Embroidered Textiles: A World Guide to Traditional Patterns is visually stunning with page after page of photographs and renderings of embroidered pieces from around the world. It is easy to spend a few hours pouring over the visuals. In four parts, it is meant to be an encyclopedic catalog of embroidery including sacred and secular textiles. Photographs include close-ups of the pieces as well as images of them in use, i.e., people wearing embroidered clothing or working on the garments.
The first part is a guide to identification broken down by geographic region. The next three sections all relate to the sacred nature of embroidered textiles. The purpose of the book is to offer a comprehensive guide to embroidered textiles while providing some cultural, ethnic, historical, and geographic context. The author clearly wants to convey the breadth and beauty of needlework while providing some context for change in style and use. She discusses the shift from textiles created for personal use to textiles created for the tourist economy.
As both a folklorist and a needlewoman, I was particularly interested in reviewing Embroidered Textiles. When it arrived I was excited to spend some time looking through it and to show it to like-minded friends. At first glance it looks to provide what the inside cover information says it will: “examine in detail the fascinating symbolism of the motifs and patterns that give life to these spectacular traditional textiles from around the world.”
This book is valuable for the images, but a deeper examination reveals flaws that leave the reader wanting more information, especially in the first section, “The Guide to Identification.” This section is organized by geographic region, such as Oceania and Eastern Europe, with a country-by-country sorting within those sections. It is not organized alphabetically but rather by region. While this is interesting, it does not work as well as an alphabetic listing might have within the broad geographic categories.
The information provided is very general. The author tells you that stylized floral motifs are used in Lithuania but does not describe the motifs or why those are used in particular. The subsequent sections relating to sacred textiles provide a little more detail. In the brief section on Zoroastrianism, Paine discusses the use of “little animals, fish and plants in heavy multicolored twist silk.” Yet she does not say which little animals, fish, and plants, or why some are used and others are not. She tends to leave you hanging and wanting more.
In at least one case she omits an important style of needlework, that of the Hmong of Southeast Asia. She mentions in passing (as a photo caption) one style of Hmong work but not the more well-known pandau. This is unfortunate, as the creation of pandau, first for personal use and now for commercial use, would support her argument about the changes in the creation and use of embroidered textiles.
A huge issue for this book is that the information the author provides is not cited or referenced. The reader has no idea where the information originates, although Paine does provide sources for the images. I would not use this book for a course because it could make it difficult to convince students to cite their work when the textbook does not. So, unfortunately, this book does not really add to the scholarship on embroidered textiles, though it is still lovely to look through.
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[Review length: 566 words • Review posted on January 26, 2010]