Sewing is one of the most vital but also one of the most overlooked human crafts. Every piece of clothing we wear has been put together by someone who has learned to sew. Millions of people sew for pleasure and millions more earn their living in the textile and clothing industries – often in underpaid and unprotected jobs.    The craft of using a needle has been one of humanity’s greatest skills, ever since this tiny piece of technology came into use around 60,000 years ago. It is something that unites us all as human beings, regardless of ethnicity, religion or geography. For most of time, sewing as a skill was passed from generation to generation. But, in the last few hundred years, as textiles and thread have been produced in abundance, how we learned to sew became a political matter. Governments, churches, politicians, and corporations all had a view on the morality and the methods necessary to turn out the ideal needlewoman.   This episode of Haptic & Hue tells the little-known story of how two separate sewing schools on different sides of the Atlantic gave women all over the world a new life of economic independence, social status and personal power.  One of these education programmes took the Singer sewing machine into every corner of the globe. The other, a ground-breaking teacher training college in London, had an impact on the lives of millions of girls all over the world.   For more information, a full transcript and further links, https://hapticandhue.com/tales-of-textiles-series-5/

It’s Carnival season, time to take to the streets for a party and see the spectacle. But Carnival is about so much more than that. At its heart is the idea that with costumes and masks, people can become shapeshifters, and transform themselves for a short period into someone else. Carnival is the work of a community and a chance for the powerless and the poor to be free for a day and claim equality with the rich and powerful. Each Carnival is different and takes its traditions and ideas from its own culture and the needs of its own people.   This episode looks at how different Carnivals developed and how textiles and masks play a central role in the political ideas behind them. It starts in Venice a thousand years ago as the poor were allowed to let off steam once a year. It crosses the Atlantic as the rich plantation owners brought Mardi Gras to the Caribbean, and saw it creatively developed by the enslaved and the poor into a series of glorious feasts of costume, music, and dance. It tracks Carnival as it was brought to Britain by Caribbean migrants as a celebration of their culture and community. And in all of these, it thinks about how textiles and clothing play a central role.   If you would like to see a full script of this episode, pictures of the carnival traditions discussed in this podcast, or discover links to further information about the topics discussed you can find all this information at www.hapticandhue.com/listen.

The little needle is one of the oldest tools in existence. We know that human beings began to use them more than sixty thousand years ago. Needles, and the textiles that came later have changed humanity completely and helped to make modern society what it is. But until recently very little attention has been paid to them. The contribution that textiles and the tools that surround them have made to our lives has been only dimly understood. This is changing as a new breed of archaeologist – textile archaeologists take centre stage and in doing completely alter our understanding of how humanity developed.   In this episode of Haptic & Hue, we talk to one of the world’s most eminent textile archaeologists, Margarita Gleba. The evidence that she and others are piecing together for the first time from precious ancient textiles tell us new stories about how human beings organised their families, farms, towns, and cities, waged war and traded, how they expressed ideas of status and identity in clothing and how they used textiles in every corner of their lives.   Some of the greatest mysteries of our existence remain to be unlocked and their secrets may lie in the textiles that have not yet been properly analysed or researched. Listen to Margarita Gleba as she takes us on an expert’s tour of the deep past and with her knowledge of textiles begins to sketch in some of the gaps.   If you would like to see a full script of the episode or discover links to further information about the topics discussed here you can find all this information at www.hapticandhue.com/listen.

Mary Queen of Scots is one of the most written about women in history. We think we know her well – but here’s a new account that re-interprets her life from the point of view of the textiles she wore and the embroideries she stitched. It casts a completely different light on her difficult existence and brings her fully into focus as a living, breathing human being. Here is a renaissance queen displaying her power in violet taffeta and purple velvet, who wore silver to mourn, black to display her statesmanship, and white for innocence and piety.    The book is Clare Hunter’s Embroidering Her Truth, Mary Queen of Scots and the Language of Power, and it is Haptic & Hue’s choice for our Book of the Year 2022. In this special end-of-year episode, Jo talks at length to Clare about her research and what it told her about Mary. It sets Mary in context both as a consumer of elite textiles and also as an embroiderer during her long captivity. At her death, Mary left over 300 embroideries, many of which can still be seen both in Scotland and England, which she used to tell her own story. They give us an insight into her state of mind and the messages she was trying to convey to the outside world.    You can find a full script of this podcast, pictures, links and show-notes at www.hapticandhue.com/listen. Embroidering Her Truth, Mary Queen of Scots and the Language of Power can be bought in the Haptic & Hue UK bookshop. Haptic & Hue earns a small commission on this at no extra cost to you.    

Mary Queen of Scots is one of the most written about women in history. We think we know her well – but here’s a new account that re-interprets her life from the point of view of the textiles she wore and the embroideries she stitched. It casts a completely different light on her difficult existence and brings her fully into focus as a living, breathing human being. Here is a renaissance queen displaying her power in violet taffeta and purple velvet, who wore silver to mourn, black to display her statesmanship, and white for innocence and piety.    The book is Clare Hunter’s Embroidering Her Truth, Mary Queen of Scots and the Language of Power, and it is Haptic & Hue’s choice for our Book of the Year 2022. In this special end-of-year episode, Jo talks at length to Clare about her research and what it told her about Mary. It sets Mary in context both as a consumer of elite textiles and also as an embroiderer during her long captivity. At her death, Mary left over 300 embroideries, many of which can still be seen both in Scotland and England, which she used to tell her own story. They give us an insight into her state of mind and the messages she was trying to convey to the outside world.    You can find a full script of this podcast, pictures, links and show-notes at www.hapticandhue.com/listen. Embroidering Her Truth, Mary Queen of Scots and the Language of Power can be bought in the Haptic & Hue UK bookshop. Haptic & Hue earns a small commission on this at no extra cost to you.    

