Fashion & Motherhood: Image, Material, Identity edited by Laura Snelgrove In 1976, Adrienne Rich published Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution, ushering in motherhood studies as a field of academic inquiry. At the time, it was provocative to consider something perceived as “natural” as worthy of critical analysis, but the past decades have …
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The Mushroom Color Atlas: A Guide to Dyes and Pigments Made from Fungi by Julie Beeler As someone who is well versed in natural dyeing, mushroom dyes and pigments are still such a wonder and mystery to me. Every time I’ve talked with author Julie Beeler about mushroom dyeing, it opens up a whole new …
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Thank you readers for another lovely year of SDA’s Book Club! In 2024 we had ten great reviews by Faith Hagenhofer, Vivien Zepf, Zia Gipson, and Lauren Sinner. We’re really excited about the lineup we have coming in 2025 and hope you keep reading. Here’s a combined list of all of our reviews from the …
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Paper as Textile by Anzara Clark The Australian artist, educator and author Anzara Clark, through her two-volume series Paper as Textile, presents quotidian, universal and culturally pervasive paper as a sculptural and expressive medium for its innate flexibility, adaptability, and endless versatility. In Clark’s books, artists and craftspeople are given a sort of classroom-in-a-book through …
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Bojagi: The Art of Korean Textiles by Youngmin Lee I had the pleasure of getting to co-jury this year’s Exhibition in Print alongside Youngmin Lee, and I am equally excited to get to review her new book, Bojagi: The Art of Korean Textiles. As someone who is quite familiar with bojagi, but nowhere near an …
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The Intersection of Fashion and Disability: A Historical Analysis by Kate Annett-Hitchcock That human bodies come in all shapes and sizes, belonging to individuals expressing different abilities, has been recognized for centuries. The London Tradesman in 1747, for example, noted that a tailor must “…not only to cut for the Handsome and Well-shaped, but to …
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Modern Papermaking, Techniques in Handmade Paper by Kelsey Pike. Artist and papermaker Kelsey Pike has made a significant contribution to the papermaking community and future papermakers with her book, Modern Papermaking. I know I’ll come back to this book time and again given its detailed information about the many aspects of fine papermaking—from paper’s history …
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The Dress Diary: Secrets from a Woman’s Wardrobe by Kate Strasdin Fashion historian Kate Strasdin was given a book, which appeared to be someone’s scrapbook (literally). It’s an old album of fabric swatches from the very middle of the 19th century—from 1838-1890—which the giver found at a flea market in 1960. Historians are drawn to collections. …
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Intelligent Hands: why making is a skill for life by Charlotte Abrahams & Katy Bevan This examination into numerous places where craft and hand work is alive, well and serving people of all kinds is strictly British—beginning with a discussion of tacit knowledge as well as the purpose of practice and repetition of tasks in …
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Radical Fiber: Threads Connecting Art and Science edited by Rebecca McNamara Imagine you’re holding a knitted mass of colorful yarns. As you turn it over in your hands, the genius of this anatomical model called Knitted Brain #2 begins to reveal itself. Tightly coiled fibers represent sections of the brain with greater cellular density, while …
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