An ever-widening range of materials is being used by today's crafters to weave and coil baskets and to decorate gourds. Over 350 color images display the raw materials, techniques for their use, and final works of art created with them. Along with traditional materials such as reeds, white oak, ash, vines, plants, grasses, and bark, kudzu, grapevines, iris, sweetgrass, paper and wire provide new possibilities. Information is included on where to find natural materials, and how to collect and prepare them for weaving. Exciting uses for alternative materials are also explored, including wire, mesh, and recycled materials. Tutorials and projects from well-known weavers and gourd artists, along with an extensive list of resources, make this book a must have for weavers, crafters, and anyone with a passion for handcrafted fiber art.
Step-by-step photographs demonstrate the techniques of plain weaving, twining, and coiling and detailed instructions for specific projects lead to stylish, colorful baskets
Looking for new ways to manipulate wire jewelry? Weave, Wrap, Coil showcases a variety of techniques, including weaving, coiling, wrapping, texturing, and forging, and offers new ideas for creating truly amazing combinations with both silver and copper wire. Inside you'll discover: • Basic techniques as well as beginning cold metalwork tips. • 25 contemporary and dazzling projects, from bracelets and necklaces to pendants, cuffs, and rings. • Detailed step-by-step photography and illustrations. Designer Jodi Bombardier emphasizes wire weaving as a signature technique. She encourages you to use a variety of materials, such as beads and stones, to showcase the gorgeous details of your wire pieces. Perfect for new and experienced wireworkers alike, Weave, Wrap, Coil groups projects by level of difficulty, with each level utilizing three to four of the important techniques.
Just as a basket’s purpose determines its materials, weave, and shape, so too is the purpose of the essay related to its material, weave, and shape. Editors Elissa Washuta and Theresa Warburton ground this anthology of essays by Native writers in the formal art of basket weaving. Using weaving techniques such as coiling and plaiting as organizing themes, the editors have curated an exciting collection of imaginative, world-making lyric essays by twenty-seven contemporary Native writers from tribal nations across Turtle Island into a well-crafted basket. Shapes of Native Nonfiction features a dynamic combination of established and emerging Native writers, including Stephen Graham Jones, Deborah Miranda, Terese Marie Mailhot, Billy-Ray Belcourt, Eden Robinson, and Kim TallBear. Their ambitious, creative, and visionary work with genre and form demonstrate the slippery, shape-changing possibilities of Native stories. Considered together, they offer responses to broader questions of materiality, orality, spatiality, and temporality that continue to animate the study and practice of distinct Native literary traditions in North America.
The methods of Indian basket weaving explained in this excellent manual are the very ones employed by native practitioners of the craft. members of the Navajo School of Basketry have set down their secrets in clear and simple language, enabling even the beginner to create work that can rival theirs in grace, design, and usefulness. Beginning with basic techniques, choice of materials, preparation of the reed, splicing, the introduction of color, principles and methods of design, shaping the basket and weaves from many cultures, such as Lazy Squaw, Mariposa, Taos, Samoan, Klikitat, and Shilo, each accompanied by specific instructions. There are suggestions for the weaving of shells, beads, feathers, fan palms, date palms, and even pine needles, and recipes for the preparation of dyes. Examples of each type of basket are illustrated by photographs, often taken from more than one angle so that the bottom can be seen as well as the top and sides. Close-up photography of the various types of stitching, especially at the crucial stage of beginning the basket, is an invaluable aid to the weaver. In addition, the authors have provided line drawings which are exceptionally clear magnifications of the various weave patterns. Anyone who follows the lessons contained in this book will have a knowledge of basketry unattainable in any other way. They are so lucid and complete that the amateur as well as the experienced weaver will be able to manufacture baskets distinguishable from authentic native articles only in that they were not woven by Indians. For those who merely seek a broader knowledge of American Indian arts, the book provides a comprehensive introduction to the subject of basketry.
"With the inborn wisdom that has guided them for so long through so many obstacles, Hopi men and women perpetuate their proven rituals, strongly encouraging those who attempt to neglect or disrespect their obligations to uphold them. One of these obligations is to respect the flora and fauna of our planet. The Hopi closeness to the Earth is represented in all the arts of all three mesas, whether in clay or natural fibers. What clay is to a potter's hands, natural fibers are to a basket weaver."--from the Introduction Rising dramatically from the desert floor, Arizona's windswept mesas have been home to the Hopis for hundreds of years. A people known for protecting their privacy, these Native Americans also have a long and less known tradition of weaving baskets and plaques. Generations of Hopi weavers have passed down knowledge of techniques and materials from the plant world around them, from mother to daughter, granddaughter, or niece. This book is filled with photographs and detailed descriptions of their beautiful baskets--the one art, above all others, that creates the strongest social bonds in Hopi life. In these pages, weavers open their lives to the outside world as a means of sharing an art form especially demanding of time and talent. The reader learns how plant materials are gathered in canyons and creek bottoms, close to home and far away. The long, painstaking process of preparation and dying is followed step by step. Then, using techniques of coiled, plaited, or wicker basketry, the weaving begins. Underlying the stories of baskets and their weavers is a rare glimpse of what is called "the Hopi Way," a life philosophy that has strengthened and sustained the Hopi people through centuries of change. Many other glimpses of the Hopi world are also shared by author and photographer Helga Teiwes, who was warmly invited into the homes of her collaborators. Their permission and the permission of the Cultural Preservation Office of the Hopi Tribe gave her access to people and information seldom available to outsiders. Teiwes was also granted access to some of the ceremonial observances where baskets are preeminent. Woven in brilliant reds, greens, and yellows as well as black and white, Hopi weavings, then, not only are an arresting art form but also are highly symbolic of what is most important in Hopi life. In the women's basket dance, for example, woven plaques commemorate and honor the Earth and the perpetuation of life. Other plaques play a role in the complicated web of Hopi social obligation and reciprocity. Living in a landscape of almost surreal form and color, Hopi weavers are carrying on one of the oldest arts traditions in the world. Their stories in Hopi Basket Weaving will appeal to collectors, artists and craftspeople, and anyone with an interest in Native American studies, especially Native American arts. For the traveler or general reader, the book is an invitation to enter a little-known world and to learn more about an art form steeped in meaning and stunning in its beauty.
Weaving Freeform Wire Jewelry is a guide to understanding and using wire weaves to create 20 beautiful freeform jewelry projects. With a tight focus on five wire weaves—over-under, over-over, coiling, looping, and circular weaving — the reader will learn by making rings, pins, earrings, pendants, clasps, and bracelets. Author Kaska Firor offers a wonderful variety of symmetrical and asymmetrical designs to inspire the budding wireworker, in addition to showing the evolution of wirework design from simple to complex for more advanced jewelry-makers.
This survey of textile fundamentals and methods, written by the foremost textile artist of the 20th century, covers hand weaving and the loom, fundamental construction and draft notation, modified and composite weaves, early techniques of thread interlacing, interrelation of fiber and construction, tactile sensibility, and design. 9 color illustrations. 112 black-and-white plates.