Mary Queen of Scots is one of the most written about women in history. We think we know her well – but here’s a new account that re-interprets her life from the point of view of the textiles she wore and the embroideries she stitched. It casts a completely different light on her difficult existence and brings her fully into focus as a living, breathing human being. Here is a renaissance queen displaying her power in violet taffeta and purple velvet, who wore silver to mourn, black to display her statesmanship, and white for innocence and piety.    The book is Clare Hunter’s Embroidering Her Truth, Mary Queen of Scots and the Language of Power, and it is Haptic & Hue’s choice for our Book of the Year 2022. In this special end-of-year episode, Jo talks at length to Clare about her research and what it told her about Mary. It sets Mary in context both as a consumer of elite textiles and also as an embroiderer during her long captivity. At her death, Mary left over 300 embroideries, many of which can still be seen both in Scotland and England, which she used to tell her own story. They give us an insight into her state of mind and the messages she was trying to convey to the outside world.    You can find a full script of this podcast, pictures, links and show-notes at www.hapticandhue.com/listen. Embroidering Her Truth, Mary Queen of Scots and the Language of Power can be bought in the Haptic & Hue UK bookshop. Haptic & Hue earns a small commission on this at no extra cost to you.    

A ragged flag and torn flag, nearly eighty years old was posted last month from a home not far from London. It doesn’t look like much but it is infinitely precious, both to the person who sent it and to the family in Japan that created it. If the family can be found, this flag may be the only thing that remains of their brother, father, uncle or grandfather who went missing in the Second World War. If it is returned to them they will have something to mourn after all these years.   The women who posted it is the daughter of a British soldier who fought the Japanese in the War. She hopes the flag can be repatriated and she says in her letter: “I have no illusion how my father came by this flag but I do hope that somehow, just maybe we can put a tiny piece of the horror of war to rest.”   The new episode of Tales of Textiles is about Yosegaki Hinomaru, good luck flags signed by the friends and families of Japanese soldiers going off to war. Many became war trophies for Allied soldiers and now finally, after all these years, some of them are being returned to the families of the men for whom they were first made. For their descendants this small piece of cloth is so much more than a textile, it represents the return of their relative’s spirit home.   This episode deals with war and loss, death and mourning.   You can find a full script of this podcast, pictures, links and show-notes at www.hapticandhue.com/listen.   If you would like to find out  about the Obon Society you can find them at https://obonsociety.org/eng/  

Imagine the person who sits behind the counter in the post office or serves your coffee in the Main Street coffee shop has a superpower, one that she shares with your child’s teacher, the administrator in a building company, and the nurse you met last week at the clinic. All of them are talented textile designers, part of a community that works to the highest standards and turns out work that bears comparison with the best being produced in America.   The Folly Cove Designers were an extraordinary group of people who created beautiful and inspirational textile designs in a little-known community in Massachusetts. They had no professional qualifications and they were taught around a kitchen table by one woman. For nearly thirty years they formed a close creative and supportive network making work of the highest quality. Even today, over half a century later the story of the Folly Cove Designers has a lot to tell us about how excellence happens and why communities matter.   You can find a full script of this podcast, pictures, links, and show-notes at www.hapticandhue.com/listen.

What happens to your old clothes? Do you drop them off at the charity shop or turn them into the textile recycling bin at the store? They leave your wardrobe and your thoughts – but what happens next and where do they end up? This episode of Haptic & Hue’s Tales of Textiles wraps up old clothes, flea markets, the invention of a special form of jazz, the horror of today’s textile excess, and glimmers of hope for the future.   This edition of Haptic and Hue is about the past, the present, and what could be the future of second-hand clothes and textile recycling. Once we lived in an age when yarns and fabrics were hard-won and precious, today we live in an era of textile excess where cloth production uses far too much of the world’s precious resources for clothes that we wear a few times and then throw away. But it doesn’t have to be like this. Come on a journey with Haptic and Hue to find out the secrets of second-hand clothes.   You can find a full script of this podcast, pictures, links, show notes and more at www.hapticandhue.com/listen.  

The long arc of human history has been accompanied since the 1400s one way or another by lace. The Italians call this, delightfully, ‘Stitches in Air’ and it has many origin myths from the Venice lagoon to the gently rolling countryside of northern Europe. It has been smuggled and stolen, worn and desired by kings and cavaliers, by maids and madmen. It has been painted and preserved and the songs and rhymes of lace makers have been passed down the generations.   This episode of Haptic and Hue is about one of the most intricate and complex human skills ever developed – lace-making. But it is not just about the deeply storied history of lace, it’s also about its modern revival as a new and beautiful art form and how contemporary craftswoman and men are using lace techniques to address complex issues like gender, sexuality, and climate change.     You can find a full script of this podcast, pictures, links and show-notes at www.hapticandhue.com/listen, as well as detail on how to find your own lace classes and lace books. 

The Italian Renaissance produced glorious masterpieces by artists like Leonardo da Vinci and Michaelangelo who are justly feted for their talent. But look again at these pictures and you realise that they show the work of other artists as well, artists whose work was hugely skilled, well rewarded, and just as valued by the elite of the day who could afford to buy it. But the names of these spinners and dyers, the weavers and embroiderers are lost to us, and their work has largely crumbled to dust. This episode is about them and the painters who depicted the marvels they could create by hand.   Five hundred years after the Renaissance it is often the paint that survives, rather than the fabric depicted. But the extraordinary skills needed to produce the lustrous and sumptuous cloth that we see reflected in the paintings lit up this age, provided a rich spectacle, and told us so much about how the people of this time wanted to be seen and the stories they told about themselves.   Across Italy, as machines replaced humans those skills have faded almost – but not quite - entirely. This episode explores two workshops where the old ways are still followed and ancient skills kept alive as beautiful fabrics are produced and processed by hand.   For a full script of this podcast, pictures, links, and show notes please go to www.hapticandhue.com/listen.

