Artezano Links

Free Vintage Paper Doll Pattern

2009-11-16T16:18:00.001-06:00

Karen's Whimsey has this free Paper Doll pattern on her website. Clothing for the doll also available. Images are in the public domain.

American Folk Art Doll Pattern

2009-11-16T16:06:00.000-06:00

This doll pattern and other folk patterns can be purchased at Cloth Doll Supply. Their description:

HISTORICAL FOLK DOLL #11
The New York Doll

This 16" doll has made herself quite famous by being chosen to be on the cover of a well-known book of American Folk Dolls, by Wendy Lavitt. She is such a good doll for a cover as she has just about all the best details of this type of doll. Separate fingers, a wonderful and exaggerated face and hair all carefully embroidered, including her remarkable feather-stitched eyebrows, and a costume of just-right simplicity and detail. She has with her the same small cat the doll in the photo has. Silkscreened for embroidery and new antiquing methods included.

Pattern (mini-kit) #PGW725 - $42.00

The Costumer Manifesto: Ethnic Dress Links

2009-06-08T00:43:00.003-05:00

The Costumer Manifesto is the destination for anyone interested in ethnic costume. This page contains a gazillion links to sources from all over the world.

General Traditional Dress Links

	Africa
	Asia
	Australia
	Central America
	Eastern Europe
	Middle East
	North America
	Oceania (Cultures of the Pacific Islands)
	Polar Regions
	South America
	Western Europe

Past Patterns

2009-06-08T00:38:00.003-05:00

#503: Flapper Slip-On Evening Dress $16.00 (US dollars)

A typical dropped waist of the Roaring Twenties is created by a yoke over the hips. The tiers of circular flounces form a lovely vision while dancing. The scarf and the tie sash patterns are included. This pattern is quick and easy to make.

This pattern is multi-sized 8 through 20. All the sizes are in one package. Look at our National Standard size chart for your size. Sizes 8-12 require 5 3/8 Yds. of 45 inch wide fabric; sizes 14-20 require 5 5/8 Yds. of 45 inch wide fabric.

Saundra Ros Altman's: Past Patterns

The Historical Pattern Company
Dedicated to Accuracy Since 1979

Accurate Federal, Jacksonian, Civil War, Gilded Age, Edwardian and WWI up to WWII Clothing Patterns for Men, Women and Children

Moccasins and Leather Craft Patterns

2009-06-07T21:44:00.005-05:00

HOW TO MAKE LENAPE STYLE MOCCASINS
Shared by Mèssochwen Tëme

The same pattern is used for both feet so you only have to make one pattern. Once you make the pattern you're all set, and you can save it for making more moccasins in the future.

Manataka.org

Bear Creek Leather

Leathercrafting Patterns

Any leathercraft pattern you could ever want. From moccasin patterns to holster, quiver, and archery leather work patterns. If you don't find what you're looking for here try our bookshelf section, where we have books full of different patterns for you to try your leather working skills on.

4directions.org

Curriculum Areas: Moccasin Making

Recommended Levels: 7^th -12^th graders

Time Frame: 55 minutes 2 times a week

Tribal Affiliation: Navajo

Geographic Location: Rock Point Arizona

Developed

by: Bennie Begay

Fashion-Era, A Costume Resource

2009-06-07T21:39:00.004-05:00

Fashion-era contains 715 content rich, illustrated pages of Fashion History, Costume History, Clothing, Fashions and Social History. Sitemap

"At Fashion-Era.com we analyse two centuries of women's costume history and fashion history silhouettes in detail. Regency, Romantic, Victorian, Edwardian, Flapper, 1940's Utility Rationing, Dior's New Look, 1960's Mini dress, 1970's Disco, 1980's New Romantics, Power Dressing, Haute Couture, Royal Robes, Fashion Semiotics, and Body Adornment, each retro fashion era, and future fashion trends are all defined.

We've also outlined the history of Jewelery, Perfumes, Cosmetics, Corsetry and Underwear manipulation of the body silhouette. Fashion history is a rich area to explore. The effects of past and present technology, changes in work, leisure, media and homelife that affect lifestyle trends, attitudes, fashion trends and shopping trendsetters are all covered in the various eras.

Newer sections such as hats, hair, cloaks and capes, ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman fashion history continue to explore and make this a great web fashion history and costume history resource. Some sections also include consumer tests for example on clip in hair extensions plus tips on how to buy and sell vintage, pattern drafting and Christmas themes. There is also a Fashion Forum over 4 years old called Fashion-era Forum. There you can discuss anything from current fashion trends, old photographs, vintage to costume history or from Greeks to the 21st century."

Egyptyian Dress Costume Collars

2009-06-07T21:31:00.005-05:00

Ancient Costume - Egyptian Dress Costume Plates

Part 5 - Ornamental Patterns and Egyptian Collars

Styles of Egyptian robe with free pattern guides were discussed on the detailed pages of Egyptian Costumes. However, decorative elements were mostly confined to the removable collars on garments and other removable accessories such as headwear, girdles (striking wrap sash belts) and deep arm cuffs. But if you need a wearable costume you have to have basic body covering too, so check out my other Egyptian pages.

To complete your Egyptian costume add a collar, typical jewellery and eye make up. To be fair there are plenty of King Tut collars available at fancy dress party costume outlets online. But part of the fun of going to an Egyptian fancy dress event is making your own Egyptian inspired costume and most importantly achieving something that fits you proportion wise rather than being made as one size fits all."

Fashion-Era

Global Exchange: Hackey Sacks from Guatemala

2009-04-05T09:16:00.004-05:00

Hackey Sacks from Guatemala $ 15.00

Set of Three with Pouch Great for juggling or just kicking around, these Hackey Sacks were made by Mayan women from Chichicastenango, Guatemala. They are imported by Maya Traditions, a cooperative creating hope and economic opportunity for hundreds of indigenous people in Guatemala.

Country of Origin: Guatemala
Dimensions: 4" * 3" / ball : 3"

Global Exchange: Guatemalan Baby Bib

2009-04-05T09:11:00.005-05:00

Guatemalan Baby Bib $ 16.00

Backstrap weaving is an ancient and highly-skilled technology that is passed on from mother to daughter. Every inch of fabric takes approximately one hour to hand weave! These wonderful backstrap baby bibs are made by women from the Solola Weaving Group in Guatemala. Maya Traditions has been working with this and other women’s weaving cooperatives and family businesses since 1988. This particular group of women joined together in 1985 after they suffered many losses during the war. As backstrap weavers, they are earning consistent income to help support their families. Maya Traditions has also developed several projects with the women, which have done much to improve their quality of life. The projects include health care for the women, including medicinal herbs, and education for their children.

Country of Origin: Guatemala
Dimensions: 10 1/3" across, 10 1/3" long; approx. 17" around neck

Global Exchange: Woven Shirt

2009-04-05T09:05:00.005-05:00

Guatemalan Shirt $ 49.00

Handwoven in Guatemala, these comfortable longsleeve shirts are imported by Maya Traditions, a weavers' cooperative creating hope and economic opportunity for thousands of people throughout Guatemala. These stylish shirts are produced into a textured fabric using the highly-skilled technique of footloom weaving which is practiced mainly by men in Guatemala. The shirt comes in black, Cream, and is available in medium, large, and extra large. All are 100% cotton.

Country of Origin: Guatemala
Dimensions: Choose size below

Global Exchange: Mayan Pillow

2009-04-05T08:48:00.004-05:00

Nahuala Pillow from Guatemala - $ 59.00

The Nahuala Pillows from Maya Traditions are made by women from the Santa Catarina-Nahuala Weaving Group in Guatemala. This group of weavers creates intricate weft brocade designs inspired by nature, often passed down from ancestors. Consistent work provides a source of needed income in this rural village. Maya Traditions has been working with this and other woman’s weaving cooperatives and family businesses since 1988. The Nahuala Pillow is 100% cotton and comes pre-stuffed. The detailing and beautiful earth-tone colors combined with its comfort make the Nahuala Pillow a decorative and practical addition to any home!

Country of Origin: Guatemala
Dimensions: 16.5" x 16.5"

Books on Weaving in Chiapas, Mexico

2009-04-05T08:27:00.004-05:00

Click on this link to go to Amazon: Weaving Generations Together: Evolving Creativity in the Maya of Chiapas (Resident Scholar)

Product Description

For centuries, the Zinacantec Maya women of Mexico have woven and embroidered textiles that express their social and aesthetic values and embody their role as mothers and daughters. Boasting more than two hundred striking and detailed photographs of Zinacantec textiles and their makers, this innovative study provides a rare long-term examination of the cognitive and socialization processes involved in transmitting weaving knowledge across two generations. Author Patricia Marks Greenfield first visited the village of Nabenchauk in 1969 and 1970. Her return in 1991 and regular visits through 2003 enable her to combine a scholarly study of the impact of commercialization and globalization on textile production and sales, acculturation, and female socialization with poignant personal reflections on mother-daughter relationships, creativity, and collaboration. Her collection of data and range of approaches make this book a major contribution to studies of cognition and socialization, the life cycles of material culture, and the anthropology of the Maya. Weaving Generations Together will appeal to both the academic specialist and anyone who admires Maya weaving and culture.

Living Maya

From Publishers Weekly
Curator Morris and photographer Foxx here offer a rare glimpse of the vibrant contemporary Mayan culture. Classic Mayan civilization collapsed in the 10th century, but, writes Morris, three million Maya reside in Yucatan, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. Another million "extremely conservative" Maya, isolated from outsiders, live in the Chiapas Highlands of Mexico, and they are the subject of this volume: "The food they eat, the way it is prepared, the stories, myths and dreams they tell..., the festivals they celebrate each season of the year are all parts of a tradition that the Maya say God gave to them 'at the beginning of the world.' " This rich tapestry of history, myths, pen-and-ink drawings and striking color pictures evokes multifarious landscapes, textiles, people and ritual. The detailed description of the ancient technique of weaving will interest students of art, anthropology and religion alike.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Description
The first book to document the life of the Maya of today, a remarkable people who are the direct heirs to the magnificent Maya culture of Pre-Columbian times. Living Maya captures the spirit of an extraordinary people. 125 full-color photographs and 25 line drawings.

Symbolism in Chiapas Weaving

2009-04-04T21:39:00.003-05:00

Kathleen Jenks, PhD, has salvaged the work of the late Paula Guise in Mythology's Mything Links. Visit it for information on information on the symbolism in huipil's woven by the Mayan women of Chiapas.

Videos of Handicrafts in Chiapas, Mexico

2009-04-04T09:32:00.008-05:00

Chiapas Tourism Video:

Good video of weaving in Chiapas:

Weaver really gives her all to the loom!

Wood carvers in Chiapas (Spanish):

Carver making a mask:

Stone Carver working on Mayan pieces:

Microcredit program helping women weavers:

Andra Pradesh Handicrafts Development Corporation, Ltd

2009-03-14T14:10:00.004-05:00

The Corporation was set up in 1982 with share capital participation from the Government of Andhra Pradesh (Rs 150.36 lakhs) and from Government of India (Rs 50.00 lakhs) for promotion, development and marketing of handicrafts besides implementing schemes for the welfare of artisans.

Our Vision:

"An Empowered Artisan Community
Thriving in an 'Enabling' Envioronment"

Objectives:

Develop and promote handicrafts.
Undertake marketing of handicrafts.
Promote and establish showrooms, organize exhibitions, cause wide publicity of Handicrafts and
Undertake welfare activities for the benefit of the artisans.

Visit the site for traditional handicrafts from the region (textiles, metal work, wood carvings, etc)

Example:

Drawing inspiration from the mind,mythology and real-life experiences, the scuuptors of Durgi, Allagadda dn Tirupati have left behind an impression that cannot be ravaged even by time.. Theseimpressive sculptures on stone are mainly mythological in character. The focus of the theme was not merely on physical attrubutes, but on higher spiritual values of life. To give expression to such abstract conceptions, the sculp0tor consciously set for himself an idealm not based on the contemplation of the natural form, but upon meditation of the divine form, but upon meditation of the devine form, The distinctive power of suggestiveness is conspicuous in the sculpted forms.

