Looking at Textiles


Book Description

A guide to the fundamentals of the materials and techniques used to create textiles.




The Fabric of Civilization


Book Description

From Paleolithic flax to 3D knitting, explore the global history of textiles and the world they weave together in this enthralling and educational guide. The story of humanity is the story of textiles -- as old as civilization itself. Since the first thread was spun, the need for textiles has driven technology, business, politics, and culture. In The Fabric of Civilization, Virginia Postrel synthesizes groundbreaking research from archaeology, economics, and science to reveal a surprising history. From Minoans exporting wool colored with precious purple dye to Egypt, to Romans arrayed in costly Chinese silk, the cloth trade paved the crossroads of the ancient world. Textiles funded the Renaissance and the Mughal Empire; they gave us banks and bookkeeping, Michelangelo's David and the Taj Mahal. The cloth business spread the alphabet and arithmetic, propelled chemical research, and taught people to think in binary code. Assiduously researched and deftly narrated, The Fabric of Civilization tells the story of the world's most influential commodity.




Sketchbook Explorations


Book Description

A practical and inspirational guide to help embroiderers and textile artists make the most of sketchbooks to inform their creative work. The artist’s sketchbook offers an exciting platform to explore a host of mixed media techniques. Using a combination of paper, textiles, found objects, pencil, ink and paint, Shelley Rhodes shows how a sketchbook can act as an illustrated diary, a visual catalogue of a journey or experience or as a starting point for more developed work. Whether out on location or in the studio, Rhodes explores every stage of the creative process, from initial inspiration to overcoming the fear of a blank page, manipulating paper and images and incorporating ‘found’ objects to build a sketchbook that is both beautiful and inspiring. Sketchbook Explorations is the ideal companion for everyone from the beginner to the more experienced artist looking for exciting techniques to expand their repertoire in mixed media. The book explores: Why work in sketchbooks? The importance and joy of working in a sketchbook. Ways of recording and investigating ideas that inspire. Techniques in mixed media from found objects and layers to three-dimensional sketching. Creating on location. Using electronic devices to develop ideas.




Experimental Textiles


Book Description

A much-needed book on cutting-edge textile design and practice with experimental design ideas, unusual materials and the latest techniques. The author takes you from finding original ideas through the design process - with exercises - to the latest techniques various artists use to transform the designs into finished textiles. The book covers: paper, felt, machine embroidery, recycling, hand stitch, working with and combining unusual materials, layering different media, working in three-dimensions and also in large scale. Showcased textiles include quilt art, quirky boxes, cloth dolls and large-scale textile installations – a collection of the best and most exciting textile art today. With technique information and several projects for readers to try, plus inspirational work by existing and emerging textile artists, this is an essential book for all those working in textiles.




Layered Textiles


Book Description

The latest book from the bestselling author Kim Thittichai focuses on the range of ideas and techniques for layering your textiles. These layers can produce simple to extreme surfaces for stitch. Layering is a major feature of today’s textile art, whether to create relief, colour, texture or dimension. The author takes you through a number of key materials – papers, synthetic and natural fabric, translucent materials, wires, paints and sprays – that can be incorporated into layered textiles. Various techniques are combined with these materials, from using heat guns, soldering irons and lazer cutting to machine and hand stitch to give the reader endless ideas for their own creative work. As always, the author has provided exercises for the creative process and the techniques but combined them with the work of the best textile artists around the world today. It provides the ultimate guide to the subject of layered textiles for readers looking to experiment with their own textile art.




Sourcing and Selecting Textiles for Fashion


Book Description

Written with the innovative fashion student in mind, Sourcing and Selecting Textiles for Fashion gives a full overview of the current textile market and shows how to apply this knowledge when creating a fashion collection. Following a brief look at the historical growth of fashion textiles in industry and culture, the book explores the manufacturing, design, sourcing and end-use of fashion textiles. Natural and man-made fibres are discussed along with current woven, knit and non-woven production methods. A variety of industrial and custom surface design techniques including dye, print, embellishment and fabric manipulation are covered. Trend, inspiration, colour, creating the collection and how to enhance design through textile choice and surface design are included. A perspective of current innovation and sustainability is offered in each area. Colour photographs, illustrations and designer spotlights supplement informative text throughout the book, and the text includes a bonus section of interviews with designers at different levels of their career and marketplace, focusing on how they select and source fabrics and apply them to their designs.




Smart Textiles for Designers


Book Description

We are on the cusp of a revolution, where the intersection of technology, the human body and everyday objects will become completely seamless. Smart textiles are a key part of this revolution. Smart Textiles for Designers introduces the different qualities and properties that can be embedded in, integrated with, and applied to fabrics and looks at the different contexts in which these smart textiles can be used, from healthcare to haute couture, firefighting to sportswear. A survey of specific fabrics grouped by properties provides a core reference section and a palette for the designer to work from. The book also examines five different design approaches and features interviews with leading designers and design teams, showing their processes and working methods. The first book to look at this exciting and quickly developing area of technology through the eyes of a designer, this is both a core reference work and an inspirational guide for students and professionals alike.




Lets Look at Textiles


Book Description




Weaving


Book Description

Weaving: Structure and Substance looks at weave design from several different perspectives, showing how resources, ideas and practical experience can come together in a creative process of designing through making. Emphasizing the potential of woven textiles throughout, Ann Richards follows the success of her sister title Weaving Textiles that Shape Themselves and explores the tactile properties that emerge from the interaction of material and structure. The book is organized into four parts that look at the natural world as inspiration, the design resources of material and weave structure, the fabric qualities as starting points for design, and the practical issues of designing through making. With over 280 lavish photos, this book will be an invaluable resource for textile designers and enthusiasts looking for inspiration and practical advice.




Textiles, Identity and Innovation: Design the Future


Book Description

D_TEX presents itself as a starting point at a crossroads of ideas and debates around the complex universe of Textile Design in all its forms, manifestations and dimensions. The textile universe, allied to mankind since its beginnings, is increasingly far from being an area of exhausted possibilities, each moment proposing important innovations that need a presentation, discussion and maturation space that is comprehensive and above all inter- and transdisciplinary. Presently, the disciplinary areas where the textile area is present are increasing and important, such as fashion, home textiles, technical clothing and accessories, but also construction and health, among others, and can provide new possibilities and different disciplinary areas and allowing the production of new knowledge. D_TEX proposes to join the thinking of design, with technologies, tradition, techniques, and related areas, in a single space where ideas are combined with the technique and with the projectual and research capacity, thus providing for the creation of concepts, opinions, associations of ideas, links and connections that allow the conception of ideas, products and services. The interdisciplinary nature of design is a reality that fully reaches the textile material in its essence and its practical application, through the synergy and contamination by the different interventions that make up the multidisciplinary teams of research. The generic theme of D_TEX Textile Design Conference 2017, held at Lisbon School of Architecture of the University of Lisbon, Portugal on November 2-4, 2017, is Design the Future, starting from the crossroads of ideas and debates, a new starting point for the exploration of textile materials, their identities and innovations in all their dimensions.