In 18th century London, the secret of your birth could literally hang by a thread. If your mother took you to the Foundling Hospital because she was unable to care for you, you were given a new identity to avoid any shame. But, in case she was later able to reclaim you, she left a token, often a textile cut in two, and she kept the other half as a way of proving she was your mother. Often it was just a scrap of cloth, the only thing that could prove the link between you and your birth mother.   This episode looks at how the system of leaving textile tokens at the Foundling Hospital worked, and also the information that one of the best collections of the clothing worn by the poor in the 1700s gives us into the lives of ordinary people.   The dress of the elite tends to be preserved, but we know very little about the garments of the poor: did they dress in hand-me-downs or homespun, or did they have access to anything fashionable? Two hundred and fifty years after these tokens were first left in desperate circumstances, we can now see them both as a way to tell us about the lives of women in the past and to understand what they wore and how they dressed their babies.   For a full script of this podcast and show-notes please go to www.hapticandhue.com/listen,  where you will also find pictures and links to further information about the people you hear in this episode. 

Over the past months, we have watched in horror as nearly ten million people have fled their homes in Ukraine to escape the Russian invasion. They have become the world’s latest refugees. That word was first applied to some of the most skilled and expert handweavers who began arriving in London in the 1500 and 1600s to escape death and persecution in France. This is the story of how these forced migrants – known as Huguenots - changed the face of London, and created some of the world’s most complex and beautiful silk fabric. It is also a tale of hope and resilience in a time of difficulty and darkness.   This episode tracks the story of the Huguenots, who they were, and why a summer wedding ignited a violent massacre that forced them to flee France. It looks at some of the striking parallels between the Ukrainian refugees and the arrival of the Huguenots in Britain, and it also thinks about the amazing silk cloth the Huguenots were able to create on draw looms, working entirely without power in London weaving lofts.   For a full script of this podcast and show notes please go to www.hapticandhue.com/listen  where you will also find pictures and links to further information about the people you can hear in this episode.

Welcome to the fourth season of Haptic and Hue’s Tales of Textiles. This season is called Threads of Survival and the eight episodes focus on people who have seen hardship and difficulty, but who have survived and often flourished against the odds. This introduction sets the context for the new Season and provides a mini-guide to the thinking behind the episodes. In it, we will explore stories of different peoples and different threads and textiles that in the face of poverty, intolerance, violence, enslavement, or sometimes just indifference, have shown great resilience, and have survived and often triumphed. I hope these podcasts give us a fresh way of looking at the world - one that allows us to hear what textiles have to say and helps us understand the central role cloth plays in our cultures and how it enables us to express our deepest feelings and emotions. There are some changes to Haptic and Hue for this season. Episodes will now be uploaded on the first Thursday of every month and will continue throughout the year with a short break in the summer. This is to give us a chance to explore more widely and to research some topics that we don’t know so well. We will also be announcing shortly details of a Haptic and Hue Membership or Community scheme where we hope to provide a regular behind-the-scenes look at what we are doing, as well as some extra content. For a full script of this podcast and shownotes please go to www.hapticandhue.com/listen.

Can a nation simply forget an astonishing operation in which its women and children made nearly half a million quilts to comfort the victims of the Second World in Europe? It seems that Canada has come close to doing that.  Only now, nearly 80 years later, is this story being pieced together for the first time by some very determined researchers and textile sleuths. It’s a tale that has never been properly told and the women and children who made these quilts have never been honoured or thanked properly for their work.   This episode of Haptic and Hue’s Tales of Textiles begins with a mystery quilt that turned up on a cold winter’s morning 30 years ago with a strange handwritten label on it. It tracks my efforts to find out what the quilt was and how it came to be made. It uncovers the astonishing story of how millions and millions of items from bandages to sheets, from pajamas to quilts were made by Canadian volunteers as ‘comforts’ to send mainly to Britain in the Second World War, but also later to the Netherlands, France, and Germany, to help those who had lost their homes and all their possessions. The podcast hears from someone who made the quilts and someone who received a quilt and it looks at why this amazing effort was almost completely forgotten.   If you would like to know more about the quilts or if you have a quilt and would like to register it or tell someone about it then please go to www.hapticandhue.com/listen, where you can find useful links, pictures and a full script of the podcast.

Samplers tell stories in stitch, but whose tale are they telling? Perhaps the story of a young woman describing her family and choosing her own patterns and pictures, a child learning her alphabet and numbers by stitching. Or maybe it’s an anonymous sampler from a woman being prepared for a role in which she will spend a life stitching other people’s stories, effacing her identity, working as a seamstress or a servant.   This episode of Haptic and Hue looks at how women in the past were united by their ability to use a needle. From the grandest monarch to the poorest maid they could all sew, it was a common language – one that they were fluent in and often better at than forming letters and numbers with a pen or pencil. It gave them a way of thinking that we have all but lost.   But what they sewed divided them. Middle-class women were urged to create a home with berlin wool-work, firescreens, and antimacassars, or handstitched gifts demonstrating their skill and devotion. Even Queen Victoria stitched and gave away her handiwork while working-class women were prepared for a life of earning their living from the needle – working as seamstresses or mending clothing, stitching other people’s initials onto table linen, and family laundry.   Find out more about how the needle and sewing united and divided women in this episode of Haptic and Hue’s Tales of Textiles.   You can find a full script of this episode, on the Haptic and Hue Website at https://hapticandhue.com/tales-of-textiles-series-3/ as well as links and resources to the people you hear in this podcast and the organisations they work for.