Surya's Garden: Working with Banjara Women in India

2009-03-14T13:33:00.004-05:00

“Surya’s Garden” is a trust founded by Laxmi Naik, a Lambhani from Hampi in Karnataka. There, the Lambhani embroideresses mean to revive ancient skills and to produce meticulous work. Each piece is unique. The quality of embroidery demonstrates the vitality of the rediscovered motifs.

A part of the proceeds is being used to build a community workshop, a medical center for the embroideresses and a kinder garden. This will provide Lambhani women with financial freedom, a sense of solidarity as well as an assertion of their ancestral identity.

Email: laxmijan@suryasgarden.org

Visit their site for more information on the history and culture of the Banjara women.

Emboidery by the Kutchi in India

2009-03-10T11:43:00.003-05:00

In a remote part of India, one woman has established a movement to revive a local form of artistic expression, hand embroidery, creating a sustainable means of income. The region of Kutch once had a long and rich tradition of embroidery which made a welcome contrast to the regions austere landscape. But, from the 1960s onwards, synthetic materials and machine work pushed this craft close to extinction.

"An idea at the intersection of conservation, education, enterprise and empowerment; an idea that could light a fire, especially in the hearts of the younger generation.

Acutely aware of its cultural, social and spiritual value, Chanda Shroff is preserving this unique heritage while promoting an exquisite art form and empowering women in highly conservative societies.

Demonstration of Kutch embroidery, an ancient form of Indian embroidery with its roots from the region of Kutch,Gujarat,India. Taught at Mridula's School of Embroidery http://www.mridulas.com

The women in a tiny village in Kutch augment their earning with the help of Judy by creating theri traditional embroidery with a certain gusto.

State of the Arts visits with Alpa Thakkar, an Indian skilled at traditional Gujarati Kutchi embroidery. Alpa is by profession a jeweler, however, in her off time, she enjoys making the colorful embroidered clothing worn by Indian women for Navrati and other festivals. (Excerpt from the State of the Arts special, Culture in Context).
Find out more about traditional artists in New Jersey at http://www.cultureincontext.org or visit the State of the Arts website: http://www.njn.net/artsculture/

Ccreener for Through The Eye of a Needle: Stories from an Indian Desert distributed by Contemporary Arts Media http://www.artfilms.com.au.

The film is the story of a unique group of craftswomen. Follow their journey as they return to creating the world-class embroidery that made their ancestors famous. The incredible stories of the women from the Kutch Mahila Vikas Sangathan co-operative (KMVS) are recorded here through video, song, laughter, and stitch.

History here is worn as generations of knowledge are passed down through embroidered designs. Long a valuable item of trade, the embroideries also provide a common ground for women to meet and bring their stories to the world. Experience the amazing landscape of the Kutch desert on Indias western border, the remarkable diversity of the communities who live here, and the breathtaking colours of their textiles.

Born from a need to document the evanescent world of craft the film is part of a 4 film series of compelling and insightful documentaries.

Working mainly with India, but also with several other areas, the films document the production of embroidered, block printed, hand-woven, and naturally dyed textiles. Focusing on areas where excellence is still the tradition, these documentaries are deeply concerned with the viability of craft and the lives of the artisans.

Banjara Videos from India

2009-03-10T10:01:00.004-05:00

Dharma Boutique founder Adam Bauer shows where he gets his beautiful vintage textiles from the Banjara ladies on a side street in Delhi, India. Produced by Sara Karl www.dharmaboutique.com

Gypsies of the Thar, sinuous amongst the sand dunes - a fantastically vibrant Gatlif

The Banjara, a group of traditional music, consisting of eight excellent musicians and dancers, all hail from the Thar desert. Heirs of ... Tout » an ancient culture, today, under the direction of Kamal Kant, himself a musician and a dancer who has been living in France for over a decade, they are the ambassadors of the great Banjara tradition which stands at the cross roads of classical North Indian music and the skilful art of Persia. The lively rhythms, bordering frenzy, which accompany the whirling dancers in their famous costumes of a thousand, scintillating mirrors, are an invitation to a journey rich in colour and emotion, following in the footsteps of the gypsies of Rajasthan.

Véritable road-movie, "Sur la route des miroirs" nous fait suivre les pérégrinations de Sara et de Kassa, deux femmes banjara parties vendre leurs plus beaux vêtements et bijoux au marché de Goa, en Inde.

Uzbek Alive

2009-02-24T09:06:00.009-06:00

UzbekAlive was created by a small group of enthusiasts as a channel for promotion of work of Uzbek artists and designers. After several years of contemplating, in 2002 we finally put our efforts together and launched this website. In years of running UzbekAlive we learnt several things, the major one of them being – we do have something unique and beautiful to offer to the world. In fact, we have become known as a place to shop for unique gifts.

Everything on this website was made in Uzbekistan with tremendous amount of care. We work directly with artists, who live in Uzbekistan and are the most talented artists and designers in their fields. The money generated through sales on UzbekAlive is used to support these artists and designers who otherwise would be struggling making a living doing what they love in a today's unstable economy of Uzbekistan, where people are more concerned about meeting basic needs, not about keeping Uzbek art Alive.

Our ikats were hand dyed and handloom woven in Fergana Valley of Uzbekistan using a centuries old technique of ikat weaving. The technique requires a precision in tying and wrapping silk threads before dying in order to create a desired pattern.

Uzbekistan was once a major branch of the ancient Silk Road. As caravans traveled between East and West they facilitated exchange of cultures, religions and skills. Certain imperfections in dying and weaving are inherent to the manual process of ikat making and should not be considered as defects. Dry cleaning is recommended for silk scarves. Hand wash in cold water is recommended for cotton/silk blend fabrics.

In addition to scarves and fabrics, we also feature works of lacquer ornamental jewelry and decorative boxes, hair barrettes and pins.

Our sales operations are now based in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, where we already have the products listed on this website. We carry a limited number of units of each product at a time and, as everything that is hand made, the patterns and designs will be very similar, but never absolutely identical.

Everything here is fair-traded – there was no child labor involved in the production of any item we sell; artists would not have sold us anything unless we paid a fair price.

SRI Threads: Vintage Japanese and Indian Textiles

2009-02-22T16:56:00.007-06:00

A Rustic Indigo Dyed Boro Nagagi: Beautiful Patches, Eccentric Stitching

Sri is a textile gallery specializing in antique Japanese folk textiles, highlighting the indigo-dyed cotton utilitarian fabrics and boro--or patched and mended--textiles of old Japan. We also carry a wonderful selection of textiles from India.

We are located in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, New York and we are open by appointment.

Please visit our BLOG, Sri Threads, for our commentary on the world of Japanese folk textiles and for photographs of our New York home.

If you would like to visit us, please do not hesitate to e mail or call us; we would love to meet you.

As well, if you are searching for a specific type of textile not listed on our site, feel free to contact us with your request. Our showroom inventory is larger and more diverse than we can list on this site, and we would be happy to speak to you about your interest and how we might help you find the textile you are looking for.

For a glimpse of individual pieces from our collection of specialized texiles, visit out gallery at asianart.com

And for a view into Sri's showroom, have a look at our online gallery where we have posted a few photos of our Brooklyn home.

An Applique Ralli Quilt: Boro, Indian Style

Faith Ringgold: Art Prints

2009-02-19T18:11:00.005-06:00

Faith Ringgold paved the way for many art quilters with her story quilts. See my article in Fiber Focus for more background information on her path.

These are art prints of her work available on Amazon. Please click on the links below the images. The prints are available in many different sizes and price points.

Church Picnic by Faith Ringgold - 33 x 33 inches - Fine Art Print / Poster

Family Portrait by Faith Ringgold. ART PRINT LAMINATED. 22.00 inches width by 28.00 inches height. Highest Quality Art Poster Print

Freedom of Speech Art Poster Print by Faith Ringgold, 41x27

Book: Faith Ringgold, Art Quilter

2009-02-19T17:53:00.004-06:00

Faith Ringgold paved the way for many art quilters with her story quilts. See my article in Fiber Focus for more background information on her path.

Click on the links below the images to go to Amazon:

Talking to Faith Ringgold

We Flew over the Bridge: The Memoirs of Faith Ringgold

Faith Ringgold: A View From the Studio

Dancing at the Louvre: Faith Ringgold's French Collection and Other Story Quilts

Video: Faith Ringgold, Art Quilter

2009-02-19T17:43:00.005-06:00

Faith Ringgold paved the way for many art quilters with her story quilts. See my article in Fiber Focus for more background information on her path.

The first two videos are quickies. The third is about an hour and 45 minutes long. It's a slide presentation where Faith talks about her work and at the end there is a question and answer period. Worth watching or listening to if you are interested in her work.

:

Video: Talavera Clay from Mexico

2009-02-15T16:46:00.004-06:00

Excellent footage of talavera production. Shows clay thrown on a wheel, molds, presses, and decoration. No commentary, just hyper Irish music. (Huh?)

View into and tour of a Talavera workshop in Puebla. Narrated in Spanish.

Novica: "Golden Harvest" Talavera from Mexico

2009-02-15T16:02:00.004-06:00

NOVICA Ceramic tumblers, 'Golden Harvest' (set of 4)

Ceramic coffee mug set, 'Golden Harvest'

Ceramic cream and sugar set, 'Golden Harvest' (pair)

Ceramic Candleholders, 'Golden Harvest' (pair)

NOVICA, in association with National Geographic, offers thousands of limited edition and one-of-a-kind gifts, jewelry, and home decor treasures handmade by master artists and artisans throughout the world. Golden flowers adorn these delightful candleholders by Jorge Quevedo. Crafted by hand, relief motifs add to their fascination, while the deep cobalt is inspired by Mexico's traditional Talavera pottery.

Artisan Info:
"Hello, my name is Jorge Quevedo. The region where I was born and raised is renowned for its majolica ceramics. Although my family worked in other fields, I was fascinated by ceramics and, while still in high school, I took a job in a pottery workshop. There I learned the techniques and processes. After several years, I wanted to set up my own ceramics studio, and I saved up until I was finally able. It started out small, but little by little, my workshop grew. We always found lead to be a problem. After researching and experimenting, I came to master the technique using white clay instead of those commonly used in the region. I also work with lead-free glazes so as to meet the expectations of today's shoppers. The process begins by mixing the powdered clay with water to achieve a smooth, uniform paste. We shape it in molds or on the potter's wheel and let it dry thoroughly. We then smooth the fragile pieces and fire them at 800C [1,472F] for six hours to become cajete (bisque or biscuit). "

Novica: Talavera Pottery

2009-02-15T15:40:00.007-06:00

Talavera ceramic jar, 'Colonial Kitchen'

Product Features:

Handmade by Alonso Luis
Ships from Mexico within 7 days
Free of lead and toxins
Hand wash only
Microwave safe
Product Dimensions: 7 x 7 x 12 inches ; 3.5 pounds

Flowers center motifs reminiscent of majolica tiles on each of eight long panels. Combining blue and yellow on smooth white ceramic, Alonso Luis creates a beautiful jar and lid. Its style is representative of Puebla's renowned Talavera pottery. Perfect for candy or cookies, it makes a stunning showpiece anywhere in the home.

Artisan Info:

"Hello, my name is Alonso Luis. I come from Puebla and create the traditional majolica ceramics in the Talavera style. I began this work in 1989 because of the excitement I felt when crafting such ceramics traditional, yet free of lead. Our work is completely carried out in the traditional way, the way its been done here for hundreds of years. The clay is acquired raw. It is a virgin material that comes directly from mines called barriales and has not undergone any kind of industrial alteration. We try to make a good selection from the best types of clay, since it is the first factor that decides the quality of our products."

