Dhokra (also spelt Dokra) is non–ferrous metal casting using the lost-wax casting technique. This sort of metal casting has been used in India for over 4,000 years and is still used. One of the earliest known lost wax artifacts is the dancing girl of Mohenjo-Daro. The product of dhokra artisans are in great demand in domestic and foreign markets because of primitive simplicity, … Continue reading India : Dhokra
Category: Crafts Around The World
Afghanistan
War Rugs from Afghanistan In an age of globalization, museums have become the preferred venue for cultural tourism, transporting works from one locale to another to offer visitors a sense of cross cultural experience without travel. Traditionally, these objects have flown “West”-ward. Exhibiting visual and material works of non-Global North societies for Global North audiences … Continue reading Afghanistan
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Italy
Sonia Brunalti is one the leading historians on Italian Crochet. She did a wonderful interview with a fellow crocheter Veruska Sabucco and here’s what we learned about Italian crochet and the its most popular form; Italian Lace. She gave us some overall background information about Italian crochet lace. In Italy, Irish crochet lace arrived in … Continue reading Italy
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Spain
Lace as we know it today had its origin in the decoration of washable linen which came into general use in the fifteenth century for ecclesiastical, personal, and household purposes. Beautiful results were attained by drawing threads or cutting out spaces to be filled in with decorative lace stitches. The next step in the development … Continue reading Spain
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North America
An American Tale….the Granny Square The granny square first made its debut in 1891, in The Art of Crocheting as an engraving. It wasn’t until 1897, however, that a written pattern was published in Weldon’s Practical Needlework. That pattern is one of the few things that has translated pretty much fully to today in crochet. … Continue reading North America
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Dutch
In the 19th century, Dutch lace-making connected to the Ulster textile industry, as expensive linen pieces were trimmed with Dutch lace and linen thread used to make fine lace products for the home. The first details of crocheting emerged in the Dutch magazine “Penelope” in 1823, with an exhibit of then-stylish purses crocheted with silk … Continue reading Dutch
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England
England; because the world revolved around them during this time (cough cough). Since Irish Crochet was a cheap and fast(ish) way of making lace, the higher class of society in early Victorian Britain considered it ‘below them.’ What with their dark colored clothes covering them from chin to wrist to the ground, cages, bustles and … Continue reading England
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Ireland
We move from France to Ireland in this article and while it may seem a natural course it’s actually going to separate what we’ve learned so far modern Crochet has its roots here. Something to remember about the evolution of crochet is that the needle work of china became knitting in the 11th century and … Continue reading Ireland
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France
In this next article we move from China to France. This may seem like a large jump however, crochet actually started in Europe here first. It came here as part of the trade on the silk road and then expanded to something delicate and light, something we don’t practice with our bulky and warm wool … Continue reading France
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China
Research suggests that crochet probably developed most directly Chinese needlework. Since this art is believed to be the oldest; I’ll cover this next for our around the world series. If you look at our previous articles you’ll see Amigurumi; which is essentially the same as crochet, only it refers to the process of making 3-D … Continue reading China
