Bibliograph

Fabric, the hidden history of the material world, Victoria Finlay

Type

Label

Fabric, the hidden history of the material world, Victoria Finlay

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references (pages 478-494) and index

Illustrations

platesmapsillustrations

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Fabric

Nature of contents

bibliography

Oclc number

1350382861

Responsibility statement

Victoria Finlay

Sub title

the hidden history of the material world

Summary

"How is a handmade fabric helping save an ancient forest? Why is a famous fabric pattern from India best known by the name of a Scottish town? How is a Chinese dragon robe a diagram of the whole universe? What is the difference between how the Greek Fates and the Viking Norns used threads to tell our destiny? In <i>Fabric</i>, bestselling author Victoria Finlay spins us around the globe, weaving stories of our relationship with cloth and asking how and why people through the ages have made it, worn it, invented it, and made symbols out of it. And sometimes, why they have fought for it. She beats the inner bark of trees into cloth in Papua New Guinea, fails to hand spin cotton in Guatemala, and has lessons in patchwork-making in Gee's Bend, Alabama -- where in the 1930s, deprived of almost everything they owned, a community of women turned quilting into an art form. She began her research just after the deaths of both of her parents -- and entwined in the threads she found her personal story too. <i>Fabric</i> is not just a material history of our world, but Finlay's own journey through grief and recovery." --Back cover

Table Of Contents

Introduction -- Some words before we start -- Barkcloth -- Tapa -- Cotton -- Wool -- Tweed -- Pashmina -- Sackcloth -- Linen -- Silk -- Imagined fabrics -- Patchwork -- Epilogue

Classification