There’s a way of producing cloth that has been called 200 years of secrecy and lies. It has played a central role in wars, and slavery. It was the foundation of cheaper clothing and clothes rationing. It has changed laws and been the subject of many official inquiries as well as helping to grow the finest rhubarb in the world. This episode looks at how it may now be entering a new phase of its life, offering us a way to prevent our addiction to textiles from ruining the planet.   Shoddy cloth and its sister mungo were first produced in Batley in West Yorkshire, a town that became so filthy from the trade they said the birds flew backward to stop the soot from getting in their eyes. Shoddy production made this part of West Yorkshire’s fortune in the 19th and 20th centuries but also bought a myriad of problems – from accusations of moral hazard to charges of war profiteering and smuggling.     This episode looks at shoddy’s past – its role in the American Civil War and in creating West Yorkshire's wealth. It also looks at how shoddy, as the ultimate recycled material, is now being recast as the perfect way to cut pollution from textile waste.   If you would like to find out more about shoddy and see some of the pictures referred to in this episode or read the full script – you can find them in the show notes at www.hapticandhue.com/listen, where you can also find links to books about shoddy and access to Haptic and Hue’s textile bookshop, which has a selection of the best textile books in publication at the moment. Every purchase helps the podcast at no extra cost to you. The bookshop for US listeners is here. The bookshop for UK listeners is here

How do textiles shape a city, and how, in turn, does a city and its people shape and change the world of textiles? This episode looks at what the fabrics created in Lyon, in France, tell us about the lives of the people who lived and worked here. It looks at how the innovations that the weavers of Lyon helped to bring about changed us forever, ushering in early ideas of fashion, and at the same time witnessing and utilising the very first steps towards the digital age.   This podcast explores one of the great textile cities of the world. For hundreds of years, Lyon was a byword for weaving skill and savoir-faire. The silk fabrics exquisitely woven here dressed the royal families of Europe, clothed merchants and muses, priests and politicians, courtesans and courtiers and produced some of the most coveted fabrics of the day. You can find a full script of this episode, on the Haptic and Hue Website at https://hapticandhue.com/tales-of-textiles-series-3/ as well as links and resources to the people you hear in this podcast and the organisations they work for.    

African Wax Cloth is having its moment in the sun and it seems to be everywhere, from the catwalks of Paris and New York to the humblest country fabric shop. To the world’s eyes, it is joyful and original, a celebration of West African identity and culture. But what is this fabric, where does it really come from and what does it mean to the different societies and communities that have had a hand in shaping it?   The is episode explores the curious origins of African Wax Cloth, and the twists and turns in an extraordinary story that is behind the creation of the fabric that is one of West Africans most iconic fabrics. But the origins of this cloth lie thousands of miles away from the place that now calls it home. Find out more in this episode.   You can see pictures of the textiles we talk about in this episode, a full script and a list of further resources on the Haptic and Hue Website at https://hapticandhue.com/tales-of-textiles-series-3/

Textiles can tell us different stories – not just those of the rich and powerful – they have the power to take us beyond that and tell us tales of working people, families living difficult lives in tough times, those whom history and the written records tend to overlook. This episode is about whole cloth quilting. It explores how this technique and process eventually settled in one area of England and became an emblem of pride and local identity for people who had hardscrabble lives.      North Country whole cloth quilts are very different from patchwork quilts. Their showmanship lies in the swirling design of the quilting stitches on a completely plain background. Quilting is a process that goes back centuries, used by rich and poor alike to keep warm, as a rudimentary armour in battle, and to dress babies. Find out how this technique became identified with an area of England that stretches from North Yorkshire up onto the Scottish Borders and developed an elaborate artistry all of its own – one that even today is little known and appreciated.   You can see pictures of the textiles we talk about in this episode, a full script, and a list of further resources on the Haptic and Hue Website at https://hapticandhue.com/tales-of-textiles-series-3/

Can something belong to us all – just by virtue of the fact that we are human beings? If anything has a claim to that – it is the Paisley motif, which has woven its way in and out of human history like no other pattern. This episode traces the history and some of the many appearances attached to this lovely shape, from its incarnation as a tree of life in Ancient Babylon to an emblem of America’s Wild West or the Swinging Sixties in London.   Paisley has many names and even more meanings. It is the sleeping dragon of patterns – retiring under the hill for decades of slumber before being re-purposed by new cultures and new generations to signify something different. It belongs to many hands and no one, in particular, can lay claim to it, making it one of the truly global patterns. Listen to some of the journey of this nomad in this episode of Haptic and Hue’s Tales of Textiles.   You can see pictures of the textiles we talk about in this episode, a full script and a list of further resources on the Haptic and Hue Website at https://hapticandhue.com/tales-of-textiles-series-3/

In the West of England lies an old house that is a quiet treasure chest of textiles. The man who has built up this astonishing United Nations of cloth is using them to change the way all of us value and understand textiles. Over many years Karun Thakar has created a collection of handmade textiles from Africa, Asia, and Europe. Some of these fabrics would have been the height of fashion in their day, destined for trade, but others are humble domestic miracles telling tales of hardship and struggle, often outlining the difficult lives of the women who made and repaired them. Karun Thakar believes that every fabric in his collection has a story to tell us about the eye for design and colour of the people who made them and the way they lived their lives. His brilliant appreciation of textiles means that he was collecting Kantha cloth, Japanese boro garments, Ottoman and French embroidery, English smocks, Tibetan aprons, Indian phulkari and more before most of us knew what they were. Now he lends and donates his pieces to museums around the world hoping the deepen the understanding of what they mean and the cultures they belong to. Listen to him talk about why he collects and what he’s trying to achieve in this week’s episode, the United Nations of Cloth, of Haptic & Hue’s Tales of Textiles. I provide a full transcript, pictures, and links to the work of the contributors to these podcasts, as well as a list of books and articles that have inspired me in making each episode on my website at: www.hapticandhue.com/listen. You can also find the Haptic and Hue bookshop at https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/hapticandhue . If you would like to sign up for your own link to the podcasts as they are released, for extra information and a chance to access the free textile gifts I offer with each episode then please fill out the very brief form at the bottom of the Haptic and Hue Listen page above. You can follow Haptic and Hue on Instagram @hapticandhue on Facebook or Linked In under the Haptic and Hue name.   

