BY RHEA ALEXANDER Ancient craft and modern collaboration in Vietnam. Rhea Alexander founded DIGS, a home accessories company, nearly twenty years ago. Alexander, originally an architect, mixes her formally trained eye with a passion for artisanry. Her first products –…
SUBMITTED BY SASHA ALI The Craft & Folk Art Museum (CAFAM) in Los Angeles presents Bamboo, an exhibition of 30 historical and contemporary works that explore the trajectory of Japanese bamboo basketry and sculpture. Drawn mostly from the Los Angeles-based…
BY JUDI ROAMAN Reviving the art of creative weaving at the Milan Furniture Fair One of the most important and talked about events of Milan Design Week 2011 was the TALKING TEXTILES exhibit curated by fashion trend forecaster Li Edlkoort in collaboration…
BY PAMELA RAVASIO There is this ‘special something’ in her eyes, and her gestures animatedly accompany every single of her stories. These stories are of the highly skilled Andean artisans living in bitter poverty in small rural communities somewhere between…
BY CATHERINE SALTE A Cultural Exchange Knit Up A knitwear designer finds a common language through craft. Twelve years ago, I moved to my husband’s lovely Aegean town filled with Greco-Roman and Byzantine ruins, tourists, and 30,000 inhabitants. While there…
BY REBECA SCHILLER The age-old art of recycling textiles The green or upcycled trend isn’t a twenty-first century and politically correct development. In fact, throughout time and across cultures people have reconfigured threadbare or worn fabric because of their value and…
BY KATHRYN CLARK Quilts as Maps From 1997 to 2004, I worked as an urban planner designing new urbanist neighborhoods across the United States. When foreclosures began to occur in 2007, I was acutely aware of how big an impact…
TEXT: KATARINA BRIEDI A rug is an important bearer of culture for many people. It is the ultimate textile furniture. Throughout the ages, rugs have been placed on floors, beds, walls and tables. They have been used to cover cold…
BY LESLIE GIULIANI It’s not what you think: Leslie Giuliani hooks rugs with a contemporary folk feel. One of the best things about being a rug hooker is telling people you are a “Hooker.” You get a laugh every time.…
BY MICHELE WIPPLINGER Indigo is a leguminous shrub that is cultivated throughout the world, from the tropics to temperate climates. It is one of the world’s oldest dyestuffs. It is mentioned in Indian manuscripts from the 4th century BC, and…