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Virtu Art Books

Textile Art - Manipulating Colouring and Embellishing Fabrics

Anni Albers and Ancient American Textiles: From Bauhaus to Black Mountain
Anni Albers was a founding member of the Bauhaus weaving workshop. Her teachers and colleagues at the Bauhaus included Itten, Kandinsky and Klee, whose intellectual study of "primitive" art proved crucial both in raising the status of that art, and in establishing a pattern for the discussion of modern art. Albers' own investigation of the techniques and abstract designs of ancient American weavers led her to argue that their skill was unsurpassed in the modern world, and to employ those techniques in her own work. Virginia Gardner Troy continues Albers' story beyond the Nazi closure of the Bauhaus to her emigration to America and subsequent association with the Black Mountain College. Extensively illustrated, this book offers an insight into Anni Albers' work and the history of the re-evaluation of ancient skills and techniques in weaving.

Bauhaus Textiles: Women Artists and the Weaving Workshop
Longest standing and most successful of all Bauhaus enterprises was the Weaving Workshop, whose talented female designers created beautiful textiles, pouring all their energy and talent into this fresh and challenging field of interest. Embracing advanced technology, they used unusual materials (such as cellophane and early synthetics), and made reversible fabrics with acoustic and light-reflecting properties as well as other innovative experimental textiles. Their striking, brightly coloured geometric designs generated renewed interest in hand-weaving and a new professionalism in designing fabrics for mass- production. In this study, illustrated with both full-colour and rare historical photographs, Sigrid Wortmann Weltge recreates the atmosphere of excitement and creativity at the Bauhaus. Original archival research, as well as interviews with survivors and their students and with leading contemporary designers, detail the workshop's history and its legacy: wonderful fabrics still being produced today

Textiles of the Arts and Crafts Movement
In a delightful and thorough investigation, Linda Parry recalls the artistic genesis and glory of the Arts and Crafts movement's fabricmakers and their work. The author outlines the history of late-19th-century England's textile industry, and shares her understanding of the atmosphere that gave rise to the Arts and Crafts Society. Like the patterns illustrated here, Parry spares no detail in tracing the artists whose work is associated with the movement. While many lesser-known designers are covered, lengthy analysis is given to CFA Voysey, Lindsay Butterfield and George Haite, whose styles characterize the period. The reader sees period photographs of the products in Victorian homes and learn how the public received them. Throughout, Parry displays consunmate critical skills while leavening her discourse with enthusiastic appreciation of the fabrics and prints that decorated the Victorian world and now adorn these pages in nearly 100 colour illustrations.

The Textile Book
There are fifteen sections – What is Textiles?, The Cultural Place of Textiles, Perceptions of Fabric, The Textile Designer, The Designer-Maker, The Craftsperson, The Textile Artist, Global Textile Traditions, Ecology, Industry, The Role of Trends and Forecasting, The Buyer, Journalism, Science, Research. The book is structured in such a way it can be used as the basis of a lecture/seminar programme or as an aid to students in writing dissertations and essays. The book is fully international in scope and will be of use to a wide variety of disciplines with an interest in textiles, including art, design, business and retail, theoretical and critical studies

Matisse, His Art and His Textiles: The Fabric of Dreams
Matisse's ancestors had been weavers for generations: textiles, a key to his visual imagination, were in his blood. Although he was to outgrow every other influence, textiles retained their power for him throughout his life. His studio in Nice was a treasure house of exotic Persian carpets, delicate Arab embroideries, richly hued African wall hangings, and any number of colourful cushions, curtains, costumes, patterned screens and backcloths. This sumptuously illustrated book - the catalogue of a groundbreaking exhibition at the Musee Matisse, Le Cateau-Cambresis; the Royal Academy of Arts, London; and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York - explores for the first time Matisse's relationship with the textiles that surrounded him from his earliest days. Charting how the fabrics he painted became the very fabric of his painting, specialist authors examine the ways in which Matisse used what he called his 'working library' of textiles to furnish, order and compose some of the twentieth century's most pioneering works of art

Wild Color:
The Complete Guide to Making and Using Natural Dyes
This is a comprehensive look at all the processes and techniques of natural dyeing, clearly presented and well illustrated. Looks at mordanting, pH levels,and dye plants, and gives detailed instructions for achieving specific colours

Exploring Textile Arts: The Ultimate Guide to Manipulating, Coloring and Embellishing Fabrics
Experimentation with various fabric manipulation methods is a trend pursued by creative sewers and textile artists alike. In this volume there are nearly 50 techniques for creating designer fabrics using one's imagination as the guide. Step-by-step photography leads the fabric artist through the various processes used to create decorative fabrics suitable for quilting, wearable art garments, home decor, or simply to be admired. Techniques include: bubbling; pleating; quilting; trapunto; felting; pin weaving; random-cut fabric weaving methods; painting; stencilling; screen printing; stamping; discharging dye; serti; decorative stitching; applique; beadwork; photo transfers; foiling; and embossing

