May 23, 2014
This is for those who haven’t seen this decade-old segment which for some reason has been making the social media rounds again.
It is so nice to see a truly beautiful textile get this sort of attention (and from men too, which speaking as a textiles person rarely happens in North America, in contrast with other parts of the world).
May 16, 2014
I was talking to the very knowledgeable owner of a shop of antique weaving in Cuzco, Peru, and after a while he mentioned that Mick Jagger had been in the shop two years before.
April 13, 2014
I first noticed these cylindrical handwoven bags on a couple of delegates at the UN World Urban Forum in Medellín, Colombia. They looked unusually sturdy, very finely handwoven in wool, and all had unique and beautiful geometric patterns.
May 18, 2012
“If sleep is the apogee of physical relaxation, boredom is the apogee of mental relaxation. Boredom is the dream bird that hatches the egg of experience. A rustling in the leaves drives him away.
April 2, 2009
The photo above shows the central living area of a rural farmhouse on the border of Tochigi and Ibaraki prefectures. The house was restored by Kenji Tsuchisawa who bought it as a rundown heap when he was only 20, after seeing a photograph of a traditional Japanese farmhouse on a Tokyo magazine cover.
April 1, 2009
The bottom photo shows a functioning scarecrows made of indigo-dyed hemp. The original book caption reads “The bold design of this piece of shibori-dyed hemp by Seizo Ishikawa, a farmer, seems at home working as a scarecrow by a newly harvested rice field.” The birds in Japan must have been accustomed to seeing farmers in real Japanese indigo yukatas, waving their arms.
February 4, 2009
Textile looms and computers share a common history; Babbage used punch cards in his Difference Engine after seeing a Jacquard loom at work. This carpet by Richard Hutten is called “Playing With Tradition” and it plays on the historical relationship of looms and computers by looking exactly like a digital image that has been pixel-stretched.
The use of woven textiles in peasant interiors is so beautiful. The level of pride in the textiles is so evident, and that’s no doubt the result of the intimate connection people would have had not only with knowledge of the work and artistry involved, but also with the plants and animals from which the fibres came.
October 26, 2008
Tweed often gets rediscovered by fashion in the fall, but lately it seems to actually be transcending the seasons, probably because it’s at the crossroads of so many of the current nostalgias: the neo-Victorian/Edwardian craze, the 1940s fashion trend, steampunk, the Golden Compass, and a dozen other cultural fixations.
October 22, 2008
Compelling photo of a beautiful knit dress and scarf by Kelgwo in Chile. Natural knits don’t often achieve this level of absolute chicness. Kelgwo’s ateliers are in Santiago and in Chiloe Island where some of the traditional weaving orginates.