Welcome to the third season of Haptic and Hue’s Tales of Textiles. This series is called The Chatter of Cloth and each of the eight episodes starts with a piece of fabric and tracks its tale. This introduction sets the context for the season and provides a guide to what is in store. Textiles have been called a detective story that you can hold. Here are eight small detective stories for those of us who can hear what textiles have to tell us about great events, extraordinary kingdoms and empires of the past, or just about a village or our own families. I provide a full transcript, pictures and links to the work of the contributors to these podcasts, as well as a list of books and articles that have inspired me in making each episode on my website at: www.hapticandhue.com/listen. You can also find the Haptic and Hue bookshop at https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/hapticandhue. If you would like to sign up for your own link to the podcasts as they are released, for extra information and a chance to access the free textile gifts I offer with each episode then please fill out the very brief form at the bottom of the Haptic and Hue Listen page above. You can follow Haptic and Hue on Instagram @hapticandhue on Facebook or Linked In under the Haptic and Hue name. You can find the Vocal piece on Haberdasheries and why they are important at https://vocal.media/wander/look-up-for-ghosts

There is one kind of fabric that produces a powerful sense of nostalgia in many of us, and that’s the very democratic cloth that covers the seats and benches of public transport systems around the world.   Whether you live in London or Los Angeles, Berlin or Bombay, our buses, metros, and trams use a patterned, wool, fabric called moquette. It comes in thousands of different patterns and weaves, and the sight and touch of each one enables us to reach into our memories and be transported back to a first love, a journey to school, or to friends we have lost touch with. A moquette specialist says every one of us has a moquette that we want to hug. Find out what yours might be and why it matters in this episode of Haptic and Hue’s, Tales of Textiles.   If you go to Haptic and Hue’s website at www.hapticandhue.com/listen, you will find a full transcript of this podcast, pictures of some of the moquettes referred to in this episode, and a list of further resources. You can also sign up there to get these podcasts directly in your inbox, and to have a chance to win some of the textile-related gifts I give away with each episode.  

Cloth is more than something useful or beautiful, it can also have enormous power. We are surrounded by fabrics of meaning and belonging, fabrics that tell us who people are and where they come from if they share a nation, a clan, a school or a religion with us.   This episode explores the ultimate textile with a message – a flag. One commentator calls flags a kind of window onto history that can link people across time and anchor them to their communities. In this podcast, we look at one particular type of flag, the joyful Asafo flags from Ghana’s coastal region. These are works of art with a particular history that tell the stories and reflect the culture of the Fante people in a special way. We talk to an Asafo flag maker about his craft, to a collector of these flags, and to someone who is helping to breathe new life into the creation of Asafo flags.   If you go to Haptic and Hue’s website at www.hapticandhue.com/listen, you will find a full transcript of this podcast, and pictures of some of the glorious ASAFO flags – both modern and historic. You can also sign up there to get these podcasts directly in your inbox, and to have a chance to win some of the textile-related gifts I give away with each episode.  

Cloth and wealth have gone hand in glove for much of history: where there are textiles there has almost always been money, and often lots of it. The Medicis of Florence started life as wool traders in Tuscany before they became bankers, popes, princes, and queens. It was wool that started them on a journey that saw them become the principal financiers of the Florentine Renaissance, they were the backers of almost everyone who mattered including Michaelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci, Botticelli, Raphael, Machiavelli, and Galileo and they weren’t the only ones.   This episode looks at why and how cloth and money have been inextricably linked throughout history. It unravels the story of how what we recognise as the consumer society and the capitalist system began largely with cloth trading. It looks at the times in which cloth itself has become a currency and uncovers some surprising links between textiles and banking that many have forgotten.      If you go to Haptic and Hue’s website at www.hapticandhue.com/listen, you will find a full transcript of this podcast and pictures of some of the work that is explored in this episode. You can also sign up there to get these podcasts directly in your inbox, and to have a chance to win some of the textile-related gifts I give away with each episode.   Virginia Postrel’s book which was the principal inspiration for this podcast can be found at https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/haptic-hue-booklist, along with a number of other textile-related books that I have found interesting and enjoyable. It is hosted by a small independent shop in Dorset specialising in Nature and Story.

How cloth helps us grieve.   Sorrow is a universal human experience – whether it’s for a loved family member, for a way of life that once was, or for events that engulf nations and sweep away millions.   The episode looks at how textiles are an essential part of the process of grieving, and how they bring us comfort and help us deal with deeply felt emotions. It looks at the special place cloth plays in mourning a much-loved father, the loss of a child or partner in political repression, or how they can help us commemorate those who were victims of appalling events like the Holocaust.   The issues this episode deals with are not easy, but in one form or another, sorrowing is something all of us will do in our lives, especially as we come out of a pandemic that has claimed millions around the world.   With thanks in this episode to Caren Garfen, whose stitched work on the Holocaust is enormously powerful, to Deborah Stockdale at the Centre for Conflict Textiles in Northern Ireland and to Judith Staley of Sew Over 50 for sharing the memory aprons, she made to remember her Dad.   If you go to Haptic and Hue’s website at www.hapticandhue.com/listen, you will find a full transcript of this podcast, and pictures of some of the work that is explored in this episode. You can also sign up there to get these podcasts directly in your inbox, and to have a chance to win some of the textile-related gifts I give away with each episode.   The books that I found useful for this series can be found at https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/haptic-hue-booklist which is a small independent shop in Dorset specialising in Nature and Story.

