Category: Craft

  • Global fashion done local

    Lagos, the most populous of Africa’s cities, has a name for fashion. Global trends combined with local aesthetics and sensibilities are producing some of the most exciting fashion in the world, as you can see in this article that explores the phenomenon of cosmopolitan African fashion. Africa has already gained the attention of the fashion…

  • The suitcase exhibitions

    Quilting is a craft but it is also an art. In 1988, the Australian Quilters’ Guild created a travelling exhibition of small quilts. These were designed to fit into suitcases in order to travel the country, bringing people together in a vast network of experience and expertise. For the show, forty-three textile artists from Australia…

  • Weaving flax

    Phormium tenax, New Zealand flax, has long been a staple material for weavers but it was not always just used by hand-weavers. In the latter part of the 19th Century and into the Twentieth, flax was commercially grown for use in factories where hard-wearing floor coverings and mats were made. In a fascinating film, complete…

  • The Herds

    Have you been following The Herds? This huge public art project brilliantly brings the plight and flight of animals at a time of climate change, habitat destruction and enforced movement to life.

  • The impact of tourism

    Tourism can be good but there are downsides to it. In the Maldives, tourism is having an impact on the lives of the islands’ inhabitants. In “Local Living”, a project of images and videos taken of a rapidly changing culture, Ali Assadhu from the island of Kinbidhoo works to preserve traditions before they disappear forever.…

  • New books for the library

    There are three new books in the library: Design from Peasant Art, Make Your Own Rugs and Central Otago Couture: The Eden Hore Collection. Kathleen Mann’s book about design from colloquial art was published in London by Adam and Charles Black in 1939 and this edition is the reprinted edition from 1952. It is a…

  • CTANZ symposium – Fascination

    The recent Costume and Textiles Aotearoa New Zealand symposium was held in Dunedin Ōtepoti and it was based on the theme of “Fascination”. Dunedin has a proud history and heritage of settlement and the symposium was held in Toitū Otago Settlers Museum. The event was split into two streams of presentations, one in the auditorium…

  • Welcome back to the blog

    Hello dear readers, I hope you have all had a good few weeks while the blog has been inactive. It seemed strange not to be writing the weekly words to you all, but the rest has been good and there is plenty to tell! A quick update on the studio. The equipment, as you know,…

  • Woven Histories

    New York’s Museum of Modern Art is currently hosting Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Abstraction. The show, on until 13th September this year, connects the development of ideas in abstract art with textiles and clothing. (The MoMA magazine offers seven ways to experience the exhibition.) With artists and makers such as Anni Albers, Olga de…

  • The Quilters – a documentary

    A new documentary about quilting is coming to Netflix shortly. The Quilters follows the progress of a group of men in a Missouri maximum security prison as they undertake a restorative justice programme: making quilts for foster children and children with disabilities. It promises to be a heart-warming and insightful look at how the craft…