The classic book on the art and history of weaving—now expanded and in full color Written by one of the twentieth century’s leading textile artists, this splendidly illustrated book is a luminous meditation on the art of weaving, its history, its tools and techniques, and its implications for modern design. First published in 1965, On Weaving bridges the transition between handcraft and the machine-made, highlighting the essential importance of material awareness and the creative leaps that can occur when design problems are tackled by hand. With her focus on materials and handlooms, Anni Albers discusses how technology and mass production place limits on creativity and problem solving, and makes the case for a renewed embrace of human ingenuity that is particularly important today. Her lucid and engaging prose is illustrated with a wealth of rare and extraordinary images showing the history of the medium, from hand-drawn diagrams and close-ups of pre-Columbian textiles to material studies with corn, paper, and the typewriter, as well as illuminating examples of her own work. Now available for a new generation of readers, this expanded edition of On Weaving updates the book’s original black-and-white illustrations with full-color photos, and features an afterword by Nicholas Fox Weber and essays by Manuel Cirauqui and T’ai Smith that shed critical light on Albers and her career.

Jennifer Way's study The Politics of Vietnamese Craft uncovers a little-known chapter in the history of American cultural diplomacy, in which Vietnamese craft production was encouraged and shaped by the US State Department as an object for consumption by middle class America. Way explores how American business and commerce, department stores, the art world and national museums variously guided the marketing and meanings of Vietnamese craft in order to advance American diplomatic and domestic interests. Conversely, American uses of Vietnamese craft provide an example of how the United States aimed to absorb post-colonial South Vietnam into the 'Free World', in a Cold War context of American anxiety about communism spreading throughout Southeast Asia. Way focuses in particular on the part played by the renowned American designer Russel Wright, contracted by the US International Cooperation Administration's aid programs for South Vietnam to survey the craft industry in South Vietnam and manage its production, distribution and consumption abroad and at home. Way shows how Wright and his staff brought American ideas about Vietnamese history and culture to bear in managing the making of Vietnamese craft.

This is the first paperback edition of a manual well known to weavers for its great thoroughness, clarity, and value to beginning and professional weavers alike. The author has drawn upon many years of experience as a teacher and writer in preparing this practical text of basic weaving techniques and projects from the simplest to the extremely complex. Each topic of weaving theory and technique is presented with its practical applications in mind. Within the first thirty pages, readers learn enough to complete their first weaving project, a bookmark, and this leads directly to the weaving of rugs on a loom, the process of weaving on a two-harness loom, threading plain weave from a draft, making a two-harness table loom (readers following the clear diagram and instructions will have no trouble building the loom), preparing the weft, handling of threads, two-harness design methods, the weaving of rag rugs in plain weave, useful articles woven with striped warps and wefts, tapestry techniques, and design weaves. For advanced weavers, the second major section of the book covers a great variety of weaves for the four-harness loom and related information: how to warp and thread a four-harness loom, weaving both plain and pattern weave, the twill family of weaves and herringbone variations, the principles of overshot pattern weaving, the diamond or cross family, the monk's belt pattern and its uses, practical overshot patterns, designing drafts and special techniques, ways of weaving overshot, special four-harness techniques (summer and winter weave, the Bronson weave, the M's and O's weave, the crackle weave, the waffle weave, matta technique, syncopation, double weaving on a four-harness loom). The author then details multi-harness weaves such as multi-harness twill, eight-harness damask design, and several others. Then follow discussions of the uses of color in weaving designs, planning borders, the various draft notations (European and American), weaving with synthetic fibers, thread sizes, counts and yardage, and costs of handwoven fabrics. There is a thread chart of warp settings and suitable wefts. A final chapter gives instructions for making several projects from hand-woven fabrics (a folder for linens, a small ornamental box, jackets and suits, and others). The text is fully illustrated throughout with photographs and labelled diagrams.

"Through an analysis of specific weaving stories, the difference between a text and a textile becomes blurred. Such stories portray women weavers transforming their domestic activity of making textiles into one of making texts by inscribing their cloth with both personal and political messages."--BOOK JACKET.