I have conducted some very interesting research into various aspects of weaving and textiles and fibers and all the attendant concepts that come along for the ride. I have become quite taken with the journal Textile: The Journal of Cloth and Culture. It offers strongly researched articles, from across the fiber spectrum, written with depth, making connections to many of the concerns of contemporary life. I have saved all the articles I have read and have gone back to reconsider more than once. As a student at Evergreen, I am able to access it easily as a digital archive. But it is rather obscure otherwise.
I just discovered that Textile is celebrating its 10th anniversary and are offering ten of their articles free to all to read, without need for subscription, so I can share that with you all.
The link to the articles: http://www.bergpublishers.com/Portals/0/journals/2012_10articles_TEXTILE_website.pdf
They selected one article from each year of publication and include the following topics:
Webs of Wrath: Terrible Textiles from the War of Troy, by Lois Martin
Wearing Propaganda: Textiles on the Home Front in Japan, Great Britain, and America during the Greater East Asian War, 1931-45, by Jacqueline M. Atkins
Collecting the Contemporary: “Love Will Decide What is Kept and Science Will
Decide How it is Kept”, by Sue Prichard
Hiding the (Fabric) Stash: Collecting, Hoarding, and Hiding Strategies of Contemporary US Quilters, by Marybeth C. Stalp
Needled Women: Representations of Male Conduct in Mapula Embroideries, by Brenda Schmahmann
Pecha Cucha: Lace, by Catherine Harper
The Interpretation of Surface: Boundaries, Systems and Their Transgression in Clothing and Domestic Textiles, c.1880-1939, by Victoria Kelly
Women, Cloth, Fluff and Dust in Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South, by Elodie Neuville
Touching the Hem: The Thread between Garment and Blood in the Story of the Woman with the Haemorrhage, by Barbara Baert
White, the Color of Whispers: Concealing and Revealing Cloth, by Kathleen Connellan
I hope you all enjoy the articles as much as I have.
-Sarah