BY REBECA SCHILLER In a part of the world where economically empowering women is not a priority, FanSina—located in the village of St. Katherine in South Sinai, Egypt—is a 100 percent Bedouin woman run enterprise that produces embroidered and beaded handicrafts,…
BY SHAINA SHEALY Kala Cotton’s Connections to Culture and Livelihoods I crack the cotton boll’s protective shell, so tough that the muscles in my fingers cramp as I ply the encasement apart. Its edges jab into my skin, relentless in shielding…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…