Category Archive

In the Mood

BY REBECA SCHILLER Admire a wall of Don Carney’s work and you would swear that numerous 1940s vintage woodblock prints were long-lost treasures found in his grandparents’ attic. Not so. These are 21st-century ink drawings made with ink dropper and tiny…

A Link in the Chain

BY KEITH RECKER Judy Ross is all about chain stitch In her company’s early days, Judy Ross commuted between her houseboat and her production facility in a shikara – a slender skiff with palm leaf paddles used in the lake region…

Global Cottage Industry

BY SARAH ARCHER The Middle East has long been synonymous with masterful craftsmanship: architecture, ceramics, textiles, carved wood, manuscripts and metalwork dazzle museum-goers and tourists alike, and inspire designers and artists all over the world. In the traditional cultures of this…

The Cult of Bokja

BY REBECA SCHILLER Textile aficionados love them, so do design fans, and movie stars like America’s sweethearts Julia Roberts, Sandra Bullock, and Kate Hudson. Thanks to the stars and design bloggers, the cult of Bokja is no longer a secret. What…

Identity Deconstructed

text: Tonia Marie Harris Pam Glew is known for her singular bleaching technique on fabric, using dye and bleach to create distressed vintage textiles. In 2007, she began to use flags, quilt, and brocade as a response to war. The resulting…

Following a Gut Reaction

BY ANNIE WATERMAN Alia Kate is the founder of Kantara Rugs, a premiere source for trade trade, handwoven Moroccan carpets in the United States. HAND/EYE Online spoke with her about the Moroccan carpet industry, the role of women carpet weavers, about preserving…

Nothing Shines

BY SARAH BUTTENWIESER Hiroshi Nakayama lives and works at the very end of a dirt road in the woods of Worthington, Massachusetts, a tiny town tucked in the hills of Western Massachusetts’ Pioneer Valley. On an early spring morning, the snow…

Echoing Ethnic, Morphing Modern

BY WICKHAM BOYLE A continuum of creativity, from world to world. Patti Carpenter once rubbed elbows on Seventh Avenue with fashion world moguls. She now sits knee to knee with indigenous artistans working in cinder block buildings off dirt roads in…

Creating new ikat and tying techniques

TEXT: JUDITH COOPER HADEN Ikat, a Malaysian word meaning  ‘to knot,’ is an ancient weaving technique that has been practiced in many countries for thousands of years, as far back as the 10th century in Yemen. Weavers in Indonesia, Thailand, Uzbekistan…

Playing With Spoons

BY REBECA SCHILLER When you first visit Casa de Los Gigantes (House of the Giants) website, you can’t help but smile. The home page greets visitors with a small selection of lovely photographs that are off-set with Picasso-like abstract drawings of…