to learn about: the Museum of Art & Design in New York, the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles, the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the Renwick Gallery at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC. Part of the creativity-inspiring series Exploring Art Quilts with SAQA, which blends interviews, information, and today’s latest works and designs. It also serves as a long-term creative reference. Be inspired by 16 artists living around the world, peer at every detail in photos from SAQA’s recent exhibitions, and much more.

Its dry climate means that Egypt boasts an exceptionally rich heritage of preserved ancient textiles. Since 1996, the international research group Textiles from the Nile Valley has been studying these Roman, Byzantine and early-Islamic textile artefacts, many of which have found their way into European and North American museum collections. The research group, consisting of curators, archaeologists, textile conservators and scientists, organises a biennial conference at Katoen Natie HeadquARTers in Antwerp, and publishes a series of unique books on the importance of Egyptian textiles. This latest volume brings together the findings from the 11th conference, which was held from 25 to 27 October 2019. The focus is on the history of textile excavating and collecting, which goes back to the late 19th century. The book contains 18 text contributions describing recent fieldwork, conservation treatments and scientific research worldwide, in collaboration with major universities and museums such as the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. The book is being published to mark the 12th international scientific Textiles from the Nile Valley Conference, which is taking place from 12 to 14 November 2021 in Antwerp. Text in English and German.

A celebration of female inventiveness and aesthetic sensibility, Shedding the Shackles explores women's craft enterprises, their artisanal excellence, and the positive impact their individual projects have on breaking the poverty cycle. In the first part of the twentieth century, suffering from a legacy inherited from the Victorian era, craft skills, such as weaving, sewing, embroidery, and quilting were regarded largely as women's domestic pastimes, and remained undervalued and marginalised. It has taken several decades for attitudes to change, for the boundaries between 'fine art' and craft to blur, and for textile crafts to be given the same respect and recognition as other media. Featuring artisans and projects from across the globe Shedding the Shackles celebrates their vision and motivation giving a fascinating glimpse into how these craft initiatives have created a sustainable lifestyle, and impacted upon their communities at a deeper level.

Quilts and Color presents more than sixty graphically bold American quilts from the Pilgrim/Roy Collection, one of the finest and largest collections of quilts in the world. These collectors recognized that quilt makers often grappled with the same concerns as many modern artists. Influenced by twentieth-century art developments such as Abstraction, Op Art and the Colour Field movement, Paul Pilgrim and Gerald Roy were among the first to appreciate quilts as more than simply decorative bedcovers, women's fancy work, or symbols of a rustic past. Reproduced brilliantly and arranged by ideas based in colour theory - Vibrations, Mixtures, Gradation Harmonies, Contrasts, Variations, Optical Illusions and Singular Visions - each quilt in this book is celebrated as a unique work of art. The accompanying text also sheds light on the social and cultural history of the quilts as well as the practices and aspirations of their mostly anonymous makers, who created such works of enduring beauty and arresting visual impact.

Sazigyo are fine, tablet-woven Burmese tapes used to bind the palm-leaf manuscripts of an earlier era. Tiny images and extended texts were deftly woven into the long, colorful bindings. These Buddhist "textile texts" were commissioned by donors to make merit in the hope of attaining a better rebirth and ultimately nirvana.

This beautiful book elucidates the religious and social context of sazigyo and describes in detail the weaves, texts, designs, and images. It contains stunning, full-scale reproductions and enlargements of many hundreds of sazigyo segments found in collections throughout the world and presents translated excerpts from 150 sazigyo texts.

The book is a celebration of a craft now vanishing and a tribute to the skill and flair of Burmese women weavers. It will appeal to weavers and textile designers and to all admirers of exquisite craftsmanship.

Ralph Isaacs is coauthor of "Visions from the Golden Land: Burma and the Art of Lacquer."

In the shops of London's Oxford Street, girls wear patterned scarves over their hair as they cluster around makeup counters. Alongside them, hip twenty-somethings style their head-wraps in high black topknots to match their black boot-cut trousers. Participating in the world of popular mainstream fashion-often thought to be the domain of the West-these young Muslim women are part of an emergent cross-faith transnational youth subculture of modest fashion. In treating hijab and other forms of modest clothing as fashion, Reina Lewis counters the overuse of images of veiled women as "evidence" in the prevalent suggestion that Muslims and Islam are incompatible with Western modernity. Muslim Fashion contextualizes modest wardrobe styling within Islamic and global consumer cultures, interviewing key players including designers, bloggers, shoppers, store clerks, and shop owners. Focusing on Britain, North America, and Turkey, Lewis provides insights into the ways young Muslim women use multiple fashion systems to negotiate religion, identity, and ethnicity.

