Blog
May 02
Reviving a Pre-Columbian Textile Technique
In our ClothRoads May textile calendar, we noted a special exhibit opening today (May 3) at the Museo Inka in Cusco, Peru – Reclaiming Ancient Paracas: The Struggle to Recover a Textile Technique. It’s not often that I write a blog about an exhibit but this one is a bit→ Read more
Mar 14
Resist Dyeing of Bandhani and Shibori
Of all artisan-made cloth, the tie-dye resist of Indian bandhani stumps most people. It’s a technique of creating patterns in cloth by binding small, continuous knots with thread before immersing the cloth in dye. The dye can’t penetrate the areas where the knots are tied, thereby leaving these areas the→ Read more
Feb 14
Tying Ikat Clouds in Uzbekistan
“To tie a cloud”. What an image this phrase conjures. In the town of Margilan, in the Fergana Valley of Uzbekistan, one can find many artisans who “tie clouds”–ikat weavers who, over the past 28 years since Soviet rule, have revitalized their heritage textile making. This valley is the center→ Read more
Jan 17
Along the Clothroad Crossing Paths in Guatemala and Life
There are a few people in my life whose path I’ve crossed for forty-some years. This is a good thing–especially when one of them is the remarkable Deborah Chandler, weaver and co-author of Traditional Weavers of Guatemala, Their Stories, Their Lives. Little did I know that when ClothRoads went traveling→ Read more
Dec 13
Traditions Take Many Forms
Imagine making hot chocolate for ten villages—over 650 weavers and their families. That’s what will be underway this next week in the highland weaving villages of Cusco, Peru, as they celebrate the tradition of Chocolatadas. Every year, the Center for Traditional Textiles of Cusco (CTTC), visit the villages and provide→ Read more
Dec 06
ClothRoads Wish List—New Textile Books of 2018
Being of a certain age in life, downsizing seems to be a focus. Purging of yarns and other weaving implements is somewhat easy yet I still conjure up all sorts of potential projects. But books! I could surrender almost everything else except these, my textile books. Every year, a few→ Read more
Nov 08
Textile Travel With A Natural Dye Highlight
Over the past few weeks, we have journeyed on textile travels along two very different cloth roads : Linda Stark, along with Linda Ligon and Karen Brock of Thrums Books, were traveling in Morocco visiting with artisans from the Thrums Books, Women Artisans of Morocco. And I was in the→ Read more
Oct 18
The Next Weaving Generation in Peru
Linda Ligon, publisher of our sister company Thrums Books, recently wrote a blog about who will be carrying on the textile-making traditions into the next generation. We’re sharing her blog here and doing a big shout-out for their newest release, Las Tradiciones Viven! (As you’re reading this, I will be meeting→ Read more
Oct 04
Ikat The World Over
Handweaving of ikat cloth is not for sissies. The laborious and skillful process of resist-dyeing and weaving fine threads is not one quickly learned. Take me for instance–this resist-dyeing process has intrigued me since college when I spent a semester teaching myself warp ikat, studying whatever I could from the→ Read more
Sep 13
Bandhani to Shibori, How an Indian Artisan Innovates
It’s the strong pull of the tactile that brings forth memories. For Abdul Aziz Khatri from Kutch, India, it was the learning of bandhani, a resist-dyeing technique, at the feet of his elders that permeated his tactile senses providing a connection to cloth and imbedding cultural meaning.→ Read more
