Fabric : the hidden history of the material world

Book

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BLUE: The TATTER Textile Library

Name/Title

Fabric : the hidden history of the material world

Entry/Object ID

NK8806.F56

Description

A magnificent work of original research that unravels history through textiles and cloth -- how we make it, use it, and what it means to us. How is a handmade fabric helping save an ancient forest? Why is a famous fabric pattern from India best known by the name of a Scottish town? How is a Chinese dragon robe a diagram of the whole universe? What is the difference between how the Greek Fates and the Viking Norns used threads to tell our destiny? In Fabric, bestselling author Victoria Finlay spins us round the globe, weaving stories of our relationship with cloth and asking how and why people through the ages have made it, worn it, invented it, and made symbols out of it. And sometimes why they have fought for it. She beats the inner bark of trees into cloth in Papua New Guinea, fails to handspin cotton in Guatemala, visits tweed weavers at their homes in Harris, and has lessons in patchwork-making in Gee's Bend, Alabama -- where in the 1930s, deprived of almost everything they owned, a community of women turned quilting into an art form. She began her research just after the deaths of both her parents -- and entwined in the threads she found her personal story too. Fabric is not just a material history of our world, but Finlay's own journey through grief and recovery.

Lexicon

Search Terms

cotton--social aspects, silk--social aspects, textile fabrics--history, wool--social aspects

Legacy Lexicon

Category

Book

Inscription/Signature/Marks

Type

Inscription

Notes

Inscribed by author: "For the Tatter Textile Library -- With best wishes -- Victoria Finlay, April 2022."

Book Details

Author

Victoria Finlay

Publisher

Pegasus Books

Place Published

City

New York, NY

Date Published

2022

Call No.

NK8806.F56

ISBN

1639361634, 9781639361632

Notes

Length: 528

General Notes

Note

Includes sample of wuwusi (Maisin barkcloth), part of a larger piece that was grown, cut, designed and painted by Addie Nama, in Maume village, in Collingwood Bay, Papua New Guinea, in May 2018. The cloth was brought back to the UK by the author, cut into bookmarks, and given out with this edition of her book.

Note Type

Contents

Note

Introduction -- Some words before we start -- Barkcloth -- Tapa -- Cotton -- Wool -- Tweed -- Pashmina -- Sackcloth -- Linen -- Silk -- Imagined fabrics -- Patchwork -- Epilogue: the tacking stitch.