'Lupita,' vase

Product Features:

Handmade by Castillo Family
Ships from Mexico within 7 days
Watertight
Product Dimensions: 7 x 7 x 14 inches ; 4.6 pounds

A rustic work infused with modern sentiment, this vase by the Castillo Family flourishes with verdant charm. The design reflects the beauty of Guanajuato's Talavera ceramics, each detail rendered with botanical simplicity. Makes a noteworthy statement in an elegant decor. The work of the Castillo Family represents part of the cultural and historical values of the state of Guanajuato, where they elaborate their treasured craft. Each piece is a laborious affair between the artisan and carefully selected clay, ensuring quality rather than quantity. Once the desired shape is achieved, the surface is prepared in a mineral glaze and fired in a brick kiln. Patience and artistic virtue results in a captivating rendition of Talavera ceramics. Watertight.

Artisan Info:

The Castillo family's artistry has been featured in periodicals ranging from Sunset magazine to The Cincinnati Inquirer. The Castillo family has many years of experience hand-crafting Talavera-style ceramics in Guanajuato, Mexico. Their workshop seeks to rescue this traditional, world-renowned ceramic style. Although true Talavera ceramics are made only in the city of Puebla, the techniques are also practiced by artisans in Guanajuato.

Novica: Bougarabou Drum, 'Collar'

2009-02-15T15:15:00.004-06:00

Bougarabou drum, 'Collar'

NOVICA, in association with National Geographic, offers thousands of limited edition and one-of-a-kind gifts, jewelry, and home decor treasures handmade by master artists and artisans throughout the world.

The name of this drum, Bougarabou, is onomatopoeia for the captivating rhythm it produces. Artisans of Bomukasa Limited present the instrument, its resonant body crafted from the natural luxury of tweneboa wood. A simple collar on the base provides visual contrast, as well as enhancing the overall tone. The drum features a goatskin-striking surface, held firm by iron rod rings wrapped in cotton cloth to prevent rusting. Nylon ropes securely fasten the rings, the sturdy design enhancing the overall visual allure. Lends a rustic musical accent to any setting. Finished in mansion polish.

Artisan Info:
The drums of Louis K. Botchway and Bomukasa have been featured in Pool Spa Living magazine. Bomukasa began as a sole proprietorship, started in 1980 by Louis Kojo Botchway. The name Bomukasa came into being in 1982, when Louis Kojo Botchway brought some artistic wood carvers and performing artists together to work and to train young people interested in the field. In the Akan language, Bomukasa literally means "together to discuss," its musical implication suggesting the discussion of sound. According to Botchway, the beginning was not easy. A talented artist, he completed a course in wood carving in 1979, and also studied graphic arts.

Modern Artisans: Slate Coaster Set - "Kanji"

2009-02-14T22:36:00.003-06:00

Kanji Slate Coaster Set

Beautifully etched by hand in natural "coppers mine" slate, the elemental kanji symbols for Fire, Water, Wind and Earth are each represented in this 4-piece coaster set. Handcrafted from all-natural materials in Colorado, the coaster set features cork padding and includes a metal tray, which stores the coasters in an upright position. The brown patina of the tray creates a wonderful color combination with the slate coasters when not in use and adds a natural elegance to any home or office.

Please note: Due to the unpredictable nature of slate, the slate coloring may vary slightly from coaster to coaster, creating a wonderful subtle array of natural hues.

Individual Coaster Size : 3.75" x 3.75"; Total Weight of Set = 2.75 lbs.

Price: $29.99

Modern Artisans: Buddha Cast Stone Garden Plaque

2009-02-14T22:31:00.002-06:00

Buddha Cast-Stone Garden Plaque

The Buddha plaque is an original sculptural work individually reproduced by the artist in cast stone/fine concrete. Sturdy, thick and weather-resistant, the use of cast stone allows this plaque to be used indoors or outdoors. A light verdigris patina finish adds a rich luster and "aged" look to the plaque and emphasizes the depth of the relief. Individually cast, sealed and finished in California; ready to hang.
Product Size : 8.75" high x 6.0" wide x 1.5" deep; Weight = approx 5 lbs

Price: $52.99

Modern Artisans: Harmony & Tranquility Elliptical Raku Vase

2009-02-14T22:25:00.002-06:00

Harmony and Tranquility Elliptical Raku Vase

The modern raku technique arises from ancient Japanese methods of exposing clay to rapid low-fire temperature changes. Raku pottery is admired for the range of colors generated by the oxidation when fired - glimmering shades of burnt orange, copper, indigo and maroon.
This raku vase features a striking elliptical shape, perfect for highlighting dried floral arrangements. The kanji symbols for Harmony and Tranquility are depicted on either side, providing a paramount accent on the vase and a marvelous endorsement in any home.

Handcrafted in Kansas, USA.

Please note: One side of the vase features the Harmony Symbol, while the other side features the Tranquility Symbol. Vase is recommended for dried or silk flowers only. Overall Vase Size : 10.0" tall x 9.0" wide x 3-3/8" deep
Opening (rim) size : 5" x 2"

Price: $79.99

Modern Artisans: Verdi Green Cattails Birdbath

2009-02-14T22:17:00.003-06:00

Cattails Birdbath

An elegant birdbath to compliment any garden! The cattail pattern is fabricated from heavy 1/4" galvanized steel and welded into a tripod pedestal, allowing the flurry of cattails to be appreciated from all angles. The 38" birdbath pedestal includes your choice of a shallow frosted glass bowl or a deep polished copper bowl. Although it is a true attention-getter as a birdbath, the pedestal and bowl are equally at home indoors or on a patio filled with fruit, candy or floating candles. Handcrafted in North Carolina.

It is recommended that the frosted glass bowl be brought indoors during extreme weather or deep-freezing conditions. However, due to the thickness and shallowness of the glass bowl, some occasional light freezing water is OK. The copper bowl will gain a rich green patina with age and may be used in all climates.

The steel pedestal is shot-blasted (for a smooth clean surface), flame-treated with zinc, and painted with high quality 2-part epoxy paints, resulting in a weatherproof coating that resists oxidation and is safe for outdoor use in all climates. Natural environmental dirt build-up may be removed with mild soap and warm water.

This item ships directly from the artisan's North Carolina studio in 2-3 weeks. Express shipping for this item is not available and shipment must be to a street address (no PO Box) within the continental United States only.

Overall Product Size : 38" tall x 19" wide; Weight = approx 26 lbs.
Glass Bowl Size : 3.4" depth x 19" diameter
Copper Bowl Size : 4" depth x 19" diameter

Price: $349.99

Modern Artisans: Scrolling Vine Iron Wall Sculpture

2009-02-14T22:12:00.002-06:00

Scrolling Vine Iron Wall Sculpture

A striking series of scrolling tendrils swirl upon a twining vine. Rising nearly 3 feet tall, this metal wall sculpture is crafted of true wrought iron and powder coated for protection. Includes welded hangers on the rear and is easy to install on most surfaces with four screws (included). Made in New York.

Price: $109.99

Modern Artisans: Recycled Vinyl Records into Trays and Bowls

2009-02-14T22:01:00.003-06:00

Vinyl Record Snack Tray

Designer Jeff Davis puts a new spin on recycling by rescuing neglected records and creating fascinating works of functional art. His vinyl snack trays are created from actual vintage 12" albums and are perfect for fruit, chips or dry snacks. Individually made in the USA, the shallow tray has the original album label intact and protected with a clear mylar seal.
Heralded for the fun, creative use of recycled materials, Jeff’s vinyl creations have been featured in numerous museum exhibits and magazines throughout the world. Trays sold separately.

Available in two genres:
* Rock Essentials (artists such as The Police, Eric Clapton, YES, Santana)
* Crooners (artists such as Nat King Cole, Sinatra and Dean Martin).

Price: $24.99

Vinyl Record Bowls

Designer Jeff Davis has put a new spin on recycling by rescuing discarded records and creating them into fascinating works of functional art. Yes, these unbelievable bowls are made from actual 12" vintage vinyl records! Perfect for fruit, dry snacks, or upbeat contemporary decoration, these sturdy record bowls have the original label intact and protected with a clear mylar seal.
Heralded for the creative use of recycled materials, Jeff’s vinyl creations have been featured in numerous museum exhibits and magazines throughout the world. Bowls sold separately. Made in the USA.

Choose from the following genres:

* Rock Essentials (Essential artists such as The Eagles, Rolling Stones, Elton John, Janis Joplin, Beach Boys, The Byrds, Bob Segar, YES, Allman Brothers, Elvis, Neil Young, KISS, etc.)

* Country (Artists such as Willie Nelson, Patsy Cline, Kenny Rogers, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Loretta Lynn, Alabama, Waylon Jennings and Emmy Lou Harris)

* 70's/80's Pop (Artists such as Wham, Donna Summer, Thompson Twins, Barry White, Madonna, Simple Minds, Eurythmics, Adam & the Ants, Rick James, Culture Club and the Go-Go's)

* Divas (Artists such as Barbara Streisand, Diana Ross, Aretha Franklin, Judy Garland, Cher and Bette Midler)

* Crooners (Artists such as Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, Johnny Mathis, Tom Jones and Tony Bennett)

* Jazz (Artists such as Count Basie, Horace Silver Quintet, Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Herbie Hancock, Cannonball Adderly, Sarah Vaughn and Stan Getz)

Price: $24.99

Modern Artisans: Bird of Paradise Copper Fountain

2009-02-14T21:44:00.003-06:00

Bird of Paradise Cascading Copper Table Top Fountain

Enjoy the soothing sound of cascading water with a tropical touch! A tier of four copper leaves catch and release the flowing water before reaching the bottom basin, creating a tranquil melody of trickles. Large enameled leaves and bird of paradise blossoms add visual excitement. Handcrafted entirely of copper in Arizona, each fountain is fully assembled and includes a submerged 12 volt quiet pump - just fill with water and plug in! $279.99

Copper leaves can be gently bent to achieve the perfect look or to slightly redirect the flow of water.

Due to the handcrafted nature of this product, slight variations in the arrangement of leaves will occur.

Sari Curtains from India

2009-02-14T21:03:00.003-06:00

From Indian Selections

Click on the link below the image to see the full listing.

Daringly eclectic, these colorful curtains are handmade from Indian saris. The fabric has an elegant gold design design. This unique and one of its own kind of panels sources its origin from India . The beautiful design has a uniquely rich color and bottom, and the border is heavy with deep golden work. The panels Will enhance the decor of any room giving it a truly royal look. The borders of the panels have Golden zari work done on them.

Navy Blue Art Silk Sari Curtains elaborate zari border - Tab Tops

Forest Green zari Sari Curtains - Tab Tops with attached valance

Wood Carving Wood Spirit Lessons

2009-02-14T00:45:00.003-06:00

A carver shows how to make a face out of cottonwood bark. banjoman15

First documentary film about idrija lace

2009-02-14T00:25:00.002-06:00

"This film is a historical overview about tradition of making lace in Idria from first mentionings of making laces by hand until use of Idrija lace in contemporary designing and making in present time." internetstoritve

Santa Fe Folk Art Market: Threads Hold a Community Together

2009-02-14T00:21:00.001-06:00

An ancient tradition of lace making by the Xukuru artisans is turned into a free-trade co-op raising these people out of poverty funding healthcare, buying their land on which they live, and reducing poverty.

Mestre Vitalino from O Alto Do Moura, Brazil

2009-02-13T23:53:00.003-06:00

Mestre Vitalino was a ceramic artist in the NorthEastern part of Brazil, a region beleaguered by either droughts or floods, feast or famine, rich in folklore... Vitalino achieved recognition through the figures he created that told the stories of the region. He taught his family how to work the clay and soon the whole neighborhood began copying his figurines. The artists from Alto do Moura are visited by collectors and dealers from around the world. The videos below are in Portuguese and give an idea of the life of these artisans.