Unravelling the journey that fleece takes from the fells to fabric. This episode tracks how greasy wool bred in the wind and rain of a Lake District Farm becomes a smartly tailored jacket, a beautifully knitted pullover or a laceweight shawl, fine enough to pull through a wedding ring.   A Feeling of Warmth looks at the skills and processes needed from the shepherd, the spinner, the weaver, and the tailor before we can put a wool garment made sustainably and ethically on our backs.   Thanks to Maria Benjamin and John Atkinson, the farmers and entrepreneurs, Lara Pollard Jones of the Spinners, World of Wool, Sam Goates the weaver from Woven in the Bone, the tailor, Karyna Sukha from Fabrika, and the designer the maker Sally Cowell, from Leven Knit and Sew and to Donald S Murray for permission to read his poem, Woven in the Bone.   If you go to Haptic and Hue’s website at www.hapticandhue.com/listen, you will find a full transcript of this podcast, and pictures of some of the fabrics and techniques we talk about. You can also sign up there to get these podcasts directly in your inbox, as well as having a chance to win some of the textile-related gifts I give away with each episode.   If you want to see more about the jackets and shepherds bags that are the subject of this podcast or find out more about John and Maria’s work at Nibthwaite Grange Farm, with the knitting yarn, the fabric, the soap, the meat, or the holiday accommodation then the links are https://dodgsonwood.co.uk/about/ and https://nibthwaitegrangefarm.com/about/  You can see the full drama of this year’s lambing on Maria’s Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/levenknitandsew/   World of Wool can be found at www.worldofwool.co.uk   Sam Goates and Woven in the Bone are at http://www.woveninthebone.com/  or https://www.instagram.com/woveninthebone/   Karyna Sukha, whose London tailoring shop makes the jackets are at https://fabrika.london   Sally Cowell of Leven Knit and Sew – who makes the Shepherd’s Bags can be found on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/levenknitandsew/   And the poet Donald S Murray can be found at http://www.donaldsmurray.co.uk/

On the face of it repairing and reinforcing textiles simply prolongs the life of our clothes and helps minimize textile waste, things worth having – but for many, it also delivers much more than that. The French sculptor, Louise Bourgeois said: ‘The act of sewing is a process of emotional repair’, it helps to centre us, and tells us stories about ourselves and the resilience of our families and communities.    This episode looks at the case for mending and thinks about how different cultures approach this, from the wool-rich districts of Yorkshire with their darning to the rural areas of Japan with Sashiko and Boro textiles, and onto Indian traditions of telling stories in Kantha cloth and making something completely new out of something old.   Thanks to Claire Wellesley Smith, who is a community worker in Bradford, West Yorkshire, Hikaru Noguchi who lives in Tokyo and is an expert darner now writing a new book about Sashiko, and Ekta Kaul, who tells stories of place, history, and belonging through thread and fabric. If you go to Haptic and Hue’s website at www.hapticandhue.com/listen, you will find a full transcript of this podcast and pictures of some of the fabrics and techniques we talk about. You can also sign up there to get these podcasts directly in your inbox, as well as having a chance to win some of the textile-related gifts I give away with each episode.   If you want to see more of Claire Wellesley Smith’s work you can find it on her website: http://www.clairewellesleysmith.co.uk/  or on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/cwellesleysmith/   Her new book: Resilient Stitch: Wellbeing and Connection in Textile Art is published by Batsford and can be ordered from independent booksellers at https://uk.bookshop.org/a/260/9781849946070   Hikaru Noguchi’s website is at http://hikarunoguchi.bigcartel.com/, and she on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/hikaru_noguchi_design/   Her book called Darning: Repair, Make, Mend can be found at https://uk.bookshop.org/books/darning-repair-make-mend/9781912480159. Her new book on Sashiko is due to be published next year.   Ekta Kaul’s work can be seen on her website at https://www.ektakaul.com/. She is on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/ekta_kaul/. Ekta is running virtual courses on Kantha stitching and a variety of other classes over the next few months – you can find details at: https://www.ektakaul.com/product-category/embroidery-masterclasses/    

Is costume design magic or camouflage? The second part of A Feeling of Transformation, looks at the enormous heart and skill that goes into getting costumes right for screen and stage. Find out how costume designers look at textiles and fabric with a different eye: they think how this will tone in overall and how will it read on camera? A talented, young costume designer, Sinead Kidao, who has worked on films like Beauty and The Beast, Little Women, and The Dark Knight Rises talks about how she uses textiles and the role the deep hand-skills of embroidery, weaving, knitting, and tatting play in creating authentic costumes. Sinead has created the first Costume Directory to help other designers use sustainable textile makers who pay a living wage.   We hear from the Breakdown Artist, Jo Weaving, whose job it is to make costumes look lived in, from ballgowns to battle dress. She specialises in wear and tear, from blood to bird poo.     If you go to Haptic and Hue’s website at www.hapticandhue.com/listen, you will find a full transcript of this podcast, pictures and links. You can also sign up there to get these podcasts directly in your in-box, as well as having a chance to win some of the textile related gifts I give away with each episode.   Thanks to Sinead Kidao and Jo Weaving for sharing the way they approach fabric and cloth, and what they do to it to make it look believable.  If you want to see more of Sinead’s work you can find it at https://www.sineadkidao.com/. Her Costume Directory is a treasure trove of interesting and sustainable suppliers: it is free to download. And you can follow the Directory and Sinead on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/thecostumedirectory/   Jo Weaving can be found at costumeprintworkshop@gmail.com. She has just moved into her new studio in Hastings, but she is planning to run some breakdown classes at the studio in future. E-mail her if you would like to go on the mailing list to stay in touch and find out what she’s up to.

Do clothes conceal us or reveal us? Listen to how actors use clothes to make stories believable. Alessandro Nivola and Emily Mortimer, who have played a huge variety of roles between them, from mobsters to Tudor ladies in waiting, from regency bucks to flower sellers, talk about why costume is so important to them.   Mark Twain once wrote: “without his clothes a man would be nothing at all; that the clothes do not merely make the man, the clothes are the man; that without them he is a cipher, a vacancy, a nobody, a nothing… there is no power without clothes.”   Clothes cover us and warm us, but at the same time, they reveal what we want to say about ourselves as well as the gap between how we’d like to be seen and how people actually perceive us. This matters to actors and this episode looks at how actors study the tiny details of clothes and costume to help them deliver great performances. Alessandro and Emily share the secrets of the work and thought that goes into their performances.   If you go to Haptic and Hue’s website at www.hapticandhue.com/listen, you will find a full transcript of this podcast, pictures, and links. You can also sign up there to get these podcasts directly in your inbox, as well as having a chance to win some of the textile-related gifts I give away with each episode.

