Crafting A Modern World

"Crafting a Modern World examines a missing chapter in the history of mid-century modernism: the story of husband and wife design team Antonin and Noemi Raymond. This is the first comprehensive book in English on the duo that creatively transformed design from 1917 to 1966."--BOOK JACKET.

This volume expands understandings of crafting practices, which in the past was the major relational interaction between the social agency of materials, technology, and people, in co-creating an emergent ever-changing world. The chapters discuss different ways that crafting in the present is useful in understanding crafting experiences and methods in the past, including experiments to reproduce ancient excavated objects, historical accounts of crafting methods and experiences, craft revivals, and teaching historical crafts at museums and schools. Crafting in the World is unique in the diversity of its theoretical and multidisciplinary approaches to researching crafting, not just as a set of techniques for producing functional objects, but as social practices and technical choices embodying cultural ideas, knowledge, and multiple interwoven social networks. Crafting expresses and constitutes mental schemas, identities, ideologies, and cultures. The multiple meanings and significances of crafting are explored from a great variety of disciplinary perspectives, including anthropology, archaeology, sociology, education, psychology, women’s studies, and ethnic studies. This book provides a deep temporal range and a global geographical scope, with case studies ranging from Europe, Africa, and Asia to the Americas and a global internet website for selling home crafted items.

Contemporary western Paganism is now a global religious phenomenon with Pagans in many parts of the world sharing much in common - from a nature-revering worldview and lifestyle to a host of chants, invocations, ritual tools and magical practices. But there are also locally-specific differences. Local religious contexts, landscapes, histories, traditions, politics, values and norms all impact on local Paganisms. This is nowhere more evident than in a strongly Catholic society, where religion and culture are deeply entwined. Taking the Mediterranean society of Malta as a case study, this book invites readers inside the world of a small, hidden sub-culture. Showing what it is like being Pagan in a society where the vast majority of the population is Roman Catholic, and Catholicism permeates every sphere of public and domestic, social and political life, Rountree reveals that Paganism here is a unique brew of indigenous and global influences. Pagans employ both creativity and borrowing in constructing identities within a cultural context characterized by antagonism as well as continuity. This book explores the intersections of religious and cultural identity, the global and local, Paganism and Christianity, with insights grounded in rich ethnographic detail based on long-term fieldwork. Rountree makes invaluable comparisons with other studies of modern Pagans and their various worlds.

Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- List of Figures -- Notes on contributors -- Acknowledgements -- 1 Introduction: the persistence of the White Cube paradigm -- 2 Textiles on display, 1941-1969 -- 3 Crafting Koreanness: how Korean national identity became interwoven with the handmade object in the twentieth century -- 4 Within the guilded cage -- 5 Curatorial strategies that remain true to the craft object -- 6 Quiet revolution: contemporary curatorial approaches to ceramics in the White Cube -- 7 Jewellery can be worn too -- 8 Store/museum -- 9 'I could have visited Ikea for free': design museums and a complicated relationship with commerce -- 10 Outside the White Cube -- 11 Afterword: breaking free? -- Index