Vitalino's son (he kind of goes on and on...) :

I, Rachel, had the honor to visit this place in the early 1980's. I met Vitalino's son (he went on and on then, too, but was very nice). There was a woman raging in another room, full of sorrow. I asked him who that was. "Oh. That's my mother. She kind of lost it when my Dad died and never recovered...." The reminder that behind every craft, there truly is a life.

Feira de Caruaru, Pernambuco, Brasil

2009-02-13T23:36:00.004-06:00

One of the largest outdoor craft markets in the world, "A Feira de Caruaru", with a song named after it...

Brazil: Crocheting with Pop Can Tabs

2009-02-13T23:19:00.007-06:00

Escama Studio combines sustainable design with fair trade principles to create a new breed of alluring fashion accessories.

Based in San Francisco, Escama Studio works directly with two Brazilian craft cooperatives—Cia do Lacre and As Panteras do Lacre—to design and produce these sleek, modern pieces using traditional crochet techniques and recycled aluminum pull-tabs.

Here is a video from a fashion show with their apparel:

And one more:

How To: Chinese New Year's Dragon Mask

2009-02-13T20:09:00.004-06:00

From Kiwi Mag, make an eco-friendly dragon mask!

Click!

How To: Brazilian Carnaval Mask on Kiwi Mag

2009-02-13T19:59:00.005-06:00

How to for a Brazilian Carnaval mask:

Damosel's Printer's Blocks

2009-02-13T19:49:00.003-06:00

We specialize in scarce and unique antique letterpress printers blocks, printers dies, and wood type blocks. With an emphasis on graphic cuts as opposed to wood type fonts and other. We are here to answer any questions you may have about our products or our services.

Photograph galleries will be maintained with unique antique graphic blocks. Whether you are here to just browse or in need an unusual collectors piece, we welcome everyone.

We have printer's blocks for sale in all price ranges and have provided specific categories for browsing. You may use the search function within the Museum and Store to find items by keyword.

Approximate measurements are listed in both pica and inches. Items on the gallery pages will be added to the Store section and will be available for purchase. We reserve the right to display the images indefinitely. Please visit our History and Links pages for in-depth information and resources.

Book: Italian Lace Designs: 243 Classic Examples

2009-02-13T09:51:00.005-06:00

Italian Lace Designs: 243 Classic Examples (Dover Pictorial Archive Series)

Product Description
Over 240 sharply detailed photographs from rare and lavish volume depict exquisite lace designs from 16th through 18th centuries. Stunning array of needle-made and bobbin laces—reticello, lacis, Venetian point, much more—all identified as to type and date. Copyright-free inspiration for contemporary artists and designers; invaluable reference for lace collectors.

Book: Romanian Point Lace

2009-02-13T09:47:00.006-06:00

Romanian Point Lace

Product Description

Dress up your home with exquisite projects featuring Romanian point lace, a needlepoint braid lace that is ideal for cushion covers, table linens, curtain borders, and other uses. Full-color patterns, illustrations, and instructions show traditional stitch motifs and fillings, many adapted for smaller pieces and craft items. Find out how to make bullion knot grapes, leaf shapes, decorative braids, butterfly designs, and more.

About the Author
Angela Thompson is one of the world's leading experts on Romanian Point Lace. She teaches and lectures on lace around the world and is the author of Embroidery with Beads, Complete Book of the Sewing Machine and Machine Embroidery. She is also a regular contributor to a number of major lace and embroidery magazines, including World of Embroidery and The Lacemaker. Kathleen Waller has been making lace since the age of seven and is interested in most forms of lace including all the bobbin laces, crochet lace, tatting and needlelace. She has collaborated with her sister, Margaret Homer on several booklets on East Midlands laces and is the author of two booklets on filet lace.

Book: Masterpieces of Irish Crochet Lace: Techniques, Patterns, Instructions

2009-02-13T09:36:00.004-06:00

Click on link under image.

Masterpieces of Irish Crochet Lace: Techniques, Patterns, Instructions (Dover Needlework Series)

Product Description

Rediscovered collection of authentic Irish crochet design from 19th-century contains 30 motifs, 12 grounds. New introductions by Mary Carolyn Waldrep. Numerous patterns. 100 photographs.

Book: Kyuuto! Japanese Crafts!: Lacy Crochet

2009-02-13T09:30:00.004-06:00

Kyuuto! Japanese Crafts!: Lacy Crochet

Product Description
Kyuuto! = Cute!

Savvy crafters know that today's hippest designs hail from Japan. But it's near to impossible to find translated patterns. Or at least it used to be. With Lacy Crochet, we're proud to present one of the first two books in our brand new Kyuuto! Japanese Crafts line. Lacy Crochet offers 22 patterns for delicate accessories sweetly rendered for the home and wardrobe. This book enjoyed huge success on its home shores. The pages burst with quirky color photographs, step-by-step directions, and helpful technical illustrations. At last, the appeal of authentic Japanese content with the ease of English instruction. Stay tuned for more in coming seasons!

Book: Knitted Lace of Estonia: Techniques, Patterns, and Traditions

2009-02-13T09:20:00.004-06:00

Knitted Lace of Estonia: Techniques, Patterns, and Traditions

Review
Yarn Market News: Nancy Bush revisits hallowed creative ground for this beautifully in-depth treatise on the lace masterpieces of her beloved Estonia. She starts with a history section, tracing Estonian lace from its origins as a cottage industry into a world-renowned art form. Then, a primer on knitting intricate "Haapsalu Sall" - center pattern, frame, scalloped edging - with special attention to the bobblelike nupps scattered liberally throughout and, also, to blocking properly on a frame. Then, the patterns: 14 of them, each one a marvel, several adapted from the influential Estonian magazine Triinu. They're rectangular and triangular, short and narrow, long and wide; with diamonds that intersect like figure eights, peacock tails and regal patterns named for Swedish royalty of yore. Finally, a stitch glossary of popular Estonian lace schemes, from leaf and twig to lilly of the valley to the hearty "Greta Garbo." Lovely.

Books on Indonesian Textiles

2009-02-13T00:00:00.003-06:00

Traditional Indonesian Textiles

Product Description
The fabrics of Indonesia have long held an allure. They have now won universal popularity, so much so that local names for techniques of dying and weaving - batik, ikat, tritik - have been adopted internationally as generic terms. The reverence accorded to textile art on the islands is reflected in precision of weave and exquisite patterning. The rich array of design in reflected in this book. Over 200 photographs illustrate the cloud shapes, geometric forms, human and animal figures, Indian symbols and even Dutch Art Deco designs that have been rendered as textile motifs. Based on first-hand research, often conducted in remote areas, John Gillow's account comprises a history of textile production in the Indonesian archipelago, from Balinese double-ikats and Javanese silks to the gold-thread brocades of Sumatra.

Between the Folds: Stories of Cloth, Lives, and Travels from Sumba

Product Description
Textiles have long been integral to the social life and cosmology of the people of East Sumba, Indonesia. In recent decades, the Sumbanese have entered a larger world economy as their textiles have joined the commodity flow of an international "ethnic arts" market, stimulated by Indonesia's tourist trade. As Sumba's villagers respond to an immensely expanded commerce in their cloth, tensions and ironies emerge between historical and innovative forms in both cloth and lives. Using a narrative approach, Jill Forshee takes readers into diverse lives, including those of villagers traveling to Bali and tourists visiting Sumba, and follows their adventures along various routes over time. Through personal stories of those involved in the contemporary production and trade of local cloth, a vivid account emerges of the inner workings of a so-called "traditional" society and its arts responding inventively to decades of international collecting. These stories expand anthropological concepts of the boundaries of regions and the certainties of cultures in ways that are tangible and immediate to the reader. Moreover, the book illuminates some formerly unexplored conditions of artistic provenance.

About the Author
Jill Forshee is a research fellow at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley.

The Art of Indonesian Textiles: The E. M. Bakwin Collection at the Art Institute of Chicago (Museum Studies)

Product Description
This beautiful volume showcases over seventy remarkable examples of Indonesian textile art, a recent gift to the Art Institute from the E. M. Bakwin Collection. The featured works, including batiks, ikats, and other textiles, represent the finest examples of Indonesia's textile production and evoke the region's rich ethnic and cultural complexity. Indonesian textile expert Brigitte Khan Majlis explores these objects not only as works of art - stunning products of both individual creativity and a long aesthetic tradition - but also as important artifacts that illuminate the history, beliefs, and lives of the people who make and treasure them. Generously illustrated, "The Art of Indonesian Textiles" also features fascinating contextual photographs and engaging entries on each of the featured objects.

About the Author

Brigitte Khan Majlis is curator of the textile department at the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum of Ethnography, Cologne, Germany.

Book: The Rudolf G. Smend Collection

2009-02-12T23:53:00.002-06:00

Click on link below image.

Batik: 75 Selected Masterpieces: The Rudolf G. Smend Collection

Product Description
Batik: 75 Selected Masterpieces contains never before published pictures illustrating the exquisite cross-section of the batik production in Java. Featuring textiles from the personal collection of gallery owner Rudolf G. Smend, historic photographs from the Hans van der Kamp Collection, and fascinating text from academic Isa Fleischmann-Heck, Batik: 75 Selected Masterpieces is a rich resource for collectors and lovers of the "golden period" of Java.

About the Author
Rudolf G. Smend is a passionate batik collector and the owner of Galerie Smend in Cologne, Germany.

Isa Fleischmann-Heck is Curator of Textiles at the German Textile Museum in Krefeld.

Maria Wronska-Friend is a well known batik expert, ethnologist and author.

Donald J. Harper is an American collector and dealer of Indonesian batik.

Book: Batik: From the Courts of Java and Sumatra

2009-02-12T23:45:00.003-06:00

Click on the link below the image.
Batik: From the Courts of Java and Sumatra

Product Description
Batik occupies a special position in Indonesia's history and culture. The extraordinary photographs of cloths and prints in this book demonstrate why batik is the stuff of textile legend. These 71 batik designs, taken from the collection of famed dealer Rudolf G. Smend, date from 1880-1930, a time still considered batik's golden age. Complementing these extraordinary cloths are 16 vintage photo prints from the Leo Haks collection, which demonstrate how batik was worn at court and in other settings.

From the Publisher
The exotic textiles of Java have intrigued the outside world for the past 150 years. Batik, the legendary fiber art of painting and dyeing fabrics using a waxing process, has been influenced by cultures as diverse as the Chinese, Indians, Arabs, Portuguese, Dutch, and English. Like no other book before it, Batik takes the reader on a spellbinding tour of Java, revealing batik's history, motifs, and methods of production.

Book: Fabric of Enchantment: Batik from the North Coast of Java

2009-02-12T23:41:00.003-06:00

Fabric of Enchantment: Batik from the North Coast of Java

Product Description
The batik designs of Java's North Coast are particularly varied in both design and colour. With their fanciful, highly imaginative motifs and luminous tints, they are more immediately appealing than the sombre blue and brown batik of Central Java. It was a chance encounter in a Hong Kong antique shop that inspired photojournalist Inger McCabe Elliot to devote over three decades to assembling one of the world's finest collections, which she presented to the Los Angeles Country Museum of Art in 1991.

This volume, published in conjunction with an exhibition at the Museum, celebrates Elliott's gift and presents her collection. Essays by authorities on the subject examine the 82 featured batik textiles from historical, cultural and aesthetic perspectives. The essays are followed by biographies of some of the most distinguished batik designers and entrepreneurs and a descriptive catalogue of the batiks. Appendices document design formats and motifs, as well as the complete production process of North Coast batiks.

Book: Across the Desert: Aboriginal Batik from Central Australia

2009-02-12T23:37:00.002-06:00

Across the Desert: Aboriginal Batik from Central Australia

Product Description
From the pioneering 1970s through the 1980s, Aboriginal women artists were experimenting with Batik, for them a new modern art form, with extraordinary results. This publication presents stunning examples from five communities by leading artists.