There is nowhere in the world quite like Gees Bend, Alabama with the story of how its quilt-makers were acclaimed as artists, and their work bought by galleries and museums around the world. Necessity is the mother of invention and this is particularly true in this small community, where for generations women have created quilts to keep out the cold and to furnish their homes. They used anything and everything that came to hand, and over time they honed their skills and their designs. Isolation, poverty, and a strong community spirit nurtured an acute eye for colour and design that is unequalled. It took 100 years for their work to be properly appreciated, and when it was, the critics believed that the work of the quilters prefigured the work of the Modernist Art  Movement. This is the story of the quilters, how they grew up, and how they work. It tries to answer the question of how they took quilting to the level of great art. 

Why does touch matter so much to us? What is the connection between cloth and our emotions? This new season of Haptic and Hue's Tales of Textiles explores how we express ourselves through cloth, whether it's the comfort quilts and blankets bring us, the way we use clothes to take the burden of losing someone we love, or why certain patterns and fabrics connect us strongly with memories of childhood, school or first love.  Each episode takes a different feeling and unravels what it means to us in textiles. The series is narrated by Jo Andrews a handweaver and broadcaster. In this season we travel around the world, from Alabama to India, Tokyo to the London Underground and Ghana to North East Scotland thinking bout different traditions of making and using fabric.   I provide a full transcript, pictures and links to the work of the contributors to these podcasts, as well as a list of books and articles that have inspired me on my website at: www.hapticandhue.com/listen. If you would like to sign up for your own link to the podcasts as they are released, for extra information and a chance to access the free textile gifts that I’ll be offering for each podcast in this series then please fill out the very brief form here or find it on the Haptic and Hue Listen page above. If you are interested in a long read or two, or want to know why and how cloth speaks to us then you can find articles at www.hapticandhue.com/read  You can follow Haptic and Hue on Instagram @hapticandhue on Facebook or Linked In under the Haptic and Hue name. You can see more of my work and that of other makers there or on the website.  

Majesty and Mannequins Episode 7 Catch her out of the corner of your eye as she skitters across the stage of history. She has seen revolutions, war, disaster, pandemics, peace and joy, and survived it all. She is probably 3,500 years old, maybe more. She is called Pandora.  This episode looks at the unseen role miniature mannequins, or Pandora figures, have played in diplomacy, war, royalty, communications, and marketing, down the centuries from the time of the Egyptian pharaohs, through the Second World War, until today. Not bad to have been in fashion for several thousand years. This podcast would not have been made without the knowledgeable and heartfelt contributions of Rebecca Devaney, Textile educator and embroiderer, Steve Grafe, Curator of Art, Maryhill Museum of Art, and Sean Byrne, Maquitiste and proprietor of Madame Fou Fou. Here is the Moshcino Spring/Summer 2021 Collection referred to by Steve Grafe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dpNzuRda0Y And here is the wonderfully fey Dior collection for Autumn/Winter 2020, referred to by both Steve Grafe and Sean Byrne. It has a lot of shots of the work on the tiny models on their ateliers. The skill is astonishing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxBFwqRbI8c I provide a full transcript, pictures, links to the work of the contributors to these podcasts, and a list of that have inspired me on my website at: www.hapticandhue.com/listen. If you would like to sign up for your own link to the podcasts as they are released, for extra information and a chance to access the free textile gifts that I’ll be offering for each podcast in this series then please fill out the very brief form here or find it on the Haptic and Hue Listen page above. If you are interested in a long read or two, or want to know why and how cloth speaks to us then you can find articles at www.hapticandhue.com/read  You can follow Haptic and Hue on Instagram @hapticandhue on Facebook or Linked In under the Haptic and Hue name. You can see more of my work and that of other makers there or on the website.  

Sewing, mending, knitting and all the fibre skills are seen as 'Women's Work' in Western cultures. But why is this? We hear from men who were taught to sew and knit in wartime, in prison or in isolation, and we talk to men who freely choose to stitch, knit and spin as a hobby. What are the barriers men face if they take up these skills and what does the world lose if they don't? This episode looks not just at the gender divide of the West but also thinks about the textile traditions of Africa where men are deeply involved in textile production. 

This episode tells the story of the top designer of fabrics to the French fashion industry. It looks at the way in which a modern supplier, competing in a global market, still uses ancient weaving technology with handweavers working on table looms to produce thousands of fresh designs every year.  I provide a full transcript, pictures, links to the work of the contributors to these podcasts, and a list of resources that have inspired me on my website at: www.hapticandhue.com/listen. If you would like to sign up for your own link to the podcasts as they are released, for extra information and a chance to access the free textile gifts that I’ll be offering for each podcast in this series then please fill out the very brief form here or find it on the Haptic and Hue Listen page above. If you are interested in a long read or two, or want to know why and how cloth speaks to us then you can find articles at www.hapticandhue.com/read  You can follow Haptic and Hue on Instagram @hapticandhue on Facebook or Linked In under the Haptic and Hue name. You can see more of my work and that of other makers there or on the website. And if you’ve got a great idea for Series Two (coming next year) then drop me a line via the website. Have fun and enjoy your own making practice or just listening to the chatter of cloth! 

