Tag: travel

  • It’s barkcloth…

    Barkcloth is probably familiar to most readers of the blog but maybe not these textiles. Barkcloth is made by pounding inner tree bark over a hard surface until the fibres mesh together. Across the globe barkcloth is produced in this way and the studio collection has examples from Africa and the Pacific. This map shows…

  • Fire-fighting in Japan

    During the Edo Period (1600s to the mid-19th Century) Japan enjoyed peace and prosperity. This was reflected in fire-fighters’ protective clothing. Utilitarian clothes that protected the wearer while they were putting out the fires that could easily spread across the tightly-packed wooden buildings of towns and cities were an important part of a fire fighter’s…

  • Jean-Claude Bissery

    A new window display for autumn features a printed hanging by the French artist, Jean-Claude Bissery. Known for his use of vibrant colour and design, the piece hanging in the studio is entitled “Boucheron”, which translates as “woodcutter”. In the image a man strides through a forest filled with autumnal leaves, carrying a cut tree…

  • Fighting gender imbalance… with knitting?

    In Denmark knitting is making a political statement. Huzzah!

  • Philippine woven textiles

    This week a Canadian visitor to the studio mentioned the intriguing banana fibre textiles from the Philippine Islands. The oldest known of these pieces in the world dates back to the 13th or 14th Century. It is an ikat cloth (as you can see on this link) and was found on Banton Island in 1936.…

  • Threads of Belonging

    A new temporary public art show is about to be installed in South Sacramento’s Valley Hi-North Laguna Library. The textiles mural is an homage to the immigrant communities of the area, HMong, Filipinx/a/o, and Palestinians, who have contributed to the living history of the Californian capital city. The art work is combined with workshops and…

  • Cataloguing the textile collection

    As regular readers of the blog will know the textile collection is in the process of being correctly stored and researched, thanks to volunteers. Some real treasures are being unearthed while this work is going on and one of those is a hunger cloth by the charity Misereor. In 1976 Misereor reinvigorated the “Poor Man’s…

  • Around the world in 80 fabrics

    When marine biologist, Tierney Thys, found that her research sites were being contaminated by microplastic she decided to do something about it. The result is “Around the World in 80 Fabrics“, a non-profit initiative that started out with a quilt. The quilt was created with a group of Californian middle-schoolers who responded to a National…

  • Online learning

    There are plenty of online resources that bring together lots of different subjects to learn about. Most of us like to learn something new and sometimes it seems like there isn’t enough time to go to a regular class. This is where websites like Coursera or Domestika can help. You can sign up to lots…

  • Cranbrook Art Museum

    The magic power that art has to bring people together was in evidence this week in the studio in Greymouth. The textile studio in Māwhera Greymouth might seem to be a little incongruous. After all, the West Coast of Aotearoa New Zealand is not particularly noted for its textiles, relying instead on the beautiful scenery…