Book: The Woman With the Artistic Brush: A Life History of Yoruba Batik Artist Nike Davies

2009-02-12T23:33:00.003-06:00

The Woman With the Artistic Brush: A Life History of Yoruba Batik Artist Nike Davies (Foremother Legacies)

Product Description
Nike Davies is one of the few African women known internationally in contemporary art circles. The Woman with the Artistic Brush traces her life history and illustrates the strategies developed by women to mitigate male rule. Presenting a critique of the woman's place in contemporary Yoruba society from the perspective of a woman who lived it, this book covers Nike's life from the time of her mother's death when Nike was six to the culmination of her dream in the creation, against severe societal odds, of a center for arts and culture that has over 120 members.

Along the way, The Woman with the Artistic Brush details how Nike ran away from home and joined a traveling theater group after her father tried to arrange her marriage, subsequently married and joined in the polygynous household of a noted artist from the popular Osogbo school, and finally broke clear of that situation after suffering sixteen years of domestic violence. The Woman with the Artistic Brush is another superb contribution to the Foremother Legacies series.

Book: African Batik Photo Album

2009-02-12T23:29:00.003-06:00

African Batik Photo Album

Product Description
African Batik Photo Album Holds 90 Photos These photo albums use colorful, handmade, Adinkra batik fabrics produced by Asante artisans in Ghana. Due to the manual production process of these fabrics, our fabric designs are not duplicated. When this specific style runs out, we will post a different design on the Amazon.com web site (every few months based on supply so check for new colors/patterns). The symbol on this photo album is Adinkrahene (Chief of the Adinkra Symbols). It is a symbol of Greatness, Charisma & Leadership and is noted to have played an inspiring role in the designing of other symbols. It forms the basis of Adinkra printing.

Book: "Batik: Fabled Cloth of Java"

2009-02-12T23:25:00.004-06:00

Click on link under image.

Batik: Fabled Cloth of Java

Product Description
The exotic textiles of Java have intrigued the outside world for the past 150 years. Batik, the legendary fiber art of painting and dyeing fabrics using a waxing process, has been influenced by cultures as diverse as the Chinese, Indians, Arabs, Portuguese, Dutch, and English. Like no other book before it, Batik takes the reader on a spellbinding tour of Java, revealing batik's history, motifs, and methods of production.

About the Author
Inger McCabe Elliott, founder and president of China Seas, Inc., the award-winning fabric design firm, was born in Norway, graduated from Cornell University, and received her M.A. in history from Radcliffe College. She has traveled extensively throughout Europe and Asia as a photojournalist for publications including Newsweek and The New York Times. She lives in New York City and Stonington, Connecticut, with her husband and children.

Book: Chinese Indigo Batik Designs

2009-02-12T23:19:00.004-06:00

Chinese Indigo Batik Designs (Dover Pictorial Archives)

Product Description
Showcasing more than 110 carefully reproduced illustrations from a rare, early collection of batik art — also known as wax-resist dyeing — this volume bursts with strong native flavor. Produced in China's remote southwestern provinces, the exquisitely detailed folk art includes traditional designs of flowers, animals, and landscapes.

Book: Indonesian Batik Designs

2009-02-12T23:11:00.004-06:00

Indonesian Batik Designs (Dover Pictorial Archive Series)

Product Description
These stunning displays of highly stylized, often dramatic designs depict florals, geometrics, winged creatures, and other fanciful images. Ideal for immediate practical use, the handy archive will supply artists and crafters with an unusual range of designs and serve as a delightful browsing book for enthusiasts of Asian art and culture. 225 designs.

Books on Fair Trade

2009-02-12T21:44:00.004-06:00

Click on the link below the image, not on the image.

Fair Trade: A Beginner's Guide

Product Description
What's wrong with buying regular coffee? Does Fair Trade necessarily mean ethical trade? What impact can the average consumer have on global economics? Author and activist Jacqueline DeCarlo reveals why the movement has come to mean far more than just bananas, coffee, and chocolate. Grounded in the inspiring power of Fair Trade as a positive alternative to poverty, environmental destruction, and human exploitation, this enlightening book explains how we can make a difference. Providing an accessible explanation of the principles behind the movement and tracing its development into the powerful economic and social justice tool it is today.

Fair Trade for All: How Trade Can Promote Development

From Publishers Weekly
Nobel Prize-winning economist and ex-World Bank official Stiglitz is the leading mainstream critic of the free-trade, free-market "Washington Consensus" for developing countries. In this follow-up to his best-selling Globalization and its Discontents, he and Charlton, a development expert, present their vision of a liberalized global trade regime that is carefully geared to the interests of poorer countries. They recap a critique, much of it based on Stiglitz's academic work, of orthodox trade theories, noting the real-world constraints and complications that undermine the assumption that unregulated free trade is always a boon, and analyze the bias towards developed countries in previous trade agreements. They call for the current round of trade negotiations to refocus on principles of equity and social justice that accord developing countries "special and differential treatment."

The authors present detailed policy prescriptions, including measures to open developed countries to developing countries' exports of textiles and farm products and to ease the temporary migration of workers between countries; their most far-reaching proposal is a scheme to open every country to goods from any other country whose economy is smaller and poorer than its own. The authors' treatise is readable, but rather dry and technical and sometimes politically naive, particularly in glossing over the problem of workers in developed economies whose jobs are threatened by trade with developing countries. The book isn't quite right for a general audience, but it has a sophisticated, wide-ranging discussion of world trade, intriguing new ideas and the Stiglitz byline, so those already interested in trade issues will consider it a must-read.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Social Responsibility in the Global Market: Fair Trade of Cultural Products

Product Description
Social Responsibility in the Global Market provides a practical, non-exploitative alternative for conducting business, which bridges the consumer's social concerns and the producer's financial concerns.

Mary Ann Littrell and Marsha Ann Dickson utilize in-depth case studies to introduce past successes and failures for seven Alternative Trading Organizations (ATOs). These organizations foster artisan empowerment, cultural integrity and business sustainability.

An integrative model synthesizes business conditions, tasks and skills imperative for effective functioning of a fair trade system in an increasingly global market.

Book: Carnavalia!: African-brazilian Folklore And Crafts

2009-02-12T21:37:00.003-06:00

Carnavalia!: African-brazilian Folklore And Crafts

From School Library Journal
Grade 2-4-This book offers three things in one: a fictionalized account of the Brazilian carnival that takes place between Christmas and Lent, illustrations of the event, and its crafts. An afterword explains the festival in the context of Brazil's history and culture. The main part of the book explores the relationship between seven-year-old Mourrice and his nanny. She explains the significance of the carnival and the boy observes its songs, dances, and costumes. Papi's vivid, colorful illustrations, along with the overall book design, are strong points in an otherwise mediocre offering. The art reflects a number of influences, from traditional Afro-Brazilian folk art to post-modernists such as Jackson Pollack. The results are fresh and interesting. The crafts have potential, though some are too complex for young children. The text has numerous problems, including wooden characters and stilted, unrealistic dialogue. Nana in particular sounds like a combination of a tour guide and a folklore professor, and Mourrice's voice is adult in tone. However, readers will appreciate the illustrations, possibly to the extent of forgiving the poorly written text.

Lyn Miller-Lachmann, Siena College Library, Loudonville, NY
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Book: The Art of Dimensional Embroidery

2009-02-12T21:32:00.004-06:00

The Art of Dimensional Embroidery

Linda (Vancouver, WA) -

"I am a student of this beautiful art and have purchased different books on the subject. This one is my favorite as it explains the different basic stitches and pictures the instructions with such simplicity. Brazilian Embroidery looks difficult, but with this book she manages to instruct with such ease, that anyone can understand it. Great book for the beginner and yet one you will never want to do without! She takes you through the different threads used, the tools needed, and even how to launder your finished masterpiece. Very thorough instruction of stitches and how to use them to make floral designs."

Novica: African Drums

2009-02-11T00:18:00.007-06:00

Novica: Carved Wooden African Maskes

2009-02-10T23:07:00.004-06:00

NOVICA works in partnership with National Geographic. They represent artisans directly from around the world, always seeking excellence in quality and realistic price points. Click on the Buy button for more info and prices.

Wood mask, 'Bwa Bush Spirits'

Salihu Ibrahim carves a beautiful mask filled with meaning known only to initiates in the Bwa tribe of Burkina Faso. The checkerboard represents the separation of good and evil, wise from stupid, and male from female. At the top, a large white crescent denotes the moon of the masks that shines during the seasons when the masks perform. Ibrahim names the piece Nwantantay, or "Bush Spirits." Nwantantay have no natural shape and must be portrayed in abstract geometric form. The spirits embodied in the masks bless the families that own the mask and dance with it in public.

Wood mask, 'Bobo Ram'

A symbol of purity, the ram boasts long horns that curl majestically about its head. Evans Doe Martey creates a handsome mask from the Bobo people of Burkina Faso. Spiritual purity plays a vital role in African traditions.

Novica: Carved Wood African Fan

2009-02-10T21:44:00.005-06:00

Kwame Frimpong carves a beautiful African woman from sese wood. Weaving a brightly colored straw headdress, he transforms the piece into a very original fan.

Book: Quilting African American Women's History: Our Challenges, Creativity, and Champions

2009-02-10T21:04:00.003-06:00

Quilting African American Women's History: Our Challenges, Creativity, and Champions

Product Description
Each of us who has the privilege and the joy of seeing the stunning works in Quilting African American Women's History: Our Challenges, Creativity, and Champions must also listen carefully to what these works of art are saying to us. In the words of quilter Tina Brewer, "Listen closely, focus your eyes deeper." The one hundred-one quilts, created by fifty-three women and men, speak of challenges, creativity, and champions of African American women. For assembling this feast for our eyes and providing a narrative that helps us to clearly hear what these works of art are saying, we are indebted to Dr. Carolyn Mazloomi, the curator of the exhibition. Let us also acknowledge the contribution of Dr. Denise Campbell, Dr. Mazloomi's colleague in the world of quilting and scholarship about this art form. A striking reality about these quilts that is also true of African American women is this: If you have seen one, you have not seen them all. There are "common threads" in these quilts, just as there are in Black women's experiences with racial and gender oppression and in resistance, in efforts to cast us as "the other." There is also great diversity in how each artist unfolds her quilt--as a compelling narrative, as a statement of resistance, as creative expression--indeed as all of this and more. So too are there differences in how we Black women live through our race and gender, sometimes in communion with and sometimes in confrontation with our particular class, age, religion, sexual orientation, physical abilities and disabilities.

Book, Spirits of the Cloth: Contemporary African American Quilts

2009-02-10T20:53:00.004-06:00

Spirits of the Cloth: Contemporary African American Quilts

Product Description
Featuring 150 color photographs, "Spirits of the Cloth" is one of the first popular books to showcase the work of contemporary African-American quilters.

Beautiful, work., September 15, 1999

By A Customer

The book is displayed proudly in my home. I read the book and enjoyed the narratives on each chapter and the comments of each artist. I was very pleased to see the different "twists" and "spins" of each artists work. Looking at the pictures, you can almost touch the colors, textures and the spirit of the work. I've been to several art shows in which some of the featured artists work were on display. I had the opportunity to attend a quilt show in Huntsville AL to hear Yvonne Wells talk about her work and I was extremely pleased that the works of quilt artists are being highlighted in one woman/man shows. The book was long overdue!!!!! Thank you to the artist C. Mazloomi!!!

Book: Accidentally on Purpose: The Aesthetic Management of Irregularities in African Textiles and African-American Quilts

2009-02-10T20:46:00.004-06:00

Accidentally on Purpose: The Aesthetic Management of Irregularities in African Textiles and African-American Quilts

Product Description
This exuberantly illustrated book celebrates the sophistication, vivacity, and significance of improvisational African-American quilts, both as artistic achievements and as expressions of African-American traditions. The knowledge, attitudes, and values carried across the Atlantic by enslaved Africans appear to have informed a quilt-making tradition so powerful that, to this day, it preserves its identity in a special province of African-American quilts. Such "Afro-traditional" quilts are made by people who have no formal art training and who usually do not consider themselves artists; they learned their craft and absorbed its aesthetics by watching and helping their mothers, aunts, and grandmothers who, in turn, learned form previous generations. The resulting--often highly idiosyncratic--quilts call out to be seen as the works of art that they are. The brilliance of this work must be partially credited to a tradition which encourages individual expression and provides a context in which the talents of individual artists can flourish.

