This week’s post is crafted by Joshua Hirschstein and Maren Beck, authors of our brand new book Silk Weaver’s of Hill Tribe Laos. They offer a special view into the world of Lao weaving and ask some hard questions about the future of traditional textiles. Thanks, Josh and Maren! Upon walking into a hill tribe […]
01
Sep
Sep
Silk Weavers of Hill Tribe Laos authors Joshua Hirschstein and Maren Beck share some of the journey that led to writing the book. Enjoy! Maren and I never chose to be textile enthusiasts or authors, of Laos or anywhere else. Nor was this destiny inherited, or even anticipated. We kind of just . . . […]
28
Jul
Jul
He said it would not be like any other book we had ever published. With some potential authors, that would be the signal to run the other way, fast. But with this author, I was intrigued. I say “author” but it should be “authors.” Josh Hirschstein and Maren Beck operate as a tight unit — […]
13
Jan
Jan
A few nights ago, Linda Ligon, Deborah Chandler—who’s visiting from her home in Guatemala—and I found our way to the Indigenous Film and Arts Festival in Denver. The January feature was Weaving Worlds, a 2007 documentary by Navajo filmmaker Bennie Klain. Weaving Worlds records the lives of several Navajo weavers and their struggles to maintain […]
11
Dec
Dec
Dateline Cusco I’m in Cusco, Peru with Karen Brock and Joe Coca. We’re working on a new book with Nilda Callanaupa, Diana Hendrickson, and the weavers of the Center for Traditional Textiles of Cusco (CTTC). This book is beyond the conception stage, beyond the zygote stage, well into the fetus stage. It grows and changes […]
04
Dec
Dec
When we touch the time and place of cloth, we begin to know the story of its maker. When we preserve that cloth, we are preserving our collective stories—our celebrations, our suffering, our families, our culture and history. Thrums Books would like to acknowledge important institutions around the globe who diligently work to preserve traditional […]
13
Nov
Nov
In 1946, when WW II had just ended, Mary Meigs Atwater went to Guatemala to look at textiles. Considered the “dean” of the American handweaving revival, she wrote up her experiences in a monograph titled Guatemala Visited, and published it under the Shuttlecraft Guild imprint. You can still get copies today. It makes for fascinating […]
23
Oct
Oct
Taped to my refrigerator is E.B. White’s confession, “I arise in the morning torn between a desire to save the world and a desire to savor the world. That makes it hard to plan the day.” I feel this way often. There’s so much that needs saving, and there is much to savor, especially on a sparkling […]
