Nature’s Colorways: Conjuring the Chemistry and Culture of Natural Dyes edited by Linda Ligon and Anne Merrow Nature’s Colorways appears to be a spin-off (no pun intended) of The Long Thread Podcast, hosted by editors Linda Ligon and Anne Merrow. It offers brief, succinct and inviting views into the dye research and practices of many …
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Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross As I type the word “neuroarts” into my computer, auto-correct underlines the word, suggesting that I’ve made an error. I haven’t. My computer has. Neuroarts is a relatively recently coined term and a broad label describing the burgeoning scientific field …
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The Valkyries’ Loom: The Archaeology of Cloth Production and Female Power in the North Atlantic by Michele Hayeur Smith This work, based on research funded by the National Science Foundation’s 9 NSF Arctic Social Sciences Program might, at first perusal, seem to have predominantly a niche appeal, but as an interdisciplinary study, it is much …
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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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