Improvisation, pervasive in black African art and familiar as a basic element of many African-American musical forms, is a vital force in this tradition. The artists maintain a generous attitude toward the accidental, embracing innovations that originate beyond the conscious domain. they use approximate measurement and "flexible patterning," in which the design, conceived of as a an invitation to variation, will not repeat, but will materialize in a sequence of visual elaborations.

Afro-traditional attitudes and methods are antithetical to the standard American quiltmaking tradition--practiced by both whites and blacks--in which great value is placed on precise measurement and exact pattern replication. Instead they bear a keen likeness to the improvisatory practices of the textile-makers of Kongo and West Africa, regions from which American slaves were taken. These antipathies and affinities suggest an enduring African influence on the Afro-traditional quilt.

Book: Signs and Symbols: African Images in African American Quilts

2009-02-10T20:37:00.004-06:00

Click on the link under the image.

Signs and Symbols: African Images in African American Quilts (2nd Edition)

African-American quilts possess two unique qualities: more than any other American visual art, they most fully realize the expressive force of jazz, and they bind together generations of African-American families who have made and cherished quilts. In Signs and Symbols, quilt expert Maude Southwell Wahlman introduces readers to a third powerful force in these quilts: their African-derived meanings, patterns, and iconography. She explores the religious, ritual, philosophical, and aesthetic beliefs that have been retained by descendants of Africans in the New World and demonstrates how these beliefs are represented in their textiles. Now back in print, Signs and Symbols remains the most complete illustrated work on this art form; featuring over 150 high-quality full-color reproductions.

Book: The Soulful Art of African-American Quilts: Nineteen Bold, Improvisational Projects

2009-02-10T20:18:00.004-06:00

The Soulful Art of African-American Quilts: Nineteen Bold, Improvisational Projects

Product Description
Renowned Kansas City designer and Andover Fabrics artist Sonie Ruffin creates 11 contemporary quilts based on the collection featured in "Bold Improvisation: Searching for African American Quilts - The Heffley Collection." Also included are original designs and patterns for quilts by Sonie, all part of her quest to learn about her family origins and heritage. Sonie's easy-to-follow patterns encourage creativity and simple, quick construction. Each design is paired with Sonie's imaginative stories.

About the Author
For the past four years, Sonie Ruffin, a self-taught fabric artist and story teller, has carved out a niche for herself in the arts community as a fabric artist, fabric designer, and writer. She has lectured and led workshops on her work at numerous museums and galleries, as well as exhibited her work. Sonie's art quilts can be found in permanent collections at galleries, museums, private and corporate collections. Sonie's vibrant quilts are contemporary and bold. They draw from a centuries-old wellspring that explores humanity, through the crux of the African-American experience. She designs from the heart, painting with fabric and embellishing with her needle to reveal universal truths. She is a master at incorporating the boldness of African print fabrics with American print fabrics to create striking designs. She incorporates basic block designs with her own personal designs and invites the viewer to engage in a mental and spiritual conversation with her artwork.

Book: Bold Improvisation: Searching for African-American Quilts - The Heffley Collection

2009-02-10T20:10:00.005-06:00

Bold Improvisation: Searching for African-American Quilts - The Heffley Collection

Product Description
This coffee-table art book presents more than 50 bold quilts collected by Scott Heffley dating back 122 years. A tribute to their soulful beauty, the book shows traditional quilts next to their improvisational cousins, as well as African textiles that demonstrate similarities to this American art. Also included are ways to examine quilts, fabric dating, and the importance of recording the history of these quilts. Heffley offers insightful aesthetic observations as well, an outgrowth of his work restoring masterpieces at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City.

Books for Kids on African American Quilts

2009-02-10T16:36:00.005-06:00

Click on the links under the images.

The Patchwork Path: A Quilt Map to Freedom

From School Library Journal
Grade 1-4 - An exciting story about a girl and her father who escape slavery with help from the coded symbols on a quilt. Shortly after Hannah's sister is sold to another plantation, Mama dies, but not before teaching Hannah how to sew, whispering, "…this quilt will show you everything you need to know to run to freedom." Their journey leads them along the Underground Railroad, from their Georgia plantation to a hiding place beneath a church, through pirate tunnels, and eventually to the home of a Quaker family. Finally, they cross Lake Erie into Canada, and the narrative ends on a hopeful note as Hannah makes a new quilt with an empty square for her sister, praying that someday they'll be together again, and free. The first-person narrative flows smoothly and lends immediacy to the dramatic events. The vivid oil paintings are skillfully done, with the characters' expressive faces reflecting their fear and courage, and angular lines echoing the quilt squares. An afterword gives some historical background. Overall, this works well as a story and also as a lesson in African-American history. - Lauralyn Persson, Wilmette Public Library, IL
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Under the Quilt of Night

From Publishers Weekly
Dramatic oil paintings and compelling verse-like prose combine to portray the harsh yet hopeful experience of travel along the Underground Railroad. Hopkinson and Ransome revisit the theme of their first collaboration, Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt. This time readers journey the precarious trail to freedom with a young runaway as she escapes to Canada via clandestine routes and dangerous nighttime treks. The intense opening spread features three panels showing her nameless family running for their lives by the light of the full moon, some shoeless or with only rags on their feet. (Subsequent pages show snarling dogs and overseers in hot pursuit.) The story comes to a formidable climax when they're almost discovered hiding in the back of a wagon. Hopkinson names each segment of the journey ("Running," "Waiting," "Hiding") and her narrative conveys the emotional and physical hardships of the trip ("Fear is so real, it lies here beside me"). The author connects the metaphorical protective quilt of night with folkloric elements (legend has it that quilts with blue center squares indicated safe houses on the Underground Railroad). Ransome fills in the characterizations with portraits that convey a strong familial connection and the kindness of the conductors along the way. This suspenseful story successfully introduces and sheds light on a pivotal chapter in America's history for youngest readers. Ages 5-10.

Stitchin' and Pullin': A Gee's Bend Quilt (Picture Book)

Product Description
MOTHER AND DAUGHTER, grandmother and granddaughter, aunt and niece, friend and friend. For a hundred years, generations of women from Gee’s Bend have quilted together, sharing stories, trading recipes, singing hymns—all the while stitchin’ and pullin’ thread through cloth. Every day Baby Girl listens, watches, and waits, until she’s called to sit at the quilting frame. Piece by piece, she puzzles her quilt together—telling not just her story, but the story of her family, the story of Gee’s Bend, and the story of her ancestors’ struggle for freedom.

Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt (Reading Rainbow Books)

From School Library Journal
Kindergarten-Grade 3-- Clara, a young slave, works as a seamstress and dreams of freedom. Overhearing drovers talk of escaping North enables her to make a patchwork map of the area. When she escapes, she leaves the quilt behind to guide others. Based on a true event, this is a well-written picture book. Ransome's oil paintings, however, are perhaps too smooth and rich for the story they tell. The world depicted is too bright, open, and clean. For example, in the first scene Clara has been put to work in the cotton fields. Supposedly too frail to last long at such work, she is pictured as a slim, serious, yet sturdy girl. The bright yellow sky and the charming smile of the boy with her belie the realities of the back-breaking work. In another scene, young Jack, who has been brought back the day before from running away, looks solemn, but not distressed, and is wearing what appears to be a freshly ironed white shirt. Again, the image distances viewers from the realities of the situation. Clara's escape to Canada, too, is marvelously easy, although she does say, "But not all are as lucky as we were, and most never can come." It is not easy to present the horrors of slavery to young children; thus, even though Ransome's illustrations, and to some extent the text, err on the side of caution, this is an inspiring story worth inclusion in most collections. --Karen James, Louisville Free Public Library, KY
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Cassie's Word Quilt

Amazon.com Review
In Cassie's Word Quilt, a young African American girl takes early readers on a remarkable tour of her 1930s-era Harlem home, school, and neighborhood. The tour serves as a vocabulary jaunt, as well. Dozens of objects are clearly labeled; the youngest viewers of this big lap book can point to familiar images as older readers read the captions: "doll," "quilt," "father," "subway," "jump rope." Ringgold's vibrant art captures the excitement of urban life in an era gone by. Gorgeous spreads feature a richly textured quilt motif, with illustrations picking up on the patterns in the squares of fabric bordering the pages. Seldom have we seen a word identification book as artful as Cassie's Word Quilt. Ringgold's other titles include Caldecott Honor Book Tar Beach (on which Cassie's Word Quilt is based), and companion volumes Counting to Tar Beach and Cassie's Colorful Day. (Baby to Preschool) --Emilie Coulter --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

The Quilt (Picture Puffin Books)

Product Description
A small African-American girl is overjoyed with the new patchwork quilt her parents have made. As she sleeps, it comes alive, turning into a fantastical dreamscape she must enter in order to find her beloved stuffed dog. An ALA Notable Children's Book. Full color.

Martha Ann's Quilt for Queen Victoria

Product Description
Martha Ann is twelve years old when Papa finally saves enough money to purchase her freedom from slavery. In 1830, the family leaves east Tennessee to begin a new life in Liberia. On market days, Martha Ann watches the British navy patrolling the Liberian coast to stop slave catchers from kidnapping her family and friends and forcing them back into slavery. Martha Ann decides to thank Queen Victoria in person for sending the navy. But first, she must determine how to make the 3,500-mile voyage to England, find a suitable gift for the Queen, and withstand the ridicule of family and friends who learn of her impossible dream. Martha Ann's Quilt for Queen Victoria is the true story of Martha Ann Ricks, an ex-slave who spent fifty years saving spare coins to fulfill her dream of meeting the Queen of England.

Show Way (Newbery Honor Book)

From Booklist
*Starred Review* Gr. 3-5. A Show Way is a quilt with secret meanings, and the image works as both history and haunting metaphor in this exquisite picture book. Based on Woodson's own history, the unforgettable story tells of African American women across generations, from slavery and the civil rights movement to the present. The cut-out jacket design is impressive, as is Talbott's mixed-media artwork inside, which extends Woodson's clear poetic narrative with beautiful collages that make use of big triangles, squares, and curves to emphasize portraits and landscapes and show connections and courage. The first double-page spread is of anguished separation when Soonie's great-grandmother is sold "without her ma or pa." Growing up on a plantation in South Carolina, Soonie learns from Big Mama about children "growing up and getting themselves free," and also how to sew quilts with signs that show the way to freedom. Time passes: Soonie's granddaughter, Georgiana, has twin girls who march for freedom in the 1960s. The final glorious spread shows Georgiana's granddaughter, Jacqueline Woodson, laughing at home with her own beloved daughter, Toshi Georgiana, whose picture is embedded in a quilt, connecting her with those who came before. A must for the classroom, this story will move many readers to explore their own family roots; link it to the Booklist interview with Woodson [BKL F 1 05], in which she talks about what she owes to those who came before her. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Books on the Gee's Bends Quilts

2009-02-10T15:31:00.004-06:00

(Click on the link below the image)

