BY MARION ELLIS South Africa’s diverse and dynamic pottery In HAND/EYE Magazine’s 09/South Africa issue, editor-in-chief Keith Recker wrote, “The world of South African ceramics is one of the most dynamic and diverse on the pottery planet. It’s a microcosm for…
BY PAMELA RAVASIO When in January 2009 Michelle Obama’s lemon grass colored inauguration dress adorned the front page of virtually every newspaper across the world, only a selected few were aware that the dress’ exquisite Guipur wool lace fabric is the…
BY TON VRIENS Learning an unfamiliar craft to earn income From the main intersection in Verrettes, a dusty small town in the Artibonite valley, a dirt road leads to an open hangar in the midst of rice fields. Here, about thirty…
SUBMITTED BY LUISA GROSSO In a tiny town near Italy’s Northeastern coast, the unique art of handmade, rust-printed textiles is still alive thanks to a piece of living history: a massive stone-and-wood mangle designed, in part, by Leonardo da Vinci. If…
TEXT: SHANNON WEBER am enthralled by how nature works with us and around us. I engage with it most days while working outdoors. I have always worked outside whenever possible and while I can sit in my studio, I would rather…
TEXT: IRENE VERMEULEN Peta Becker just can’t help herself. She lets her imagination run wild in creating new crochet products with her team of artisans. Her brand Projekt is well known in South Africa, as well as being picked up by…
SUBMITTED BY IFAM Mysterious and evocative are words that come to mind when studying the phenomenal textiles of Indian artisan Bashir Ahmad Jan, a Shlip Guru (living legend). Jan’s creative eye has helped him develop a busy workshop of over 50…
SUBMITTED BY REBECA SCHILLER At HAND/EYE we love everything that spring brings: longer and brighter days, warmer temperatures, new growth in nature and color. It’s a season of transformation and renewal. Out with old and dark in with the new and…
SUBMITTED BY IFAM Master textile artisan Aïssata Namoko of Mali first learned to sew from her mother, an accomplished seamstress, as an eight-year-old child. As Namoko continued to fine-tune her abilities as an artist, she also received a degree in accounting…
TEXT: MANIKA DHAMA The river Lidder that flows through majestic mountains and meadows near Pahalgam in Kashmir, India, had taken on a ferocious form last autumn, threatening all life that breeds alongside its banks. But before nature played truant, perhaps in…