Category: Textiles
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The Philosophy of Clothes
A new book from Kate Moran in a Cambridge University Press series looks at clothing from both personal and philosophical angles. Clothes carry meaning as well as being practical. We choose what to wear for meetings, parties, conversations… they make us feel good, attractive, or defend our bodily space. In this book, the author, herself…
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Textile Curator
The world of contemporary textile art practice is the subject of the Textile Curator website. Helen Adams has set out to teach the world about textile art and artists in blog posts, an artist directory and resources through the site. It is a British-based website with an international outlook and it may be useful to…
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Why do clothes shrink?
We’ve all experienced that sinking feeling upon opening the washing machine door to find shrunken outfits. Clothes shrink in the wash because of the fibres they are made from. But what is it that actually happens, and can something be done about it? Here is an article about just that. Good luck!
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Textile Talk
Every Wednesday a presentation or panel discussion is held by SAQA, Studio Art Quilt Associates in the USA. If you have an hour to spare and want to get a fix, head on over to the website and browse more than 250 Textile Talks using the online index. Fascinating and intriguing, not to mention lots…
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Glass… as a textile?
Glass, that most contradictory of materials, has been used as a textile. Mid-century design in Europe and America took advantage of glass fibre and its unique qualities. The fabrics made from glass fibres are shiny and slippery, echoing the trend then for clean lines and crisp looks in fashion and interiors. A pair of fibreglass…
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A surprise from the collection
This week conserving and cataloguing the textile collection started in the studio. Over the past few months a friend has been working to research the collection items and that has been a Very Useful Thing. That research has been added to the website under the “Textile collection” link and it is filling up nicely. Now…
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Origami Ballet
Origami Ballet is just that: a dance piece inspired by the art of folding paper. The project, created by Agnes Obel who wrote the music, and choreographed by Makiko Aoyama, Robert Howat, and Takeshi Matsumoto, was premiered in Scotland in 2024. The video below is, according to the source of it, generated by AI from…
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Lucca Biennale Cartasia
The town of Lucca in Italy is home to a unique art biennale that focuses on paper. In the 14th Century Lucca started to produce parchment paper and in the 16th Century the first mill was founded there to produce paper at scale. After the Second World War the town prospered and it is still…
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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…