Straw Plaiting
Straw Plaiting

Author: Veronica Main

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2023-08-17

Total Pages: 338

ISBN-13: 178994077X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

'A must-have for anyone interested in working with straw and an astonishing contribution to the preservation of this endangered craft.' Jay Blades MBE, Co-Chair of Heritage Crafts An engaging makers' guide to the history and craft of straw plaiting, brimming with helpful step-by-step diagrams. Straw plaiting has been used to make accessories from hats and baskets to handbags, trimmings and homewares around the world for centuries. Once employing tens of thousands of people in the UK alone, the craft is now listed as Critically Endangered on Heritage Crafts' Red List. This book aims to change that, drawing on more than 50 previously unpublished patterns and techniques from around the world that will help you to unlock the history and preserve the skills of straw plaiting. For each pattern, follow the step-by-step diagrams and instructions and discover how they were developed whilst learning about materials, tools and preparation. Once familiar with the plaiting techniques – using straw as well as other materials – you will be able to develop your own skills, possibly blending in recycled materials, which are increasingly being used to produce beautiful and unique pieces.

Sense Of Place
Sense Of Place

Author: Barbara Allen

Publisher: University Press of Kentucky

Published: 2021-10-21

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 0813185092

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Despite the homogenization of American life, areas of strong regional consciousness still persist in the United States, and there is a growing interest in regionalism among the public and among academics. In response to that interest ten folklorists here describe and interpret a variety of American regional cultures in the twentieth century. Their book is the first to deal specifically with regional culture and the first to employ the perspective of folklore in the study of regional identity and consciousness. The authors range widely over the United States, from the Eastern Shore to the Pacific Northwest, from the Southern Mountains to the Great Plains. They look at a variety of cultural expressions and practices—legends, anecdotes, songs, foodways, architecture, and crafts. Tying their work together is a common consideration of how regional culture shapes and is shaped by the consciousness of living in a special place. In exploring this dimension of regional culture the authors consider the influence of natural environment and historical experience on the development of regional culture, the role of ethnicity in regional consciousness, the tensions between insiders and outsiders that stem from a sense of regional identity, and the changes in culture in response to social and economic change. With its focus on cultural manifestations and its folkloristic perspective this book provides a fresh and needed contribution to regional studies. Written in a clear, readable style, it will appeal to general readers interested in American regions and their cultures. At the same time the research and analytical approach make it useful not only to folklorists but to cultural geographers, anthropologists, and other scholars of regional studies.

Row Upon Row
Row Upon Row

Author: Dale Rosengarten

Publisher: Univ of South Carolina Press

Published: 2022-06-03

Total Pages: 98

ISBN-13: 1643362747

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

An in-depth, illustrated history of South Carolina's Lowcountry baskets Coiled grass baskets are icons of Gullah culture. From their roots in Africa, through their evolution on Lowcountry rice plantations, to their modern appreciation as art objects sought by collectors and tourists, these vessels are carriers of African American history and the African-inspired culture that took hold along the coast of South Carolina and neighboring states. Row Upon Row, the first comprehensive history of this folk art, remains a classic in the field. The fourth edition brings the narrative into the twenty-first century, with a chapter describing current challenges to the survival of the time-honored tradition. The artform continues to adapt to the changing consumer market, the availability of materials, economic opportunities, and most recently, the widening of the highway near the majority of basket stands. As globalization transforms the world, the coiled basket in all its iterations retains its power as a local symbol of individual identity and cultural distinction. A preface is provided by Jane Przybysz, executive director of the McKissick Museum at the University of South Carolina.