11 inspiring new craft books to enjoy

12 May 2021

The latest releases to relish

12 May 2021

From brilliant biographies to marvellous monographs, there’s a wealth of recent and upcoming craft titles to settle into your favourite chair with. Here’s our pick of the top tomes to look out for.

Shedding the Shackles: Women’s Empowerment Through Craft
Colombian weaving artisans making pieces for designer Alvaro Catalán de Ocón‘s PET lamp project. Courtesy: Studio Alvaro Catalán de Ocón

Shedding the Shackles: Women’s Empowerment Through Craft

Textile artist Lynne Stein takes us globe-trotting as she explores women’s cultural craft practices, from South African beadwork to Kenyan sisal basketweaving and the Sujani embroidery of Bihar. The book is punctuated with case studies of contemporary artists such as Liza Lou and Celia Pym and their fresh interpretations of traditional skills.

By Lynne Stein. Published by Herbert Press, £25 hb

Resilient Stitch: Wellbeing and Connection in Textile Art
Courtesy: Batsford

Resilient Stitch: Wellbeing and Connection in Textile Art

Textile artist Claire Wellesley-Smith explores how sewing by hand can help support wellbeing and community life. This thoughtful tome touches on her own personal work as well as community-based textile projects, while an account of one textile community’s creative response to the coronavirus pandemic makes it all the more current.

By Claire Wellesley-Smith. Published by Batsford, £22.95 hb

Barn Club: A Tale of Forgotten Elm Trees, Traditional Craft and Community Spirit

Barn Club: A Tale of Forgotten Elm Trees, Traditional Craft and Community Spirit

In this personal exploration of rural making and community, craftsman Robert Somerville relates how he became entranced by an ancient barn near his home in Hertfordshire, and then brought together friends, family and strangers to build a structure for their local area. In doing so, he says, ‘a different world opened up’.

By Robert J Somerville. Published by Chelsea Green Publishing, £20 hb

Arts and Crafts Pioneers: The Hobby Horse Men and their Century Guild
The Brownies stained-glass window, by Selwyn Image, designed for Soham House, Newmarket, Suffolk, circa 1890, made by James Powell & Sons. Courtesy: Lund Humphries

Arts and Crafts Pioneers: The Hobby Horse Men and their Century Guild

The first and only monograph dedicated to The Century Guild of Artists – the earliest Arts and Crafts guild – this book highlights the artistic achievements of the collective. Their influence on the period is explored through a spectrum of arts including sculpture, metalwork, textiles and stained glass.

By Stuart Evans and Jean Liddiard. Published by Lund Humphries, £35 hb

Sheila Hicks: Thread Trees River

Sheila Hicks: Thread Trees River

Accompanying a show at MAK in Vienna, this book explores one of the most significant textile artists working today. Sheila Hicks started as a painter but was drawn to textiles for their ability to connect cultures across the globe. Interviews and essays situate her work in context.

By Christoph Thun-Hohenstein, Bärbel Fischer (eds.). Published by Arnoldsche, £40.50 hb

Unfolding: The Paper Art and Science of Matthew Shlian
Misfold, by Matthew Shlian, 2012, white paper and wooden covers with waxed string. Photo: Tim Saccenti. Courtesy: Thames & Hudson

Unfolding: The Paper Art and Science of Matthew Shlian

For 10 years, paper engineer and artist Matthew Shlian has created three-dimensional sculpture by folding, tessellating and compressing paper. In his essay, Lawrence Weschler says: ‘It’s not so much the folds he adds to the paper, it’s folds he adds to your brain.’

By Matthew Shlian, Eric Broug, Stuart Kestenbaum, Lawrence Weschler, Diana Gaston. Published by Thames & Hudson, £40 hb

A Tale of Warp and Weft: Fort Street Studio

A Tale of Warp and Weft: Fort Street Studio

In their debut monograph, the founding duo behind luxury carpet purveyor Fort Street Studio trace the process behind their pioneering painterly aesthetic. The sumptuous tome documents Brad Davis and Janis Provisor’s travels in Asia and how they modernised the ancient Hangzhou weaving process of hand-knotting silk to make their rugs.

By Brad Davis and Janis Provisor. Published by Rizzoli New York, $75 hb

The New Politics of the Handmade: Craft, Art and Design
Hungry Purse: The Vagina Dentata in Late Capitalism, by Allyson Mitchell, 2004. Courtesy: Bloomsbury

The New Politics of the Handmade: Craft, Art and Design

This collection of 17 essays, written by makers, critics and curators, explores how craft can be implicated in both progressive and reactionary social dynamics. The insightful texts engage with a range of ongoing debates in contemporary craft, including craftwashing, sustainability, and craft’s connection to race and cultural identity.

By Anthea Black and Nicole Burisch. Published by Bloomsbury, £65 hb

Life Meets Art: Inside the Home’s of the World’s Most Creative People

Life Meets Art

Snoop inside the homes, filled with crafted objects, of more than 250 leading lights of the creative world, such as architect Alvar Aalto and ceramicist Kawai Kanjiro or contemporary names including artist Andrea Zittel and Faye Toogood. The book aims to reveal how they shaped their space and how their surroundings influence them.

By Sam Lubell. Published by Phaidon Press, £39.95 hb

Olga de Amaral: To Weave a Rock
Lienzo ceremonial 5, by Olga de Amara, 1989, linen, acrylic, and gold leaf. Photo: Diego Amaral

Olga de Amaral: To Weave a Rock

The Colombian textile artist’s five-decade long career is pulled into focus in this striking survey of her fibre art, published to coincide with a touring retrospective initiated by the Cranbrook Art Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. Featuring more than 40 key works, the book delves into de Amaral’s plaiting and wrapping techniques and her use of materials such as horsehair, acrylic and gold leaf.

By Anna Walker and Laura Mott. Published by Arnoldsche/Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, £32 hb

The Radical Potter: Josiah Wedgwood and the Transformation of Britain

The Radical Potter: Josiah Wedgwood and the Transformation of Britain

Dubbed the ‘Steve Jobs of the 18th-century’ by historian and V&A director Tristram Hunt, the English potter Josiah Wedgwood revolutionised the production of ceramics in Georgian Britain. This forthcoming biography captures his contribution to the period, drawn from Wedgwood’s notebooks, letters and texts by his contemporaries.

By Tristram Hunt. Published by Allen Lane, £30 hb

11 inspiring new craft books to enjoy

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