TAI Gallery: Textile Arts

TAI Gallery/Textile Arts, located in Santa Fe New Mexico, is one of the world's finest galleries featuring the art of traditional textiles and Japanese bamboo art. Since 1978, owners Mary Hunt Kahlenberg and Robert T. Coffland have hosted this selective gallery, combining her renowned knowledge of the field with his contemporary art sensibility to offer visually dazzling, museum quality textiles and bamboo art from around the world. In 2006 TAI added the field of contemporary Japanese photography to it's collections. TAI Gallery/Textile Arts exhibits at art fairs in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and London. There are special shows of textiles and bamboo art throughout year. For dates and more information on shows and events please click here.

In 2006 TAI Gallery opened at a new location: 1601B Paseo de Peralta at Guadalupe St., across from Site Santa Fe, in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

All Fiber Arts

You can find over 2000 pages of information, free patterns, resources and instructions for weaving, spinning, dyeing, knitting, crochet, felting, papermaking, needlepoint, sewing, and other textile handicrafts. We also have a free Discussion Forum and Chat rooms where you can meet with all your "fiberholic friends.

International Quilt Study Center & Museum

The mission of the International Quilt Study Center & Museum is to collect, preserve, study, exhibit, and promote discovery of quilts and quiltmaking traditions from many cultures, countries, and times.

We envision the International Quilt Study Center & Museum as a dynamic center of formal and informal learning and discovery for students, teachers, scholars, artists, quilters, and others. Our comprehensive and accessible collection of quilts, related textiles and documents form a primary text for study, insight, and inspiration.

Our academic home is within the Department of Textiles, Clothing and Design in the College of Education and Human Science. The Institute for Agriculture and Natural Resources also provides support for the research and outreach efforts of the Quilt Center.

World Textiles: A Visual Guide to Traditional Techniques

World Textiles: A Visual Guide to Traditional Techniques

Product Description
A complete guide to the whole range of traditional handmade textiles from all corners of the globe.

The history of the world can be read in textiles: the rise of civilizations and the fall of empires are woven into their warp and weft along with the great stories of conquest, religion, and trade. The legacy of textile design, form, and pattern that has resulted from this global endowment can be seen here in all its spectacular richness.

Eight sections cover every aspect of materials and techniques, each giving a succinct summary of characteristics, production, and geographical distribution, accompanied by hundreds of color illustrations and drawings. Nonloom and loom-woven textiles, painted and printed, dyed, sewn, embroidered, and embellished techniques are all covered, as well as the materials themselves.

From simple—the clothes made of skin or hide in prehistoric times—to complex—materials elaborately embellished with tassels—world textiles are both beautiful and beguiling. This unrivaled guide is completed by a glossary, further reading, and information on collections open to the public. 778 illustrations, 551 in color.

Embroidered Textiles: A World Guide to Traditional Patterns

Embroidered Textiles: A World Guide to Traditional Patterns

Product Description
The only worldwide survey of embroidered textiles: a remarkable visual panorama.

Embroidery has been practiced for thousands of years, and the variety is astonishing: gold-embroidered Chinese court insignia, landscape-worked Japanese kimonos, Sumatran sarongs, Indian saris, Afghan chain-stitched purses, Turkish napkin borders, Ghanaian patchwork banners, Egyptian head shawls, Moroccan cushion covers, Hungarian sheepskin jerkins, Slovakian bed curtains, German folk dress, Dutch bonnets, Breton coifs, Sicilian ecclesiastical cloths, Spanish sleeves, North American Indian quillwork pouches, Mexican blouses, Panamanian molas, Peruvian Nasca textiles, and more.

The book is organized into four main sections, covering every aspect of embroidered textiles:
•Guide to Identification: the key fabrics, materials, stitches, motifs, and styles;
• The Decorative Power of Cult: recurrent mythological symbols, including Great Goddess figures, Trees of Life, and symbols of the Hunt;
• Religion and Its Patterns: the main symbols of all the major religious and spiritual systems;
• The Magic of Embroidery: protective and strengthening devices rooted in ancient beliefs and superstitions.

There are 500 illustrations (over 360 in color), including specially taken color photographs, maps, line drawings, and a dictionary of stitches. Complete with a glossary, a guide to textile collections around the world, and advice on collecting and conserving textiles, this comprehensive survey, now in an enhanced format and completely revised, will be invaluable to anyone interested in fashion, textiles, crafts, and design.

About the Author
Sheila Paine is a world expert on tribal societies and textiles.

World Textiles: A Concise History

World Textiles: A Concise History (World of Art)

Product Description
The history of textiles, more than that of any other artifact, is the history of human ingenuity. From the earliest needles of 25,000 years ago to techno textiles used in Space Shuttle parachutes today, textiles have been fundamental to human existence and achievements, and have informed developments in other areas from agriculture to metallurgy. Textiles are global commodities, common to every culture and for a long time the motivation for trade, the exchange of ideas, and sometimes even conflict. Silks from China, carpets from Persia, ikats from Indonesia, cottons from India, fine linens from Flanders—each of these has helped to shape the modern world. This groundbreaking book surveys, from prehistory to the early twenty-first century, how textiles 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. The author shows the intricate relationships between different cultures' textile traditions and demonstrates the significance of the materials we all take for granted in our everyday lives. 204 illustrations, 100 in color.