Colour on Cloth: Create Stunning Effects with Dye on Fabric
Following the success of Colour on Paper and Fabric, Ruth Issett's Colour on Fabric concentrates exclusively on the world of colouring fabric. Going into greater detail and including new techniques and effects, the book is aimed at all those involved in textiles, such as embroiderers, patchworkers and textile decorators, as well as students and teachers of design. Lavishly illustrated with colour photographs of finished fabrics, this colour 'recipe' book gives guidance and reassurance on the technical aspects of colour and dyeing. It includes: how to dye different natural fabrics, including heavy cotton, silk, satin, linen, and cotton velvet as well as threads colour mixing and inspiration: colour combinations; tones, tints, shades; complementary schemes detailed guidance on the dyeing processes, including equipment, shades, colour families, over-dyeing, pre-treatment of fabric, and fabric types ways of applying dye techniques, including the various types of resists as well as discharge and bleached effects advanced techniques and combinations, including the use of thickeners and over-dyeing

A Complete Guide to Silk Painting
This guide to silk painting contains ideas, designs and techniques that follows the "silk road" of discovery from fibre through to fabric, and takes readers, step-by-step, through the different techniques of this art. Colour illustrations detail the history of the silk trade in Asia and Europe, and the development of the modern silk-making process. There is also information and advice on material and equipment, and many ideas for gift and home-furnishing projects, as well as examples of wallhangings, pictures and designer clothing

Toile De Jouy: Printed Textiles in the Classic French Style
In 1760, the Manufacture Royale de Jouy was founded in Jouy-en-Josas, near Paris, to produce printed cotton fabrics on French soil that could compete with the popular imported ones. Riffel and Rouart have drawn upon the rich collections at the Musee de la Toile de Jouy to produce this history of these textiles. The illustrations include original designs that are conserved in the museum, exceptional examples of Toile de Jouy clothing and furniture, documents relating to manufacture and to the founding company, and examples of contemporary uses of the textiles

The Art of Manipulating Fabric
This volume demonstrates the techniques for the three-dimensional manipulation of fabric. It categorizes the techniques showing how they are related, giving examples of both modern and traditional variations. The techniques show how to reconstruct a flat piece of cloth using only a threaded needle

5000 Years of Textiles
This authoritative survey covers the development of textiles from a huge geographical and chronological range - from China to South America, from Egyptian artefacts of 3000 years BC to contemporary crafts and furnishings

A Dyer's Garden: From Plant to Pot - Growing Dyes for Natural Fibers
Beautifully researched, solid data, and great color illustrations and presentation AND amazingly enough, her information is ACCURATE. No theoretical blather based on other references or wishful thinking. She has clearly tested, cross-checked, and validated all of her information first-hand. That in itself is remarkable, greatly appreciated, enormously valuable

Textile Designs: 200 Years of Patterns for Printed Fabrics Arranged by Motif, Colour, Period and Design
Newly available in paperback, this volume remains unsurpassed as the biggest and most lavish survey of printed textiles ever published. Textile Designs presents a comprehensive selection of the colourful patterned fabrics used for clothing and interior decoration over the last 200 years. Here are the bright and hugely enjoyable materials of everyday life - the printed calicos and cottons, the flowered cretonnes and chintzes, the polka-dot silks and foulards. These are presented by motif and pattern under flye separate headings: Floral, Geometric, Conversational, Ethnic, and Art Movements and Period Styles, and illustrated in nearly 2,000 colour reproductions. Textile Designs is not only indispensable to professionals in the fashion and decoration fields everywhere, but will also be an inspiration to designers in the graphic and visual arts, a reference book for collectors and a delight for aesthetes everywhere

Transforming Fabric: Thirty Ways to Paint, Dye, and Pattern Cloth
Early textile dyers signed oaths that they would not reveal any of the process. Fortunately, author Carolyn Dahl openly shares the secrets of dyeing, painting, and patterning beautiful cloth she has gleaned in art schools. This guide is the next best thing to having a master artist in the studio. Entertaining stories awaken memories of childhood colouring books, leaf prints, ironon designs and the tie-dyed T-shirts most of us experienced at some point in our lives. Readers will be inspired as they follow step-by-step photographs and instructions full of hints and secrets for using luminous colour to transform white cloth into artistic masterpieces. Connoisseurs of the decorative arts and those who are merely curious about the fabrics they wear and use in everyday life will find much to interest them

Techno Textiles: Revolutionary Fabrics for Fashion and Design
The predictions of style gurus and top international designers are given form in this study of the way new technology in fabrics and fashion is bringing together art, design, engineering and science. This book is a source for those professionals in design, fashion, art and architecture, but its results on the effects textiles are having on our lifestyles will also appeal to a much wider audience

Beginner's Guide to Silk Painting
Painting on silk is a popular pastime. Silk paints and materials are now widely available, and the craft is much easier than it looks. This guide presents step-by-step colour photographic sequences to show how easy it is to do. The book also contains ten projects for scarves, cushion covers, greetings cards and wall-hangings, in which readers combine the natural beauty of silk with silk paints to create attractive items

