Flows Like Water: Under a Coal Charged Sky by Pam McKinlay Earlier this year I traveled to Dunedin–the second largest city on the South Island of Aotearoa New Zealand—on a personal holiday. It has a robust arts scene, a cutting-edge science and research community, and strong ties to the indigenous Māori community. It’s the perfect …
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One A Day, Every Day: The Daily Practice of JPR Stitch by JPR Stitch aka Dr. Jack Roberts As I opened the beautifully wrapped package, I found an unexpected book. Half its pages were blank which, for a book, seemed odd. The pages were small in scale, 10 x 15 centimeters (3.9 x 5.6 inches) …
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Women’s Work: From Feminine Arts to Feminist Art by Ferren Gipson The core of Women’s Work is a chronology of change. This collective biography of 34 artists opens with a brief history of the quiltmakers of Gees Bend, who have been making useful, beautiful, abstract, color block quilts since the nineteenth century. It’s organized by …
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SDA Book Club: The Alphabet of Expectations: An ABC Primer for Today’s Girl by Kachina Leigh, interviewed by Vivien Zepf Presented with support from the Peters Valley School of Craft Words matter. We’ve all witnessed or experienced the positive and negative power of language, labels, implications, connotations, and/or assumptions. In my personal childhood experience, taunts …
Read More »I have a favorite t-shirt, which reads “Name Five Women Artists.” A lot of people have risen to the challenge, invariably naming Georgia O’Keefe and Frida Kahlo, both of whom have arrived at a place of pop culture familiarity, both painters. Louise Bourgeois’ name rarely comes up, perhaps because images of her work aren’t as …
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Textile Design Theory in the Making by Elaine Igoe I like the idea of a textile designer as a translator. Designers ask questions and respond to problems. They gather, reflect upon and respond to concepts as varied as zeitgeist and personal experience, function, fashion and philosophy. In the process, they “interpret and tidy images, words, …
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Gathering Colour: Foraging Magic & Making Art from the World Around You Paperback by Caitlin Ffrench With a book as enthusiastic as this one, I have considered some criteria regarding intent and results. Does the book inspire? Does it enlighten and inform? Finally, is it entertaining? There are many books published on textile crafting and …
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Explorations with Collage! Merging Photographs, Paper and Fiber by Wen Redmond Before reviewing Wen Redmond’s second book (her first being Digital Fiber Art), I knew her only by name. Now, nearly 200 pages later, I am wowed by the depth and character of her explorations. She offers so many choices, the reader will find themselves …
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Thank you readers for another lovely year of SDA’s Book Club! In 2025 we had eleven great reviews by Faith Hagenhofer, Vivien Zepf, and Lauren Sinner. We’re really excited about the lineup we have coming in 2026 and hope you keep reading. Here’s a combined list of all of our reviews from the year in …
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Rag Manifesto: Making, folklore and community by Rachael Matthews On the last page of Rag Manifesto, Rachael Matthews writes “If we lose touch with the earth due to the… taboo over the use of trashed material, the rag pile becomes an alternative space to open our heads… Perhaps in some instances, rag could be the …
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