Repeating patterns can soothe or energize us, bringing joy and harmony to everyday life. Repeat Printed Pattern for Interiors explores the power repeat patterns hold over us and what goes into creating original, effective printed designs. Beginning with the history of patterns in interior design, Kate Farley uncovers lessons from the work of Owen Jones, William Morris, Collier Campbell and Josef Frank. There are also interviews with some of the best contemporary pattern designers working today: Angie Lewin, Deborah Bowness, Eley Kishimoto, Emma J. Shipley, Galbraith & Paul, Neisha Crosland, Orla Kiely OBE, Sarah Campbell and Timorous Beasties. Each interview covers the designer's practice and ethos and includes a deconstruction of one design, with discussion of initial sketches, details of design development, manufacturing insights and images of final products. Covering hand-drawn techniques through to digital manipulation, you'll also be guided through the implications of visual language, colour statements, manufacturing considerations and commercial interior contexts to prepare you to jump in and start creating your own unique patterns.

Focusing on a single Malian textile identified variously as bogolanfini, bogolan, or mudcloth, Victoria L. Rovine traces the dramatic technical and stylistic innovations that have transformed the cloth from its village origins into a symbol of new internationalism. Rovine shows how the biography of this uniquely African textile reveals much about contemporary culture in urban Africa and about the global markets in which African art circulates. Bogolan has become a symbol of national and ethnic identities, an element of contemporary, urban fashion, and a lucrative product in tourist art markets. At the heart of this beautifully illustrated book are the artists, changing notions of tradition, nationalism, and the value of cloth making and marketing on a worldwide scale.

After training as a graphic designer in Hungary, the plastic artist Vera Székely (1919-1994), a member of the Székely-Borderie ceramicist collective, tackled work in clay, metal, wood and glass to reach her artistic fulfillment in textiles. From this point on, Vera Székely acknowledged “swimming and dancing in space to leave a trace in it� with her ephemeral installations of bent felt, her stretched canvas structures and “braced sails� that would be exhibited throughout the world, notably at the Biennale internationale de la tapisserie, Lausanne (1981) the Musée national d’art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou (1982), the Musée d’art moderne de la ville de Paris (1985), the Lunds Konsthall, Sweden (1988). Text in English and French.

A visual goldmine for designers of original print, weave and embellishment, Sourcing Ideas for Textile Design will help you generate new ideas, develop them methodically and finally create beautifully designed textiles. The carefully selected range of images illustrate how to use visual information in this process from a variety of sources, breaking down the process into key themes - colour, surface, structure, texture and pattern. This second edition includes: * case studies and interviews with insight into visual research and development from revered practising designers, including Dries Van Noten and Reiko Sudo; * Spotlight sections offer historical or cultural perspectives on each point in the process; and, * new coverage of material investigation, colour analysis, presentation and curation, as well as advice on IP and copyright. You'll also be guided through the three stages of textile design where you will: * generate your idea; * work to develop it; and, * create your developed idea in the studio. By engaging with this approach, and exploring new ways of seeing ordinary things through the key themes, you'll learn to create incredible effects in your textile design.

This book fills a void in Western texts by presenting the largest selection of Caucasian flat-woven carpets and textiles ever included in a single book. They originate in the region south of the Caucasus Mountains and west of the Caspian Sea, bounded by Russian, Turkey, and Iran, and comprising parts of Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The book, with 436 beautiful color photographs, includes an extensive selection of old kilims, zilis, khorjins, and one of the most extensive collections of Caucasian mafrash bedding bags ever assembled. They date generally from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Weaving styles of the nomadic, indigenous peoples produce the rich mixture of geometric and figurative forms recognized as uniquely Caucasian. A fascinating description of the author's field visits to villages in the Caucasus accompanies illustrations of the textiles and peoples found there. The origins of these pieces are discussed through comparisons with artifacts in the Russian Ethnographic Museum in St. Petersburg. A unique feature is weaving examples by two Georgian ethnic sub-groups, the Tushetians and the Khevsuretis. The result is invaluable information regarding the weaving origins of Caucasian flat-woven textiles for collectors and curators, and richly colored pictorials that will inspire designers and artists.

