Customer Reviews

World Textiles: A Visual Guide to Traditional Techniques

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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World Textiles is an encyclopedia of textile techniques. The text is very accessible (virtually no footnotes or unexplained jargon) and punctuated with beautiful color photographs, artfully arranged on nearly every page of the book. Typically, a picture of a textile is overlaid with someone wearing the garment, which puts the textile, and its description, in context. World Textiles is organized like a book of lists, so techniques are easy to find, but a bit tedious to read from cover to cover. It also has some nontraditional categories (multi-colored knitting is in a category separate from plain knitting and textured knitting) and several categories that seem arbitrary or nonparallel (for example, the only dye that gets its own category is indigo, and indigo is listed with a range of dye techniques as if it were itself a dyeing process). However, each category includes a description of the technique, it uses, and often, some factual tidbits and sketch drawings to show how the textile was made. The book seems to be aimed at the amateur collector or professional textile-maker who wants to know how a particular technique compares and contrasts with other ways to create or embellish cloth. I would recommend it as a good introduction to the world's textiles.

This is the clearest, most comprehensive guide to the techniques used to produce textiles. The examples are photographed beautifully and make you want to get to work. I'm so glad I spent the money on this first-class book.

I discovered this book in a wonderful little shop in Amman, Jordan that sold antique furniture and textiles. They identified a piece I was admiring as coming from a particular country and then showed me a picture of a similar piece in the book. I was intrigued by the book and wanted to purchase it, but they said it was not for sale as they use it to identify textiles they acquire. I came home and purchased one of my own on Amazon and am now able to identify many textiles or embroideried pieces from their country of origin. It's not only a great reference book, it's also a beautiful book to browse.

I'm using this book as one of two texts for a college course on Ethnic Dress; this is an absolutely fabulous resource!!! As students, we use the book to look for traditional techniques we will research and present in class, including "hands on" practice. I can't recommend this book highly enough!!! Thank you, Mr. Gillow, for putting such a beautiful, historical source together!

A fascination with anything woven, including knitting and crochet, led me to order this book. As a novice hoping for a peek into the mysteries of textiles, I was looking for a comprehensive overview of weaving techniques, with diagrams and explanations of how these various techniques are found in cultures through time. And that's exactly what this book offers. It is well-written and has stunning, lush photos of cloth samples and interesting, exotic photos of people wearing the clothes. If you love the feel of textiles and embroidery, and have a deep desire to learn about a culture through its textiles, you'll enjoy the sensations stirred up by this book and its photos. I'm especially enjoying the soft cover book. I'm sure the hardcover version is beautiful, but there's something about being able to curl up in a comfy chair with this book and visually devour the images up close!