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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The Red Dress: Conversations in Stitch, by Kirstie Macleod and voices from the embroidery project In 2022, fifteen female survivors of conflict-related sexual violence gathered together at the War Childhood Museum in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. They were meeting with Kirstie Macleod, creator and facilitator of The Red Dress, a scarlet silk dupion dress embellished …
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Mixed Media Textile Art in three dimensions by Ann Goddard Ann Goddard’s Introduction lays out what her intentions are with this work, explicitly clarifying and owning her unusual approaches to art-making. “A friend described me as working with ‘extreme mixed media,’” and indeed she does. Further, she declares her practice as ‘hybrid’, quoting Laurie Britton …
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On Mending: Stories of damage and repair by Celia Pym Mending has always seemed a chore to me. While I enjoy the meditative process of needlework, I’ve never achieved any sentiment other than a satisfactory, “Well, that’s done,” feeling when a hole has been repaired. After reading On Mending: Stories of damage and repair by …
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Mauka to Makai: Hawaiian Quilts and the Ecology of the Islands edited by Marenka Thompson-Odlum This group of essays is a companion to a commissioned collection of fifteen Hawaiian quilts at the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford in the UK. In this book editor Marenka Thompson-Odlum opens with narratives from each of the collective …
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