"Hallum's painting is charged with delight in colour, line, surface and composition, in powerfully unconventional ways." - Hettie Judah This is the first monograph on the London-born, Devon-based artist Jacqui Hallum. The publication documents Hallum's solo exhibition at The Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (10 October 2019 - 1 March 2020), along with a series of solo, two-person and group exhibitions held between 2014 and 2020. Hallum is best-known for her mixed-media paintings on textiles - techniques she has developed and refined over the course of twenty years since completing her studies. Incorporating imagery and visual languages ranging from medieval woodcuts and stained-glass windows to Art Nouveau children's illustrations, tarot cards and Berber rugs, Hallum employs ink staining, painting, drawing and printing to create layers of pattern, abstraction and passages of figurative imagery. As part of her working process, Hallum often leaves the fabrics in the open air, exposed to the elements, in order to introduce weathering into the works. History, religion, mysticism and the beliefs and creativity of past civilisations are among the themes that overlap - often in a literal sense of pieces of fabrics layered, pinned, draped and hung together - to form painterly palimpsests that carry a sense of the past with them into the present. Along with a foreword by Professor Caroline Wilkinson, Director of the School of Art and Design at Liverpool John Moores University, and an introductory essay by artist, curator and director of Kingsgate Workshops and Project Space in London, Dan Howard-Birt, the publication features newly commissioned essays by arts journalist and critic Hettie Judah and by Andrew Hunt, Professor of Fine Art and Curating at the University of Manchester. Also featured is the edited transcript of a conversation between Hallum and Howard-Birt held at The Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool. Jacqui Hallum (b.1977, London) graduated with a BA in Fine Art from Coventry School of Art& Design, Coventry University, in 1999, and an MFA in Painting from the Slade School of Fine Art, University of London, in 2002. Hallum's solo exhibition at The Walker Art Gallery followed a three-month fellowship at Liverpool John Moores University, which resulted from winning the prestigious John Moores Painting Prize in 2018. The monograph, designed by work-form and edited by Susan Taylor, has been produced by Kingsgate Project Space and co-published with Anomie Publishing.

Tribal Rugs: Treasures of the Black Tent is the definitive work on this subject. Dedicated to one of the most ancient crafts of the world, this book leads its reader through the history of the tribal rug. Featured content ranges from the oldest complete rug in the world (dated to the fifth century BC) to the weavings of the nomadic peoples of Iran, Afghanistan, Turkey, the Caucasus and Central Asia, compiled from the 19th Century up to the present day. Each chapter introduces a different group of tribes, illustrating the rugs, carpets, kilims and utilitarian bags attributed to their weavers. This book is both a celebration of the woven legacy left by the tribes and a tribute to the skill and artistry of the women who created these magnificent artworks. It aims to provide an introduction for the novice, and entice the more knowledgeable to further study. This new 2017 edition features a marvellous array of new photography showcasing the finest work of each tribe, which will excite anyone with an eye for the tribal aesthetic.

This beautiful, practical guide to creating and embellishing embroidered boxes is written by Heather Lewis, a tutor with the Royal School of Needlework. It contains a history of the embroidered box, from the seventeenth century to the present day, and features techniques and guidance for needleworkers wishing to apply their skills to a practical application of the craft. There are three projects to try: a small treasure chest with a curved lid, embroidered dragonfly detail and a false floor; a hexagonal box with a beautiful embroidered lid depicting afternoon tea, and an intricate stumpwork casket with a mirror in the lid and a hidden drawer. Each has a template and extensive instructions for preparation, embroidery and construction.

New Mexico Colcha Club looks at the history, beauty, and various styles of New Mexico colcha embroidery, and tells the uplifting story of how a small group of determined women revived a cultural tradition destined for extinction. In the 1700s Spanish colonial women in the isolated province of New Mexico wanted to add beauty and warmth to their bedding. They worked their homespun yarn in a long couching stitch to create the flowing needlework that came to be called "colcha embroidery." Highly sought after and valued, a detailed embroidered piece could cost upwards of 46 pesos. (During the same time period, sheep and cows cost 2 and 15 pesos respectively). However, a century later colcha was on its way to oblivion. Like many traditional crafts, this beautiful and skilled artform was becoming obsolete as inexpensive and abundant commercial cloth, modern styles, and machine-made products became more desirable and available. Fast-forward to the 1920s and the Arte Antiguo, a colcha club founded by twelve Hispanic women in the Espanola Valley of New Mexico. Spearheaded by Teofila Ortiz Lujan and then later her daughter, Esther Lujan Vigil, these women heroically sought to rescue colcha and bring it back to its rightful place as a cherished custom. The women traveled to churches to examine vintage altar cloth, hunted through attics and archives in search of examples of the antique embroidery, and sketched old patterns--all in the hopes of keeping colcha from extinction and activating a revival of the embroidery. Esther Lujan Vigil, through her artwork and teaching, keeps the tradition alive and has elevated colcha from a folk art to a fine art. Divided into three sections, the first part of thebook traces the roots of the embroidery tradition and domestic life in colonial New Mexico. The second part looks at the Arte Antiguo's push in the early twentieth century to revive this lost art. The third part focuses on Esther Lujan Vigil's artistic skills and the renaissance of colcha embroidery today. New Mexico Colcha Club features historical and recent photographs of colcha work that demonstrate the beauty, intricacy, and diversity of this Old World custom. This inspirational and informative biography of colcha is folk art enlivened by social history. It is a must read for those interested in Spanish textile traditions and folk art, needlework, and New Mexico history.

