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Aug 15

Choosing the Right Textile Travel Tour

When traveling on the cloth road, chances are high you’ll be traveling with other kindred spirits. But how do you determine the right-fit textile travel tour for you? ClothRoads has always been very selective about who we note in our list, limiting it to those who offer textile-specific trips and→ Read more

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Jul 25

No Escaping Rugs in Morocco

ClothRoads isn’t known for selling handwoven rugs. But we were in Morocco after all on a textile tour, and had spent many days looking at rugs, learning about the various differences in designs and weaves. Dr. Susan Shaefer Davis, our guide and the author of Women Artisans of Morocco, had→ Read more

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Jun 20

Button Making on the Textile Tour in Morocco

Before the ClothRoads/Thrums Book tour to Morocco fades into memory, there are special moments from the May trip that are highlights. One was visiting the town of Sefrou and meeting Amina Yabis, the founder of the Cherry Button Cooperative. We traveled there to learn the technique of making the jacquard-style→ Read more

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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