The Quilts of Gee's Bend: Masterpieces from a Lost Place

From Publishers Weekly
Gee's Bend, Alabama, is a hamlet of 750 residents, most of whom are the descendants of slaves from the former Pettway plantation (and bear the surname Pettway), who during the New Deal purchased farms from the government. For much of the last century, the women of Gee's Bend have produced some of the most striking examples of American vernacular art, sharing them among the community and storing them within their homes. Aside from a brief stint of notoriety during a Civil Rights-era "Freedom Quilting Bee," this catalogue, accompanying an exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and New York's Whitney Museum of American Art, marks the work's entry into the public sphere. Founded by art collector William Arnett and Jane Fonda, the nonprofit Tinwood Alliance devotes itself to the cultural legacy of Gee's Bend, here offering 195 illustrations (162 in full color) documenting the quilts and the lives of many of their makers. The oversize format allows the many full-page reproductions to approximate the sensation of a large quilt spread on the page; the many "Housetop" quilts, with arresting geometric patterns and terrific color sense, speak for themselves. The book and exhibition make an important contribution to American cultural history.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
At first glance, the quilts of this collection are simply stunning--rich colors in surprising combinations, refreshingly irregular geometric compositions with hardly a right angle among them, big blocks whose seams virtually vibrate with energy. Then consider the history of the community they come from, and these quilts become a stunning illustration of resourcefulness. Gee's Bend, a remote peninsula on the Alabama River, is an isolated place, one that has known extreme poverty and struggle. Its quilters of the twentieth century are showcased here. Three insightful essays on the community's history and its quilting tradition make up for a self-consciously scholarly introduction. The words of the quilters themselves follow. Brief accounts of their lives and thoughts on quilting accompany full-page photographs of their accomplishments. This large-format hardcover, and coinciding exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, should guarantee the women of Gee's Bend the prominence they deserve in the story of the American quilt. Marya Graff
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Gee's Bend: The Architecture of the Quilt

Product Description

In 2002, Gee’s Bend burst into international prominence through the success of Tinwood’s Quilts of Gee’s Bend exhibition and book, which revealed an important and previously invisible art tradition from the African American South. Critics and popular audiences alike marveled at these quilts that combined the best of contemporary design with a deeply rooted ethnic heritage and compelling human stories about the women. Gee's Bend: The Architecture of the Quilt is a major book and museum exhibition that will premiere at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), in June 2006 before traveling to seven American museums through 2008. The book's 330 color illustrations and insightful text bring home the exciting experience to readers while displaying all the cultural heritage and craftsmanship that have gone into these remarkable quilts.

Mary Lee Bendolph, Gee's Bend Quilts, and Beyond

Product Description

Mary Lee Bendolph’s extraordinary patchworks garnered national attention when they were featured among the works of other quiltmakers from her tiny, predominately African American community in the 2002 blockbuster exhibition and book, The Quilts of Gee’s Bend. This beautiful book examines Bendolph’s inspiration, creative process, and individual genius, as well as her profound connection to the cultural practices and expressive traditions out of which her work arises. It studies her artistic relationships with other artists — her mother, Aolar Mosely; her daughter, Essie Bendolph Pettway; her daughter-in-law Louisiana P. Bendolph; and two self-taught Alabama artists, Lonnie Holley and Thornton Dial. Bendolph’s conception of herself as an artist is intimately connected to all of these aesthetic relationships, which together provide contexts for understanding the full scope and power of her work. As they intersect in Bendolph’s life and art, these deep social and aesthetic networks give rise to new pathways of artistic influence and exchange, to a body of work that is a powerful mixture of communal and individual creative energies.

Gee's Bend: The Women and Their Quilts

Product Description
Since the 19th century, the women of Gee’s Bend in southern Alabama have created stunning, vibrant quilts. Beautifully illustrated with 350 color illustrations, 30 black-and-white illustrations, and charts, Gee’s Bend to Rehoboth is being·released in conjunction with a national exhibition tour including The Museum of Fine Art, Houston, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Global Exchange: Gift Basket for Baby

2009-02-08T09:58:00.002-06:00

Gift Basket for Baby - $ 74.00
This adorable AND unique Fair Trade gift collection is a terrific gift choice for the newest edition to that special family.

A Natural Hand-woven Kaisa Grass Basket from Bangladesh filled with:

Lisu Baby Booties from Thailand

Backstrap Woven Bib from Guatemala

Barefoot Baby Animal Toy from Sri Lanka

Set of Three Handmade Baby Cubes

All Global Exchange Gift Baskets are wrapped with love using 100% biodegradable cellophane and a colorful ribbon, as pictured on right.

Global Exchange: Traditional Zulu Basket with Lid

2009-02-08T09:51:00.002-06:00

Traditional Zulu Basket
with Lid - $ 80.00
The Fair Trade Traditional Zulu Basket with Lid is a stunning work of art. Made of Ilala grass and traditionally used to store beer and other liquids, each basket is woven in a palette of black, white and tan, but each basket is unique and woven by a different woman. Each basket comes with a signed tag from the weaver.

Made by women from the towns of Vukanathi, Zenzelemi, and Siyaphambili in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. Many of the women are the sole bread winners of their families, relying on basket weaving as their main source of income. Several of the older basket weavers from these communities have sent their children to college through the income they earned from basket weaving. These communities work in partnership with Khumbulani Crafts, a non-profit organization, whose mission is to contribute towards poverty alleviation in rural communities through the production, marketing and sale of traditional and contemporary craft.

Country of Origin:South Africa
Dimensions: Height: 10in Circumference: 32in (approximately)

To learn more about the Global Exchange’s visit to Khumbulani Crafts visit our blog

Global Exchange: 3 Leaf Bamboo Bowl Set

2009-02-08T09:40:00.004-06:00

3 Leaf Bamboo Bowl Set - $ 85.00
This Bamboo Salad Bowl Set includes three uniquely crafted serving bowls in three complimenting colors, teardrop-shaped. Add flare to your tabletop and eat well knowing your support of this product helps strengthen the local economy and promotes self-sufficiency for over 180 artisans and their families.

Country of Origin: Vietnam
Bowl Dimensions: Large: 12" x 10" x 4 1/2" Medium: 10 1/4" x 8 1/4" x 3" Small: 8 1/2" x 6 3/4" x 2 1/2"

Kiri-e the Japanese art of paper cutting by Renzoh

2009-02-07T23:09:00.002-06:00

Video shows various steps of paper cutting technique.

Chinese Paper Cutting: Symbolic figures

2009-02-07T22:56:00.004-06:00

Excellent information of various persona depicted in popular Chinese paper cuttings plus images used during different passages of life.

KinderArt ® Multicultural Arts and Crafts for Kids

2009-02-07T22:25:00.004-06:00

KinderArt ® Multicultural Arts and Crafts for Kids

KinderArt® was created in 1997. At the time, my mother Jantje and I were leading Saturday morning workshops at a local art gallery. One day we decided to look online see if there were any resources for lesson plans -- specifically, art lesson plans -- and found that there were very few. Not long before, we had made the move into "Cyberspace" by placing our Art Studio business online. So, along with that, we created what was at that time a modest resource for art teachers, with about 20 lessons, under the name of Jarea Art Studio, Free Art Lessons.

The name KinderArt® came a few months later and it didn't take long for people to discover us.

As more and more people started coming, it became clear that there were many artists, teachers and parents who, like Jantje and I, were on the lookout for new ideas that didn't cost a fortune to try with a full classroom of 30 students. So, we continued to build the site, adding quick lessons as well as more in-depth drawing, painting, printmaking, and sculpture studies. Our main concern was to offer ideas that make use of readily available materials that most parents and teachers have at home or in their school supply cupboards. Eventually, those who were visiting the site wanted to share their ideas as well, and so, the site continued to grow and grow...

KinderArt ® Today

by Andrea Mulder-Slater

Today, 10 years later, KinderArt ® is the largest collection of free art lessons on the Internet. What began in 1997 as a few helpful ideas for teachers and parents, has since grown into an enormous collection of resources featuring thousands of tried and tested free lesson plans, ideas and resources which have been contributed by people from around the world. A truly interactive experience, KinderArt® provides an opportunity for parents, educators, artists, students and kids (of course) to have fun while exchanging ideas, finding information, conducting research and learning new things... all in one place.

The goal of KinderArt® has been and always will be, to make art lessons and educational information accessible to people around the world. In addition to the thousands of free art lesson plans, we offer printable activity pages, the art kitchen, educational links and articles, early childhood education resources and much more. Everyone who visits KinderArt® is encouraged to share their experiences, questions, comments and ideas. The result? A wonderful variety of lesson plans and educational tips complete with an online children's art gallery.

All of this thrills us, of course, because it means that children world-wide are taking part in life-changing activities that will shape their futures.

Examples:

BOX OF CRAYONS ^K+
In honor of Martin Luther King Jr., create a classroom box of crayons to celebrate our differences and discover our similarities. [read more]

COFFEE CAN DRUM ^K-4
Drums are an important part of life and ceremony in many cultures. Here students can create drums using recycled aluminum cans. [read more]

HANDPRINT RAINBOW ^Pre-K-2 NEW
Children will see that every hand print is different as they work together on a cooperative art project. From: Amie Lording. [read more]

MASKS: PAPIER MACHE ^K+
These colorful, razzle dazzle masks are simply magical! [read more]

CRIZMAC: Art and Cultural Education Materials

2009-02-07T22:15:00.004-06:00

Founded in 1985, CRIZMAC Art & Cultural Education Materials, Inc. began as a publishing company dedicated to the creation of art and cultural curriculum resources for schools and institutions. As the years progressed, we developed a catalog, expanded into the world of folk art, and continued to add new products, including children’s literature, music, and resources for teachers and artists. Today CRIZMAC offers a wide selection of folk art from around the world. Our clientele consists of fellow art lovers, folk art collectors, art teachers, classroom teachers, parents, and students.

In addition to publishing, we offer our exciting travel program, Journeys of Art and Soul. In the early years, the trips were available only to teachers but over the years they have expanded considerably and are now offered to the general public as well. Educators can earn professional development and/or graduate credit for their participation.

Our Speaker Series is a staff development program that represents speakers and artists who are available to travel to schools and provide seminars for the faculty and/or students on a wide variety of topics.

One of our latest ventures includes the opening of our retail shop, the CRIZMAC Marketplace, which offers an enticing selection of folk art, books, music, jewelry, gifts items, and much more. Special sales events and artists’ shows are held at the Marketplace throughout the year.

We also offer a variety of lectures, classes, hands-on workshops, and day tours, often in collaboration with other local organizations. Our monthly lecture series, ARTiculations, is held in the newly expanded classroom at the Marketplace. Other organizations and individuals take advantage of this space for their classes as well.

At CRIZMAC, we are committed to offering the best educational resources, unique folk art, outstanding travel opportunities, staff development programming for the educational community, and lectures and classes for the general public.

Visit our Marketplace or request a copy of our latest catalog from the home page. Thank you for your visit. We hope to hear from you soon!

Sincerely,
Stevie Mack
President

Free Resources and Activities for Parents, Children, and Teachers
Artzy’s World
Roads Scholar
Bear Essential News for Kids

TAI Gallery: Textile Arts

2009-02-07T22:05:00.006-06:00

TAI Gallery/Textile Arts, located in Santa Fe New Mexico, is one of the world's finest galleries featuring the art of traditional textiles and Japanese bamboo art. Since 1978, owners Mary Hunt Kahlenberg and Robert T. Coffland have hosted this selective gallery, combining her renowned knowledge of the field with his contemporary art sensibility to offer visually dazzling, museum quality textiles and bamboo art from around the world. In 2006 TAI added the field of contemporary Japanese photography to it's collections. TAI Gallery/Textile Arts exhibits at art fairs in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and London. There are special shows of textiles and bamboo art throughout year. For dates and more information on shows and events please click here.

In 2006 TAI Gallery opened at a new location: 1601B Paseo de Peralta at Guadalupe St., across from Site Santa Fe, in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Textile Museum of Canada

2009-02-07T21:55:00.002-06:00

The Textile Museum of Canada is one of Toronto's most engaging visual arts organizations. With more than 12,000 objects from more than 200 countries and regions, the TMC's permanent collection celebrates cultural diversity and includes traditional fabrics, garments, carpets and related artifacts such as beadwork and basketry. The Museum offers a broad variety of exhibitions including themed shows based on our permanent collection and contemporary exhibitions of the work of Canadian and international artists.

Lark in the Morning: Musical Instruments from Around the World

2009-02-07T21:49:00.005-06:00

Largest selection of ethnic musical instruments!

