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Book Review: In Search of Wild Silk by Karen Selk

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In Search of Wild Silk: Exploring a Village Industry in the Jungles of India

by Karen Selk
Schiffer Craft
$39.99, hardcover 8.5 x 11 with 270 pages, and 360 photographs. 
Published: March 28, 2023 
Buy now at Bookshop.org
Review by Jacqueline Harp (Instagram: @foreverfiberarts)

Just as the title implies, Karen Selk’s book focuses on the struggles of small wild silk producers making a place for themselves in the vast Indian textile industry. The author briefly touches on India’s wild silk history while also tying in the industry’s position in modern times, expertly guiding us through the process of making silk from the moth to the finished fabric. She addresses the industry’s ecological impacts, the importance of slow fashion, and women supporting women. The book has something for everyone: handspinners, weavers, designers, and the curious. Selk does a wonderful job describing the life cycle of three silk moths that produce wild silk: tasar, muga, and eri. Her writing style is a delightful mix of journal entries, interviews, insights, and facts about wild silk.    

The author has over forty years of textile arts experience. She has devoted her life to educating, traveling, researching, and writing about the importance of silk in the complex ecosystem of farming, fashion, and art. From the very first pages of this book, you can’t help but feel inspired by her labor of love. There is no better way to illustrate her passion for silk and the fiber arts than by sharing the dedication from page three:  

“…to all those who appreciate and support the making of natural fiber cloth. From the soil that grows natural dyes, fibers like cotton and linen, or leaves and grass that feeds animals that give us their fiber to the finished rug, garment, or home furnishing dedicated farmers and artisans gift us with their love and creativity. I am grateful for your integrity and caring to champion those devoted to providing us with sustainable, ethical, ecological, and beautiful textiles.” 

Lastly, the full-color photographs and tastefully drawn illustrations are a treat for the eyes. Each one tells a story, inspires, or helps us visualize a complicated aspect of the life cycle of wild silk as it makes its way from villages to big cities to places the world over. What are you waiting for? This substantial tome is waiting for you to begin the expedition from the comfort of your coffee table. Make yourself smarter about wild silk, fiber of legends and rich history. 

Karen

Book Review: Marking Time with Fabric and Thread by Tommye McClure Scanlin

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Marking Time with Fabric and Thread: Calendars, Diaries, and Journals within Your Fiber Craft 

by: Tommye McClure Scanlin 
Schiffer Craft 
$34.99, Hardback, 198 pages with 100 color images 
Published: October 28, 2024 
Buy now at Bookshop.org
Reviewed by: Karen Robinson 

PLY had the pleasure of sharing an article by Sarah Swett in the Cloth (Autumn 2019) issue. I remember being fascinated while reading about her practices of creation. She writes the foreword in this book, and her words about marking time using crafting made me want to dive right into the book. 

The author, Tommye McClure Scanlin, is a tapestry weaver and finds tapestry weaving to be a slow process, which allows for a lot of time to think about that process. She decided to try making a project a daily practice and thus was born her “tapestry diaries.” She shared her craft with others, in person and online, and those weavers and fiber artists began their own version of tapestry diaries. 

This book is an exploration of various ways that Scanlin and other fiber artists have used their crafts to “mark time.” She asked many individuals to share their work and asked them the same three questions: what is their daily practice, why did they start and why do they continue it, and what medium they use for it. The practices of those fiber artists are included in this book, in their own words, along with many color photos. 

The chapters cover various types of daily practices from data visualization (think temperature blankets) and diaries to adding codes within fiber arts projects. One of the last chapters gives some specific ideas for how you might start your own daily fiber practice and blank templates are included in the back of the book. 

Because of the author’s background with tapestry weaving, many of the fiber artists and projects in this book involve that medium. I would have liked to see a bit more variety in the types of mediums being used in this book, though we do get some examples from quilting, embroidery and other stitching, mixed media, knitting and crochet, and even one using plastic packaging. 

This is a gorgeous book, full of inspiring projects. Whether you want simply to read about and see the work of others or get an idea of the types of projects you could do for your own daily practice, even if you’re not a tapestry weaver, this book would be a fabulous addition to your fiber arts library.