The haute couture embroiderers of Paris are amongst Europe’s most celebrated and skilled artisans. This episode looks at the needlewomen who sit behind the seams of the garments we see on the catwalks and in the fashion magazines. It tracks the history of haute couture and thinks about how it is changing in response to modern tastes and trends. I provide a full transcript, pictures, links to the work of the contributors to these podcasts, and a list of resources that have inspired me on my website at: www.hapticandhue.com/listen. If you would like to sign up for your own link to the podcasts as they are released, for extra information and a chance to access the free textile gifts that I’ll be offering for each podcast in this series then please fill out the very brief form here or find it on the Haptic and Hue Listen page above. If you are interested in a long read or two, or want to know why and how cloth speaks to us then you can find articles at www.hapticandhue.com/read  You can follow Haptic and Hue on Instagram @hapticandhue on Facebook or Linked In under the Haptic and Hue name. You can see more of my work and that of other makers there or on the website. And if you’ve got a great idea for Series Two (coming next year) then drop me a line via the website. Have fun and enjoy your own making practice or just listening to the chatter of cloth!         

What does it mean to earn your living as a maker? Can you feed yourself? This episode looks at the renowned hand-weaver, Janet Phillips, who has done just that for more than 50 years. It celebrates her half-century at the loom and asks what it takes to achieve this. I provide a full transcript, pictures, links to the work of the contributors to these podcasts, and a list of resources that have inspired me on my website at: www.hapticandhue.com/listen. If you would like to sign up for your own link to the podcasts as they are released, for extra information and a chance to access the free textile gifts that I’ll be offering for each podcast in this series then please fill out the very brief form here or find it on the Haptic and Hue's Listen page above. If you are interested in a long read or two, or want to know why and how cloth speaks to us then you can find articles at www.hapticandhue.com/read  You can follow Haptic and Hue on Instagram @hapticandhue on Facebook or Linked In, under the Haptic and Hue name. You can see more of my work and that of other makers there or on the website. And if you’ve got a great idea for Series Two (coming in the New Year!) then drop me a line via the website. Have fun and enjoy your own making practice or just listening to the chatter of cloth!   

The story of the elegant, crisp and artistic textile designs that burst upon the world in the 1950s - the period now known as Mid Century Modern. It looks at the women who created them and in doing so became part of the first cohort of women to dominate any field of design, and it thinks about how these fabrics transcended their function and became a symbols of peace and better times.    I provide a full transcript, pictures, links to the work of the contributors to these podcasts, and a list of resources that have inspired me on my website at: www.hapticandhue.com/listen. If you would like to sign up for your own link to the podcasts as they are released, for extra information and a chance to access the free textile gifts that I’ll be offering for each podcast in this series then please fill out the very brief form here or find it on the Haptic and Hue Listen page above. If you are interested in a long read or two, or want to know why and how cloth speaks to us then you can find writing at www.hapticandhue.com/read  You can follow Haptic and Hue on instagram on Facebook or Linked in under the Haptic and Hue name. You can see more of my work and that of other makers there or on the website. And if you’ve got a great idea for Series Two (coming in the New Year!) then drop me a line via the website. Have fun and enjoy your own making practice or just listening to the chatter of cloth!  With heartfelt thanks to the contributors for this episode Nicola Wood who shared her amazing memories of being a successful textile designer in the 1960s. Nicola’s paintings can be seen here. Ashley Gray, Director of Gray MCA – an expert in mid-century textiles and co-curator of the recent exhibition on Modern British Female Designers at Messums, Wiltshire. Instagram: @GrayMCA Shanna Shelby, Curator and Director of Shelby Fine Art, who can be found here Kirk Brown III and Jill Wilste, whose generosity and foresight have ensured that the legacy of these textile designers is preserved. See what they keep on their walls at home and read more about their collection: here  

Britain’s first black designer of international standing was a magician of colour. The Queen wore her dress fabrics, cruise liners sailed with her murals on their walls and millions of homes used her designs, but few can remember her name. Find out who she was and why she matters. With thanks to my contributors for this Episode  Christine Checinska Curator of African and African Diaspora Fashion at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Instagram @Checinskachristine Ashley Gray, Director of Gray MCA – an expert in mid-century textiles and co-curator of the recent exhibition on Modern British Female Designers at Messums, Wiltshire. Instagram: @GrayMCA Alexis Shepherd: Clothes Designer and Friend.  I provide a full transcript, pictures, links to the work of the contributors to these podcasts, and a list of resources that have inspired me on my website at: www.hapticandhue.com/listen. If you would like to sign up for your own link to the podcasts as they are released, for extra information and a chance to access the free textile gifts that I’ll be offering for each podcast in this series then please fill out the very brief form here or find it on the Haptic and Hue Listen page above. If you are interested in a long read or two, or want to know why and how cloth speaks to us then you can find writing at www.hapticandhue.com/read  You can follow Haptic and Hue on instagram  on Facebook or Linked in under the Haptic and Hue name. You can see more of my work and that of other makers there or on the website. And if you’ve got a great idea for Series Two (coming in the New Year!) then drop me a line via the website. Have fun and enjoy your own making practice or just listening to the chatter of cloth!     

History is full of the sound of spindles, the clatter of mills and the reek of dye baths as the knowledge of how to make beautiful fabrics has been gathered around the world. This episode introduces Haptic and Hue’s first series of podcasts and starts to uncover some of the buried tales of textiles. I provide a full transcript, pictures, links to the work of the contributors to these podcasts, and a list of resources that have inspired me on my website at: www.hapticandhue.com/listen.  If you would like to sign up for your own link to the podcasts as they are released, for extra information and a chance to access the free textile gifts that I’ll be offering for each podcast in this series then please fill out the very brief form here or find it on the Haptic and Hue Listen page above.  If you are interested in a long read or two, or want to know why and how cloth speaks to us then you can find writing at www.hapticandhue.com/read   You can follow Haptic and Hue on Instagram @hapticandhue on Facebook or Linked in under the Haptic and Hue name. You can see more of my work and that of other makers there or on the website.  And if you’ve got a great idea for Series Two (coming in the New Year!) then drop me a line via the website.  Have fun and enjoy your own making practice or just listening to the chatter of cloth!