INSTRUMENTS FROM DIFFERENT CULTURES

Afghanistan
Africa
Andes
Australian and Aborigine
Celtic
China
Eastern Europe /Russian Musical Instruments
India and Pakistan
Ireland
Israel
Japan
Middle Eastern Assorted Drums
Middle Eastern Dumbeks
Middle Eastern Strings
Middle Eastern Winds
Middle Eastern Zils
Native American
Portugal
Southeast Asia
Spain
Tibet and Nepal

Symnbols.net

2009-02-07T21:26:00.003-06:00

This site is all about the myriads of ways humans express and communicate ideas, thoughts, feelings, beliefs, hopes, dreams, and even nightmares. Civilizations, religions and cultures, and even families, clubs and gangs, have found unique ways to encode their understandings of themselves and the world through symbolism.

The menu on the left provides links to the many categories of symbols offered here.
For example, click:
Ancient to explore Ancient Symbols,
History to explore History of Symbols, or
Religious for Religious Symbolism.

Since Symbols.Net is a directory, much of what it does for you is provide links to other websites which may contain the information you are seeking. But there is also significant information provided right here at Symbols.Net.

Example:

This sample of african "Adinkra" symbols is from: Adinkra Symbols of West Africa
An illustrated guide to the African symbols called Adinkra used in Ghana, West Africa, with an adinkra index and high-quality adinkra images.
www.welltempered.net/adinkra/

Incredible @rt Department: Masks from Around the World

2009-02-07T21:23:00.003-06:00

Excellent list of links to mask info from around the world.

British Museum: World Cultures

2009-02-07T21:16:00.002-06:00

"The British Museum collection includes artefacts from across the world. They represent the people and places of the past two million years. Below are introductions to a growing list of just some of the world cultures that can be explored in the Museum collection. More will be added."

That is how a large cultural list is introduced where one can click on a link and visit that culture.

Incredible @rt Department: World Cultures

2009-02-07T21:07:00.005-06:00

Excellent list of educational resources on cultural crafts from past and present.

PBS: Africa for Kids

2009-02-07T20:59:00.003-06:00

Hi!

This is a Dogon Rabbit mask, which is used in a special dance. You can make any of these masks. All you have to do is CLICK ON the one you want, and follow the instructions on the next page.

You can see the Dogon dance by CLICKING on the VIDEO CLIP. You need REALPLAYER, to see the dance. If you don't have it, get REAL PLAYER FREE, just click here

My World | Thumb Piano Tunes | Make a Mask | Swahili Folktale
Teacher Tools | PBS Kids Privacy Policy

The Kennedy Center African Odyssey Interactive

2009-02-07T20:42:00.003-06:00

Visual Arts and Education Resources

Bas-Relief Sculpture. The "Abomey: History Told on Walls" Exhibition includes rich examples of the 250 year-old tradition of the Benin, West Africa, bas-relief art form—including some of its earliest surviving examples.

African Textiles Designs. African textiles reflect a range of artistic and social communications continuity, change, and ingenuity in beautiful and vivid designs.

Prints, Collages, and Monoprints. John T. Scott Renderings reflect dazzling compositions of color, texture, and symbolic forms from the African Diaspora.

Painted Rocks of Africa. The African Rock Art exhibit presents spectacular photographic images of the worlds' most ancient and fragile rock art, which illustrates the cultural life, philosophy and rites of the San—the oldest indigenous peoples of Southern Africa.

Stone Sculpture. Zimbabwe stone sculpture is produced from rocks that provide for an unusual range of colors and hardness.

Nike Centre for Art and Culture, Nigeria

2009-02-07T20:31:00.006-06:00

Artist and Designer Nike Davies Okundaye invites you to visit her Nigeria, an ancient culture that thrives in modern cities, a world that moves easily between talking drums and the internet.

Nike has given workshops on traditional Nigerian textiles to audiences in the US and Europe during the past 20 years. While she is known for her colorful batik and paintings that offers a modernist gloss on traditional themes, she was brought up amidst the traditional weaving and dying practiced in her native village of Ogidi in Western Nigeria. Her fame as an artist and teacher has taken her all over the globe. Now, she invites you to visit her in Nigeria and immerse yourself in African tradition.

Nike found that the traditional methods of weaving and dying that had been her original inspiration were fading in Nigeria. She used her international success to launch a cultural revival, building art centers where young Nigerians master traditional arts and crafts. You can now visit the world of the Yoruba, to explore a culture that has flourished in Western Nigeria for well over 1000 years.

Whether you are a specialist in the arts, an enthusiast of African arts or merely interested in a brief immersion in a new culture, Nike offers the opportunity to see Nigeria with fresh eyes. You stay at guest houses at her homes in Lagos, Oshogbo and Ogidi. You travel through Nigeria in air conditioned cars and buses with your guides and teachers. You spend your days visiting museums, galleries, and traditional markets, or studying the techniques used by Yoruba craftsmen and artists. You join her family and her apprentices at mealtimes to sample Nigerian specialties.

Nike Art Centers
Textile artists, painters, sculptors, dancers and drummers... Learn more about Nike's five Art Centers in Lagos, Oshogbo, Ogidi and Abuja, where Nigerian artists and craftsmen ply their trades and where you can study among them.

Tours
Visiting our art centers and Nigeria, from the moment you arrive until you walk into the departure lounge you are our guest. Learn more about our tours, accommodations, and travel tips for Nigeria.

Arts
Adire, batik, indigo, beadwork, painting, carving, embroidery, metalwork, weaving and drumming. Our students are engaged in a variety of both traditional and contemporary arts. Visit this page also for information on purchasing our artworks.

Africancraft.com, A Wonderful Resource!

2009-02-07T20:23:00.004-06:00

The most interesting sites on the Internet tend to have something in common, in our opinion, and that is that they were built by a multitude of different people and reflect a variety of voices.

Our intention in designing the AfricanCraft.com web site has been to set up just such a site, where anybody with an interest, or business, in the arts of Africa can contribute information. The result, we hope, will lead to a site that reflects the great variety of ideas and techniques found in the arts of Africa - both traditional and modern.

We wish to provide a venue for all African artisans to showcase their work. Additionally we will showcase product designers whose work incorporates African materials or designs; and will provide information on books, articles and educational materials of interest. In the great linking tradition of the Web, we hope that this site will link together disparate sources of information - from the people who work in the traditional crafts and those who are influenced by them.

The most exciting prospect for the AfricanCraft.com web site, would be for it to act as a giant world-accessible bulletin board! Our job, as we view it, is to keep it running and to organize all the information on it so that viewers can easily find what interests them.

We invite submissions from artisans, product designers, scholars, authors, photographers, merchants, and all who simply have a passion for Africa's designs.

Most of our services are free to qualified individuals and organizations.

There is also a commercial area of the web site, the "Shops", where several retailers offer their product catalogs under a unified ordering mechanism which we maintain.

AfricanCraft.com is the main website of our parent company, African Crafts Online, Inc.

Instructions on How to Build a Loom

2009-02-07T09:51:00.002-06:00

Full instructions and dimensions at Africancraft.com.

How to Spin Cotton, Simple Instructions

2009-02-07T09:43:00.003-06:00

Cotton spinning
Instructions for ginning cotton, and finger and spindle spinning. A nice hands-on activity. by Louise Meyer

Supplies needed: 1 cotton boll per 6-10 students

Pass one entire cotton boll with husk and seeds in tack around table seating 6-10 students/ discuss feel, weight, geographical origin, climatic conditions, growth, etc.

Gently pull all cotton lint with seeds from the husk; pull apart into as many parts as there are students sharing it; giving each student a portion with 2-4 seeds in it, touch, guess number of seeds hiding inside the cotton lint/ etc. Ask each student to remove/pluck out the seeds. Explain to spread apart the cotton lint from seeds to make them as clean (bald) as possible. Discuss what weighs more,the seeds or the cotton? What are the seeds used for? What is the cotton used for?

Full description at Africancraft.com.

Kente Paper Weaving: Grade 2

2009-02-07T09:37:00.003-06:00

Kente paper weaving
grade 2, fiber arts, curriculum connection: social studies by Instructional Services Dept, Fairfax County Public Schools

No photos, but three different lesson plans for kids on Kente cloth.

Africancraft.com

Small African Loom Instructions

2009-02-07T09:29:00.004-06:00

African children build their own looms.

Try it! you can build one too.

Supplies needed:

three 6" by 1/4" dowels

one chopstick or 1/8" round metal rod

2 ice cream sticks or tongue depressors

cotton thread (mercerized preferably) or thin, strong packaging string

a wooden base (optional)

Full instructions at Africancraft.com

Japanese Mask: Video

2009-02-06T23:41:00.003-06:00

Japanese wooden mask carver at L.A. Times Travel Show

Masks from Many Cultures: Video

2009-02-06T23:33:00.004-06:00

Film distributed by Contemporary Arts Media http://www.artfilms.com.au
Masks from different regions of the world and from diverse cultures are presented in this overview which includes images of over 100 masks combined with footage of festivals where masks are worn in traditional ceremonies, such as Mardi Gras. See an artist from the Dominican Republic making a mask, and examples of masks and headdresses from New Guinea, Bali, China, Tibet, Japan, Korea, Africa, Mexico, Guatemala, and Bolivia, as well as a variety of masks by North American Indians. Contemporary masks and student masks are also shown. 21 mins

Guatemalan Weaving, Videos

2009-02-06T23:03:00.005-06:00

A short documentary about the work that MayaWorks does with Mayan artisans in Guatemala.

Impact Ministries employs a couple, Carlos and Encarnacion, who weaves table sets (napkins,
placemats, and table runners. A Zaakistan Production

At the lakeside of lake Atitlan in Guatemala a group of weavers are producing a new line of products meant for the European market. In the film the designer Heidi Winge Strøm and two of the guatemalean weavers are telling about the proces of using natural wool in weaving and develop new products. The film is part of a webside that will present and promote their products.

Cross Cultural Collaborative

2009-02-06T21:39:00.007-06:00

Cross Cultural Collaborative, Inc. is a non-profit educational organization that promotes cultural exchange and understanding. Our programs emphasize multigenerational and multicultural collaborations encouraging participants to find rewards in different forms of creativity. We bring artists from different cultures together in a supportive environment where they can get to know each other through the language of art. At the core of our program is the belief that interaction between African and non-African artists enriches the creativity of both groups.

CCC, Inc. invites artists and scholars from all over the world to work with Ghanaians on collaborative projects that range from mosaic walls to documentary films. Most visitors to Ghana have only a superficial connection with the people. We find that by bringing people to live and work at CCC, Inc. we break down stereotypical thinking. Our participants form lasting friendships and come to appreciate not only other cultures, but their own as well.

Visitors have an opportunity to be immersed in a spiritual culture grounded in tradition where art is part of everyday life.

Sent to Artezano Links:

Hello Rachel,

What a wonderfully informative blog.

Perhaps you'd like to add us. We are a non-profit working in Ghana, West Africa.

We sell handmade paper and books made by Ghanaian children. We use the money from sales to pay school related expenses.

We also offer African textile workshops every summer and we sell crafts made by African artisans.

Our website is at http://www.culturalcollaborative.org.

Thanks,

Ellie Schimelman

Cross Cultural Collaborative, Inc.

Al Davis, Sculptor

2009-02-06T21:04:00.002-06:00

Artezano Links

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Book: The Rudolf G. Smend Collection

Book: Batik: From the Courts of Java and Sumatra

Book: Fabric of Enchantment: Batik from the North Coast of Java

Book: Across the Desert: Aboriginal Batik from Central Australia

Book: The Woman With the Artistic Brush: A Life History of Yoruba Batik Artist Nike Davies

Book: African Batik Photo Album

Book: "Batik: Fabled Cloth of Java"

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Book: Indonesian Batik Designs

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Global Exchange: Gift Basket for Baby

Global Exchange: Traditional Zulu Basket with Lid

The Historical Pattern Company
Dedicated to Accuracy Since 1979