From a platypus scarf to a giant crocodile rug, this fabulous activity book features animal-themed knitting patterns and fun puzzles, stories and quizzes to knock your socks off. Combining her love of humour and cuteness, Louise Walker, also known as Sincerely Louise, presents a selection of her favourite knits for you to try out. Including patterns for both home and to wear, this book includes mini animal trophy heads, triceratops slippers, a lion mug coaster and a giant balloon dog for you to recreate at home. Also, knit along to the `Lola the Polar Bear Moves' comic and create a killer whale, raccoon, corgi, meerkat and a toucan, among many other adorable animals. But this book is not just packed with patterns - have a go at the crafty crossword, the `Find the Fibre' wordsearch, The Knitter's Arms pub quiz, Louise's scrap yarn challenge, and many more. Each project is easy to make, only using a basic range of stitches, increases and decreases, so is perfect for beginners wanting to knit something impressive straight away or experienced knitters who are looking for exciting patterns. In just a few afternoons, you could have your very own trophy head to adorn your wall, a knitted toy or a fun piece of handmade clothing. The 20 patterns in this book include: Lion Mug Rug; Triceratops Slippers, Lobster Dinner, Faux Taxidermy Heads including Pig, Cow, Donkey and Giant Elephant; Polar bear; Toucan; Meerkat; Killer Whale; Chickens; Raccoon; Corgi; Starfish; Swan Door Stop; Giant Balloon Dog; Pretty Platypus Scarf; Roselle-Laura the Manta Ray; and Crocodile Rug. The quizzes, puzzles and stories featured in this book include: Get Sincerely Louise to the Craft Fair board game, Craft Crossword, The Knitter's Alphabet, Should I Knit Today?, Find the Fibre, At the Craft Fair, Lola the Polar Bear Moves, Knitter's Bingo, Find the Odd Ball Out, Pub Quiz, History of Sincerely Louise, Hall of Fame, Knitter's Homework, World Map of Faux Taxidermists.

Taking a major textile artwork, The Knitting Map, as a central case study, this book interrogates the social, philosophical and critical issues surrounding contemporary textile art today. It explores gestures of community and controversy manifest in contemporary textile art practices, as both process and object. Created by more than 2,000 knitters from 22 different countries, who were mostly working-class women, The Knitting Map became the subject of national controversy in Ireland. Exploring the creation of this multi-modal artwork as a key moment in Irish art history, Textiles, Community and Controversy locates the work within a context of feminist arts practice, including the work of Judy Chicago, Faith Ringold and the Guerilla Girls. Bringing together leading art critics and textile scholars, including Lucy Lippard, Jessica Hemmings and Joanne Turney, the collection explores key issues in textile practice from gender, class and nation to technology and performance.

Lavish photography and groundbreaking texts unlock the magic of the island cultures of Indonesia, Malaysia, and East Timor through examples of textiles, sculpture, and metalwork from this prestigious collection. Eyes of the Ancestors takes an in-depth look at the Dallas Museum of Art's world-renowned collection of artworks from Island Southeast Asia. Beautiful photography and essays by distinguished international scholars unlock the magic of the island cultures of this region. Leading cultural anthropologist Reimar Schefold introduces these texts, which investigate various indigenous art forms from a fresh, art history perspective. They describe the contexts, purposes, and aesthetic influences of a range of objects, from intricately woven sacred and ceremonial textiles to carved ancestral figures. Also featured are gold and metalwork designs as well as weaponry and jewellery most dating back more than a hundred years. A 19th-century mouth mask in the collection, from the Leti Islands, is one of only our known to be in existence. Carved in the shape of a bird's head, this wooden mask was used in ritual dances. Other spectacular examples from the collection also reflect the beliefs and practices of these island cultures.

The whimsical imagery of four tapestries in the permanent collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum and currently on display at the Getty Center is perplexing. Created in France at the Beauvais manufactory between 1690 and 1730, these charming hangings, unlike most French tapestries of the period, appear to be purely decorative, with no narrative thread, no theological moral, and no allegorical symbolism. They belong to a series called the Grotesques, inspired by ancient frescos discovered during the excavation of the Roman emperor Nero's Domus Aurea, or Golden House, but the origins of their mysterious subject matter have long eluded art historians. Based on seven years of research, Conundrum: Puzzles in the Grotesques Tapestry Series reveals for the first time that the artist responsible for these designs, Jean-Baptiste Monnoyer (1636-1699), actually incorporated dozens of motifs and vignettes from a surprising range of sources: antique statuary, Renaissance prints, Mannerist tapestry, and Baroque art, as well as contemporary seventeenth century urban festivals, court spectacle, and theater. Conundrum illustrates the most interesting of these sources alongside full-color details and overall views of the four tapestries. The book's informative and engaging essay identifies and decodes the tapestries' intriguing visual puzzles, enlightening our understanding and appreciation of the series' unexpectedly rich intellectual underpinnings.