Member Book Suggestions
Looking for a book to captivate you? How about trying one of these books nominated by our members:
Reads like a personal memoir as well as a world history of indigo’s importance and involvement with religion, the slave trade, etc. It is very compelling reading, sort of like a page turner novel.
Kathy lives on a farm in the lakes region of central Minnesota and is also a freelance grants writer. A quick, fun, and down-to-earth read. And even better because she’s local, and some of our members will probably know of her.
Kasia tells the unusual stories of 75 shades, dyes, and hues. (Never in my entire art career, as well as in numerous geology classes, had I ever heard of Orpiment—a mineral-based gold shade!).
The author retraces the steps of an unconventional person in the era of British colonialism. He traveled all over India, to indigo and coffee plantations, to Calcutta and Kashmir (home of cashmere wool), to tribal central India.This is a historical travelogue that also traces the New World descendants of this intrepid explorer.
A Perfect Red by Amy Butler Greenfield
A Perfect Red recounts the colorful history of cochineal, a legendary red dye that was once one of the world’s most precious commodities.
Why do we make things by hand? In stories and original photographs, Making a Life captures all the joy of making and the power it has to give our lives authenticity and meaning.
A new “farm-to-closet” vision for the clothes we wear–by a leader in the movement for local textile economies.
A fast-paced account of the year Clara Parkes spent transforming a 676-pound bale of fleece into saleable yarn, and the people and vanishing industry she discovered along the way.
It weaves stories of indigo’s producers, its cultural traditions and history, its importance in global trade, and the modern textile artists and fashion designers who are reviving indigo for sustainable development.
Running like a bright line through history, The Golden Thread offers an unforgettable adventure through our past, present and future. *This book was selected for WGM’s summer 2020 Community Read.*