Step into a world where cold is merely a concept, not a discomfort. "Crafting Warmth" is not just a book; it is a compendium of centuries-old wisdom interwoven with cutting-edge science, an essential guide for anyone who has ever longed to conquer the chill of the wild and the frost of the mundane. Dive into the heart of insulated clothing with "Crafting Warmth," where each chapter unfurls a new layer of understanding, teaching you not only the history and science behind thermal wear, but also guiding your hands in crafting personalized warmth. Journey through the thoughtful analysis of insulation materials, from the time-honored wool to advanced synthetics and innovative technologies that are shaping the landscape of modern insulation. Brace yourself for a detailed exploration into the ergonomics of insulated clothing with practical guidance on crafting the perfect insulated jacket, navigating the complexities of insulated pants, and even piecing together the warmest gear for your hands and feet. And the investment in knowledge does not stop at apparel – discover the secrets to creating snug sleeping arrangements that promise restful nights under starlit skies. But "Crafting Warmth" isn't merely technical; it's a shrine to the art of cold-weather garment creation. The in-depth chapters entice you to tailor insulated footwear or design the ideal thermal vest to add a versatile core of warmth without the bulk. Accessories become allies against the cold as you learn to make earmuffs and scarves, combining function with fashion. As you near the culmination of this journey, "Crafting Warmth" equips you with skills to assess environmental conditions, layer effectively, and prepare an emergency insulation survival kit. And the wisdom trickles down to the youngest, teaching how to tailor insulated garments for children in a safe and engaging manner. The book closes with a future-focused lens, pondering ethical considerations in manufacturing and the remarkable potential of sustainable and smart textiles. Each chapter not only amplifies your knowledge but ignites a passion for the sustainable crafting community, pushing the boundaries of what it means to keep warm in an ever-changing climate. "Crafting Warmth" is your invitation to embrace a future that looks beyond comfort to self-sufficiency and environmental consciousness. It's about thriving in frigid temperatures with a heartwarming sense of responsibility. So throw on your coziest socks, settle in, and ready your crafting hands for a transformative expedition through the delightful world of insulated crafting.

"A companion to the exhibition Crafting America curated at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, this publication explores the interdisciplinary contexts of the assembled works, featuring contributions from scholars with expertise in art history, American studies, folklore, and museum studies. Essay topics include the significance of craft within Native American histories and explorations of craft's relationship to ritual and memory, personal independence, and abstraction"--

By contrasting American experience with the Canadian context, which includes a unique Quebec identity and a Native dimension, Sandra Alfoldy argues that the development of organizations, advanced education for craftspeople, and exhibition and promotional opportunities have contributed to the distinct evolution of professional craft in Canada over the past forty years. Alfoldy focuses on 1964-74 and the debates over distinctions between professional, self-taught, and amateur craftspeople and between one-of-a-kind and traditional craft objects. She deals extensively with key people and events, including American philanthropist Aileen Osborn Webb and Canadian philanthropist Joan Chalmers, the foundation of the World Crafts Council (1964) and the Canadian Crafts Council (1974), the Canadian Fine Crafts exhibition at Expo 67, and the In Praise of Hands exhibition of 1974. Drawing upon a wealth of previously unexploited materials, this richly documented survey includes descriptions and illustrations of significant works and identifies the challenges that lie ahead for professional crafts in Canada.

A sweeping history of a twentieth-century Prague torn between fascism, communism, and democracy—with lessons for a world again threatened by dictatorship Postcards from Absurdistan is a cultural and political history of Prague from 1938, when the Nazis destroyed Czechoslovakia’s artistically vibrant liberal democracy, to 1989, when the country’s socialist regime collapsed after more than four decades of communist dictatorship. Derek Sayer shows that Prague’s twentieth century, far from being a story of inexorable progress toward some “end of history,” whether fascist, communist, or democratic, was a tragicomedy of recurring nightmares played out in a land Czech dissidents dubbed Absurdistan. Situated in the eye of the storms that shaped the modern world, Prague holds up an unsettling mirror to the absurdities and dangers of our own times. In a brilliant narrative, Sayer weaves a vivid montage of the lives of individual Praguers—poets and politicians, architects and athletes, journalists and filmmakers, artists, musicians, and comedians—caught up in the crosscurrents of the turbulent half century following the Nazi invasion. This is the territory of the ideologist, the collaborator, the informer, the apparatchik, the dissident, the outsider, the torturer, and the refugee—not to mention the innocent bystander who is always looking the other way and Václav Havel’s greengrocer whose knowing complicity allows the show to go on. Over and over, Prague exposes modernity’s dreamworlds of progress as confections of kitsch. In a time when democracy is once again under global assault, Postcards from Absurdistan is an unforgettable portrait of a city that illuminates the predicaments of the modern world.