Category: Craft
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New books
As well as the newest Context, number 47, the Costume and Textile Aotearoa New Zealand publication, a book about Scandinavian knitwear and and Kishies and Cuddies, the basketry of Shetland have been added to the library. Context is, as usual, filled with fascinating articles, collection insights and reviews, including Mayan weaving, string bags in Southern…
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Moving the collection
The textile collection is now in its new home. Originally, the collection, which is made up of costumes, fashion and textiles from around the world, was stored upstairs from the studio. The room in which it was kept was once the secretary’s room, just outside the general manager’s office, as was the norm back in…
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Into the Pinke
Howareyoufeeling.studio co-created a beautiful and thought-provoking performance with 50 Ladakhi students for sā Ladakh in 2024. Sā Ladakh is a biennial land art showing and festival that focuses on ecology and community. It takes place in the Disko Valley in Ladakh, India and in August of 2024 the studio performed this high altitude piece. Metaphorically…
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Creative journeys
I am looking at the possibility of running small-group tours in Te Waipounamu/ The South Island of Aotearoa New Zealand. While in Shetland I created textile tours during which I took people around the islands to places of historical and textile interest. Along the way we explored scenery and the amazing places of the archipelago.…
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Jamdani: the Art of Weaving
Jamdani is a type of muslin that comes from Bangladesh where it is painstakingly hand-woven. These intricate patterned fabrics are made with a supplementary weft (an additional thread that is woven across the background cloth). The result is a highly decorative cloth that is sold at Jamdani Haat – a market where the cloth is…
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Textiles: The Art of Mankind
The Fashion and Textiles Museum in London’s Bermondsey is currently playing host to what looks like a rather wonderful showcase. Textiles are carriers and conveyors of histories, meaning and identity. This exhibition, on until 7th September, shows some of the ingenuity that goes into the making of them. According to the website for the museum,…
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Embroidery and oils
Daniela García Hamilton, a first-generation American of Mexican descent, uses threads and oil paints to explain her family relationships. In the artist’s hands, photographic portraits and everyday scenes act as catalysts for paintings with an addition of embroidery. Each stitch illuminates the picture, adding depth, and the care with which the images are embellished reminds…
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Blankets
What better to have around in the cold winter weather than a blanket or two… In the Southern African country of Lesotho, high up in the mountains of the Drakensberg, woollen blankets have been worn for more than a century and a half. The largest manufacturer, Aranda Textile Mills, was appointed by the royal family…
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A Guatemalan Huipil
Huipiles are part of the clothing worn by Mayan women in Guatemala. The intricacy of the decoration and the often-vibrant colours of huipiles have long made the garments admired and sought after. This is, after all, one of the best-known of the South American textile traditions. These pieces embody tradition and history, as well as…
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Soft Power
Soft Power, lives told through textile art is currently on in the UK at the Royal West of England Academy, Bristol. This exhibition has been curated by Professors Alice Kettle and Lesley Millar and relates the stories of people through textiles. Sometimes those stories are intimate and closely bound to an individual, sometimes they are…