Textile Perspectives in Mixed-media Scultpure
This title celebrates the prodigious sculpture created by artists who operate on the interface of mixed-media sculpture and textile art. It reveals the inspirations, influences and creative journeys of over 30 contemporary artists and explains the practical processes and raw materials they use. An introductory chapter contextualizes textile perspectives in mixed-media sculpture and discusses elements that concern the sculptor in the 21st century. The book also offers informative technical information on creating sculpture from plastic, rubber, plaster, plaster, metal and paper

Complex Cloth: A Comprehensive Guide to Surface Design
I have a very large collection of books about surface design and fabric dyeing, and this one stands above all the others, even though many of them are very very good. I find myself returning to this book again and again, not just for the excellent instructions, but for the glorious pictures as well. Also, every technique is followed by a series of alternative ideas for using the technique, and at the end of the book is a wonderful series of project plans, not to mention comparisons of various fabric paints and a list of resources. If this book doesn't get your creative juices going, you need taxidermy

World Textiles: A Concise History (World of Art S.)
Silks from China, carpets from Persia, ikats from Indonesia, cottons from India, fine linens from Flanders - each one of these transactions has helped to shape the modern world. Written as a chronological survey spanning prehistory to the early 21st century, this book is organized around five themes - materials, methods, trade, technology and social structures - which allow textiles from all ages to be investigated from many angles: how they are made, what they are made from, how they function in society, the ways in which they are valued and given meaning, and the messages they contain. This approach shows the intricate relationships between different cultures' textile traditions, and above all demonstrates the awesome significance and the history of the materials that we all take for granted in our everyday lives

Fabric Dyeing and Printing
This work guides the reader through the choice of fabric types, the range of dye recipes and the profusion of traditional and new techniques. Exploring the patterning options with the help of detailed step-by-step photography, this book enables the reader to choose and work through any one of the over 30 techniques including: Preparing natural dyes; to printing with foils; hand-block printing to screen printing and the use of resist techniques. In addition, the work of contemporary designers such as Georgina von Eztdorf, Timney Fowler, Cressida Bell, and Janet Stoyle, is highlighted to demonstrate how techniques can be combined and interpreted

Decoration on Fabric: A Sourcebook of Ideas
This work introduces a wealth of highly creative and innovative techniques and ideas for personalizing all different types of fabric. Unusual modern techniques are explored, while more traditional methods are given an exciting twist. From stitching and applique, through to silk painting, dyeing and printing, Pauline Brown gives step-by-step advice for achieving professional decorating results with fabric

The Handbook of Indigo Dyeing
Vivien Prideaux presents a stimulating and inspirational guide in which she shows how an amazing range rich and subtle colours can be created using indigo dye. Beautiful pictures of wonderful embroidered and quilted designs accompany detailed advice on the materials required, preparing the fabric and the dyeing methods. Using Shibori techniques - folding, pleating, clamping, stitch and pole wrapping, the author illustrates all the different stages, using clear step-by-step photographs and easy-to-follow text. A stunning sequence of inspirational projects have been specially chosen to develop skills and build confidence, with instructions on how to make a kimono, a jacket, a silk velvet quilt, a scarf and more

Silk Painting: The Artist's Guide to Gutta and Wax Resist Techniques
This work provides a complete course in an increasingly popular medium. Originating in Russia and migrating to America in the 1960s, the gutta resist method gave artists a new way to draw and paint on fabric using brilliant colour and without destroying the natural drape of the cloth (resists used prior to the gutta method stiffened the fabric). Following a short history of this revolutionary method, the artist covers the essentials of the silk painting art including the materials required (dyes, silks, applicators and brushes) and the basic palette of fabric dyes. Then, through a series of step-by-step lessons, she demonstrates the procedures of the gutta method. Beginning with how to draw and design using gutta, Moyer describes the direct method, the salt crystal method, the droplet method, the alcohol method and the faux batik method of application. The book concludes with methods for fixing the dyes permanently with steaming and dry cleaning

The Dyer's Companion
The Dyer's Companion is an essential reference tool for anyone who wants to dye natural or synthetic fibers, fabric or yarns. This handy, easily accessible guide offers a wealth of indispensable information on equipment and supplies, types of dyes, preparation, safety, measurements, dyeing procedures, basic surface design techniques (including painting, marbling, and silk screening), proper dye disposal methods, and recordkeeping. Dye master Dagmar Klos draws on her wealth of experience to provide step-by-step recipes for dye methods she has refined, ones that produce consistent and successful results. Beginners will gain the confidence to add color to fiber, while seasoned textile artisans are sure to discover a host of friendly tips and hints. An eight-page color section showing 100 skeins of yarn in a range of color gradations, along with the fundamentals of color theory, provide you with encouragement to explore your own dyeing variations. Whether you are passionate about dyeing or just want to create colors for sewing, quilting, spinning, weaving, knitting, crocheting, embroidering, or felting, this comprehensive resource puts everything you need at your fingertips and is certain to become an invaluable partner at your dyepot